Stadium has largest LED media display in Southeast
Posted
03/1/2010
When the NBA's
Miami HEAT Group decided to create a marquee on the exterior of its
American Airlines Arena, the franchise wanted
something that would not only draw attention to the arena itself,
but also transform downtown Miami. Made from 3,400
square feet (316 m2) of high-grade architectural woven
stainless-steel mesh fabric with interwoven LED profiles, Miami's
Mediamesh screen-patented by GKD-Gebr. Kufferath AG, Duren,
Germany, and ag4 media façade GmbH, Cologne, Germany-provides
visitors to the Arena with unobstructed viewing from the interior
and visually engaging digital media content on the exterior.
Located on Miami's busy Biscayne Boulevard, overlooking Biscayne
Bay, the stadium plays host to more than 1.3 million guests per
year who visit the arena for concerts, family and sporting events.
Committed to providing visitors with a dynamic and exciting
entertainment experience, the HEAT Group commissioned a
first-of-its-kind large-scale LE mesh media façade to be installed
on the arena. Standing three stories tall, 42 feet (13 m) high by
80 feet (24 m) wide, Miami's Mediamesh façade is four times the
size of an average billboard.
"Because of the size of the façade and the curvature of the arena,
installing the Mediamesh proved to be a challenge," said Leon
Shockley, director of field operations for GKD-USA, Cambridge,Md.
"We broke the façade into eight panels and angled each panel within
the brackets to smooth the curvature and eliminate the appearance
of vertical lines. One benefit of Mediamesh is its translucent
appearance, so maintaining that transparency was critical. The
result was a clear media output."
Mediamesh is made of high-grade architectural woven stainless-steel
mesh fabric that is embedded with linear tubes filled with LED
nodes that provide pixels for displaying high-resolution digital
imagery. The Miami Mediamesh screen, which is 3/4-inch (19-mm)
thick and 70 percent transparent, blends in with the architecture
of the arena so that is goes virtually unnoticed when turned off.
When it is on, images can be seen in high-pixel resolution.
Mediamesh can display any content that can be shown on a computer
screen, and despite its advanced graphic image resolution, it
requires very little maintenance and uses only one-sixth the amount
of electricity that conventional LED boards use. Mediamesh is also
resistant to weathering and temperature, which helps prolong its
life. It can also resist hurricane force winds up to 146 mph.
"The flexibility and durability of Mediamesh also intrigued the
HEAT Group. Because Mediamesh can be secured onto any shape
building, it was ideal for this project," said Mike Leonard,
designer for GKD-USA.
Miami's Mediamesh marquee is the largest digital LED media display
in the Southeast. The marquee runs from 6 a.m.-11 p.m., showing
concert and game footage, advertising messages from sponsors,as
well as Twitter and e-mail messages from the public.
"The finished result will blow people away-it's unreal," Leonard
continued. "This is the first use of Mediamesh on a project of this
scale. Everyone on our team is really proud of the result, as is
the HEAT Group."
GKD-USA, www.gkdusa.com
www.gkdusa.com