MSP aka Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport 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 aggregated airport displays management was inspired by the local baseball team, the Minnesota Twins, who also consolidated display information systems (can we acronymize that as DIS?).
FTE is a brief article and shows on of the new DVLEDs installed (North exit). We will start with FTE and DVLED. Sixteen-Nine did a nice writeup and names some names in Dec 15th post and just issued a nice followup on the "Medallions"
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.
Photos (permission of Metropolitan Airport Commission)
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- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
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- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
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- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
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- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
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- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
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- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
- Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
Credit: Metropolitan Airports Commission | Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
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.
Excerpts:
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.
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.
Comments by participants
- “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.
What the experts say to consider:
- Look at your screens – how many are black – how reliable are your current systems?
- How many different systems are you managing?
- What if you had more agility and flexibility in the information you could show on those screens.
- Don’t digitize existing signage, transform them
- Dynamic wayfinding is huge (see Hartsfield or Sky Harbor articles)
We strongly suggest reading the full article at AviationPros
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