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Suddenly, it’s everywhere
In 1990, SONY wanted to put a giant video screen they called the Jumbotron at the southern end of Times Square.
It was, at the time, cutting edge technology. Measuring 42 feet x 23 feet, it was actually a collection of dozens of smaller screens, the images coordianted by a computer.
When the Jumbotron first went up, broadcasting actual video, there was a great deal of concern that it would cause automobile accidents or at leasts traffic tie ups in midtown as drivers were distracted by the moving images.
How things change.
Driving through Times Square earlier this week we passed the American Eagle Outfitters building – the entire exterior of which is one massive video screen (or several, as it seems the images can be broken up). The screen measures 25,000 square feet. The Jumbotron measured just over 900 square feet. that’s a big difference.
Although the Jumbotron (which was shut down buy SONY in 1996) is still there (run by someone else, no doubt), it is today very hard to find. Oh yeah, there is it. Miniscule.
There is a kind of Moore’s Law to video walls as there is to microprocessors. Clearly, as the technology gets cheaper and faster, it becomes increasingly easier to make pretty much anything into a platform for video.
What will go on these endless video walls? I have no idea. But apparently, neither does American Eagle Outfitters, who have a website devoted to asking people to use the wall for something… anything.
It’s a classic case of the technology appearing before the need for it has been deterimined – or its ultimate application.
One thing is clear – there is enormous potential out there (so to speak) for a more interesting application for a video wall 300 feet high than selling pants.
Probably.
Hopefully.
Copyright Michael Rosenblum 2013
