Software technology allows LED screens to display content from multiple sources and can enable a strong return on investment, writes Tim Whitaker.

LED billboards represent a major investment, so the control and management of content is critical allowing owners to achieve an adequate financial return. A common industry approach is to use a single screen, a single PC and a higly qualified IT support. Now, companies are providing end-to-end software-based solutions for management of digital dynamic messaging and signage networks.

One such supplier is C-nario. The company's VP of marketing and sales Rami Bahar says that there is a demand for more targeted, high impact digital signage campaigns and improved quality. "However," he says "many customers are also battling the high cost of ownership." C-nario's content management technology is indepenent of the number, size and location of screns. "We have used standard hardware, such as PC components and graphic cards to reduce the cost-of-ownership," says Bahar.

Control systems are a crucial part of any LED display, particularly for large and expensive networks. "Prices for advertisers are high and there is a critical service level - we can't stop the screen for 2 hours [to correct faults]," says Bahar. "We provide systems with complete redundancy, ensuring 24-7 operation."

Systems using C-nario technology include networks for CNN in Atlanta (figure 1) and olumpic Marseille in France (figure 2). C-nario's technology also controls content for a 4 x 50m screen (screen resolution of 2016x 160, with 25mm pitch) that sits atop the publisher Axel Springer's building near the Rechistag in Berlin.

C-nario also supplied the control system for the Clear Channel billboard network in London, which uses Magink technology (see www.ledsmagazine.com/features/3/8/5). Advertisers purchase time slots on the billboards, which are used to show multiple still images. Permit issues prevent video from being shown. "LED billboards represent a big market if permit issues can be resolved," says Bagar. Predictably this issue is easier in Eastern Europe and Asia.

Electronic billboards, particularly LED screens, allow multiple (10-12) advertisers to benefit from the same high-profile location. "In general, LED displays have a very good return-on-investment but are only found in a small proportaion of sites at present," says Bahar. "Brightness and contrast ratio are very good, despite low resolution."

At this year's InfoComm 2007 show, C-nario unveiled its Digital Signage Multi Pkayer, which is able to run high-defination content acress eight displays from a single PC. Major target markets are the banking, retail, adertising and transportation markets. Banks for example could install multiple screens in different branches operated from a central location. Availability of good quality content is a problem once the novelty of the screen wears off, says Bahar. "C-Nario provides tools to pull content from websites, live TV feeds, streaming video and many other sources. We don't want customers to have to generate their own content, this becomes a daunting task."

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Fig. 1. C-nario is the digital signage provider for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc, with a network based out of the CNN Visitor Center in Atlanta. The network comprises 6 LED screens, both indoor and outdoor, including this 40 m long, 0.64 m high ticker screen inside the CNN store.

Fig. 2. C-nario supplied a content-based network for Olympic de Marseilles’s Stade Velodrome that includes 2 Philips LED screens measuring 56 m² each, with 25 mm pitch and 256 x 352 resolution

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