The new $1.5b ICC Sydney is a world-class digital signage playground.
The new ICC Sydney is a digital signage showpiece… wonderland, even. Within the $1.5b venue there all manner of signage taking care of all manner of duties — from the entirely ornamental to the utterly work-a-day, yet utterly necessary, mundane.
Managing the digital signage department is Ricky Chivers. It’s been a baptism of fire as he becomes familiar with the enormous variety of screens he has at his disposal and the demands of the clients.
There are 350 ‘end points’ in total. This could be an information panel outside one of the dozens of meeting rooms, a screen above the reception desk, a display mounted into the front of a smart lectern, one of the startling ‘blades’ on the promenade or, indeed, the showstopping ‘birdsmouth’ feature at the steps of The Theatre.
Moreover the screens can often be addressed and co-opted in a whole variety of configurations. Those reception desk screens: there are 27 of them in a row. Address them individually or pop an uninterrupted rendition of Bayeaux tapestry on them! The 19 blades? They could all mirror the same content or 19 different displays or anything in between.
ANYTHING ANYWHERE
Driving the signage and IPTV system is Cotag Media’s ACA Engine. Cotag is an Australian developer and worked with ICC Sydney and the AV integrator Fredon Technology to fine tune its platform for the showpiece project.
The IPTV aspect of the system means any vision can appear on any screen anywhere in the venue. Back of house screens can take vision from The Theatre stage or indeed the smaller theatres — the Darling and Pyrmont Theatres — can take vision from a plenary session at 8000-cap Theatre (or any of the meeting rooms) in overflow situations.
Using ACA’s web-based interface, it’s easy to lasso-in social media contributions to the screens, where moderated Twitter feeds can appear on screens in The Theatre concourse or Instagram photos from The Ballroom can be reproduced on the Blade screens, for example.
The sky’s the limit really, and we’ll doubtlessly soon see how a clever promoter or event organiser may want to leverage the power of the displays to theme or takeover the precinct.
BIRDSMOUTH
The ‘Birdsmouth’ is the signage showstopper. It’s a one-of-a-kind 3D, multifaceted LED jawdropper. The truth is: it wasn’t originally intended to be a digital signage feature at all, rather a more standard facade work. Which makes sense of the eccentric nature of the angles and fascias — in other words, no one in their right mind would intentionally design digital signage to be so tricky to install and maintain!
“It was certainly a challenge to install,” recalled Big Screen Projects’ Toby Waley. “The south face and the west face weren’t on the same angle. The mitre where they came together was tough. We had to custom build the LED panels. The last panel that went in took 100 man hours to install — it was so tight in that join.
Content for the Birdsmouth is served by a Christie Coolux Pandoras Box — a powerful media server that can take care of all the warping and masking.
Being three dimensional (with three different LED faces) it’s not as easy as simply flowing content to the screens, perspective needs to be taken into account. For example, it took some experimentation before Toby from Big Screen Projects and the ICC Sydney digital signage team could nominate which is the ‘top’ of the Birdsmouth. Eventually a 3D map was authored which allowed the team to walk clients through how best to supply content and ensure the content was rendered to the screens in the best possible way. Effectively it’s a 4K canvass with a mask overlay.
Toby Waley has been working with Unilumin LED for years now and has the utmost confidence in its product that comes out of China.
“This is a high profile installation so I wasn’t taking any chances; and the conditions can be quite harsh — high temperatures at times, and lot of salty sea spray in the atmosphere — but I have full confidence in the product.”
Most of the installation occurred during the hottest week of the year. Toby tested the Birdsmouth during a sizzling 45°+ day and all the LED diagnostics demonstrated the Unilumin panels were operating within predicted ranges.
LED: FINE CHINA
I think the general assumption is that anyone can go to the Far East and buy LED. Like anything out of China, there’s a full range of quality from world class to totally shonky. If you don’t know what you’re buying then you can easily buy a lemon.
I’ve been looking at LED for well over a decade now. I’ve been to China countless times, and walked through dozens of factories. I now exclusively only use Unilumin LED. I’ve have found they’re the best supplier. I’ve spent time with Unilumin to ensure the product is totally suited to the Australian environment and in that time I’ve observed that its LED is better built to withstand the extreme temperatures and harsh conditions. I’ve found Unilumin’s R&D dept and QC to be unmatched — the number of R&D guys on the factory floor is incredible — they wear distinctive yellow shirts and they’re everywhere. And it’s not a show they put on for a visitor. The information we exchange shows they’re continually reviewing their product. The level of testing is extreme. For example, they have chambers where they spray salt water for days and they create an 80° environment, all to ensure their specifications are tested. That level of testing isn’t common and they’re doing it for the right reasons — to ensure reliability and customer satisfaction.
The ICC Sydney project represent five different shipments — 1100sqm of LED all up. Prior to each shipment being despatched I’d go over with a tech. Although I’m delighted with the Unilumin quality, this job has my company’s name on it so I wanted to be personally sure the shipment was up to everyone’s expectations.
Unilumin has been surprised by the level of testing we do — they might not see it in other customers — but I’m from a technical background so I’ll always be the first to grab an allen key, pull out a module and look at what’s behind it. We’ll randomly pick panels in a shipment and measure internal temperature, read the light output levels, power usage etc. I’m pleased to report that the Unilumin LED has always been up to spec.
I was concerned that the ICC Sydney job was done to the best of our abilities. The quality of a project with this kind of profile doesn’t just reflect on the reputation of Big Screen Projects but on the industry’s reputation as a whole.
Unilumin: www.unilumin.com
Big Screen Projects: 1300 278 118 or bigscreenprojects.com.au
LOOKING SHARP: BLADES
Some 19 digital signage ‘blades’ line the Darling Harbourside. Monolithic, shiny, these polished stainless steel features are impossible to ignore.
Big Screen Projects took care of the installation and commissioning. The screens are again, 6mm pixel pitch Unilumin SMD LED.
One of the earliest applications of the blades saw them feature in the shooting of Hollywood feature. Most of the first quarter of 2017 saw the ICC Sydney digital signage team experiment with the use of the signs; testing content. Already it’s obvious the blades will be make for potent event information screens, advertising and wayfinding. The blades can all display mirrored content or each can be individually addressable, making for some mouthwatering possibilities. What’s more harbourside events or special events at Tumbalong Park will all benefit from the use of the blades.
“That part of the harbour sees some very large crowds at times, and the blades will be a very powerful asset on those occasions. Digital signage on one side, while the reverse side – the shiny, stainless steel side – is proving to be popular mirrored surface for people dance in front of. Quite the craze!”
ARTWALL
The artwall isn’t so much digital signage as a one-off, set ’n’ forget piece of public art. If you’re thinking of buying some space as a novel means of popping the question to your better half, forget it – the display isn’t update or managed, as such.
That said, it’s still an awe-inspiring display. The 16mm pitch pitch Unilumin LED display is a whopping 96m long and 4m high. The 6000-dot pixel canvas is filled by Ryoji Ikeda, and the artist was more than up to speed with the demands of the medium. Not content with stunning visuals, Ryoji has authored an eight-channel sound track for the artwork — the 24 loudspeakers provides audio that matches the position of the onscreen action.
FURTHER CONTACTS
ICC Sydney: www.iccsydney.com.au
ASL (AV Consultant): www.audiosystemslogic.com.au
Stowe Fredon Joint Venture (AV Integrator): www.fredon.com.au
Show Technology (Coolux): www.showtech.com.au
ACA Projects (CoTag Media): www.acaprojects.com