Lamar Goes All LED In Converting McCarran T1 Baggage Area From Static OOH
February 28, 2019 by Dave Haynes
This is a very big job that’s now lit up at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas – 60 large, 4mm pitch LED screens replacing the static OOH ad positions around the cavernous Terminal 1 baggage claim area.
Lamar Airport Advertising partnered with the airport to put them all in, and there is at least a hint that the airport actually participated in what would be a hefty capital investment. All the screens are NanoLumens product.
“As the initial purchase price of LED displays continues to become more and more competitive, the enormous revenue-generating, creative and production efficiencies the format offers have become more and more compelling,” says Rosemary Vassiliadis, Director, McCarran International Airport, in a NanoLumens’ press release. “After a careful review we decided that the return on investment opportunity was very real, which convinced us that the time was right to undertake a complete renovation of the baggage claim area advertising displays to meet the needs of our advertisers for years to come. Lamar partnered with us to make the project a reality.”
The investment is part of a much broader transition from static to digital across the out of home industry, but the need to go to screens was more acute at the airport – because of the nature of much of the advertising.
“Most of the advertising that Lamar had in that baggage claim area needed to be constantly updated as the shows and events in Vegas frequently change. Removing static banners and sign graphics and putting up new ones was an additional cost for Lamar’s advertisers,” says Dave Merlino, NanoLumens Vice President of Sales. “Replacing those banners with NanoLumens LED displays empower Lamar to offer their clients a world-class digital advertising platform whose content can be changed instantly to meet the needs of its advertisers.”
The install was a serious challenge because McCarran is going constantly, with the baggage claim areas busy 24/7.
Says the press release:
Local Las Vegas integrator Vision Sign handled this massive install and knew from past experience that NanoLumens displays were the perfect solution for what Lamar wanted to accomplish with this project. “There is a lot of ambient light coming through surrounding windows in the Terminal 1 baggage claim area which really lends itself to LED, so NanoLumens was ideal for this install,” said Jeff Quintana, Vice President at Vision Sign. “Lamar Advertising wanted to bring the space to life and switching from the static ads to NanoLumens LED displays did exactly that.”
Lamar and Vision Sign also had to handle the issue of providing the necessary power to run the 60 NanoLumens displays as well as finding the room in this busy airport for a rack system that would power all the content being driven to the displays. As Quintana explained, “NanoLumens specifies the power requirements ahead of time, so that’s a huge help and their displays work with any media player and software platform so the powering content part of the equation is simplified as well.”
Lamar engaged OSSI to design and install the software platform that runs the massive new system. OSSI designed and manages the NOC that powers all the digital signage at McCarran.
The 60 NanoLumens displays were broken down into a variety of sizes and types and installed all around the McCarran Terminal 1 baggage claim area.The largest among them were soffit displays, with six of these being installed on the walls surrounding baggage claim — all of which were 4mm Performance Series displays measuring 64’ x 9’. Six more 4mm Performance Series displays were also installed as soffit displays with four of those measuring 32’ x 9’ and the last two checking in at 32’ x 5’. All of these displays rotate a set list of advertisers, enabling each advertiser to be seen by every arriving passenger in Terminal 1. A complementing loop runs in McCarran’s Terminal 3.
Lamar additionally replaced the dated video system at McCarran with two landmark 32’ x 18’ 4mm Performance Series displays that run full motion video with sound. “We wanted to restore McCarran’s prominence in welcoming our visitors,” stated Newman. “McCarran has been known for years as “Times Square West”—we’re back on the map with this iconic installation and our advertisers are excited to be a part of this ‘first impact’ greeting.”
The remaining 44 NanoLumens displays are all Engage Series, vertical banner-face displays installed on columns that surround the McCarran baggage claim area or are positioned on top of the baggage carousels themselves. There are 22 Engage Series 2.5mm displays that are roughly 5’ x 13’ running on the structural columns throughout the Terminal 1 baggage claim and 8 more banner-face displays that are on smaller columns where the ceiling is a bit lower, measuring 5’ x 9’.
The remaining 16 horizontal displays were installed on top of the baggage claim carousels — 14 of which are double sided 2.5mm Engage Series displays and two more that are single-sided displays, all measuring 12.5’ x 3.5’.
I’m through McCarran on Sunday, but coming in at the relatively serene international terminal, so I won’t see this unless I decide to hump my way over there after about eight hours of flying (not gonna happen). I do know that Nano is planning a VIP tour on March 26th, just ahead of DSE. Details here …
That’s a profitable move from the airport authority as this will bring some huge profit from the advertising medium. This will also be helpful in providing some better service to visitors and passengers.