Here Are Details And Video Of That Stunning Lenticular LED Wall At Rebuilt Laguardia Airport

June 24, 2022 by Dave Haynes

If you get past the sheer wonder of New York’s LaGuardia Airport going from quite awful to quite nice, one of the true highlights of Delta’s brand new Terminal C is a grand-scale fine pitch LED  mural that welcomes passengers into the departure hall.

It was designed to borrow on the concept and delivery of old-style lenticular lens signs, with vertical, triangular strips that give the illusion of depth and provide differing views based on the angle of the onlooker.

The project is huge, and appears quite beautiful – though I’ve only seen images and video, and not been there. It was put together by LA-based creative technology shop StandardVision in collaboration with a similar, designed spaces expert ESI Design, and NJ-based design/build/integrator Dimensional Worldwide.

Called Departing Impressions, a StandardVision web brief on the project details how the big mural “uses software-driven animations to remind passengers of the wonders of travel as they make their way through security and to their destinations. Informed by daily flight schedule data, the digital art installation showcases a unique tableaux created from imagery of Delta’s many destinations across North America. The imagery depicts destinations that travelers are departing for in real time; as flights depart from the terminal, a subtle “Disruption” blows across the unique canvas, transforming the imagery into abstract art and symbolizing the lasting imprint that travel leaves on memory.”

The three creative/tech companies collaborated on the bringing the idea to life. “The LEDs comprising the 34 monolithic panels in the main hall are built using custom-designed 90° corner cabinets with virtually no seam at the edges, providing an elegant viewing experience from every angle. With a pitch of 2.5mm and maximum brightness of 1,200 nits plus a refresh rate of 3840Hz, StandardVision’s design utilizes some of the highest quality LED components available to transport viewers into this engaging digital landscape. The full installation has well over 40 million individually controlled LEDs, creating vivid experiential abstractions of Delta’s national destinations.”

“To support the data-driven mural, StandardVision worked with ESI to implement its proprietary content management system SVRunner to flawlessly manage the transitions between artworks. The software’s bespoke transitions add additional texture, dimension, and variety to the installation, displaying seemingly endless variations of abstract visual combinations that allow new regions to be ushered onto or off of the digital canvas and fluidly blend one destination into another.”

This could easily have been a big-ass Digital OOH LED ad board along the bulkhead of the departure hall – the sort of thing common in big rail terminals. It’s great to see decisions being made that in the sort of stressful and confusing dynamics of a busy, major airport, art made more sense despite the siren call of ad revenue. No matter how calm and beautiful this place now is, there is little that’s not stressful about getting out of Manhattan or up from Brooklyn to get to LGA. There’s no subway and no train. You taxi, rideshare or (done it) take a shuttle bus.

Here’s a video from ESI …