New Downtown Toronto Bank Branch Draws Eyes With Some 250 Sq. Meters Of LED Display In Windows

November 22, 2024 by Dave Haynes

The Chinese display manufacturer Muxwave will soon have another high-profile reference case for its in-window LED mesh displays – the windows of a new street-level branch of the Bank of Montreal in downtown Toronto.

The branch, set to open Monday, is tied in with Toronto Eaton Centre, the busiest mall in Canada. It is at the edge of Yonge-Dundas Square, which is a bit like NYC’s Times Square. Lotsa dynamic billboards.

The project was pulled together by an old industry friend of mine, Shawn O’Brien, whose initials allow him to be an SOB without really being one. I mention that because consulting company is called SOBlabs.

The Muxwave display is almost 250 square meters of 3.9mm pitch LED inside the mall, and facing out. The thing about Muxwave, and US-based i5LED’s similar product, is micro-thin, super-light sheets of material embedded with LED lights and wiring. The material and finished installations are a bit like perforated vinyl graphics applied to glass so a window can “host” a visual, but people inside the windows can still somewhat see out.

In this case, the transparency is roughly 80%. Depending on the content design, the visuals can fill a window as done here, or using chroma key (green screen capture) the visuals can appear to float, with views through to inside.

I think we’ll see a lot more of this, as the visuals look good and the inside views are also pretty good. The “older” approach to in-window displays use rigid window blind-like slats that hold the LEDs. They’ve improved a lot, but the inside view is still somewhat compromised and not the sort of look that makes many architects or commercial space designers happy.

Outside of China, Muxwave’s highest profile project to date is likely the curtain glass walls at the main lobby of the event center in Barcelona that hosts ISE.