LG Plugs In 11-Foot Tall 4K Display Beast At McCarran

February 6, 2013 by Dave Haynes

Well this happened faster than I would have predicted.

A lot of the buzz from the display panel companies, coming out of last month’s CES trade show in Las Vegas, surrounded 4K displays. I wrote at the time that it would not take long before these ultra-ultra-ultra high resolution displays found their way into digital signage applications.

Sure enough, LG has introduced what it says is the industry’s first “Ultra High-Definition” 4K digital signage display, a commercial version of the 4K TV. They have forklifted two of the things into a wayfinding kiosk on the D concourse at McCarran airport in Las Vegas. The units were actually turned on just ahead of CES.

The 11-foot-tall beast, a custom enclosure designed by Peerless, runs full-screen ads on the bottom and wayfinding, driven by Four Winds (which has the software deal at McCarran) on the top.

Th airport’s operators say it has been a challenge to effectively communicate all the changes at the airport since Terminal 3 was opened, and wayfinding helps.

More hang and bang detail here, in Commercial Integrator.

The placement in the airport and the timing just ahead of CES tells you this is an LG marketing thing and it’s doubtful the airport paid a nickel for the unit. However, it did replace an old static sign plopped in the same spot.

A 4K screen is undoubtedly beautiful, but in a busy airport, for wayfinding, the thing pretty much redefines overkill. You don’t need that kind of resolution for go-here and go-there to get your bags arrows, and you won’t find much creative available for 4K (other than LG ads). Few marketing pieces need that density of pixels and mere mortals can’t even resolve the differences in 1080, 2K or 4K unless they look really close – which is of course what people will do as they rush in and out of airport terminals.

These ultra HD displays will have their place, but it’s important to remember for budget, production and transmission reasons, that it will be rare when they truly make sense for deployments.