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
