Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Esprit Digital, British manufacturer of digital out-of-home displays, and Scentre Group, owners and operators of Westfield shopping centres in Australasia, have launched what is believed to be one of, if not, the largest international deployment undertaken by a UK digital signage manufacturer.
Esprit Digital, a privately owned company, was commissioned to design, build, install, remote monitor and provide onsite support for a network of 890 custom-made advertising pods across Westfield’s 37 Australian sites. The 1,340 65” LCD displays – 450 double sided and 440 single sided – will, says Bill Burton, general manager of Scentre Group BrandSpace, “fundamentally change the way brands can maximise the Westfield retail marketing environment.”
The Scentre Group deal is the latest international success story for Esprit Digital. The agreement follows the success of Esprit’s collaboration with Westfield in the UK, in which the company designed, built and manages over 500 LCD display screens across the Olympic Stratford and Shepherds Bush sites.
The new digital network in Australia, comprised of singled and double sided, floor mounted advertising pods, will run on Esprit’s ground breaking proprietary hardware using the new Scala Enterprise content management system.
The project was completed from order to build in 12 weeks, inside a period that included Christmas and Chinese New Year. The 890 Wafer pods were installed by a team working round the clock inside of three weeks.
Among the technology highlights of Westfield SmartScreen Network are:
- Displays incorporate new ‘Cortex’ technology, developed by Esprit Digital to manage the thermodynamics within each pod;
- Each pod contains webcam technology that generates demographic data about media consumers. The technology can determine age, sex and ethnicity of advertising audiences;
- Each pod features strips of responsive coloured LEDs that change intuitively to the content on the screen in order to draw the eye of the consumer;
- Each unit has a sophisticated and robust failsafe system. Content is pre-loaded onto the internal memory of each display guaranteeing that appropriate content is screened 100% of the time, with absolutely no screen downtime;
- Each unit contains Esprit Digital’s bespoke Clear Space technology – a unique monitoring system that can remotely assess if there’s any temporary obstruction in front of the unit.
Installers were dealing with more than 73 tons of metal and 38 tons of glass.
Peter Livesey, Esprit Digital’s managing director, says, “Digital signage provides advertisers with the most powerful, reliable way to use outdoor media. Scentre Group understand the value DOOH provides for advertisers and consumers. With this deployment they are leading the way for other infrastructure owners. Digital out-of-home display technologies offer huge advantages over traditional print media. They increase impact and accountability, and integrated correctly they dramatically improve the environments in which they’re installed. Our displays are changing the way the world looks and we take enormous pride in our engineering and technological innovations.”
The company notes that, in the right location, DOOH advertising offers media owners over seven times the revenue of traditional print based out of home media.
In noting that the Westfield SmartScreen Network will fundamentally change the way brands can maximize the Westfield retail marketing environment, Burton says, “It gives them a level of quality, national scale, control and digital flexibility that they have been waiting for, enabling digital efficiency and effectiveness never before seen in Australian retail. The vision of BrandSpace is to connect brand and advertising partners with our 550 million shopping visits a year, and drive energy and sales to our 12,700 retail destinations.”
Esprit Digital display solutions are made in Stevenage in the UK to customer specifications, and are designed to withstand vandalism, extreme temperature, fire and water. Other clients for whom Esprit Digital has designed, manufactured and DOOH networks include Virgin Media, JCDecaux, Shell, BP, Sony, Gatwick and Heathrow.
Scentre Group is the owner and operator of Westfield in Australia and New Zealand employing approximately 2,000 staff. Scentre Group has interests in and operates 47 centres located in Australia and New Zealand, encompassing over 12,500 retail outlets and total assets under management of AUS$40.9 billion.
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