D3 LED Used X2O’s Resolution-Independent Player to Provide Real-Time Capabilities to Synchronize Over 17,000 Square Feet of Signage at the One Times Square Building
X2O Media, a world leader in technology, content services, and content design for digital signage, was a key partner in creating the nation’s largest digital billboard. Designed for the Walgreens flagship store, the billboard resides at New York City’s One Times Square, a historic landmark where the famous New Year’s Eve Ball descends from the flagpole atop the building each year. New York-based D3 LED utilized X2O’s Xpresenter™ 2.1 digital signage platform to create the 30 story tall LED spectacular. The X2O end-to-end solution delivers seamless messages and images 20 hours a day to countless passersby in vibrant Times Square.
D3 LED engineers and manufactures the world’s most sophisticated advertising spectaculars, stadium and arena displays, information ticker and marquee systems, and customized digital solutions. Designed to break the mold in how the Walgreens brand interacts with consumers, the digital billboard at One Times Square utilizes 10,987 display modules, each containing 1,024 to 1,600 pixels, for unparalleled high-resolution graphics. The result is over 17,000 square feet of dynamic digital LED signage extending 341 feet above the ground on three sides of the building, complemented by 13 digital signs surrounding the building at street level. Weighing in at 125 tons, the spectacular covers over one third of an acre with more than 12 million LEDs powered by 150 gigs of data throughout.
D3 LED required a digital signage platform featuring a resolution-independent player with real-time capabilities to synchronize all the display modules, including the 13 signs on the ground. To accomplish this, they chose X2O Media’s Xpresenter.
“The Walgreens project was extremely complex,” said Meric Adriansen, managing partner, D3 LED. “We needed media players that could keep up with the extreme resolution systems that we had built and that could synchronize across the whole system. X2O Media worked closely with us to make this project a success.”
The Xpresenter solution is an end-to-end digital signage platform with a number of applications that support content authoring, scheduling, distribution, and remote management. Xpresenter Template Maker is a powerful application that integrates directly with Microsoft® PowerPoint®, providing digital signage operators with the unique ability to create broadcast-quality graphics that incorporate video, animations, clip art galleries, and real-time data sources from within the familiar PowerPoint interface.
“We feel it is a true testament to our technology that Xpresenter was chosen for such a large-scale application in such a high-profile location,” stated David Wilkins, X2O Media’s President and CEO. “For a project of this magnitude, the quality of the output is paramount. The Xpresenter suite not only covered all the steps in the digital signage workflow, from content authoring to scheduling, but it also delivered better than broadcast-quality graphics and video in real time to the largest LED screen in the U.S.”
About D3LED
Founded in 2005, D3 LED helps the world’s leading brands leverage digital technologies in new ways to break the mold of the traditional branding experience and allow consumers to engage with products and household names in a way they never have before. The company’s work ranges from advertising spectaculars and stadium and arena displays to information ticker and marquee systems and customized solutions. D3 LED’s most widely recognized design technology includes the Walgreens spectacular, the JVC Brandscape, the ABC Super Display and the M&M World Sign in Times Square.
With sales operations headquartered in New York City and engineering and design managed from Rancho Cordova, Calif., D3 LED’s prominence lies in the company’s commitment to pushing the engineering envelope to deliver revolutionary designs that take digital displays to an entirely new level of visual communication while maximizing high definition images with innovative interactive technologies. More information about D3LED is available at www.d3led.com.
About Walgreens
Walgreens is the nation’s largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2008 sales of $59 billion. The company operates 6,636 drugstores in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens provides the most convenient access to consumer goods and services and cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services in America through its retail drugstores, Walgreens Health Services division and Walgreens Health and Wellness division. Walgreens Health Services assists pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and SeniorMed LLC (a pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities). Walgreens Health and Wellness division includes Take Care Health Systems (www.takecarehealthsystem.com), the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with nearly 700 locations throughout the country.
About X2O Media
X2O Media (pronounced ex-two-oh media) is a full-service provider of technology and services for digital signage, as well as creative design services for broadcast graphics and other types of digital content. The company offers content design, management, distribution, monitoring, integration, and support services for digital signage providers. X2O’s award-winning Xpresenter provides unprecedented ease of use coupled with the highest-quality output at a fraction of the time and cost of higher-end solutions. X2O was launched by the founders of VertigoXmedia, Inc., an innovator in the field of broadcast graphics, following VertigoXmedia’s acquisition by Miranda Technologies. More information about X2O Media is available at www.x2omedia.com.
Source: X2O Media
