Audio Video News

Last week, Saco SmartVision announced that the world's largest video screen has been activated at 4 Times Square, flooding the area with nine-story-tall video images. The new screen is based on millions of discrete, individually energized red, green, and blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and measures 120x90 feet, following the curved form of the new Conde Nast Building at the southeast corner of Seventh Avenue and 43rd Street.

Manufactured for the Nasdaq Stock Market, the screen has been erected above Nasdaq's glass-enclosed MarketSite, and was officially inaugurated December 28. The company says that the new installation surpasses Saco's previous size record of 50x100 feet, for the Irish rock group U2. The company also states that the Times Square screen produces a palette of more than 16.7 million colors.

Saco's Fred Jalbout claims that "LEDs offer a superior display format. . . . Given its sheer size, resolution, and versatility, the SmartVision screen will revolutionize outdoor advertising. The screen is a truly overwhelming presence in Times Square. SmartVision screens offer far better resolution and a greater viewing angle than any type of projected or coupled multimonitor display."

Other SmartScreen installations include Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex, CINergy Field in Cincinnati, and the MCI Center in Washington, DC. Saco says that the largest LED video displays in professional sports are the twin 24x100-foot SmartVision screens at the Baltimore Ravens' PSINet Stadium.