Large electronic screens, signs, displays in St-Petersburg
Our experts visited the Northern capital of Russia - the St-Petersburg city. The purpose of the visit was to elucidate characteristics and technologies of large electronic screens, signs, displays installed in this city. The most noticeable screens of the city were selected as the objects of interest. I.e. we chose the screens located in the most populous places - at Nevsky Prospekt, at central metro stations and near museums, cinemas, hotels and road junctions. In this release of the issues we'll tell you about them.
Large plasma displays at “Gostinny Dvor” metro station
As the overwhelming majority of modern large screens, signs, displays, these plasma displays are assembled of modules, that allow to construct a screen of almost any linear size. The uniqueness of these plasma displays is that their modules consist not of a set of separate bulbs of different colors, but are carried out on the integral technology, combining a set of flashing units in one block.
Having contacted the production company we found out that there are two sorts of units in production - with 3 mm and 6 mm pixels (the size of the units are approximately 200x200 mm). The resolution of one module is 32x32 at a 6 mm pixel and 64x64 at a 3 mm pixel.
Each pixel consists of three vertical columns (red, green, blue) 2x6 mm or 1x3 mm (for 6 mm and 3 mm pixels accordingly). Thus, the specific resolution constitutes 160 pixel/m and 320 pixel/m for 3 mm and 6 mm technologies. The plasma display is capable of displaying 32 000 colors, its brightness is 250 nit (cd/m2) or 120 nit for 6 mm and 3 mm accordingly.
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| Large plasma display at “Gostinny Dvor” metro station | |
That's a pity, but such brightness is insufficient for outdoor application, so it can be viewed as indoor LED screens' competitor. The controller of the screen allows to connect it directly to the VGA output of the computer.
Giant plasma screens at “Petrovsky” stadium
We have visited “Petrovsky” stadium during Russia championship (a game between “Zenith” (St-Petersburg) and “Locomotive” (Nizhniy Novgorod). “Zenith” won 1:0. There are two giant plasma screens at the stadium - a monochrome text and 216-color plasma screens produced by Megalux (Hungary).
The 216-color plasma screen produced by Megalux has the size of 12x8 meters. It consists of modules approximately 75 cm on a horizontal and 67 cm on a vertical by the size, i.e. 16 units in a line and 8 units in a column and installed at a rotating turret that lets the screen turn almost 180 degrees.
Each module contains 64 pixels - 8 on a horizontal and 8 on a vertical. Each pixel consists of three color (RGB) units arranged vertically. Thus the giant plasma screen resolution is 128x96 pixels.
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| Giant plasma screen at “Petrovsky” stadium | |
The brightness of the giant plasma screen is sufficient for operation against direct sunbeams (see the photos (unfortunately we do not know the exact brightness) and has a good angle of visibility. Nevertheless the complexity of technical realization of this plasma screen makes this screen very difficult to operate and fix and demands highly qualified personnel. The screen is controlled by an IBM compatible computer.
Projection screens at “Sennaya Ploshchad” metro station
These are advertising racks belonging to the MetroTV company, embodying its project “Television in St-Petersburg Underground”. Usual projection TV-sets by “Thompson” corporation with 51” diagonal are used as displays. Video recorders and circular VCR cassettes with ads clips, amplifiers and stereo speakers are placed in the same racks.
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| Projection screens at “Sennaya Ploshchad” metro station | |
We support the choice of these projection TV-sets as displays because we are absolutely sure that they excel LED and plasma for indoor usage (of course, if the brightness is sufficient). It is obvious that the quality of the image is determined only by the quality of video and there is no question about resolution of screens. We were pleasantly surprised by very low prices for theatre advertisements.
Giant electronic lamp screen at a roof near the Moscow Railway Station
It is outdoor lamp screen by WhiteWay corporation, the screen owner - NeonBaltic company. The screen is similar to the one installed in Moscow at “Intourist” Hotel, but has the greater size - 10x6 meters.
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| Giant electronic lamp screen near the Moscow Railway Station | |
The screen consists of modules of 30x30 cm by the size and contains 4x4=16 color pixels. Each pixel consists of bulbs with four color (red, green, blue, white) filters arranged in the sectors of a square. The pitch (distance between bulbs) constitutes 1.5 inches (about 3.75 cm).
Screen number of colors is 16. Screen resolution is 132x68 pixels. This screen is optimal for outdoor application but old fashioned. Large lamp screens of the new generation are already in use in Moscow and Novosibirsk. They reproduce 65 thousand and 16 million colors.
