Greater Columbus Convention Centre gets North America’s first LG installed Direct View LED powered by Signagelive

Introduction

The Greater Columbus Convention Centre are wrapping up a 22-month expansion and renovation project, and it could not be more beautiful, according to Experience Columbus. The $140 million dollar changes include:

• Adding 37,000 square feet of exhibit space
• Upgrading finishes and aesthetics in meeting rooms, ballrooms, and public spaces
• An expansive two level open atrium
• Full exterior renovations including a new 800 space parking garage connected to the convention centre by a covered skybridge
• Displaying more than 150 pieces of local art

The opportunity for Digital Signage

• Use Digital Signage to direct, wayfind, and entertain (featuring a Mondrianesque inspired wall with 6 display screens)
• The main digital feature, that you cannot miss, is the 7ft x 60ft digital video wall that greets you in ’The Connector’ which a large corridor that connects the north area of the convention centre to the south.

The inspiration

• Rhett Ricart, Greater Columbus Convention Centre Board Member, visited the World Trade Centre and witnessed their 280-foot long display video wall and was inspired.
• The video wall features a 4mm LED display that measures 280 feet long with 16 continuous HD outputs that can be driven natively and included over 15 million pixels.
• The vision was formed to provide the Greater Columbus Convention Centre with something similar, but on a smaller scale, as they underwent the expansion and renovation project.

Key project requirements and challenges

Coffman Media was hired as the solutions integrator. As a solutions integrator, it is their job to lead the process of integrating the software with the hardware and will often collaborate with multiple sources to make this happen.

LG Electronics USA Business Solutions serves commercial display customers in the US Digital Signage market. LG provides access to some of the most advanced and flexible commercial display and accessories in the market, including their Direct View LED displays.

• Direct View LED just means that no liquid crystal (LCD) or polarised glass is used. Each “pixel,” or tiny lightbulb, produces a particular colour from it’s cluster of red, green and blue bulbs on the panel, which creates the image needed to be displayed. Direct view has no bezels and can make a seamless video wall resulting in a perfect solution.
• This would be their first ever Direct View LED video wall installation in North America.
• A 4mm LG Direct View LED display was used to complete the video wall, which boasts 540 thousand pixels!

The LEDs were mounted with Peerless AV‘s SmartMount video wall mounts that were custom created for the LG Direct View LEDs. Their mount features include cable management, easy hang hardware, and a pop out mechanism, if needed.

The content was designed by Reese Brothers Productions. The goal was to use local artist’s work to be displayed throughout the Convention Centre – so why not add it into the content on the video wall as well. This created some very visually stimulating content pieces throughout the content loop, keeping onlookers close by to see what might be displayed next.

The content management system, or software, for the video wall is powered by Signagelive. Signagelive has created a platform that offers Digital Signage as a service. Signagelive partner with over 560 resellers globally, including Coffman Media – one of their top North American resellers, to provide software, servers, and support.

This short video shows some examples of how the content is displayed on the Greater Columbus Convention Centre video wall.

Benefits of Signagelive

Signagelive is a cloud-based platform allowing you to manage, schedule content and publish media and control supported devices, from PCs to Smart Signage displays, and video walls – with a myriad of media player types, from your Internet browser.

The video and photos used throughout this case study are the final product of the Greater Columbus Convention Centre video wall. So why use a video wall?

• What better way to get your message across to an audience
• Designed to run 24/7 with minimal maintenance
• Versatile in composition
• Sell advertising space
• The “look” – Clear, bright, concise, and it’s just pretty!

If you are interested in a video wall to help promote your brand, your message, your company to the world, Signagelive and Coffman Media can help.

Jason Ault, Chief Operating Officer, Coffman Media.

With the Greater Columbus Convention Centre video wall being the first North American Direct View LED display for LG, we knew that a reliable CMS was a must. We looked no further than our trusted partner, Signagelive. They have been powering our client’s Digital Signage, regardless of complexity and hardware requirements, for the last seven years.

Jason Cremins, CEO, Signagelive

Jason and the Coffman Media team continue to raise the bar with their use of Signagelive for delivering visually stunning Digital Signage solutions. The LG Direct View LED display for Greater Columbus Convention Centre demonstrates the ability for Signagelive to be used in any Digital Signage application from a single System on Chip Display through to a ultra high resolution LED wall.