Saudi Entertainment Complex Emulates Times Square On What Was A Patch Of Sand Four Months Ago

November 4, 2021 by Dave Haynes

This is just nutty in terms of the scope, scale and speed at which it came together – a massive retail and entertainment complex that went from a big patch of sand in Riyadh to fully operational and ready for the Saudi public in just four months.

The Riyadh City Boulevard development opened this week, with a variety of entertainment experiences, shopping and food options. One of the areas emulates the LED-driven sensory overload of Times Square, with a whole bunch of screens of different dimensions lining a plaza area.

The content seems to vary from experiential to straight-up ads and promos, and the screens appear to be sync’d with other things like a Las Vegas/Bellagio water fountain show and lighting.

The development has some sort of seasonal aspect to it, with this one running to March 2022. I am only guessing here, but that seasonality likely has something to do with summers being too hot in Riyadh to make outdoor recreation and shopping a big draw. Summer there is like Las Vegas – crazy-hot and no rain.

The LED stuff starts at about 13 minutes into this video …

 

  1. Peter says:

    Great work from Unilumin

Leave a comment