LED On Foil Reduces Weight Of Billboard-Sized Building Screen To Just 110 Pounds

November 5, 2021 by Dave Haynes

One of the challenges faced by media companies or building owners who want to put up an LED digital billboard on the top or side of a commercial building is sorting out the engineering implication of the additional weight, and how the screen is mounted.

In some cases, there might be additional construction or reinforcement needed ($$$) to handle that extra load, to avoid a wall being pulled down, a floor shifting or even collapsing. All those LED cabinets and their metalwork can add up in terms of weight.

So it’s interesting to see the German start-up LightnTec putting a billboard-sized LED screen atop a building in Dusseldorf that weighs all of 50 kilograms, or roughly 110 pounds.

That’s because the display surface is mostly just LED light emitters attached to foil, super-thin and super-light. Light enough, company owner Florian Kall says, that the screen attaches using Velcro.

Not sure on pixel pitch, but LightnTec has outdoor product that ranges from 10mm to 37mm in pixel pitch. Given the height of the building and the visuals in the video below I am guessing this is 37mm. That would be very low rez for a Times Square spectacular, but up high on a building like this, mostly seen from a considerable distance, it’s likely fine.

I have long been intrigued by what LightnTec is up to, as it is very different from the product by a bazillion LED manufacturers, and is also distinct from the much smaller group of vendors who have mesh LED of LED on transparent film product.

The foil LED is rated at a maximum of 5,000 nits, which is more than enough for overpowering direct sunlight (drive-thru and DOOH LCD displays are 2,500-3,500). Though this is a conventional shape, the way the foil is made and the power/signal distributed means it can be cut to shapes like circles or the alphabetical letters of a brand.

The velcro thing would make me nervous, but even with more conventional ways of mounting and fastening a screen, it would go in a hell of a lot faster than conventional product, which reduces the installation labor costs that can, at times, be a BIG budgetary line item.

This job was put in by the German solutions provider Klostermann Group.

  1. Fuad shuaibi says:

    Wind load issues fors in Hurricane zone?

    1. Florian Kall says:

      ledTec.flex | banner video-foil is not tested for usage in hurricane-zones.

      Florian

Leave a comment