T5 Sees Bezel-Mania
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
I am not sure what is worse – all the (thick) Bezels ruining the graphics behind this shot or the self styled new-made-up-word ‘Contentainment’ used by World Duty Free to describe what they been doing at T5.
The press release tells us “In a bid to take customer experience to a new level, this month World Duty Free will be showcasing an up-and-coming music artist as part of their ‘Contentainment’* offering at Heathrow Terminal 5”
Nice idea though and well executed, good example of ‘retail theatre’ – perhaps even in its truer sense 😉
Ela Soza (shown above) brings a mixture of pop, folk and soul notes to the event, which is recorded live and then played out (also live) across 5 locations in Terminal 5 over 118 screens.
It’s all part of a campaign to attract additional artists and also as a sponsorship opportunity for World Duty Free’s brand partners.
*Launched at the opening of Terminal 5 in March this year, World Duty Free’s ‘Contentainment’ concept brings together four elements. Hi-definition feature walls, with relevant digital signage, mood ambient audio and quality merchandising, all presenting World Duty Free the brand, the store and the brand partners’ product in a more creative and inspiring way. Measuring seven metres wide by four metres high, and comprising 24 x 40” Sony LCD screens mounted in portrait and landscape formats, the wall creates the equivalent of one giant high resolution display.
Jo O’Connor, Commercial and Marketing Director, World Duty Free told us (and seriously we nearly fell off of our chair when they kept using the C word here) – “Digital out of home media is growing rapidly and being able to use our ‘Contentainment’ function in this live way will not only provide a stage for singers such as Ela, but also provide opportunities for our key business partners to sponsor future acts, whilst offering a innovative platform for their brands.”
Despite the C word and all those bezels we quite like it though!
October 4th, 2008 at 08:52 @411
In response to the comments regarding the ‘thick’ bezels on the LCD screens – as the designers and installers of these unique videowall solutions for WDF (HoloVis International – http://www.holovis.com) the Jupiter software that drives the displays takes into account the bezels and the gaps that have been deliberately included into the display wall to make it eye-catching and unique.
You have to stand there and see it to appreciate the effect, it’s all about moving video content at ultra-high resolution to create a massive impact for the brands and WDF – photos just don’t do it justice!
Anyone can make a simple X by Y tiled videowall – but we had the brief by WDF to create a unique wall that was Mega-high definition using standard (and therefore cost effective!) LCD panels. The bezels and the gaps become irrelevant as the image moves seamlessly and geometrically correct ‘behind’ any bezel or gap.
The key element to the walls is that the Jupiter system is totally scalable to any number (or type, shape, size, orientation) of screens and the content can be mastered at the total resolution of the entire display surface pixel for pixel (including those bezels and gaps!).
The Walls at T5 are capable of handling 38 Megapixels of real-time video content seamlessly as well as handling multiple layers and positioning of content anywhere across the entire display.
The walls at T5 will also take live video feeds (although the video output will of course be HD stretched across the screens)
October 4th, 2008 at 08:58 @415
We have never heard of “bezels and gaps having been deliberately included” before but don’t get us wrong, this is a good implementation and a nice example of ‘retail theatre’