Piccadilly Lights display sections have sailed across the Atlantic to our shores from America. The first shipment left on June 6th and last week the final cabinets were installed in the new display. In total, more than 200 cabinets, containing over 5,500 individual LED tiles made their way from the Daktronics HQ in South Dakota to the landmark London advertising site.

Daktronics build displays like this every week at the beginning of baseball and football seasons. But when the installation of a display this size is in one of the busiest junctions of car and people in the UK, it’s no longer just your average project.

Schedules for manufacturing, shipping and the delivery to site have been crafted to perfection. Being extremely precise in these methods leads to a smooth overall project. The schedule works around the busiest times of the day to minimize congestion for the city as well as providing safer working conditions.

With the lessons we’ve learned from installations of this magnitude, technology wise we have continually innovated. Cabinets are designed with highly accurate locating blocks, they are integrally strong, and they have improved interconnectivity. All these features are popular with the installation teams; the speed and accuracy in which they can now install the displays has reduced project programmes and costs dramatically. The integral strength within each cabinet has halved the steel requirements, which means reduced steel shipments and one less beam to lift and shift and drop on a toe.

As of last week, we were 100% complete on the mechanical installation. The result – a 782 sqm true 4k display. The technology is the latest available. The modules themselves have been through rigorous testing; they have been pushed to failure in accelerated testing conditions.

It is not uncommon for a module to be still operating after three months of continued submersion in a metre of water. Way above expectations of any other industry standard solutions. But then again this is not an industry standard solution and this is no ordinary site!

The new display and control system creates a medium that is unparalleled in operational functionality compared to its predecessors. We will see content manipulated and represented in ways not seen before on Piccadilly; interactive functionality will engage with the audiences like never before – Piccadilly Lights will lead a new era of digital media.

It won’t be long now until the great reveal – it’s been 10 months coming, but it will be well worth the wait!

Previous Slide Next Slide