1000sqm of Absen LED into the new Istanbul Airport
Set to become the world’s largest airport, the US$11bn Istanbul Airport will eventually handle up to 200 million passengers a year.
At the heart of the new airport terminal, is the freshly constructed Unifree Duty-Free area, which at 53,000sqm, is the biggest duty-free shopping area in the world – equivalent to nine football fields – and home to 54 brands and 71 retail stores.
Over 1000sqm of Absen LED was used to create a visually striking experience for passengers and advertisers, including a 300m-long curved LED façade that follows the walkway through the duty-free area as well as two 120sqm ceiling-mounted video screens on either end of the terminal.
For the 300m-long display, the technology integrator Astel had to install each section in waves, fitting the LED tiles at different angles and using special connectors between the screens. Due to the curved design, the cabinets had to be significantly modified to achieve the desired effect. The curved façade is made of Absen’s N2.5 LED screen, which features a 2.5mm pixel pitch and 1500 nits brightness.
FLIGHT TIME
On either end of the duty-free shopping area are two towering 120sqm LED screens that greet passengers as they enter their respective departure terminals. The video walls are made of Absen’s N5D Plus displays which feature a 5.2mm pixel pitch and 3500 nits ultra-high brightness to ensure content is clearly visible from afar.
Installing the two giant hanging video walls into the non-standard architectural design of the new airport brought with it its own technical challenges, recalls Selen Guler Arabaci, business development manager for Absen.
“The ceilings at the airport are not able to take no more than five tonnes of weight so Absen provided the lightest LED tiles available, without compromising the visual performance. Astel also created a lighter bracket to mount the screens from.” she said. “A specially-designed motorised lift was then used to hoist and secure the video walls into position 8m metres above the ground.”
“The LED screens have been in operation since the beginning of the year and we have been extremely pleased with the result”, said Osman Ayhan, Unifree’s IT Director. “The shopfront façades of our Istanbul Airport Duty-Free store in particular, have attracted the most attention of our passengers. Our goal in almost all of these digital applications is to differentiate the shopping experience for our visitors at the airport and make them more enjoyable for them. We believe we have achieved this and made Istanbul airport the destination of choice for travellers.”
Absen: absen.com
AVD (Absen): avdistributors.com.au