Since joining the AV industry in 2008, I have attended many trade shows, events, on-site meetings and more. In my travels, I have noticed a significant increase in digital signage applications in corporate and hotel lobbies, including upgrades from standard definition displays to 4K (and higher resolution) video walls. As everyone knows, lobby signs are a critical accessory when branding and representing a location. Lobby signage is usually one of the first things clients, visitors and guests will notice when entering a location. So, I thought sharing pictures, videos and the context behind each of these projects with different purposes, might be helpful.

Author’s note: Some of these corporate and hotel lobbies I have seen myself, while others were sent to me with descriptions of the purpose and outcome from some of the vendors.

92nd Street Y

The 92nd Street Y is a community center on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.

For the purposes of this column, let’s discuss the lobby. This was initially a Primeview 2H x 3W of 55” LCD displays connected to separate Coolsign Media Players. As time went forward, some of the displays were damaged or had issues. So, Primeview replaced the displays with its 1.9mm FSN LED which took up the same space (for a fraction of the typical cost) and looked considerably better with a much higher resolution and no bezels. Also, the legacy Coolsign media player was replaced with a single Zignage D3 media player. The purpose of the LED video wall is to show images and videos of the performances in their auditorium and special events throughout the building on those specific days or in the future.

There were also LCD displays above the elevators — there for informational purposes.

Hotel 42

I was invited to the formal opening of Hotel 42 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last fall. I was not expecting anything in particular, so when I walked into the lobby, I was pleasantly surprised. The entertainment value or “wow” factor, (is that still a thing?) was clear. I found out from some of the vendors that pixel mapping and the layout of the Primeview 1.9mm FSN spanning nearly 15’ H x 30’ W LED video wall yielding 4K+ pixel resolution was designed to allow accessibility space for the elevator on the left and the stairs on the right, so having two spaces was a challenge to create forced perspective a.k.a. anamorphic content (produces an illusion of depth or height). There was approximately a six-week build-out by Render Impact for the content:

Okta

The Okta Lobby at 920 Broadway, New York City, is a great example of how to incorporate different types of digital device technologies, such as LCD, LED sticks and LED lighting to create a unique environment for visitors in a corporate lobby. My contact at SNA mentioned that Okta, a San Francisco identity and access management technology company, wanted to create a unique experience area in NYC.  The goal was to provide compelling interactive expressions to drive brand awareness to increase sales of their digital products and services.

For the digital experience, SNA Displays manufactured 243 LED sticks, each integrated into wood paneling. The LED strips, an architectural lighting extension of SNA Displays’ Thrumedia line, using a 10mm pixel pitch, were mounted vertically, and were spaced about 5.5 inches apart. The main visual piece, the interior facing side, is composed of more than 100 8-foot LED sticks. 

Because of its high-traffic, street-level visibility, HUSH Studios designed a unique digital core that faces both outwards and inwards. Outside, passersby can view and interact with brand content, animations and their own digital shadows designed to educate them about Okta’s products and services. The interior brand experience features a personalized interactive moment that surrounds the guests with relevant data insights, and a supporting application to control the user experience.

You can find out more about the lobby and project here.

RiverSouth

This hotel in Austin, Texas, features two separate Primeview 1.2mm FSN LED walls each spanning approx 15’H x 10’W with forced perspective “living plant wall” content created by Render Impact in its lobby.

The architects originally planned for this wall to be a real living plant wall. It was later decided that they would use a fine-pitch LED display for more versatility. The client still wanted realistic plant walls to help bring nature into the lobby area. A different style of plant wall for each day of the week — Desert, Tropical, Rainforest, Grasslands and Tundra. The goal was always to create photorealistic, animated 3D living plant walls using CGI. The plant walls are the default content for the lobby video wall. The client also plans on displaying basic events or tenant information for special events. 

They received a lot of very positive feedback. The vendors were told that many visitors and employees couldn’t believe how real the plant walls looked. They are designed with photoreal plants that are rigged and animated in a 3D forced perspective space. HDR lighting and shadows bring the plant walls to life and make them very realistic in the lobby. The vendors also worked with the interior designers to match the coursing, color and textures of the adjacent limestone wall and bring that into each plant wall to blend the physical and digital walls. These required extensive testing to ensure the scale, lighting, and other details were perfect.

Salesforce

This was a unique environment in which SNA Displays manufactured nine LED screens, located in the Bryant Park area. The digital displays, a combination of different interior products, demonstrate Salesforce’s willingness to use the latest technology as part of its corporate identity. The displays feature brand-focused content developed by Sensory Interactive for every Salesforce lobby location.

Both lobby displays in Salesforce Tower New York come from SNA Displays’ BOLD line of interior products and use a 2.5 mm pixel pitch. One LED is 203 square feet and the other is 189 square feet; they have respective resolutions of 1,260 pixels high by 2,400 pixels wide and 1,350 pixels high by 2,080 pixels wide.

TransPerfect

The Primeview 0.9mm FSN COB LED spanning 13.5’ H x 18’ W yielding 6K Resolution (lobby wall) in the new TransPerfect global headquarters private lobby was designed to be a statement piece that anchored their dedicated reception space in the lobby. This emulates the welcoming atmosphere and visual first impression guests experience when visiting a premium hotel.  The overarching goal throughout the design phase was to create an entrance that was inspiring and inviting. Because of COVID, their plans evolved, and they chose to go with a single large wall rather than smaller multiple media walls to better focus their employees’ and visitors’ attention.

While there are many options for visual technology, from the beginning they were confident that the best feature to complete the space and carry their design concept was a media wall. As the first point of interaction for both employees and visitors, they tasked their in-house content creation team with the goal of producing graphics, videos, and personalized communications that engage, excite, and — most importantly — welcome. So far, they have seen a mix of informational content and artistic videos, as well as almost everything in between.

Everyone seems to love the dedicated lobby and the media wall. The biggest obstacle has been making choices regarding what content they share on the wall. It’s a learning process to understand when they should go with a grand statement piece versus more granular information and company updates. 

Worldwide Technologies

At the entrance of this building, you are greeted by 9’ H x 20’ W and a 9’ H x 10’ W of non-contiguous 1.2mm FSN LED walls with custom digitally branded WWT content. Further, inside the custom-facing space, the innovation lab includes a 6’ H x 30’ W concave 1.5mm custom FLX LED wall that has drone footage to walk prospective clients through each business unit of WWT.

The initial purpose of the lobby video wall was a mix of experiential/immersive content and informational content. The client wanted to start with the aquarium experience and planned on adding more “experiential” content to this video wall. They will also display regular marketing and informational content. The feedback from the client, employees in the office, and other vendors associated with the project was all overwhelmingly positive. The content vision and timeline were clear and the communication between all the stakeholders was excellent which kept the project on track. Pre-visualizations were produced to help the client and stakeholders see the new space with the video walls and content on them. This step really helped the client understand how the content would look in the context of the new space that was being built.

Lessons Learned

Some of the general challenges and resolutions in these and other corporate and hotel lobbies (in no specific order):

• Make sure visitors do not walk into or touch these devices, especially when they are non-interactive touch.
• There is enough space around the device for airflow, otherwise, the device may heat up as electronic devices do not work well in high temperatures.
• There is a mechanism to turn on and off the display when not in use to save energy, money, extend the life of the endpoint, and/or meet building requirements (i.e., 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in corporate lobbies and possibly shorter or longer timeframe in hotels, depending on their hours of operation).
• Placement is critical for an equipment rack to house the hardware connected to the displays/video walls/projectors in order to provide the content playing on these devices as there are signal flow limitations within data cabling. 
• Enough physical space for power and data outlets — in most cases Wi-Fi is not stable enough, thus wired to a network is needed for remote access, change content, reboot equipment, etc.
• Change content. Yes, plasma technology has gone away so burn-in is less likely on these video walls. However, as I pointed out to one client whose lobby had static content, absolutely no one entering the lobby (hundreds per day) ever looked at the video wall.
• I always ask (when I have the opportunity) what is your audio and control strategy? The purpose is to increase the impactfulness of the content (not just visual) and what will be the mechanism to control all the components of the environment (can it be accessed remotely)?

Note: Special thanks to Todd Rickenbach, GM at https://renderimpact.com/; Chanan Averbuch, VP at Primeview; Mitch Leathers, Sr. Director of Communications at SNA Displays; Mark Meding, Director of C&C Technology Group; Dave Holub, Director of IT and Charles Gates, Associate Creative Director at 92Y; Ryan Simper, VP Global Marketing and John Patterson, Operations Manager at TransPerfect