A Mind-Wobbling 3,357 FIDS Screens Being Upgraded At Istanbul’s Mega-Airport
August 21, 2024 by Dave Haynes
A staggering 3,357 55-inch LCD flight information displays are being deployed around Istanbul’s huge international airport over the next three years, evidently replacing what went in when the airport was built and then opened almost six years ago.
It is more of an upgrade than a swap, with Vestel replacing the screens it put in when the airport was finishing construction with circa 2024 versions from its Prime+ series. Vestel, if the name is unfamiliar to North American readers, is a Turkish electronics manufacturer that has a big presence in Europe but is just starting its efforts to crack the US and Canada.
Interestingly, the FIDS displays are system on chip “smart” displays – but the airport has opted in on Open Pluggable Specification devices – basically slot-loaded, hot swappable PCs. Thse devices can run on Windows or Android. The Prime series has a baked-in failover design, and in this case, it would theoretically mean is the OPS device has a bad hair day, the signall would roll over to a signal from the on-board SoC. Or something like that.
The Vestel deal sees the company also handling the maintenance and cleaning of the OPS screens and related hardware.
I have no idea who does the CMS software for passenger-facing information screens at that mega-airport. Navori works with the DOOH media company that has the ad boards concession, but that probably has no ties to the FIDS display set-up.
Some PR calls it the world’s largest, but search on Google and you get different answers based on different criteria, like land mass, passenger traffic and so on. Whatever the case, it is a BIG airport and has a LOT of screens.
Interesting, a lot of smartboards from SHARP, NEC and others were actually OEM’ed by Vestel as well few years ago.