Higher education facilities sure do like to make a statement about their offerings. Lucky for integrators, it’s usually by incorporating an LED display or other AV technology. Such is the case at Georgia State University, which opted for NanoLumens Display to upgrade the look at the school’s Creative Media Industries Institute. [related]
Located in downtown Atlanta, GA, the Creative Media Industries Institute (and its new LED displays) would be seen by thousands of passersby and visitors.
The ultra-modern home to the digital media and film industries studies program at Georgia State University had to come off as immediately iconic, according to Elizabeth Strickler, CMII Director of Media Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and it had to visually communicate digital innovation.
“Our new Creative Media Industries Institute building is now, quite literally, a beacon of creativity that enables our students to experiment and prepare for careers in the rapidly changing fields of media and technology,” Strickler said.
“Building on the success of our original ‘Window Project’ at the old building, in which we exhibited artists’ digital creations in large format by projecting them onto frosted windows, we wanted to create a larger installation space that featured technology that was better, brighter and more advanced than projection technology.”
NanoLumens Display Cuts Through Sunny Southern Daylight
“One of the main problems was that projection is very hard to use in daylight situations – something that NanoLumens Display LED display technology solved – and also that working with six projectors to display a single image was incredibly complicated. We knew a single massive display would be the answer.”
Strickler and other project leaders decided to build a curved wall in the building’s main entrance, which has 20-foot ceilings and wall-to-wall windows, making it a highly visible location for thousands of daily passersby.
They also agreed that a standard 16:9 rectangle was… uninspiring, so the final order became a 34” wide curved trapezoid, with the left and right ends standing 10’ and 7’ tall, respectively, resulting in a gentle sloping bottom for the display.
Utilizing a 3mm pixel pitch, the LED display has a truly unique pixel count and display ratio that challenges students to step out of their comfort zone and create digital media projects specifically for this display.
The display doesn’t simply sit on a blank wall, either.
Instead, the entire wall surrounding the display can also be programmed and integrated to project various colors and intensities along with the on-screen content.
Impact of the LED Display
According to Strickler, one benefit of the results is the opportunity to attract more students to careers in media.
“We want to triple the workforce in the future of media production,” she explained. “Growing entrepreneurship within the media space is huge right now, with new programming and novel interactive experiences being introduced almost daily.”
