LED Case Studies and More
Voyeurism, LED-lamped signs and disruptive LEC -- not "D" -- panels.
Mon May 02, 2011- By Darek Johnson
Michael Hopkins, ANC’s director of communications and marketing said the company had prepared six, 54 ft. (324 ft. total) sections of lineal, arrayed, LED (moving message) signage to line the tennis-court perimeter, but was informed on event day of layout changes needed to allow more TV camera access, which caused them to remove some portions of the sections.
Further complications occurred because of power-supply delays and, oddly, a change in the floor height. And, until show time, ANC’s graphics and operations team worked on content revisions and uploaded changes to ANC’s patent-pending, VisionSOFT operating system.
Busy day.
ANC’s services comprise rotational and fixed visual displays, digital-media software and control systems, signage operation and maintenance, marketing consultation, graphic design, and print production,
ANC’s equipment resides in more than 20 of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) 30 venues. The company has a manufacturing relationship with Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision, a leader in HD LED technology.
Quizno’s curvy, LED-lamped channel letters
This Quizno’s out-of-sight portion – a matched-curve, opposite-wall, interior raceway -- added a design and installation challenge to Creative Sign Designs (Tampa) nifty, LED-lamped, channel-letter sign, installed at Tampa’s East Gate shopping center’s new Quizno’s restaurant.
Creative’s Rick Incorvia said, “Once the letters were flush mounted to the radius fascia, we mounted a matched-radius raceway on the inside of the open fascia -- to hide any electrical unsightliness.”
The white, Plexiglas® acrylic faces are decorated with translucent vinyl. Using CorelDRAW® software, designer Vikki Klidis incorporated a white, 0.25-in. border (trap line) to add extra brightness to the faces.
Nicole Cavalani photographed the signs.
Rick said the Quizno’s owner had miscalculated the time needed to design, fabricate and install the sign. The shop built and installed the finished sign in 30 days. “We made sure the city would approve the design,” he said, “and began fabrication while the permit approval was in process.”
Mandi Wise, the shop’s “permit queen,” delivered the permit to the install crew, onsite, as they unloaded the truck.
Another disruptive-lighting technology?
The CeeLite® Light Emitting Capacitor (LEC) technology -- a flat, thin, flexible, impact-resistant, lightweight, cool-operating and energy-efficient light source -- spawns from CeeLite Technologies, LLC (Colmar, PA). The company says its LECs deliver flawless illumination with color accuracy for advertising, architectural and event use, as well as sign illumination and tradeshow exhibits. The product received Time magazine’s Best Invention award, Electronics Products magazine’s Products of the Year award and Buildings magazine’s Editor’s Choice award. You may have also seen it in Fast Company magazine’s Widgets We Love story.
The “C” stands for a proprietary capacitor system that helps brighten the light panels.
The LEC technology comprises the LEC lighting panels and proprietary, LEC-inverter, power sources. The panels conform to flat or curved surfaces and will illuminate the surface itself or serve as backlighting for translucent graphics or film. The 1mm-thick panels come in standard sizes, up to 18 sq. ft. More interestingly, the panels are produced through a screenprinting process that deposits layers of electrodes, phosphors and dielectrics, which CeeLite protects with a transparent-laminate overlay.
LEC proprietary inverters, which operate with AC or DC power, are programmable, with proprietary software, to provide brightness control, fading and flashing. Further, the controls will coordinate and provide sequenced effects over multiple LEC panels.