Times Square: A Compass for Sign Growth High-definition LEDs and grand-format graphics mark this year’s Times Square updates. Louis M. Brill Photo credit: Tom McCavera NYC never sleeps, and Times Winston noted Times Square’s In this report, ST presents Square’s signs never stop changing. original neon look has all but midtown Manhattan’s latest spec- New sign projects pop up daily as disappeared. taculars, including Chevrolet leases expire and new clients move Dave Ramirez, Daktronic’s New (returning), M&M’s (new), in with billboard change-outs and York project-development execu- Budweiser (second generation), neon-to-LED replacements. Older tive, said the new Daktronics Ripley’s Believe It Or Not (new), LED displays become higher-resolu- (Brookings, SD) video signage NBC (second generation) and other tion models. completely contrasts with the old Times Square sign projects. The “Crossroads of America” is Times Square. The iconic neon beginning its second century as the signs – the former Coca-Cola, Fuji, Chevrolet outdoor advertising capital of the Cannon and Samsung signs – have One Times Square’s popular signs, world. Barry Winston of Winston disappeared. such as the steaming Nissin Cup O’ & Co. (Teaneck, NJ) has probably Winston noted, “Even the Noodles and the tilting Budweiser spearheaded project management glowing and blinking neon spectac- bottle, have given way to new, of more Times Square signs over ulars still had a ‘static presence,’ digital displays. The location, which the last several decades than most with a simple, sign branding. Now, hosted the first electric zipper in of his predecessors. In 2007, he we’re in the digital age, with LED 1928 and has continued the New was involved with Budweiser, video signage, where sign messages Year’s Eve Time Ball ritual ongoing Chevrolet, M&M’s® and Empire are closer in look and feel to televi- for 75 years, has been one of NYC’s News sign projects, to name a few. sion commercials.” most photographed buildings. 90 SIGNS OF THE TIMES / AUGUST 2007 Chevrolet’s Multimedia LED eVidia display has four different clock faces. Each face changes every 15 minutes. Landmark Signs installed the Chevrolet sign and cabinets, using the building davits, before they bolted/welded them in place. Chevrolet’s Phase I finished in time for the 2006 New Year’s Eve celebration, when it began a count- down to midnight as a snow globe. Photo credit: Multimedia LED At midnight, it became a clock face. Winston expects Phase II will be Cup O’ Noodles, which had hung 15-ft.-viewable diameter. ready by summer’s end. since 1996, has been replaced by The four, different clock faces, the Chevrolet spectacular. Landmark which switch out every 15 minutes, Budweiser Signs (NYC) dismantled the cup and prevent LED degradation inherent Also on One Times Square, is installing the huge, new Chevrolet if the LED sign always “locked” Anheuser-Busch installed a newer, spectacular in two phases. onto one clock face. Steve high-definition LED video spectac- The spectacular incorporates an Bumstead of Bellevue, WA-based ular. The original Daktronics LED LED display, a vinyl panel and Pixel Fire Productions, designed display (Bud 1), installed in 1996, several, Phase II surprises that can and operates the clock faces. included a large-scale, dimen- only be discussed when that section The spectacular, fabricated in sional, beer bottle that mechani- goes “live.” The new design, created Fall 2006, was installed during the cally tilted against a background of by Campbell-Ewald, mimics a giant winter holidays, when a morato- hundreds of colored-plastic, LED- Glockenspiel clock, complete with rium on cranes and street closures illuminated, equilateral triangles. A side chains (fabricated as vinyl begins roughly a week before small Panasonic LED videoscreen faces). Campbell-Ewald has been Thanksgiving, when the “official” graced the side of the sign face. Chevrolet’s advertising agency for holiday-shopping period begins. Landmark removed everything 95 years. Frank Barnes, Multimedia’s exec- to prepare for Budweiser’s new The giant Chevrolet clock is a utive sales manager, said video spectacular (Bud 2), which clever sign strategy. “Times Square Multimedia’s engineers, Matt Daktronics also manufactured. This has hundreds and hundreds of Sanders and Rick Van Rensselaer, display, which hugs One Times signs, but no large, easily viewable gibed the moratorium with manu- Square, measures 70 x 40 ft. and clock,” Winston said. facturing. “Because the Chevrolet displays a 20mm pitch, with a 1,072 The clock face, a high-resolution LED components couldn’t be x 608-pixel resolution. The vertical LED display provided by Multimedia craned into position on the front of sides are 4.5 x 70 ft. (64 x 1,072 LED (Rancho Cordova, CA), is the building, all the related LED pixels). An LED edge surrounds the designed with the eVidia display cabinet components were designed main-face perimeter on three sides format. A 2-ft. aluminum bezel hides and built to fit into the building’s (left, right and bottom) and displays the eVidia LED modules’ stepped freight elevator and then moved Budweiser branding. edges; a 12mm pitch (384 x 384 out the building windows for final Ramirez noted Bud 2 impres- pixels) encircles the clock face’s installation,” Barnes explained. sively anchors Times Square’s entire SIGNS OF THE TIMES / AUGUST 2007 91 The 70 x 40-ft. Budweiser Daktronics Prostar LED video display now dominates the entire south side of Times Square. south side with its screen size and high-resolution image clarity. Spark Agency (St. Louis) created B 2’s sign content, and Daktronics’ Keyframe division manages it. Minskoff Theatre on Broadway The Minskoff Theatre, at Broadway and 45th, inherited a new show for its stage and a new sign package – a marquee, a blade sign and a block-wide window sign – to dress up its lobby and street- side display. The show, Disney’s Lion King, had already been a smash at the New Amsterdam, also on Broadway. Before Lion King moved across Times Square into its new venue, the Minskoff’s existing blade/marquee paled compared to the hit show’s stature. Spectrum Signs (Farmingdale, NY), a full-service sign company, took charge of giving Lion King a new sign glow. Tom Morra, director of the company’s NYC Photo credit: Daktronics projects, described the project’s components: Square. The east-building elevation were printed on translucent, roll- • The blade sign comprises a comprises 45, 10 x 15-ft., glass- fed, flexible-face vinyl with a double-sided, flexible-face sign window bays that face Broadway. In specially adapted VUTEk printer. cabinet, with a translucent vinyl the second-floor lobby, a series of Spectrum, which usually installs signface, backlit with fluorescent double-faced, interior-lit sign cabinets its own sign packages, had sched- lighting. The sign cabinet’s custom- were placed in 18 window bays, and uled myriad other sign projects, so fabricated, anodized aluminum two other cabinets were mounted it contracted Service Sign Erectors cladding sports edged, decorative, into the window bays that face north (NYC) for assistance. crown-molding elements that and south. Each aluminum, double- Each light cabinet attached to the outline its vertical presence. faced sign cabinet has a translucent- window bay by connecting to a • The marquee, fabricated with vinyl-placement system, internally lit matching, vertical, building column anodized, dark-bronze aluminum, with 8-ft. fluorescent lamps. positioned between each window has a three-sided sign face that The light cabinet’s design bay. To reach the columns, Spectrum measures 62 x 9 ft.; the marquee allows full access from the rear workers cut into the building’s inte- side, which faces Broadway, spans (the lobby side) to service front rior aluminum cladding and exposed two-thirds (40 ft.) of the length to and rear graphics, interior lamps the vertical-column steel. Each create maximum sign exposure. and ballasts, and to clean cabinets cabinet was installed against welded Translucent vinyl, with backlit fluo- and windows. A custom retainer/ connection plates on each vertical rescent lighting, illuminates the extrusion, graphic-support system column. faces. Above the marquee, closed- aids the lightbox graphics’ inser- Such positioning required an faced, aluminum, channel letters tion and removal. elaborate, custom-designed scaf- spell out the theater’s name. The exterior Broadway sign face fold with a unique rigging system • The light-cabinet sign package, on displayed the familiar Lion King to lift each cabinet to a bay, where the building’s Broadway side, totals graphics. Inside, a beautiful, custom it was secured. After each cabinet more than 2,700 sq. ft., which makes graphic was designed by Mariuca was installed and tested, the vinyl it reportedly the largest in Times Brancoveanu. All signage graphics sign faces were installed. 92 SIGNS OF THE TIMES / AUGUST 2007 Photos: Spectrum Signs Photo credit: Spectrum Signs (Above) Double-faced, aluminum, internally lit sign cabinets adver- tise the show with translucent-vinyl graphics from the theatre’s second-floor lobby. (Left) The refurbished Minskoff Theatre incorporates a new blade and marquee sign package. The custom-fabricated, blade-sign cabinet features a double-sided, flexible-face, translucent vinyl face that’s backlit with fluorescent lighting. The marquee’s Broad- way-facing side measures two-thirds as long as the rest of the marquee. Atop the marquee, a closed-face, internally illuminated, aluminum channel letter bears the theatre name. NBC from Times Square’s bowtie (where installation process mimics the NBC commissioned the Van 7th Ave. crosses over Broadway) steps described in that article.) Wagner outdoor company (head- and the 42nd St. areas. (The NBC The NBC sign package integrates quartered in NYC) for a new, sign package replaces the Jack and several, different sign formats into multi-faceted sign on the side of the Beanstalk spectacular (see ST, a singular display.