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Lighthouse LED Screens for Dutch Railway Network
Leading Dutch systems integrator Hecla Professional Audio & Video Systems has been contracted by Viacom, one of the world’s leading entertainment content companies, to develop a digital signage solution to roll out across The Netherlands’ railway network. This creates a new advertising business model that pivots around a Lighthouse P10 10mm LED video screen situated on the main concourse of Utrecht Central station.
Utrecht, the country’s busiest railway station, has in excess of 250,000 commuters, and all The Netherlands’ trains passing through it each day. Because of this, it was selected as the ideal location to start what is to be a national rollout, eventually bringing 10 of the country’s biggest stations, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, into Viacom’s inventory.
Working in conjunction with Dutch narrowcast specialists Manovra and using a TELentice content management system developed by Fujitsu, Hecla has developed a digital signage solution that will allow Viacom to broadcast a unique mixture of realtime video and entertainment news, interspersed with advertising to a captive audience.
The 80 panels of Lighthouse P10 LED screen, measuring 6.4m wide x 3.84m high, is housed in a frame that is custom made by Hecla in the Dutch railway company’s colours and brandishes the Viacom logo. It is positioned next to the central departure information board.
“There are some very important reasons for choosing the Lighthouse screen,” says Hecla’s Jos den Hartog. “It had to be lightweight because it’s hung from the station roof, which has a particular load bearing capacity, whilst producing the correct minimum power. The vertical and horizontal viewing angles were also very important because of the screen’s position: there has to be an optimum vertical viewing angle so that people standing in front of the information board can also see the LED screen. An additional factor is the screen’s fanless design, which is important for both silent operation and energy efficiency.”
A famous Dutch art bureau, Holland Central, which has created a plethora of formats for Dutch television stations, devised the content format for the screen. This comprises approximately 150 loops per day, each of which is seven minutes in length and contains 10 to 50 seconds of commercials, news items to maximum length of 30 seconds and the remainder general entertainment.
Viacom recognises the need to embrace the shift from television advertising to this new medium and believes that advertisers are more interested in, and will get more return from, this type of captive audience medium. The fully developed system will consist of LED screens in the network of station’s central halls along with TFT screens on the platforms.
“It was a long and detailed process to get to where we are now,” adds den Hartog. “We worked with a lot of different partners along the way, but the outcome is remarkable and our client is very satisfied and impressed with the screen.”
“We’re seeing a significant increase in LED screens being used for these types of captive audience applications,” concludes Michiel Hettinga, Lighthouse sales director for Western and Central Europe. “Lighthouse understands the pre-requisites and we have the products, such as the P10 screen used here, that fit the bill perfectly. Our policy of continual customer consultation and intensive R&D programme will ensure that our clients’ future needs will be met just as adequately.”
9th August 2006
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