Digital Signage: The Toronto Zoo’s durable displays

by all | 1 June 2015 3:34 pm

By Peter Saunders
As one of the largest zoos in North America, the Toronto Zoo relies on a variety of media to communicate with more than 1.3 million visitors each year and improve their guest experience. In late 2014, the facility added a new series of commercial-grade, high-definition (HD) digital displays to this media mix, both to provide important information to visitors about daily events and special exhibits and to boost advertising real estate for its sponsors and partners.

Weatherproof (and spiderproof)
Installed primarily near the zoo’s admission gates, the weatherproofed SunBriteDS Marquee-series digital signs were chosen because they could withstand the naturally severe conditions that are routine at an outdoor facility.

The 1.4-m (55-in.) displays are designed to function at extreme temperatures ranging from -40 to 50 C (-40 to 122 F), with automated internal cooling and temperature regulation systems. Their heat-tolerant liquid crystal displays (LCDs), backlit by light-emitting diodes (LEDs), help ensure content is readable at any time of day or night, all year round, by protecting the crystals against temporary isotropic blackouts.

(By way of explanation, an isotropic blackout occurs when a display panel turns black in direct sunlight. The zoo’s previous outdoor screens suffered significantly from this problem and required awnings and extra accessories to maintain consistent performance.)

“Content on these displays can be seen down to the fine detail no matter what nature throws at them,” says Jonathan Johnson, director of brand marketing for SunBriteDS. “Attached to mounts that are also weatherproofed, they can perform in nearly any climate condition on Earth.”

Starting at 2,000 nits of luminance, the new screens use ambient light sensors to help adjust their brightness in line with changing environmental conditions and feature a special ‘matte’ finish to reduce glare.

“Now our displays are fully readable throughout the day,” says Charles Duncan, the zoo’s manager of computer and telecommunications services, who first became familiar with SunBriteDS products seven years ago and, for this project, combined them with custom media players from Technovision in Pickering, Ont. “Installing the players was a breeze.”

The exterior cabinets, meanwhile, are manufactured from durable, rustproof powdercoated aluminum and feature gasketing and filtration systems to keep out not only snow and other forms of moisture, but also the zoo’s many insects and spiders.

“Water of any kind, including rain, sleet and fog, can wreak havoc on electronic devices, which is why it’s hazardous and even dangerous to use indoor TVs outside,” says Johnson. “Connection ports are especially vulnerable to the elements, as even small amounts of moisture can corrode input terminals, causing screensto fail. Spider silk, meanwhile, is extremely conductive and can cause arcing across internal electronics. These displays’ watertight cable entry and filtration systems guarantee no foreign objects or organisms can tamper with the interior. There is also a protective glass panel in front of the screen, which can easily be replaced in cases of vandalism or other damage.”

Green screens
In addition to being able to function dependably under all weather conditions and to prevent damage from exterior forces, the displays were also chosen to help serve the zoo’s strict policies with regard to energy efficiency.

The 287-ha (710-acre) facility in the Rouge Valley—which houses more than 5,000 animals, representing more than 450 species—requires more than 11 million kWh of electricity annually for its operations. To demonstrate environmental leadership, the city-owned zoo has committed to lowering its carbon footprint. This has involved tapping into many alternative energy sources, including solar power, geothermal heating and solar thermal water heating, and adopting green roof technology and energy-efficient equipment.

“The Marquee-series displays fulfil each of our needs, but have been particularly successful in achieving our ‘green’ energy initiatives,” says Duncan. “Thanks to a power save feature, for example, as soon as our digital signage software stops transmitting a Video Graphics Array (VGA) signal when the park closes, the screens are automatically powered off—and then on again when the park opens the next morning.”

Further, SunBriteDS has field-tested its outdoor displays for more than 10 years—at venues like sports stadiums, amusement parks, university campuses, resorts, hotels and quick-service restaurant (QSR) drive-thrus—to ensure they are built to last, which also reduces the consumption of materials necessary for traditional printed signage.

“These are turnkey systems with everything integrated into the enclosure, but the screws and outrigs on the back make them easily field-serviceable,” says Johnson. “The filters and other components can be replaced to keep the displays going.”

With files from SunBriteDS. For more information, visit www.sunbriteds.com[4].

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/digital-signage-the-toronto-zoos-durable-displays/

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