The Challenge:

The Walter E Washington Convention Center in Washington DC needed to install a digital display above the entrance to Hall D to keep its 15,000 plus visitors a day engaged and informed as they enter and exit the hall, as well as to add more opportunity to sell advertisements. With the clear need for a display, the big challenge for the Convention Center was finding a display solution that fit the architectural needs of the building. The area above Hall D, the busiest hall in the center, had space constraints, and would need a display that was lightweight enough to be suspended from wires without sacrificing display size. The display also needed to be viewed clearly from 100 feet away. The area outside of Hall D features bright ambient light, so the solution needed to be vibrant enough to be seen during daylight hours.

The Solution:

NanoLumens delivered a 7.5-foot tall, 23-foot wide 6mm pixel pitch display that provides ample viewing area with 170 square feet of signage space, while still weighing less than 1,000 pounds.

Results:

The solution for a display for Hall D was an evolutionary idea, as thoughts on an answer to the design challenges began when NanoLumens first worked with the Convention Center on other projects.

Walter E. Washington Convention Center was first introduced to NanoLumens in 2011 when they utilized two standard NanoFlex Displays for large mobile signage. The displays were a huge hit in areas that didn’t have permanent signage, as they allowed the center to sell more services to clients without high installation costs.

According to St. Elmo Crawford, President of Digital Conventions at the Walter E Washington Convention Center, the success of the NanoFlex displays made the decision for this display a dead giveaway:

“When I first learned about NanoLumens’ display technology in 2011, I immediately thought of Hall D,” Crawford said. “But the size requirements were just too unique at the time. With the new NanoSlim, we were able to have a display built to our exact specifications, giving us a super bright, energy efficient, long-life display that is big enough to be seen clearly from 100 feet away.

A projection system wouldn’t work here because of the bright ambient light, and any other manufacturer’s digital display would have weighed 5-10 times as much. The NanoLumens display provides 170 square feet of signage space and weighs less than 1,000 pounds! The display needed to be suspended from wires because of space constraints, and hanging a 10,000-pound display where people are walking under it was simply not an option.”

NanoLumens installed the NanoSlim LED display in March 2013, just in time to be operational for the 2013 AIPAC Policy Conference. The organizers of the event were able to use it for event information and as an overflow video display, allowing people who were waiting to enter the hall watch the speeches with their peers who were already inside.

Crawford sees a lot of enthusiasm from event organizers about the ability to use the display. “The immediate response when event organizers see the display is ‘How do we get that as part of our display package?”