Comcast Center Experience in Philadephia--Wow!

Entertainment TechnologyInteresting Show

Dec 27

On my way back home to NYC yesterday, I had to stop and check in on an entertainment controls project I did in a private garden some years ago in Delaware, and then I headed into downtown Philadelphia to check out two interesting light shows: one old and one new (and I stumbled across a third). And, of course, I had to walk down South street and have a cheesesteak, probably the greatest food ever invented.

I've written about the "Comcast Experience" before, and it's been written up in Live Design magazine. But this is one show you really have to see for yourself. What is it? It's a massive, incredibly high resolution video display in the lobby of the brand new, LEED-certified Comcast Center office building in center-city Philly, which opened this summer. According to Barco, who made the screen, the display is:

the world’s largest four millimeter LED wall is 83.3’ wide by 25.4’ high (25.38m x 7.74m), and is comprised of 6,771 Barco NX-4 LED modules. With 10 million pixels mounted in a seamless flat array, the wall provides an extremely high degree of photo-realism — five times the resolution of high-definition television.

And this is one time the hype matches the reality--the technology is simply stunning. I've seen a ton of super high-resolution video displays over the years (back to about 1986), but this is the first one that doesn't look like a video display--it's like something else altogether (and note the direct sunlight shining on the display in the lower right):

A lot of this is due to very clever matching of the video display to the architecture (my camera makes the difference look more striking than it is) and also excellent use of "lighting" within the video content (as shown above), all created by Niles Creative (interviewed here on local TV). Control systems were done by my friends at Smart Monkeys.

This year, Comcast debuted the Comcast Holiday Spectactular which is, in fact, quite spectacular. It only runs until New Year's, so stop by and see it if you can. And stop by the lobby any time the building's open--even if you miss the holiday show the other shows that run all day are well worth seeing (click on any photo for a larger image).