American Eagle Takes Manhattan

For the opening of their new flagship store in New York City’s Times Square, American Eagle Outfitters contracted Barco and the Barnycz Group to create a remarkable, multi-tiered LED display. Concepts for the exterior display took the form of a stunning 12-faceted assemblage of LED panels, almost 15,000 square feet in size, including a soaring 25-story LED tower.

The Goal

New York’s Times Square is already peppered with hundreds of static and dynamic signs advertising everything from movies to soup.  How do you add one more and still stand out?

How’d They Do It?

To create the display, Barco wrapped the building’s exterior façade with 1441 Barco TF-20 LED panels, for a total pixel count nearing 3.3 million. In the building’s outdoor foyer, the ceiling comprises 1665 Barco OLite 612 modules, specially designed for optimum viewing at very close distances. Immediately inside the store is a bank of 21 Barco NSL-46 LCD monitors. To process a complex array of multi-format video, dual Barco DX-700 LED digitizers are used as the system’s front end, for optimum visual quality.

The AEO building’s unusual architecture created interesting challenges for Barco’s on-site installation team headed by Guy Russell, Director of Operations, Video and Lighting Systems for Barco, North America. “On one corner, the building sits at a 78 degree angle, so we had to use our special small-sized OLite modules to accomplish the task,” noted Russell. “One of the unique aspects of Barco LEDs is their creative modularity, which enables us to use small panels to create unusual shapes and angles,” he added.

Well, it worked.  Everyone who’s been to Times Square over the past few months remarks about how big this digital sign really is.  And, the content is changed on the fly, all the time – so you never get bored looking at it.