JD Sports pushed boundaries with Handy AV, placing customers within a completely immersive, fast moving digital environment, enveloping both floors of the store.
The imaginative design - which takes in the high footfall stairwell and ascending escalator - was created by Handy AV's managing director Aubrey Wright, working closely with the client and their in-store designers.
The brief was to show advanced mobility; Handy AV's solution has been to fire images along six seamless plasma screens, following the line of the diagonal escalator up to the first floor, and to provide a further portrait column of eight plasma screens, which can form either a single media display or vertically chasing set of three images, running down the facing stairwell.
42m of continuous LED tickertape digital signage, which runs like a monorail - in, up and across the store's first floor ceiling, delivers high-impact sales and promotional messages.
The displays receive continuous video feeds from Handy AV's rack mounted Media Players and Content Management System, located in an adjacent building. The system also comprises individual management stations, providing screen management and scheduling, to regulate operational times. The whole system is protected by an un-interruptible power supply, for optimised up time.
Handy AV managing director, Aubrey Wright states that the Content Management system is running high resolution QuickTime/Movie files, formatted to allow the video scalers to apportion the video image across all screens. Fibre/DVI distance extenders are used to connect to a Kramer HDMI distribution amplifier for connection to each screen. The web based software allows for easy control of content and scheduling, and offers a scalable enterprise management solution.
(Jim Evans)
