Media Resources Release Third-Gen Of Its Digital Billboard Light Pollution Counter-Measures Tech
July 20, 2023 by Dave Haynes
LED and traditional sign manufacturer Media Resources has developed and released a third generation of technology designed to reduce the amount of light from its digital billboards finding its way into the living quarters of nearby residences.
The third-gen, patented SITELINE technology provides what the suburban Toronto company calls “light trespass mitigation” for LED displays.
SITELINE, says the company, is a game-changer for billboard operators, advertisers, and residential neighborhoods seeking to maximize their digital display potential. This breakthrough technology provides unparalleled light blocking control, allowing operators to showcase vibrant content while eliminating unwanted light trespass.
SITELINE provides billboard operators with newfound flexibility in choosing display locations, as the technology eliminates the light trespass concerns that previously made certain sites infeasible.
With its versatility, SITELINE caters to various application needs by offering multiple pixel pitches, including 10.67mm, 16.67mm, and 20mm, suitable for digital billboards in urban or highway environments. Advertisers and businesses can now reach their target audience with eye-catching digital displays and yet present nearly zero light (less than 0.2%) to nearby light sensitive areas. This patented approach ensures optimal visibility in a wide useful viewing angle while being more than 10 times more effective than other market solutions in blocking unwanted light.
This is how the company describes what it does: SITELINE uses Optically Down Angled LEDs to focus light at the intended viewing audience, a custom pixel pattern, and precisely designed face plates to create displays with side angle light blocking. Simply put, if you are outside its “viewing area”, you can not see it (sub 1% visible light).
The SITELINE product is backed by a comprehensive process where the Media Resources engineering team provides extensive support to customers, offering a range of services that encompass full light studies, engaging presentations, and impactful demonstrations to governing bodies, ensuring tailored light blocking solutions.
There are other designs – using things like louvers – that also try to reduce the amount of light bleeding into bedroom windows at night, but Media Resources says its design is different in the way it is blocking light from both sides.
Instead, it offers precise left or right light control, optimizing visibility for the target audience. By minimizing reflections and meticulously managing optical geometries, this innovative solution guarantees exceptional readability and a seamless transition zone, ensuring maximum exposure for advertisers. In addition to SITELINE’s true light trespass mitigation capabilities, Media Resources also provides a range of products to cater to different application needs. This includes our standard view angle products for traditional applications and, on a limited basis, a specialized “reduced view angle” product that aligns with similar characteristics found in competitive technologies available in the market.
The product was developed in-house by a team of electrical engineers, and was initiated as a way to address and ideally eliminate the concerns expressed by municipalities and end-users about light control and pollution.
“SITELINE originated from more than a decade of direct engagement with regulatory stakeholders and the public as technical and lighting experts,” says Cheng Qian, Chief Product Architect at Media Resources, and inventor of SITELINE. “It had been clear that light trespass was often one of the most significant barriers to getting approvals. Though regulatory barriers are not traditionally addressed with product technology, our product team took immediate steps to design a comprehensive solution to this problem. Over time, our extensive engineering efforts have culminated in a product that proved so effective that it is widely trusted by both operators and regulators.”
Media Resources is a super-interesting company, based in Oakville – which is anywhere from 25 minutes to three years drive away from downtown Toronto, depending on traffic on the QEW and Gardiner Expressway. While most North American-based LED display companies may design their products on this side of the Pacific, the components and/or finished products are produced by contracted companies in China. Media Resources has “re-shored” production, and has the LED packaging, pick and place and other LED manufacturing gear mostly found in Shenzhen instead in its Oakville plant.
Thank you for this informative article and introduction to this improved product and method of reducing light glare and trespass into nearby homes.
A recently installed 65′ tall billboard with an added 6′ digital frame and post features that emit intensely bright white light directly into my front door, living room, dining room, and upstairs bedroom windows, is a “first” attempt by the sign company and is a conversion that replaces a decades old static billboard. The city of jurisdiction approved a sign code amendment for its general plan to allow now for the building of digital billboards, but failed to create a lighting ordinance to prohibit light trespass, glare, or curfews to help mitigate the impact on the only residence directly in the sight lines. My property is in the next muncipality but is outside the city of jurisdiction’s boundary lines, though my parcel shares both cities boundary lines on three sides. Subsequently, my home and property was not made part of the initial impact study but more than 75% of my home is in the direct view and sightlines. This creates an unwanted nuisance and intrusion into my home, along with interfering with the normal use of my property and interiors of my home.
I needed to add this question to the end of my comment: Do you know if any portions of the frame and the post that emit the light can be dimmed separately from the message screen and on the side facing my home, only, without affecting the sales ad’s brightness or effect? I must find a win-win solution for the stakeholders, though I am the only one who suffers any kind of discernible loss. If I can offer solutions, then perhaps the sign company will work with me to improve their first experience with digital billboards. Thank you for your time and consideration.