Photos courtesy Gridcast Media
By Peter Saunders
Gridcast Media, a digital signage consultancy in Richmond Hill, Ont., recently partnered with light-emitting diode (LED) display manufacturer NanoLumens to design two towering video walls for a Holt Renfrew department store in Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre.
The high-end retailer’s redesigned indoor façade includes six 8.8. x 0.9-m (29 x 3-ft) NanoSlim flat displays, which function together as a pair of three-display arrays, on either side of the entrance. Using Scala digital signage software provided by Toronto-based Dot2Dot Communications, their on-screen imagery showcases the latest fashion trends and seasonal campaigns. Holt Renfrew can arrange content to run on each individual column or span across the entire digital canvas.
The installation represents one of the largest indoor retail digital displays anywhere in Canada, using more than 1.5 million LED packages. The vision was to both reflect the architecture of the redesigned store—which, at 11,148 m2 (120,000 sf), is twice as large as before—and enliven it, garnering deeper interest from shoppers walking by.
Each array comprises three 8.8. x 0.9-m (29 x 3-ft) NanoSlim flat displays.
Testing technologies
Gridcast had worked with Holt Renfrew in the past on a variety of digital signage projects, including an interactive screen at Yorkdale, an LED panel system for two new ‘hr2’ concept stores and touch screens for three stores in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.
“We were originally referred to Holt Renfrew by a friend of mine who used to program their point-of-sale (POS) systems,” says Shawn O’Brien, founder, president and CEO of Gridcast. “Now he works for us.”
Previous experience with Oxford Properties Group, which runs Yorkdale, also came in handy.
“I knew what they would be willing to let us do in the space,” says O’Brien. “You do need approvals from the landlord, after all.”
So, before choosing to partner with Dot2Dot and NanoLumens, the consultancy conducted a technology review and proof-of-concept to determine the best fit for the job.
“There was a somewhat confined area designed for the screens and, since construction had already begun, we had to make it work,” says O’Brien. “You can’t cut a screen in half! So, we compared technologies that would be viable there. We brought in a number of video wall panels, digital signage ‘cubes’ and LED arrays to test them out.”
