May 1, 2008 Media sells its audience. Regardless of how the media assembles the audience, the profile, size and engagement of the audience is the value the media offers advertisers, which effectively means Big Moving Pictures’ fleet of rolling mobile LED screen displays constitutes a new advertising medium. The company is mounting massive (40 x 22 ft) HDTV LED displays on trucks so it can engage the audience at major outdoor events (such as air shows and auto racing) in a new way.
Keeping the audience informed and engaged at such noisy events has always been a problem, given the noise of an F-15 or Indy Car, but utilizing massive LED displays that can be clearly seen at a distance in daylight conditions makes it possible to continuously address outdoor audiences of 100,000+. MEGASCREENS will be built using the brightest Light-Emitting-Diode (LED) technology available. Essentially an evolution of the video display systems currently used in stadiums or rock concerts, MEGASCREENS are the biggest and most powerful LED-based display solution yet devised.
Big Moving Pictures Inc. (BMP), and Strongbase have announced the signing of a unique agreement to create the largest mobile LED screen displays ever produced. BMP will target air shows and auto races (NHRA and Indy) initially, but we can see big opportunities for developing the 'rolling television network' into a valuable niche advertising medium with high engagement, and large numbers of a high value audience.
BMP will transport its MEGASCREENS to the largest events in the United States and Canada, and there’s obviously application for the technology in every country. Weighing 66,000 pounds and hydraulically operated, the MEGASCREENS are trailer-mounted for maximum portability and rapid deployment into a given situation.
Typical time from arriving onsite to displaying video will be under one hour, done by a single technician or truck driver. Image area sizing will be 39.4'W x 22'H in a true 16:9 aspect ratio for direct usage of 720P HDTV signals. LED element pitch is 15mm, brightness range up to 10,000NITS. HD video transmission to the screens will be accomplished by laser-based, digital microwave or fiberoptic cabling systems.
"We are building a 'rolling television network'," said BMP President & CEO David Knight, "with everything that a television network normally has – cameras, graphics, performers, and supported by national advertisers – but using giant screens to reach large audiences instead of their home TV sets."
"There is simply nothing out there in the world of big screens even close to these – MEGASCREENS will be forty percent bigger and about 200 percent brighter than any current mobile outdoor screen," stated Knight, "plus they can withstand the rigors of the aviation and motorsports environments, including the ability to be situated next to runways, on oceanfront piers and even barges in the water, taking punishment from high winds and saltwater bombardment."
Knight explained "This is an extreme engineering challenge, which is why we elected to partner with the most successful maker of LED-based video systems in the world, Strongbase through their American arm, Strongbase USA."
BMP spent nearly eighteen months prototyping and test performances using a wide variety of vendors' outdoor LED display units and found that none of the well-entrenched products could meet BMP's specific technological, environmental and scalability needs. At the end of this search, BMP elected to work directly with the company that has been providing LEDs and related componentry to most of the display industry: Hong Kong Strongbase Investment Group through Strongbase USA, which handles North American sales, service and marketing for its parent.
Through its unique alliances with many of the most important air shows that feature the US Navy Blue Angels and US Air Force Thunderbirds jet teams, BMP will give millions of attendees unprecedented views inside cockpits and from the pilot's point of view as well as insights into who the pilots are through 90-second "Meet The Team" exclusives.
BMP's programming is supported by commercials for major brands that run during intervals in the action. The company will announce additional partnerships in the motorsports and music categories within the coming year.
The BMP/Strongbase-developed MEGASCREENS are the first mobile screens to provide a true HD display for crisp, ultra-bright viewing by hundreds of thousands of audience members at an outdoor event. Using the 720P standard for high definition supported by many broadcast networks such as ABC, Fox, and ESPN where the progressive-scan format offers better imaging for sports and with a projected 5-7 year life MEGASCREENS will be available to serve the needs of Big Moving Pictures and other users in the action sports, movie, music, product launch, and videogaming industries for a long time to come.
BMP is the first company to monetize advertising on outdoor television screens at large events on a national scale. Although superficially similar to the systems of production trucks and outdoor LED screens seen for years at baseball games, NFL, NASCAR and others, BMP applies a new, Silicon Valley-style angle that makes it possible for advertisers to conclusively reach their target consumers, and introduces the ad-based revenue model to large spectator events — this works thanks to BMP's total integration with the event itself — there is no competing 'signal' coming over the sound system or screens that could confuse or distract the audience — in every sense of the word, Big Moving Pictures becomes one with the show.
DISCLOSURE: Gizmag’s editor-at-large, Dave Weinstein, sits on the board of BMP.