Dallas Cowboys’ Diamond Vision screen confirmed as world record

From www.diamond-vision.tv 

The world’s first four-sided, centre-hung, stadium video display consists of four Diamond Vision LED video screens, with the two main high-definition sideline displays measuring 22m high by 49m wide, and two Diamond Vision end-zone displays measuring 9m high by 15.5m wide. Weighing 544 tons, the screens are suspended 27.5m feet directly over the centre of the playing surface and stretch from nearly one 20-yard line to the other.

With a total viewing area of over 1,058 square-metres, the Diamond Vision display is equal to around 3,268 52-inch televisions, and is comprised of 10,584,064 individual LEDs.

“This was probably the most exciting project we’ve ever been involved with,” said Mark Foster, general manager of Mitsubishi Electric’s Diamond Vision Systems. “The Dallas Cowboys are one of the most innovative teams in the NFL, and their new stadium reflects that. These scoreboards and displays are the realisation of the Cowboys’ commitment to their fans and the sport. We are very proud that the Cowboys organization turned to Mitsubishi Electric to deliver their vision as part of this incredible project.”

"We’re extremely proud of our world-class Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision screen,” said Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones. “We have designed everything about Cowboys Stadium to provide an unequalled experience for our fans, and this screen is the centrepiece of what we have created for them.”

Mitsubishi Electric has now been recognised by Guinness World Records five times for its accomplishments, and the Cowboys’ board is the fourth Diamond Vision screen to be honoured by Guinness. The first came in August, 2003, for the World’s Longest Video Display at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong. In March 2005, GWR recognized the Diamond Vision LED display at Turner Field in Atlanta as the World’s Largest High-Definition Television Screen, and in September 2005 the Mitsubishi Electric video board at the Japan Racing Association Tokyo Racecourse was certified as the World’s Largest Television Display. In 1993, Mitsubishi Electric was recognised for designing and installing the world’s fastest elevator — capable of travelling at 750 meters per minute — at the Landmark Tower in Yokohama, Japan.

Mitsubishi Electric, the Official Large Outdoor Video Display Provider of the PGA TOUR, was the first company to introduce large-scale video display boards for the 1980 Major League Baseball All-Star game at Dodger Stadium. Since then, Mitsubishi Electric has been recognised as the leader in visually stunning displays for sports facilities, advertising, entertainment and communications. Other installations include the first-of-its-kind high-definition display at Yankee Stadium the first 32:9 ratio HD scoreboard at AT&T Park in San Francisco Times Square’s first HD display at MTV studios traffic-stopping marquees at Bally’s and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas a massive 11-screen display at Times Square in New York City and the largest indoor HD screen in North America, the 10m x 33.5m screen at the Colosseum in Las Vegas.

Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision News

New stadium kicks-off with Mitsubishi Electric screens

Barcelona’s RCD Espanyol football club hosted the first game in its new, purpose-built stadium in Cornellà-El Prat on August 2nd. Two 7.6 x 4.3 metre Diamond Vision screens and more than 90 Mitsubishi Electric LCD displays help maximise enjoyment for visitors to Spain’s most modern sporting venue.

LED and LCD displays supplied by Mitsubishi Electric are a central feature of the stunning new facility, rated as a four-star venue by UEFA. Two Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision screens overlook the 40,000 seat stadium, while a network of over 90 large screen LCDs installed throughout the complex ensure visitors are kept entertained and informed wherever they happen to be.

Installed in opposite corners of the ground, the Diamond Vision ODQ15 screens are 7.68 m wide x 4.32 m high with 15 mm dot pitch / 30 mm pixel pitch. Mitsubishi’s quad LED structure ensures a genuine 21 mm Dynamic Pixel Pitch as each LED is re-used to form adjacent pixels. The Diamond Vision’s 5,000 cd/m² light output and wide viewing angles ensure fans get a clear view of the action wherever they are sitting, with true colours and clean whites – essential for both sports teams and advertisers.

Both screens are controlled using Mitsubishi’s XDC-4000 processor which manages all the screen content. The processor accepts DVI, SD-SDI and HD-SDI inputs and has a built-in “picture-in-picture” facility enabling the screens to show more than one video signal simultaneously. XDC-4000 was specifically designed to cover the display requirements of sports venues and features state-of-the-art image processing for the highest possible clarity.

As well as being one of the finest football arenas in Europe, Cornellà-El Prat is also one of the most innovative. Solar cells built into the roof can deliver up to 500 kW of pollution-free power and the whole stadium has been designed for maximum energy efficiency. Mitsubishi Electric LED screens automatically adjust their power output to suit the prevailing light conditions, and sophisticated internal monitoring ensures optimum operating efficiency is maintained. Extremely high build-quality help ensure Mitsubishi LED screens achieve a long operating life, reducing cost of ownership and the need for premature refurbishment.

Mitsubishi Electric also supplied the LCD screens used throughout the stadium’s retail and hospitality areas as well as corporate facilities and a museum. A total of 70 Mitsubishi Electric 32" LDT322V displays and 20 42" LDT421V2 units were installed in private boxes, VIP suites and meeting rooms, with additional displays used in the public areas and entrance foyers. The Mitsubishi displays add extra flexibility to the meeting room facilities, allowing them to be used for conferences or presentations on non-match days. Remote management of the displays allows different content to be routed to different areas of the stadium, or multiple inputs to be displayed on individual monitors via their built-in picture-in-picture feature.

Diamond Vision is perhaps the best-known big-screen technology in the world; its global customer list includes many of the world’s most prestigious sporting venues, most notably the recently-opened New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys landmark stadiums. Along with its world-class Diamond Vision family of LED displays, Mitsubishi Electric offers a range of professional-grade LCDs from 32” to 65” designed to meet the needs of applications such as digital signage that demand reliability, performance and low cost of ownership.

Instore Media and Digital Signage, POPAI Japan

From DailyDOOH

POPAI Japan are holding an ‘Instore Media and Digital Signage’ event on July 31st

The seminar will feature interesting speakers making inroads into Japan’s instore market. Sony, B2B Solutions Department will lead off the event with a speech about their Mirutokuchannel service. The service targets supermarkets and provides value added content such as sale information, recipes, news and advertising.

The second speaker is from supermarket operator Summit and will introduce Summit Vision, their instore media channel. Summit uses a combination of screen, projector and LED technology to deliver instore content to shoppers.

Lastly, advertising agency powerhouse Asatsu DK, will deliver a presentation on Promotional Media development. ADK will cover instore purchase decision making and their vision of the future of instore media.

The half day event comes with a Japanese price tag as well, USD 250 per attendee.

DailyDOOH » Blog Archive » Instore Media and Digital Signage, POPAI Japan

The giant screen technology of the future may be closer than we think

US company Nanolumens claims to be well-advanced in its plans to market a giant portable display system that will be less than one millimetre thick and weigh no more than 45kg.

As reported in InAVate magazine, John Wilson, president of the company said: “Nanolumens has a core technology that permits it to bring the best of display technology to a flexible format. We have a fairly extensive patent portfolio, almost 50 patents issued and filed that cover a very innovative set of technologies that allow us to bring flexibility to display technologies”.

The company has already built a number of prototypes based on the technology but plans to market a very large display within a year. Wilson confirms, “It will be very lightweight and large for markets primarily in out-of-home advertising, digital signage, control room and large format business-to-business applications.”

Wilson continues: “Our view is that much of the industry, particularly in the out-of-home advertising industry, is shifting to digital and there’s a great deal of that market that would be perfectly fine for a 42” or a 50” LCD display that is rigid and just put up on the wall.”

“But, there are an incredible number of applications where either a curved wall or a bend around a column or a very large space that is high up and needs a hanging screen. That is the market we are planning to pursue.”

A startling additional feature of the technology – apparently – is its ability to operate as a portable device. “The fact that it continues to operate and run as it’s transported from place to place because it’s actually a portable device is also significant so we’ve been able to share it with both customers and strategic partners.”

Wilson and CEO of Nanolumens, Richard Cope, have an impressive background between them, having run numerous research and development enterprises. “[Cope] was a programme manager for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency which is one of the premier research agencies in the world,” adds Wilson.

“We view the flexible display world as the start of a new emerging industry.” Wilson concludes. “There are a lot of companies working on the challenges of flexible imaging systems. Some working on small wearable devices or small clothing integrated devices. We chose the large format professional market as we felt was represented higher value and was immediately accessible”

AJ Comments: It may seem too far-fetched to be true, but flexible screen technology as described here is indeed a reality –at least in the lab. It may seem strange that it is a small and hitherto unknown US company that appears to be pioneering this technology as a commercial product, but stranger things have happened and it wouldn’t be the first time that a new technology has burst onto the pro-AV scene from left-field. Watch this space!

InAVate – Flexible screen is less than 1mm thick

40” OLED Panels by 2010, Says Panasonic JV

While Panasonic is also cooperating with other partners to develop OLED technology, the Nikkei daily in Japan says a new joint venture between Panasonic and Sumitomo Chemical aims to develop and manufacture 40-inch or bigger OLED panels by 2010.
In an LCD, tiny packets of liquid crystal make up each pixel. These don’t actually radiate any light. Instead they change their structure when hit by voltage, so they need a backlight (cold-cathode or LED). In OLED, each pixel is an array of itsy-bitsy coloured LEDs that glows in corresponding colour initiated by the TV signal.
You can view OLED screens from any angle and they can show a wider range of colours (and black areas are a deeper black). Because they don’t need a backlight they can be much thinner while actually consuming less electricity.

From rAVe Europe

3D displays take a step forward

After visiting the Display 2009 show in Tokyo 2 weeks ago, it seems that commercial 3D displays viewable with the naked eye are edging closer to becoming a practical reality. VMJ here is Japan are already selling 3D LCDs into digital signage applications; companies like Newsight are also now producing product capable of a very convincing 3D effect over a wide viewing angle. But what about “true” 3D – the creating of a 3 dimensional object in space? Impossible? Think again!

As reported in InAVate magazine, a Japanese company has apparently succeeded in creating just such a system.

Sky’s the limit for outdoor advertising

24 April 2009

From the sides of buses, to giant billboards or even the backs of train tickets; advertising seems to pop up everywhere with no surface immune from transformation into a marketing space. And now, even the heavens aren’t safe, as an advanced laser system emerges from Japan, set to revolutionise advertising by creating 3D images in the sky.

Firing hundreds of laser pulses each second creates the illusion of constant points of light in the air, www.burton-jp.com

The New Scientist reported that Burton of Kawasaki, Japan was investigating outdoor advertising uses for a laser system that creates an illusion of many constant points of light.
Burton says that most reported 3D displays draw pseudo-3D images on 2D planes by utilising the human binocular disparity. The company said these systems cause problems, including a limitation of the visual field and physiological displeasure due to the misidentification of virtual images.
To overcome these problems Burton said it tried to develop a “True 3D Display" which produces bright dot in the air so audience can see 3D images in true 3D space.
“Our display device uses the plasma emission phenomenon near the focal point of focused laser light,” the company said. “By controlling the position of the focal point in the x, y, and z axes, it displays real 3D images constructed by dot arrays in the air.”
The New Scientist reported that a practical device could be created by 2011 and said suggested applications included light displays that resembled fireworks and 3D TV.

InAVate – Sky’s the limit for outdoor advertising

“Give your fingers a rest”, advises editor

Barnaby Page of Screens.tv and aka.tv is a highly-respected commentator on the latest developments in digital OOH and other new forms of communication. As such, he is perhaps better placed than most to comment on the latest internet craze/scourge, Twitter. With an elegantly argued case that there is a time and a place for Twittering, Barnaby is perhaps illustrating that, as a serious communications medium, Twitter is reaching – if not maturity – then at least a sober adolescence in the minds of media professionals.

Give your fingers a rest (1)

Barnaby Page – 06 Apr 09, 17:08 PM

With Screen Media Expo Europe nearly upon us, to all those sitting itchy-fingered in the conference rooms (you know who you are) I have just one polite request:

STOP THAT TWITTERING.
Trust me on this: there is nothing to be gained by Twittering conferences in real time, except the irritation of your followers and a spurious sense of “being first”.
Twitter is great for big, unpredictable events unfolding moment-by-moment – things like election nights, Windows reinstalls, soap opera Christmas specials. But when it comes to conferences, what those people who couldn’t attend really need is a thoughtful round-up of key points after the event, all accessible in one place. An article or an email or a blog post, in other words.
Being told what speaker X said five seconds ago, when you the Twitterer aren’t in any position to know whether it’s a trivial throwaway or the lead-in to an important revelation, is useless.
So just don’t do it. The world can wait.

Give your fingers a rest – SCREENS.tv Blog

Mizuho Bank Deploys Fujitsu Digital Signage

From aka.tv

5 Apr 2009

Fujitsu Limited today announced that, starting this month, Mizuho Bank is rolling out its "Multi-Monitor Information Distribution System" across its bank branch network in Japan.

Providing customers with up-to-date financial product and market information, the MMIDS digital signage system is an end-to-end solution from Fujitsu. Mizuho have outsourced the complete management and operation of the system to Fujitsu’s outsourcing service.

Content is distributed to 1,400 large screen displays installed throughout the branch network.

aka.tv – Mizuho Bank Deploys Fujitsu Digital Signage

Japanese team invents video paint

April 1 2009 – Tokyo: A team from one of Tokyo’s leading technology institutes has announced a completely new form of digital display technology that looks set to revolutionise the way information is displayed electronically.

Professor Kenjiro Shigatsubaka and his team from the Kichijoji Institute of Digital Ultrachromatics (KIDU) presented the new technology at a small private gathering of academics at an undisclosed venue in West Tokyo. Professor Shigatsubaka’s new technique employs a revolutionary liquid polymer that is excited by an electric charge to alter its appearance.  Molecules within the compound can present either a transparent aspect or a semi-opaque one depending on the electrical charge applied to it. By creating versions of the polymer using cyan, magenta and yellow pigments, a substrate capable of displaying a full spectrum of colours can be built-up in layers by applying several coats of the “paint”. The substrate is excited by a electric charges in the X and Y axes, which interact with each other to create complex interference patterns. By controlling these interference patterns, Professor Shigatsubaka is able to create a moving image using the polymer substrate. The effectiveness of the technique was demonstrated to an astonished audience by a junior member of the team donning white overalls and painting a moving picture onto what appeared to be just a plain white wall.

“We still have some way to go to perfect the technology,” conceded Professor Shigatsubaka. “Inertia within molecules limits the bandwidth we are able to achieve t present and results in some artefacts in fast-moving images. However the technique is already good enough for most applications and we are confident of being able to improve performance dramatically in the future.”

Professor Shigatsubaka is convinced that his invention will transform the built environment in the 21st century. “For the first time everybody will have complete freedom to change the environment they live in with the touch of a button. If you want to watch TV on the ceiling, relax in a forest grove or even in outer space, you can do so as easily as changing channel on TV,” he said. “From now on, the chore of decorating will be a thing of the past,” he continued, adding that hitherto menfolk will be free to enjoy restful and guilt-free Bank Holidays and Sundays.

The markets have been quick to react to the news: Leisure groups such as golf clubs saw big gains, as did paint manufacturers. DIY stores however were hit hard as the implications of a world freed from the curse of the “quick makeover” became widely recognised.

Laurence Llewellyn Bowen was unavailable for comment last night.

Yankee Stadium’s New HDTV Is Bigger Than Yours — Way Bigger | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

By Jose Fermoso March 25, 2009 | 6:01:00 AMCategories: Displays, Sports, Television

Anyone walking into the new $1.3 billion stadium for the New York Yankees this spring is bound to be amazed by the size of the center field LED scoreboard, as the first photos of the screen reveal.

Taken by a local CBS affiliate in New York, the pics show early tests of the 103-by-58-foot, 1080p HD Mitsubishi Diamond Vision LED display, which is six times larger than the screen at old Yankee Stadium. According to Mitsubishi, the display is embedded with 8,601,600 LED lamps (covering a total of 5,925 square feet), and can put up to four simultaneous images, with picture-in-picture capabilities.

Yankee Stadium’s New HDTV Is Bigger Than Yours — Way Bigger | Gadget Lab from Wired.com