Newark’s New-ish Terminal Borrows LED Surprise From Comcast Tower

October 12, 2023 by Dave Haynes

One of the brilliant aspects, going back some 15 years, of the Comcast Tower LED lobby experience in Philly was and is how the big video wall takes on the appearance of the lobby’s non-digital wall finish – and then stuff starts appearing.

Newark and Philly are pretty close in proximity, so the Comcast lobby may have inspired part of the visual experience at the new-ish Terminal A at Newark’s airport – a building that Thank God replaced the aging, cramped hell-pit that Air Canada used to fly in and out of.

I’ve written a bit about the post-security area, and connected through there, but Wednesday was the first time I flew out of there and had to go through the TSA screening in the pre-security area.

The people in the long lines, if they were looking, were entertained by a very wide sweep on the bulkhead above the screening area of LED displays. The opening part of a long sequence just has the LEDs looking like the wood panels immediately above it, and a single bird subtly flew across the LED canvas.

But then the panels open up and go into a celebration of famous New Jersey residents, like Frank Sinatra. I assume Springsteen was on there somewhere, further down.

I like … especially the absence of brand advertising. If I am stuck in a long TSA line, I don’t want to see ads for cars or smartphone plans. Entertainment makes more sense. I think the first time something like this was done on this kind of scale was at Changi in Singapore.