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Projected Image Digital Supplies Massive O2 Retail Project
West-London based digital media solutions specialists Projected Image Digital, has supplied, installed and commissioned a series of bespoke Element Labs VersaTube LED display systems for telecoms giant O2. PID was working to the specification of leading UK brand experience and production company Imagination.
The installations – involving nearly 300 Tubes - are now operational in the shop windows of selected flagship O2 retail outlets around the UK.
Inbuilt into customised 2-metre wide racking, the VersaTube linear LED fixtures are running a 15 minute loop of high-impact, low-resolution video visuals. The featured stores are a new store concept by Imagination for O2, designed to attract passers by into the shops and to convey key marketing messages.
Imagination first approached PID in summer 2004, and the project underwent many demonstrations, meetings and mock ups before finalisation and receiving the green light.
Imagination wanted a turn-key solution for the project. They also sought a supplier able not just to specify the right product, but also to offer the requisite amount of technical expertise, support and back up, both during the installation and thereafter - in the specific area of digital media. This is why PID was chosen for the job.
Other fixtures were originally considered but, VersaTube soon became a hot favourite after the first round of demos, chosen for its brightness, reliability and streamlined stylish design.
VersaTube were selected based on cost effectiveness, availability and the flexibility of the actual tubes. Other solutions wouldn't have allowed Imagination to integrate the technology with a physical design matching the rest of the scheme.
PID’s David March and Rob Fowler worked with Imagination senior project managers Dan Sloane and Tony Fox, and with Becky Hughes, head of O2 store marketing. David March comments: “It was really exciting to work with clients like Imagination and O2 who are fully prepared to embrace the latest digital media technology.”
PID supplied and installed 80 VersaTube's along with all cabling and control, to each of four initial high profile stores in Mansfield, Coventry, the Trafford Centre near Manchester and Bluewater in Kent. Mansfield is a slight variation due to available space, with two one-metre wide frames using 40 tubes.
All the VersaTubes are the standard 1 metre, 16 pixel LED linear effect variety. The short lead time between the project receiving the go-ahead and the installation having to be completed meant there was no time to manufacture any customised lengths or fixtures.
PID worked closely with O2's store fitters, Bedford & Havenhand who were responsible for the overall installation at each store, while PID co-ordinated the placement and wiring of the frames and tubes. PID completed the work on schedule, allowing O2 to take-over their new stores and begin merchandising and staff training immediately.
PID also worked hand-in-hand with Element Labs European sister and American mother companies, Element Labs Europe in Germany and Texas based Element Labs Inc., on the logistics of manufacturing, shipping and delivering a large quantity of Tubes and technology to the UK in a short lead time. “It was a real international effort on our part,” says PID’s David March.
To ensure stores were closed for a bare minimum of time, three of the shops also had to be installed simultaneously.
PID assembled two hand-picked teams of engineers to carry out the installation work. Each team spent several days at PID’s new workshop facility testing and preparing the TUBE systems before going on-site. All are highly experienced lighting technicians who’ve have worked with PID on other digital media projects.
For control, PID specified the PC-based VersaDrive D2 device, which receives live video via its DVI input and transmits the video data to VersaTile and VersaTube systems. This in turn is triggered on and off at the start and end of each day by an Electrosonic environmental store controller.
Imagination comments: “Retail is not a market that has seen this technology before, preferring high-res digital signage, so the project was a challenge. PID went beyond the call of duty to allow us to demo the system before an order was placed. The product doesn't lend itself to the usual presentation techniques for approval being so large-scale, but PID allowed us to have a full size demo for testing and client sign-off.”
http://www.projectedimagedigital.com
18th May 2005
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