MOUNT VERNON, NY, July 31, 2023 – Visitors to the new Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis experience a diverse food court designed to promote the economic, social, and cultural assets of the area and celebrate the healthy foods, arts, crafts, and other aspects of its citizens’ diverse heritage. It also serves as a high-tech incubator space intended to provide opportunities for minority entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses. The 13 restaurants in the Midtown Global Market, part of the city’s Mercado Central development, represent many aspects of both the city and the world.

Helping visitors find their way around this cultural cornucopia are video displays installed by Edina, MN-based Innovative Sales Solutions. A pair of large navigation displays are joined by smaller displays that list menus and other information on the individual restaurants. The food may be diverse, but the information distribution is utterly consistent, thanks to the deployment of KD-MLV4x4Pro Multi-View Tiling Processor Matrix from Key Digital, an award-winning developer and manufacturer of leading-edge digital video processing and video signal distribution solutions.

“We have Asian food, we have Middle East food, we have African food, we have Latino food — we have a wide variety of options for the customer to come and enjoy,” observes Eduardo Barrera, Director of Economic Development and Operations for the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area. “It’s all here. The intention is to cultivate an economic activity in the neighborhood that will benefit not just the business owners, but the entire community as a whole.”

“They wanted to be able to advertise and do specials and promotions to draw their customers to their locations, and also pursue added ROI on it by selling some of the space or advertising via a video wall,” explains John Peterson, VP of Technology Sales at Innovative Sales Solutions. Peterson says initially the project called for a two-by-two video wall, but the integrator recommended an 86-inch display for greater impact, and it could be divided into quadrants. “The first thing I thought of, because they wanted to do the quads, was to use the KD-MLV4x4Pro, a multi-view tiling processor matrix with four HDMI inputs and four outputs,” he explains. “I have three Android points for each zone, and I have a Loop TV for the fourth zone to fill it out, which it does perfectly. Then out of that, we did video distribution to five different 65-inch displays throughout all the entranceways. They wanted to capture all the customers coming in with the same advertising, but they also wanted the same content playing at every entry point. That’s why we used the Key Digital KD-DA-2x8G two-by-eight HDMI switcher/distribution amp feeding the provided HDBaseT RX receivers, so the monitors are all playing the same content that’s on the one Android content player.” A 9×24 Key Digital AV over IP system, under control of the free iOS KD-App, distributes entertainment signals to monitors positioned in venue eating areas.

Described as a place of cultural exploration, culinary discovery, and ethnic unification, the Midtown Global Market is already having an impact on the city. And with a boost from the Key Digital technology, Peterson says the entire project has the potential to raise the technology bar for developments like the Midtown Global Market. “This is going to be a game changer in the sense that we are going to be more out there for the customer, not just in terms of showing what is here, but also guiding them through the facility, where you can go, where you can find your favorite product, your favorite food, what you can do, where the restrooms are, what kind of a facility we have,” he explains. “So now having these big screens along with the individual screens in each one of the entrances is going to give us a big boost to inform the visitor about Midtown Global Market.”