Barco LiveDots, a Barco company, recently delivered its largest LED solution to date: a 2,650-square-meter LED display composed of 2,880 TF-20 tiles. Designed by Herring Media Group, the digital display covers all four sides of the Absa Tower in Johannesburg, home to Absa, a member of the Barclays Group and one of South Africa's largest financial services groups.
Featuring nearly 20 million LEDs, the digital signage will be used for branding and marketing purposes. According to the company, it was chosen on account of its reliability and impressive image quality, achieved through the combination of Barco LiveDots' TF-20 LED display system and unique image processing technology.
"A project of this scale demands the full attention of an integrated team that works with vision and precision at all times. Our collaboration with Barco was true to this requirement and brought great confidence to the program," said Marc Herring of Herring Media Group, Glastonbury, Conn.
The face of the installation is the array of 2,880 TF-20 tiles (top), a 20 mm pixel pitch, 6,000 nits outdoor LED tile for 24/7 fixed installation. The brains of the installation is the DX-700 multi-window video processor (bottom), which is designed as a versatile front-end to a wide range of Barco LED displays.
One of the unique features setting the Barco LiveDots solutions apart is the ability to run, control and monitor the complete 2,650-square-meter display as one single image, by one single operator. All four sides of the LED display form a unique large canvas, where video and images can easily move from side to side, said the company. At the heart of the installation is Barco's DX-700 video processor, the brains residing inside Barco's remote management software.
Apart from being the largest installation in the history of Barco LiveDots, the Johannesburg set-up is also one of the most eco-friendly displays in the world. The TF-20 technology ensures exceptionally low power consumption — 40 to 50 percent lower than with comparable products, the company said — thanks to the use of extremely efficient components and the smart driving of individual LEDs. On top of that, the ingeniously tilted LED configuration aims the light bundle of the LEDs downwards to increase the viewing experience for the audience. This significantly reduces power consumption and light pollution while, at the same time, enhancing the perceived brightness and image quality.
What's more, thanks to the active system 'agent', the brightness of all four faades can be controlled separately and automatically, thus ensuring the best contrast/brightness ratio at any time of day, at any viewing location. According to the company, this system also allows the operator to optimize energy efficiency with a few simple steps to limit both cost and impact on the environment.
"It is an absolute honor to be selected by Absa," said Carl Rijsbrack, CMO of Barco LiveDots, Kortrijk, Belgium. "This will be one of our top reference sites for years to come."
In South Africa, Barco LED display systems have also been installed at the Greenpoint (Cape Town), Royal Bafokeng (Rustenburg) and Orlando (Johannesburg) stadiums, for the FIFA World Cup 2010. Barco also supplied network-operated advertisement screens for Primedia in Johannesburg.