Airport Digital Displays and MSP Airport Review

MSP Airport Digital Signage Review

Editors Note: Huge round of thanks to the Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for the generous permission in the use of images below.

MSP has been in the news multiple times for its technology. Future Travel Experience and Aviation Pros being the two most notable.  Worth noting that apparently the inspiration for airport management came from what the local baseball team, the Minnesota Twins did (consolidate display information systems). Sixteen-Nine did a nice writeup and names some names.

FTE is a shorter article and covers new DVLEDs installed. We will start with FTE and DVLED.

What is DVLED — Direct View LED is not like regular LED – or any other display. Forget Backlights.  It is worth noting that the literal phrase “direct view” is shared by both LG and Samsung.

Direct View LED displays eliminate the LCD panel, instead using a surface array of LEDs as the actual display pixels. This allows for incredible contrast, vibrant colors, and brightness levels several times that of LCDs. Direct View LED displays can also be made virtually any size, including large sizes of 100 feet or more, making them the perfect choice for outdoor and indoor spaces alike. Thanks to the bezel-free design of Direct View LED displays, it’s possible to create seamless video walls too. Explanation of DVLED by LG.

• Competing Technology — DVLED is an LG term and basically competes with Samsungs “The Wall” for wall-sized displays.  Example is 325-inch Extreme Home Cinema by LG. A nice article too on Micro-LED vs OLED in which we as consumers win either way.

MSP DVLEDs

From FTE — new direct-view LEDs mounted above North and South Exit escalators. Actually two displays:

• North Exit main display is mounted in landscape orientation and measures 14.75 feet wide and 8.2 feet tall.
• smaller ticker-type display with a 2.5mm pixel pitch.

“Digital displays allow us to maximize the use of overhead space at our exit escalators, which was previously used to hang printed messages,” said Eduardo Valencia, Chief Information Officer for the Metropolitan Airports Commission that manages MSP and several regional airports. “We now can schedule and convey important information and offer local businesses a big, bright, bold way to get their messaging in front of visitors.”

Photos (provided with permission of Metropolitan Airport Commission)

Components

• digital signage controller by Radiant Technology Group
• LG displays
• CMS by Omnivex

AviationPros picked some of this up and did a much more comprehensive article. There is a nice image gallery and the great news is that they started at the South Exit. They have five nice images of the South side and the different iterations of digital signage.

The dynamic digital signage “moons” that Delta uses which can be reconfigured on the fly are probably going to be very handy.  Too bad Southwest Airlines didn’t have those for its baggage areas.

Excerpt:

Cross-asset utilization encourages the use of consistent messaging and affords efficiency.

In airports, you sort of have these “fiefdoms,” Valencia said. In other words, he said, “Those displays are only for this purpose.”

“We wanted to leverage all our digital displays in a cohesive integrated way to try to then open up that digital canvas to business (units) for them to use, basically be able to put any message, from any source, data or not, anywhere, any time,” he said.

Comments

• “Eduardo and his team have worked thoughtfully to truly transform the MSP Experience. They utilize software (Omnivex) as an enabler for their business and transformative initiatives. We laud their efforts and the partners they chose to support them.”  ~Chris Devlin with Omnivex.
• “Like many airports, MSP had a very siloed approach to digital signage,” said digital signage expert Neil Bron Chatwood of Omnivex Corporation. “
• Work done by Radiant Technology began with consulting, including a multi-year vision and implementation plan, said Doug Freutel, Radiant Technology VP of innovation and visionary.
• From LG: In this market you are able to buy the same type of LED cabinets from any OEM, but the differentiator with LG projects, we take pride in providing top-notch onsite installation and in-person training programs that help our client become educated on the whole process and not just a paycheck to us.
• Sixteen Nine:  The displays add to a digital footprint of more than 800 LG flat panels around the airport. LG PR says the displays were sourced through Bluum Technology, a solutions-focused project designer and technology reseller, and are operated with a custom UX developed by Radiant Technology Group, which then taps into Omnivex’s digital signage software platform.

What the experts say to consider:

• Look at your screens – how many are black – what’s the reliability of your current systems?
• How many different systems are driving those visuals?
• Consider how more valuable those existing screens could be if you had more agility and flexibility in the information you could show on those screens.
• Don’t digitize your existing screens, transform them
• dynamic or digital wayfinding is huge (see Hartsfield or Sky Harbor articles)

We strongly suggest reading the full article at AviationPros

Resources

• LG Displays
• Omnivex
• Radiant Technology
• Peerless-AV
• Samsung
• Video Telling The Story
• Sky Harbor Airport Wayfinding Case Study
• New York Moynihan Train Station Wayfinding

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• Digital Directory Wayfinding Installed at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport(Opens in a new browser tab)
• Digital Wayfinding Kiosk Case Study Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport(Opens in a new browser tab)
• Digital Signage Tradeshow – ISE Review by Sixteen-Nine(Opens in a new browser tab)