Nokia utilised a large format Lighthouse LED screen to promote its Ovi maps service in London. The 14 x 4 panel screen was suspended 35m in the air and displayed text messages sent from passers by.
The 14.22m x 3.04m Rn7-ER 7mm screen ran for up to 11 hours a day over a two-week period. It was suspended from a crane in the city’s Potters Fields Park, near Tower Bridge.
Mounted in a frame forming a giant arrow, it provided a form of interactive entertainment.
Passers by were encouraged to send a text message, which was displayed on the screen along with the sender’s distance, calculated by Ovi maps positioning technology. Also using that technology, the crane would be instructed to rotate and point the arrow in the direction of the sender.
Pod Bluman of Bluman Associates devised the technical solution from an original idea by Nokia’s creative department and production was managed by Neil Keane of EPMD. The biggest challenges of the project were the weight loading and the weather.
“The combined weight of the arrow frame and screen was approximately six tons,” said Bluman. “The crane and rigging companies set a wind speed limit, and if the wind went above that speed we had to drop the structure.”
Another challenge was that the screen’s feed had to be transmitted over 120m of cable. “We ran the signal HD/SDi and it was very robust,” said Bluman.
The Ovi maps promotion culminated in a competition for Alexandra Burke to play a show in any UK town or city and was hailed as a great success.