Final Report Summary - DIGISTONE (Development of an Innovative Digital Concrete Screen for outdoor digital signage applications)
Executive Summary:
The Digistone consortium, comprising a value chain of European 3 SME manufacturers and distributors of advanced fibre optics, architectural building materials and electronics, aims to address a major market opportunity in the supply of large, concrete multimedia displays primarily for outdoor digital signage and commercial applications. In particular, the consortium wants to develop an innovative, intelligent building material in the format of a concrete media façade/display or information sculpture – a Digital Concrete Screen System (DCSS).
The Digistone consortium envisages an outdoor digital signage solution that – overall - is considerably more energy and resource efficient than state-of-the-art LED and LCD outdoor screens and, moreover, is cost-competitive to the latter. The solution is resistant to elements and vandalism, and does not endanger the environment by being dependent on excessive maintenance operations. Finally, and critically, the solution is based on an architectural vision, which allows integration of new information and media technology with existing, contemporary buildings and enables highly innovative landscaping and street furniture applications.
Main results of the project:
- Requirements for the digital concrete screen solution and the individual components have been specified including brightness, resolution, view angle, concrete performance, and costs.
- Individual components for testing and performance evaluation have been designed and developed.
- LED types have been reviewed and selected for production of LED panels. Based on prototype tests and review of specifications, commercially available RGB LEDs were selected for the production of the LED panels for the prototypes. The system include sensors to monitor and control brightness. A test software was developed for control of the LEDs and prototype display.
- A cost-effective system for fabrication of the concrete and light guide screen has been developed. Two very different and innovative fabrication methods have been explored in the project. The most promising of them from and industrial fabrication point of view were selected for production of the prototypes. A fabrication line was developed for fabrication of the prototypes. The fabrication system is scalable in terms of both display size and resolution to match requirements for different types of applications.
- A test facility to study the feasibility of robot manufacturing of the concrete and light guide formwork has been designed and developed. Very promising results were obtained showing a high potential for automating the fabrication of the concrete and light guide modules.
- The mechanical properties of concrete with embedded light guides show good performance i.e. the embedment of light guides has a lower impact on the mechanical performance than expected.
- An effective incoupling between the LED panel and the concrete and light guide screen has been developed. Potential solutions for incoupling were studied and in particular a specially designed sheet have shown promising results in terms of increasing light efficiency.
- Prototypes have been designed, produced and assembled. The prototypes demonstrate the Digistone concept and the underlying technologies for industrial fabrication of the Digistone. The prototypes demonstrate a Digistone based on the design layout referred to as the “brick concept” and contains four individual units.
- Performance of the Digistone prototypes have been evaluated. The prototypes were evaluated both quantitatively applying spectroscopic measurements and qualitatively based on visual observations. For the latter, a questionnaire was prepared and answered by independent test persons. In particular, the results confirmed the importance of accurate alignment between the LEDs and the light guides and its effect on white balance, live image perception etc. In general, the majority of the viewers thought the overall quality was good and it was clear what was shown on the screen. However, joints between units should be minimized to provide a seeming less joint free display. In the prototype, the joints were 5 mm, but it is possible to minimize the joints according to future requirements.
Project Context and Objectives:
The concept is based on carefully positioned fibre optics, embedded into the concrete which allows a live image to be transmitted through the material appearing directly on the concrete surface. The ability to reproduce multimedia content directly onto large building or free standing walls has some obvious benefits when viewed against outdoor media and advertising market alternatives, most notably offering complete vandalism and weather proof digital signage and lighting - but it also enables entirely novel applications with a range of unique selling propositions to a very large group of potential end-users, which – in addition to economic benefits – can add to the preservation of urban zones and reduce their environmental footprint due to significantly reduced maintenance and service requirements. The realization of Digistone will entail increased competitiveness for the SME value chain; for the end-users; and for the EU as a whole.
Electronic billboards along roadsides and screens used in stations and airports are becoming commonplace, helped largely by the increased availability of inexpensive display technology. Many low power-consuming devices have aided the digital outdoor signage market, as screens used in outdoor advertising are generally required to operate 24 hours a day without downtime so low powered systems can provide a cost effective system. These include ecologically compliant panels, low-power LED backlight panels and nascent auto stereoscopic 3-D displays. Research indicates that digital signage presents a good ROI in closed environments where a captive audience is exposed to digital signage. The shift of advertising expenditure from traditional media like television, radio and newspapers to outdoor is an indicator that digital signage will witness a major growth in the near future. However, the major factors that are going to drive the growth of digital signage in the near future will be lowering of the capital expenditure on signage devices and also the operational reliability and aesthetic appeal of these.
The application of new and increasingly affordable LED technology represent huge advantages for advertisers, display infrastructure and street furniture owners - mainly related to the ability to change content without significant, associated operational expenses and higher turnover on campaigns. However, there are several drawbacks currently facing the industry and the display technology providers, which represent real barriers to uptake of the new technology and exploitation of its advantages:
- Sensitive to harsh and perturbated outdoor environments, weather and externally induced temperature variations
- Environmental soiling from airborne particles. Outdoor display cleaning can account for up to 60 % of the total cost of ownership over a 5 year period.
- Vandalism, graffiti and malicious damage.
- The maintanance cost driver and environmental footprint.
- Aestetics and Urban identity. “Chaos” of the outdoor media landscape.
In a survey by CapVenture (2004), respondents were asked to identify the key criteria for choosing outdoor display technology. Overwhelmingly, issues related to cost and reliability, but also aesthetics was singled out by the panel. The abovementioned factors thus document a clear need and a market opportunity for the supply of innovative display solutions, occupying a largely unmet need for improved aesthetic appeal and architectural versatility – which at the same time offers unrivalled cost-effectiveness and environmental performance in the digital outdoor signage industry.
The overall objective of DIGISTONE is to develop a cost-competitive lighting solution, which has clear advantages in terms of resistance and maintenance requirements over existing technology as it uses a high strength building surface as medium.
The main objectives of the project are:
- To develop a digital concrete screen targeting advertising at street level.
- To develop a solution with a very high resolution in the order of 1-2 mm pixel pitch.
- To develop a solution with a wide viewing angle.
- To investigate product designs for different types of applications e.g. investigate the possibility of non-orthogonal ’puzzle-like’ element systems.
- To develop a solution based on a modular principle allowing for easy repair, maintenance and service.
- To develop LED panel including techniques for automatic brightness/contrast adjustments of LED panel according to outdoor operating conditions, thus maximizing energy savings and obtaining the optimal image through all hours and weather conditions.
- To develop a light guide methodology that allows for a high light efficiency and a cost-effective fabrication process.
- To develop solutions enabling a high-efficient light propagation with a minimum loss of light from the LED source to the exposed concrete surface.
- To develop a concrete mix enabling a high quality casting and embedment of light guides.
- To develop a cost-effective fabrication process to keep the capital cost at a minimum.
- To develop a concrete and light guide screen with good mechanical properties and durability.
- To study and user response to the digital concrete screen display.
Project Results:
THE DIGITAL CONCRETE SCREEN SOLUTION
During the development of the Digistone concept a lot of different terms are used to describe the different parts and levels of the concept. In order to create a common understanding of these terminologies, when different parts of the Digistone screen are explained, this section explains and visualize the most used terms. Further, the visualizations helps the understanding of the structure of the Digital Concrete Screen Solution (DCSS) (Figure 4.1.1).
One unit of the DSCC consist of 4 primary parts:
- LEDs arranged on PCBs controlled by centrally placed software.
- Light guidance system to increase light efficiency.
- Concrete as the actual screen with through holes for the light guide.
- Light guides precisely embedded in the concrete enabling transmitting of the light from the LEDs to the surface of the concrete screen.
The DSCC consist of several units which can be assembled into larger screens. This ensures better opportunities for an efficient industrial production, as well as service, and maintenance.
APPLICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
There are a number of possible applications for the DCSS. Each application requires different notional screen designs and different resolution- and brightness demands. The applications can roughly be divided into 4 categories: Billboards, Monuments, Restaurants, and Street furnitures (Figure 4.1.2). The Digistone targets advertising at street level, which require a high resolution screen to show live images at a short distance, thus Restaurants and Street furnitures are the primary target applications. The requirements for the DCSS in these applications were specified in the following topics:
- Resolution. The resolution is defined as the pixel pitch, which refers to the distance between each pixel (center to center). The Digistone aims at pixel pitch in the range from 1.00 to 1.75 mm, which corresponds to a viewing distance of 1-2 meters.
- Brightness. It should be possible to see live images on the screen display when fully exposed to daylight and ultimately direct sunlight. The target value for luminance is estimated to be approx. 6.000 nits (cd/m2). Further, automatic dimming of the brightness is very important in order to adjust to the variations of brightness during day and night.
- Viewing angle. A sufficient viewing angle is important for the pedestrians passing by. The aim is a viewing angle of 140 degrees.
- Cost. The capital cost of DIGISTONE installations should be limited to €4000-5000 per square meter through considerations of the cost of materials and manufacturability.
- Easy servicing/maintainance. It should be possible to change or repair modules in case of failure.
PRODUCT DESIGN
The objectives was to define aesthetically appealing and consumer-oriented initial product design on the basis of and in interaction with the above-mentioned tasks, including integration and adjustments into the final concepts. During the project various concepts was investigated. Two concepts were chosen and the formats were developed. The two formats are named Brick and Beam referring to their building technique (Figure 4.1.3).
The Brick concept is used in the prototype built. This solution is tested, optimized and rebuilt to a working 10.000 pixels concrete screen. Bricks are in the prototype pressed together to form a surface. The pressure keeping the bricks together is obtained by a framing.
The Beam is based on the brick – just extended without vertical joints. By this extension the concretes bending strength is exploited, which gives space for heavy duty mechanical fixtures in both ends of the concrete beam, resulting in a larger element and a more robust assembly and final solution. The beam solution is spanning between to side columns. The beam solution is employing exactly the same technology as the brick, for fabrication of both PCBs and concrete element. The beam concept can be used in sandwich structures, where a framework (body design) will form the backside (e.g. holding an information poster) and optional also the sides. The end of each concrete beam can be designed in order to meet the requirements from the body design fill in structures where it can be implemented into e.g. an existing wall structure.
LED PANEL
The aim of LED panel development was to define and develop the system architecture by the electronics side, defining and developing the system and identifying electronics, LEDs, electrical power and signal transmission requirements and standard components. This architecture had to provide an integration strategy for network scenario and other requirements. It can be divided into functional and non-functional specifications:
- Functional (receive images/video from PC, receive configurations, allow manual and automatic brightness adjust, overheat protection)
- Non-functional (modular configuration, pixel pitch, minimum cost possible, good image quality with high refresh rate, maximum resolution by controller: 256*128, generate 24bits colour – 16 million colours)
In order to take conclusions in regard of several factors relevant to Digistone different PCB boards were developed, each consisting of a 5x5 LED’s matrix with different LEDs with different characteristics (Figure 4.1.4). They are different in means of emission angle, brightness and size. Even some boards have different pixel pitch. For example, one of the boards carries 0404 RGB LED’s (1x1mm), the smallest LED’s on market. They were placed with a pixel pitch of 1.8mm.
Based on the first generation of PCB boards used, The PCB boards used for the DCSS prototype development were carefully redesigned taking in consideration:
- High Speed Signals mixed with High Current Signals
- 8 Layers
- New drivers package
- Reduced EMI
- Thermal design improved
To test HDMI input possibility, a converter board was also designed. This board converts the HDMI to RGB Signals that are easier to input in the FPGA controller. Thermal protection was also taken in account and some thermal camera tests were done. The mains heating zones are in the locations of LED drivers and also in LED area but with less influence.
The board used for the DCSS prototype development uses 96pcs of TLC5946 drivers that control all the 8192 LED’s, and make possible to generate more than 16 million colors, for each LED. Automatic and manual brightness diming it’s also supported by this board. The LED driver technology is still evolving and “everyday” main IC manufacturers are releasing improved LED Drivers. This new models bring new functionality to the LED display market that improve performance of the displays and allow the implementation of Higher resolutions Displays.
In order to test, control and calibrate LED display a software was developed (Figure 4.1.5). This software was developed using Microsoft .NET framework and C# language. This software allows the control of the image showed in the Display. The image can be captured from the PC screen or can be produced by designing pixel by pixel images. It also allows the calibration of Colors, brightness adjustment and automatic brightness adjustment. The panel temperature and Ambient light it’s also measured and can be monitored in this software. Finally, it also provides image encoding for larger displays.
The Demo unit that can be seen in next picture, consists in a four module topology. Each module have its own LED Drivers that control 2048 LED’s, totaling a value of 8192 LED’s (Figure 4.1.6) This four modules are controlled by an FPGA board, running a custom and dedicated hardware circuit that receives video from PC, and converts information to electric control signals, that will drive the modules. It also includes hardware to read temperature and ambient light. This was possible using a digital ambient light sensor TAOS TSL4531 and digital temperature sensor Texas Instruments LM74. With this unit is proved the concept of the Digistone unit.
INCOUPLING
To minimize losses and maximize throughput the part of the emitted light from the LED, not in the direction of the end facet of the optical fiber is reflected by a mask or otherwise redirected. Several different materials were tested in connection to the small LED panels. One of the materials tested showed the right properties required for the incoupling. The light and incoupling efficiency were tested in the setup shown in Figure 4.1.7
CONCRETE AND LIGHT GUIDE SCREEN
Fabrication of concrete/light guide system is a critical factor of the Digistone. One square meter of Digistone can contain up to 1 million precisely placed light guides. Two novel fabrication methodologies have been proposed and developed to ensure a cost-effective fabrication methodology.
From an industrial fabrication point of view, one of the fabrication systems has proven to be the most promising of the two fabrication systems. The fabrication system is fully scalable down to a pixel pitch range from 1.00 to 1.75 mm. It is the current size of the LEDs, which determine the minimum pixel pitch possible. Thus, the prototypes had to demonstrate a higher pixel pitch of 3.00 mm due to the size of the LEDs. In the future, the size of LEDs will drop significantly.
A high performance concrete was developed. The maximum size aggregate is very low to avoid blocking of aggregates between the tightly placed light guides. The concrete is self-compacting i.e. mechanical vibration is not applied during casting as there is a high risk of over vibration. Over vibration may cause poor form filling, aggregate segregation, water bleeding and poor embedment of the light guides. Thus, the mortar must be able to fill the formwork and encapsulate the fibers by itself. The resulting mortar has a high stability, low yield stress and high plastic viscosity. In addition, a specially designed grading curve of the fine aggregate was developed to meet these requirements.
The light guides are positioned with a very low tolerance to lower the risk of misalignment between the LEDs and the light guides, which will cause color disturbances.
The fabrication system was designed for automation. A test facility to study the feasibility of robot manufacturing of the concrete/light guide formwork was designed and developed. Very promising results were obtained showing a high potential for automating the fabrication of the concrete/light guide modules to obtain a cost-effective production of the concrete/light guide system. The results show that a capital cost of €4000-5000 per square meter for a very high resolution screen is within reach. Applying the proposed fabrication system, the results show that price of LEDs becomes the most important cost parameter. The price of LEDs has been reduced significantly over the years, and this trend is expected to continue.
Studies of the mechanical properties showed that the strength reduction due to light guides is lower than expected, which a positive result showing that the light guides only have a minor influence on the mechanical performance of the concrete and light guide screens.
With respect to physical vandalism, the mechanical properties show a high flexural strength, which indicate that the surface will be quite resistant to physical vandalism and in the same order as a concrete surfaces without light guides. With respect to graffiti, the concrete developed for the Digistone has a low porosity and a seemingly high abrasion resistance. This combination complies well with the use of anti-graffiti solutions without jeopardizing the integrity of the surface appearance and the quality of the projected image. Regarding the weather conditions, the main concerns relate to dimensional changes and frost resistance. With respect to dimensional changes, the development of the modular unit approach, ensures that any potential dimensional changes may be compensated for in the joints between the modules and thus it will not affect the alignment and subsequent display quality. Regarding frost resistance, relevant in countries with many frost-thaw cycles, this depends on the air void distribution. This has not been verified in the project, but it is well expected that, if needed, the current mix design can be further optimized to obtain a proper air void distribution without jeopardizing the current properties. This will be part of the post-project activities aiming at transferring the Digistone prototype into the first commercial Digistone product.
To obtain a uniform surface, the concrete surface is polished, which gives a smooth surface with a faint appearance of the fine aggregates used in the mix design. The appearance of the skin is uniform due to the fixed grid of light guides (Figure 4.1.8).
PROTOTYPE
Prototypes have been designed, produced and assembled. The prototypes demonstrate the Digistone concept and the underlying technologies for industrial fabrication of the Digistone. The prototypes demonstrate a DCSS based on the design layout referred to as the “brick concept” and contains four individual concrete units (Figure 4.1.9 and 4.1.10).
The resolution of the prototype screen is 3 mm pixel pitch, defined by the LEDs used for the prototype. The LEDs used are some of the smallest RDG LEDs on the market for outdoor signage. Custom made LED panels have been designed and produced for the prototypes consisting of four boards and a total of 8192 LEDs. A software has been developed to control the image projection and the brightness. Also, a sensor has been mounted on the panel to allow for automatic dimming of the brightness.
The concrete units with embedded light guides are a key element in the development of the Digistone concept. The manufacturing method developed in the project is based on a system of special concrete formwork and light guide positioning system. Two different light guide thicknesses were used for the prototype to study the resulting colour appearance.
A fluid concrete was designed and optimized through trial testing to enable casting of the formwork systems with gaps down 1.5 mm. The castings showed that the concrete remained stable and complete form filling and encapsulation of the PMMA fibres were obtained.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
The digital concrete screen has been tested in various ambient light conditions both indoor and outdoor (direct sun, cloudy, rain, night). These tests have shown that the screen overall performs well under most conditions. The tests points out the necessity of automatically adjustment of brightness. The test results showed that:
- In cloudy daylight the screen performs very good, and the image is clear.
- In night conditions the screen performs very good, and the image is clear.
- In rain the screen performs very good. Compared to the dry concrete screen the wet screen actually improves the image – due to a higher contrast obtained by the wet and thus darker concrete.
- In direct sunlight the image on the screen appears more dimmed, and the image is not as clear as in the abovementioned cases. In the future, as the LEDs continue to develop, it wiill be possible to apply LEDs with even higher luminance to enable a clear image in direct sunlight.
The prototypes were evaluated both quantitatively applying spectroscopic measurements and qualitatively based on visual observations. For the latter, a questionnaire was prepared and answered by independent test persons (Figure 4.1.12). In particular, the results confirmed the importance of accurate alignment between the LEDs and the light guides and its effect on white balance, live image perception etc. In general, the majority of the viewers thought the overall quality was good and it was clear what was shown on the screen. However, joints between units should be minimized to provide a seeming less joint free display. In the prototype, the joints were 5 mm, but it is possible to minimize the joints according to future requirements.
Overall the assessment can conclude that the developed Digistone screen works sufficiently to display movies, images and text. The assessment also represents the beginning of a design guide or design specifications for this future display technology.
Potential Impact:
IMPACT
EXPECTED IMPACTS
Users/Market
The accomplishment of a successful market introduction of DIGISTONE will represent step-change innovation in the digital outdoor advertising industry – end entail a series of strong and obvious benefits for the end-users. In the section below, we outline and quantify the main benefits for the end-user (Figure 4.1.13).
End-user benefits presented as Unique Selling Points:
Main economic benefits for the users
For purposes of both realism and analysis, annual savings generated by substitution of a current standard street furniture installation with the DIGISTONE solution are considered for a commercial customer over a time span of 10 years - equivalent to the expected product lifetime. Specifically, 100 displays are installed in an urban space in an average EU country. We assume that 100 advertising faces – 2 m2 Rotating Poster Panels – are exchanged with 100 DIGISTONE faces. The installation takes place on places, where conventional digital technology cannot be used due to non-resistance to outdoor elements and vandalism. The additional advertising revenue of installing DIGISTONE can thus be derived from the end-user’s documented effects of conventional substitution of static with digital technology. Additional benefits are similarly based on a main market player’s experience combined with an assessment of the claimed advantages of DIGISTONE. The total economy of the two scenarios are derived and the result shows a value added of 398.667 € per year in favor of DIGISTONE.
Market Characteristics
The outdoor digital signage market is a part of the global Outdoor Advertising Market. Out-of-home advertising grew slightly below trend in 2010, up by 6.4 % vs. 6.9% for the global economy. In 2011, growth of 7.9 % was realised, and in the coming years the sector should grow at a faster pace than advertising overall. The sector accounts for $26.3 billion in revenues in 2011, and is predicted to generate $38.6 billion in revenues in 2016. Digital out-of-home will almost double in size, from $2.6 billion in 2011 to $5.2 billion in 2016 (a growth rate averaging15.2 %). South Korea, India, China and the Philippines are all among the fastest growing countries globally, but the US, UK, France and Japan will remain among the most important in years ahead, much as they are today. Driven by the emergence of technology and new public-private business models (which create breakthrough value for second-tier non-costumers, municipalities, and lower their costs for urban furniture) in urban architecture, the DOOH field (DOOH: Digital Out Of Home), moreover, is slowly merging with the global street furniture sector – itself approaching $5.8 billion in 2010, which further underlines the size and dynamism of the industry.
The advantages of digital outdoor displays over conventional media are compelling as the networking capability and possibility of remote and even client-driven content management of multiple screens reduces an estimated 90 % of content labour cost. Therefore, overall ease of instalment, network flexibility and management, the ability to remotely control multiple screens, and increased reliability are driving growth in the digital segment of the market. Many low power-consuming devices have also aided the digital outdoor signage market, as screens used in outdoor advertising are generally required to operate 24 hours a day without downtime so low powered systems can provide a cost effective system. These include ecologically compliant panels, low-power LED backlight panels and nascent auto stereoscopic 3-D displays. Research indicates that digital signage presents a good ROI in closed environments where a captive audience is exposed to digital signage. Crucially, for DIGISTONE, the concept is directly targeted towards exploiting the market’s core drivers and constraints:
- Overall, the lowering of capital expenditure has an important impact on the media’s feasibility for advertisers in general – and for individual buying decisions. As demonstrated above, DIGISTONE has a lower total cost of ownership than current offers due to its resistance to vandalism and low service and maintenance costs.
- The market’s reception of and the attractiveness of innovative display technology – for instance flexible screens and RGB Glass emission technology has underlined, that immaterial differentiators such as design flexibility and aesthetic appeal are particularly important in the advertising industry.
- As all sensitive components are protected by a highly resistant concrete interface, which acts as the actual screen, DIGISTONE is – unlike most current technology - not as sensible to problems of resistance and operational reliability due to harsh and perturbated outdoor environments, including environmental soiling from airborne particles and externally induced temperature variation. These environments represents peak burdens for which the technology has not been designed to cope with – and which directly affects service and maintenance costs (cleaning accounts for up to 60 % of the total cost of ownership over a 5 year period) as well as product lifetime.
- All current offerings are relatively more prone to vandalism, graffiti and malicious damage due to basic structural properties.
We are convinced that DIGISTONEs response and impact on these differentiators will position the technology favourably towards several attractive market segments. We assume that the technology will first and foremost be attractive to the segment, where static, urban billboards and street furniture for advertising purposes would be substituted with high-end digital alternatives, but where these due to external factors (weather, vandalism) are still difficult to install. Whereas the market data illustrates the enormous overall potential and dynamism of the industry, the digital signage and outdoor advertising value chains are highly complex, and the variation of business models means that it is problematic to derive reliable data and top-down quantification of annual revenue for display technology alone. Specifically, this difficulty stems from large variations in business models, which often see joint or shared ownership between public and private infrastructure owners. Instead, we choose a more reliable approach, and build the business case for our company bottom-up – departing from the industry’s own assessment of relevant urban advertising faces. According to a recent study the global potential amounts to approx. 1.5 million advertising faces. Despite the overall industry growth, we assume that this figure will remain relatively stable – mainly due to regulatory and legislative constraints stemming from public opinion and urban landscaping policy. While possibly too pessimistic - for analytical purposes, this has the added advantage of adding a conservative bias to the business case. It is anticipated that the introduction of the DIGISTONE system onto the urban advertising and street furniture market will have a series of positive effects on the competitiveness of the SME participant as component manufacturers and installation contractors as well as the end-users.
As mentioned above, we assume that the DIGISTONE technology will first and foremost be attractive to the segment, where static, urban billboards and street furniture for advertising purposes would be substituted with high-end digital alternatives, but where these due to external factors (weather, vandalism) are still difficult to install.
Benefits for the SME Consortium
Since the production costs of the full DIGISTONE system are generally higher than those of currently available static and other digital signage technologies, the pricing of the system and initial capital expenditure will also be higher. From the outset, in the business case of the SME consortium, the feasible pricing point for DIGISTONE lies in the interval between, at the lower end, total costs of the system as faced by the consortium, and, at the high end, the total advertising revenue minus operating costs during the lifetime of a DIGISTONE installation. We assume the capital costs and advertising income over product lifetime of 10 years, and – furthermore, modest profit margins at the beginning of 15% so as to ensure attractive sales prices needed to kick-start the sales. Margins increase as economies of scale kick in and productions costs are lowered.
The business case calculations shows that the DIGISTONE is a very promising business opportunity. By year 5 post project we assume capture of approximately 0.5 % market share in the street furniture market is gained and the business yields a total revenue of 90 M € and a contribution margin of 36 M €. The assumptions concerning market capture are defined according to a major market players current experience with the introduction, uptake and roll-out of new and innovative display technology on their global market – combined with an evaluation of the innovative and real differentiating capabilities of the DIGISTONE system.
Societal and political objectives
In addition to the benefits for the SME consortium and its individual commercial end-users, we finally assess the impact at the third and final level, i.e. the positive societal effects of the project in a number of areas, also supporting European policies.
Energy savings
DIGISTONE will contribute to the EU’s objectives for energy efficiency and energy policy, first and foremost the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET) which holds the strategic plan to accelerate the development and deployment of cost-effective low carbon technologies and fulfilling the potential of end-use efficiency, which is estimated to contribute to more than 50% of CO2 reduction by 2030 – and thus plays an important role in reaching the ambitious target of 20 % reduction in carbon emission in EU by 2020 (EU: 8-9 March 2007, European Council: Presidency Conclusions; COM(2009) 519 final, Investing in the Development of Low Carbon Technologies (SET-Plan)). The substantial reduction in travelling of the poster workers when eliminating the heavy manual operation of changing the posters will have a significant environmental impact through reduced fuel consumption and consequent lower carbon emissions. As mentioned previously, the number of saved service visits associated with DIGISTONE is in the area of 90% on an annual basis. The total potential CO2 saving from DIGISTONE is equal to 22,000 tonnes, where we expect DIGISTONE alone to contribute with 2000 tonnes/year of CO2 saving by year 2020 (National Energy Foundation (UK) Standard calculator of CO2 emissions).
Impact on urban heritage and environments
The aesthetic integrity of the urban public realm is a key concern in member states’ and EU urban policy (European Commission, 2006, Making our cities attractive and sustainable - How the EU contributes to improving the urban environment) - and is a lingering concern of the outdoor signage industry. New planning codes have been put in place to reform outdoor advertising in, for instance, the UK and Australia. These were driven by the desire for aesthetic order and land-use control. Despite the additional advertising revenue and possibilities for efficient communication, it is evident that outdoor advertising might detract from other landscape values that might be attractive to residents and tourists. Prominent urban planners and opinion makers have therefore increasingly called upon the industry to propose new forms of outdoor advertising as a solution to the ‘chaos’ of the outdoor media landscape (Kurt Iveson, Branded cities: outdoor advertising, urban governance, and the outdoor media landscape, University of Sydney, Working Paper, 2010). DIGISTONE will through the integration of the advertising in street furniture provide such a solution that safeguards the aesthetic integrity of the urban area to the benefit of the public.
In conclusion, the DIGISTONE project is expected to result in a series of benefits for the SME consortium, the end-users of the DIGISTONE technology and the EU as a whole.
List of Websites:
www.digistonescreen.eu
The Digistone consortium, comprising a value chain of European 3 SME manufacturers and distributors of advanced fibre optics, architectural building materials and electronics, aims to address a major market opportunity in the supply of large, concrete multimedia displays primarily for outdoor digital signage and commercial applications. In particular, the consortium wants to develop an innovative, intelligent building material in the format of a concrete media façade/display or information sculpture – a Digital Concrete Screen System (DCSS).
The Digistone consortium envisages an outdoor digital signage solution that – overall - is considerably more energy and resource efficient than state-of-the-art LED and LCD outdoor screens and, moreover, is cost-competitive to the latter. The solution is resistant to elements and vandalism, and does not endanger the environment by being dependent on excessive maintenance operations. Finally, and critically, the solution is based on an architectural vision, which allows integration of new information and media technology with existing, contemporary buildings and enables highly innovative landscaping and street furniture applications.
Main results of the project:
- Requirements for the digital concrete screen solution and the individual components have been specified including brightness, resolution, view angle, concrete performance, and costs.
- Individual components for testing and performance evaluation have been designed and developed.
- LED types have been reviewed and selected for production of LED panels. Based on prototype tests and review of specifications, commercially available RGB LEDs were selected for the production of the LED panels for the prototypes. The system include sensors to monitor and control brightness. A test software was developed for control of the LEDs and prototype display.
- A cost-effective system for fabrication of the concrete and light guide screen has been developed. Two very different and innovative fabrication methods have been explored in the project. The most promising of them from and industrial fabrication point of view were selected for production of the prototypes. A fabrication line was developed for fabrication of the prototypes. The fabrication system is scalable in terms of both display size and resolution to match requirements for different types of applications.
- A test facility to study the feasibility of robot manufacturing of the concrete and light guide formwork has been designed and developed. Very promising results were obtained showing a high potential for automating the fabrication of the concrete and light guide modules.
- The mechanical properties of concrete with embedded light guides show good performance i.e. the embedment of light guides has a lower impact on the mechanical performance than expected.
- An effective incoupling between the LED panel and the concrete and light guide screen has been developed. Potential solutions for incoupling were studied and in particular a specially designed sheet have shown promising results in terms of increasing light efficiency.
- Prototypes have been designed, produced and assembled. The prototypes demonstrate the Digistone concept and the underlying technologies for industrial fabrication of the Digistone. The prototypes demonstrate a Digistone based on the design layout referred to as the “brick concept” and contains four individual units.
- Performance of the Digistone prototypes have been evaluated. The prototypes were evaluated both quantitatively applying spectroscopic measurements and qualitatively based on visual observations. For the latter, a questionnaire was prepared and answered by independent test persons. In particular, the results confirmed the importance of accurate alignment between the LEDs and the light guides and its effect on white balance, live image perception etc. In general, the majority of the viewers thought the overall quality was good and it was clear what was shown on the screen. However, joints between units should be minimized to provide a seeming less joint free display. In the prototype, the joints were 5 mm, but it is possible to minimize the joints according to future requirements.
Project Context and Objectives:
The concept is based on carefully positioned fibre optics, embedded into the concrete which allows a live image to be transmitted through the material appearing directly on the concrete surface. The ability to reproduce multimedia content directly onto large building or free standing walls has some obvious benefits when viewed against outdoor media and advertising market alternatives, most notably offering complete vandalism and weather proof digital signage and lighting - but it also enables entirely novel applications with a range of unique selling propositions to a very large group of potential end-users, which – in addition to economic benefits – can add to the preservation of urban zones and reduce their environmental footprint due to significantly reduced maintenance and service requirements. The realization of Digistone will entail increased competitiveness for the SME value chain; for the end-users; and for the EU as a whole.
Electronic billboards along roadsides and screens used in stations and airports are becoming commonplace, helped largely by the increased availability of inexpensive display technology. Many low power-consuming devices have aided the digital outdoor signage market, as screens used in outdoor advertising are generally required to operate 24 hours a day without downtime so low powered systems can provide a cost effective system. These include ecologically compliant panels, low-power LED backlight panels and nascent auto stereoscopic 3-D displays. Research indicates that digital signage presents a good ROI in closed environments where a captive audience is exposed to digital signage. The shift of advertising expenditure from traditional media like television, radio and newspapers to outdoor is an indicator that digital signage will witness a major growth in the near future. However, the major factors that are going to drive the growth of digital signage in the near future will be lowering of the capital expenditure on signage devices and also the operational reliability and aesthetic appeal of these.
The application of new and increasingly affordable LED technology represent huge advantages for advertisers, display infrastructure and street furniture owners - mainly related to the ability to change content without significant, associated operational expenses and higher turnover on campaigns. However, there are several drawbacks currently facing the industry and the display technology providers, which represent real barriers to uptake of the new technology and exploitation of its advantages:
- Sensitive to harsh and perturbated outdoor environments, weather and externally induced temperature variations
- Environmental soiling from airborne particles. Outdoor display cleaning can account for up to 60 % of the total cost of ownership over a 5 year period.
- Vandalism, graffiti and malicious damage.
- The maintanance cost driver and environmental footprint.
- Aestetics and Urban identity. “Chaos” of the outdoor media landscape.
In a survey by CapVenture (2004), respondents were asked to identify the key criteria for choosing outdoor display technology. Overwhelmingly, issues related to cost and reliability, but also aesthetics was singled out by the panel. The abovementioned factors thus document a clear need and a market opportunity for the supply of innovative display solutions, occupying a largely unmet need for improved aesthetic appeal and architectural versatility – which at the same time offers unrivalled cost-effectiveness and environmental performance in the digital outdoor signage industry.
The overall objective of DIGISTONE is to develop a cost-competitive lighting solution, which has clear advantages in terms of resistance and maintenance requirements over existing technology as it uses a high strength building surface as medium.
The main objectives of the project are:
- To develop a digital concrete screen targeting advertising at street level.
- To develop a solution with a very high resolution in the order of 1-2 mm pixel pitch.
- To develop a solution with a wide viewing angle.
- To investigate product designs for different types of applications e.g. investigate the possibility of non-orthogonal ’puzzle-like’ element systems.
- To develop a solution based on a modular principle allowing for easy repair, maintenance and service.
- To develop LED panel including techniques for automatic brightness/contrast adjustments of LED panel according to outdoor operating conditions, thus maximizing energy savings and obtaining the optimal image through all hours and weather conditions.
- To develop a light guide methodology that allows for a high light efficiency and a cost-effective fabrication process.
- To develop solutions enabling a high-efficient light propagation with a minimum loss of light from the LED source to the exposed concrete surface.
- To develop a concrete mix enabling a high quality casting and embedment of light guides.
- To develop a cost-effective fabrication process to keep the capital cost at a minimum.
- To develop a concrete and light guide screen with good mechanical properties and durability.
- To study and user response to the digital concrete screen display.
Project Results:
THE DIGITAL CONCRETE SCREEN SOLUTION
During the development of the Digistone concept a lot of different terms are used to describe the different parts and levels of the concept. In order to create a common understanding of these terminologies, when different parts of the Digistone screen are explained, this section explains and visualize the most used terms. Further, the visualizations helps the understanding of the structure of the Digital Concrete Screen Solution (DCSS) (Figure 4.1.1).
One unit of the DSCC consist of 4 primary parts:
- LEDs arranged on PCBs controlled by centrally placed software.
- Light guidance system to increase light efficiency.
- Concrete as the actual screen with through holes for the light guide.
- Light guides precisely embedded in the concrete enabling transmitting of the light from the LEDs to the surface of the concrete screen.
The DSCC consist of several units which can be assembled into larger screens. This ensures better opportunities for an efficient industrial production, as well as service, and maintenance.
APPLICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
There are a number of possible applications for the DCSS. Each application requires different notional screen designs and different resolution- and brightness demands. The applications can roughly be divided into 4 categories: Billboards, Monuments, Restaurants, and Street furnitures (Figure 4.1.2). The Digistone targets advertising at street level, which require a high resolution screen to show live images at a short distance, thus Restaurants and Street furnitures are the primary target applications. The requirements for the DCSS in these applications were specified in the following topics:
- Resolution. The resolution is defined as the pixel pitch, which refers to the distance between each pixel (center to center). The Digistone aims at pixel pitch in the range from 1.00 to 1.75 mm, which corresponds to a viewing distance of 1-2 meters.
- Brightness. It should be possible to see live images on the screen display when fully exposed to daylight and ultimately direct sunlight. The target value for luminance is estimated to be approx. 6.000 nits (cd/m2). Further, automatic dimming of the brightness is very important in order to adjust to the variations of brightness during day and night.
- Viewing angle. A sufficient viewing angle is important for the pedestrians passing by. The aim is a viewing angle of 140 degrees.
- Cost. The capital cost of DIGISTONE installations should be limited to €4000-5000 per square meter through considerations of the cost of materials and manufacturability.
- Easy servicing/maintainance. It should be possible to change or repair modules in case of failure.
PRODUCT DESIGN
The objectives was to define aesthetically appealing and consumer-oriented initial product design on the basis of and in interaction with the above-mentioned tasks, including integration and adjustments into the final concepts. During the project various concepts was investigated. Two concepts were chosen and the formats were developed. The two formats are named Brick and Beam referring to their building technique (Figure 4.1.3).
The Brick concept is used in the prototype built. This solution is tested, optimized and rebuilt to a working 10.000 pixels concrete screen. Bricks are in the prototype pressed together to form a surface. The pressure keeping the bricks together is obtained by a framing.
The Beam is based on the brick – just extended without vertical joints. By this extension the concretes bending strength is exploited, which gives space for heavy duty mechanical fixtures in both ends of the concrete beam, resulting in a larger element and a more robust assembly and final solution. The beam solution is spanning between to side columns. The beam solution is employing exactly the same technology as the brick, for fabrication of both PCBs and concrete element. The beam concept can be used in sandwich structures, where a framework (body design) will form the backside (e.g. holding an information poster) and optional also the sides. The end of each concrete beam can be designed in order to meet the requirements from the body design fill in structures where it can be implemented into e.g. an existing wall structure.
LED PANEL
The aim of LED panel development was to define and develop the system architecture by the electronics side, defining and developing the system and identifying electronics, LEDs, electrical power and signal transmission requirements and standard components. This architecture had to provide an integration strategy for network scenario and other requirements. It can be divided into functional and non-functional specifications:
- Functional (receive images/video from PC, receive configurations, allow manual and automatic brightness adjust, overheat protection)
- Non-functional (modular configuration, pixel pitch, minimum cost possible, good image quality with high refresh rate, maximum resolution by controller: 256*128, generate 24bits colour – 16 million colours)
In order to take conclusions in regard of several factors relevant to Digistone different PCB boards were developed, each consisting of a 5x5 LED’s matrix with different LEDs with different characteristics (Figure 4.1.4). They are different in means of emission angle, brightness and size. Even some boards have different pixel pitch. For example, one of the boards carries 0404 RGB LED’s (1x1mm), the smallest LED’s on market. They were placed with a pixel pitch of 1.8mm.
Based on the first generation of PCB boards used, The PCB boards used for the DCSS prototype development were carefully redesigned taking in consideration:
- High Speed Signals mixed with High Current Signals
- 8 Layers
- New drivers package
- Reduced EMI
- Thermal design improved
To test HDMI input possibility, a converter board was also designed. This board converts the HDMI to RGB Signals that are easier to input in the FPGA controller. Thermal protection was also taken in account and some thermal camera tests were done. The mains heating zones are in the locations of LED drivers and also in LED area but with less influence.
The board used for the DCSS prototype development uses 96pcs of TLC5946 drivers that control all the 8192 LED’s, and make possible to generate more than 16 million colors, for each LED. Automatic and manual brightness diming it’s also supported by this board. The LED driver technology is still evolving and “everyday” main IC manufacturers are releasing improved LED Drivers. This new models bring new functionality to the LED display market that improve performance of the displays and allow the implementation of Higher resolutions Displays.
In order to test, control and calibrate LED display a software was developed (Figure 4.1.5). This software was developed using Microsoft .NET framework and C# language. This software allows the control of the image showed in the Display. The image can be captured from the PC screen or can be produced by designing pixel by pixel images. It also allows the calibration of Colors, brightness adjustment and automatic brightness adjustment. The panel temperature and Ambient light it’s also measured and can be monitored in this software. Finally, it also provides image encoding for larger displays.
The Demo unit that can be seen in next picture, consists in a four module topology. Each module have its own LED Drivers that control 2048 LED’s, totaling a value of 8192 LED’s (Figure 4.1.6) This four modules are controlled by an FPGA board, running a custom and dedicated hardware circuit that receives video from PC, and converts information to electric control signals, that will drive the modules. It also includes hardware to read temperature and ambient light. This was possible using a digital ambient light sensor TAOS TSL4531 and digital temperature sensor Texas Instruments LM74. With this unit is proved the concept of the Digistone unit.
INCOUPLING
To minimize losses and maximize throughput the part of the emitted light from the LED, not in the direction of the end facet of the optical fiber is reflected by a mask or otherwise redirected. Several different materials were tested in connection to the small LED panels. One of the materials tested showed the right properties required for the incoupling. The light and incoupling efficiency were tested in the setup shown in Figure 4.1.7
CONCRETE AND LIGHT GUIDE SCREEN
Fabrication of concrete/light guide system is a critical factor of the Digistone. One square meter of Digistone can contain up to 1 million precisely placed light guides. Two novel fabrication methodologies have been proposed and developed to ensure a cost-effective fabrication methodology.
From an industrial fabrication point of view, one of the fabrication systems has proven to be the most promising of the two fabrication systems. The fabrication system is fully scalable down to a pixel pitch range from 1.00 to 1.75 mm. It is the current size of the LEDs, which determine the minimum pixel pitch possible. Thus, the prototypes had to demonstrate a higher pixel pitch of 3.00 mm due to the size of the LEDs. In the future, the size of LEDs will drop significantly.
A high performance concrete was developed. The maximum size aggregate is very low to avoid blocking of aggregates between the tightly placed light guides. The concrete is self-compacting i.e. mechanical vibration is not applied during casting as there is a high risk of over vibration. Over vibration may cause poor form filling, aggregate segregation, water bleeding and poor embedment of the light guides. Thus, the mortar must be able to fill the formwork and encapsulate the fibers by itself. The resulting mortar has a high stability, low yield stress and high plastic viscosity. In addition, a specially designed grading curve of the fine aggregate was developed to meet these requirements.
The light guides are positioned with a very low tolerance to lower the risk of misalignment between the LEDs and the light guides, which will cause color disturbances.
The fabrication system was designed for automation. A test facility to study the feasibility of robot manufacturing of the concrete/light guide formwork was designed and developed. Very promising results were obtained showing a high potential for automating the fabrication of the concrete/light guide modules to obtain a cost-effective production of the concrete/light guide system. The results show that a capital cost of €4000-5000 per square meter for a very high resolution screen is within reach. Applying the proposed fabrication system, the results show that price of LEDs becomes the most important cost parameter. The price of LEDs has been reduced significantly over the years, and this trend is expected to continue.
Studies of the mechanical properties showed that the strength reduction due to light guides is lower than expected, which a positive result showing that the light guides only have a minor influence on the mechanical performance of the concrete and light guide screens.
With respect to physical vandalism, the mechanical properties show a high flexural strength, which indicate that the surface will be quite resistant to physical vandalism and in the same order as a concrete surfaces without light guides. With respect to graffiti, the concrete developed for the Digistone has a low porosity and a seemingly high abrasion resistance. This combination complies well with the use of anti-graffiti solutions without jeopardizing the integrity of the surface appearance and the quality of the projected image. Regarding the weather conditions, the main concerns relate to dimensional changes and frost resistance. With respect to dimensional changes, the development of the modular unit approach, ensures that any potential dimensional changes may be compensated for in the joints between the modules and thus it will not affect the alignment and subsequent display quality. Regarding frost resistance, relevant in countries with many frost-thaw cycles, this depends on the air void distribution. This has not been verified in the project, but it is well expected that, if needed, the current mix design can be further optimized to obtain a proper air void distribution without jeopardizing the current properties. This will be part of the post-project activities aiming at transferring the Digistone prototype into the first commercial Digistone product.
To obtain a uniform surface, the concrete surface is polished, which gives a smooth surface with a faint appearance of the fine aggregates used in the mix design. The appearance of the skin is uniform due to the fixed grid of light guides (Figure 4.1.8).
PROTOTYPE
Prototypes have been designed, produced and assembled. The prototypes demonstrate the Digistone concept and the underlying technologies for industrial fabrication of the Digistone. The prototypes demonstrate a DCSS based on the design layout referred to as the “brick concept” and contains four individual concrete units (Figure 4.1.9 and 4.1.10).
The resolution of the prototype screen is 3 mm pixel pitch, defined by the LEDs used for the prototype. The LEDs used are some of the smallest RDG LEDs on the market for outdoor signage. Custom made LED panels have been designed and produced for the prototypes consisting of four boards and a total of 8192 LEDs. A software has been developed to control the image projection and the brightness. Also, a sensor has been mounted on the panel to allow for automatic dimming of the brightness.
The concrete units with embedded light guides are a key element in the development of the Digistone concept. The manufacturing method developed in the project is based on a system of special concrete formwork and light guide positioning system. Two different light guide thicknesses were used for the prototype to study the resulting colour appearance.
A fluid concrete was designed and optimized through trial testing to enable casting of the formwork systems with gaps down 1.5 mm. The castings showed that the concrete remained stable and complete form filling and encapsulation of the PMMA fibres were obtained.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
The digital concrete screen has been tested in various ambient light conditions both indoor and outdoor (direct sun, cloudy, rain, night). These tests have shown that the screen overall performs well under most conditions. The tests points out the necessity of automatically adjustment of brightness. The test results showed that:
- In cloudy daylight the screen performs very good, and the image is clear.
- In night conditions the screen performs very good, and the image is clear.
- In rain the screen performs very good. Compared to the dry concrete screen the wet screen actually improves the image – due to a higher contrast obtained by the wet and thus darker concrete.
- In direct sunlight the image on the screen appears more dimmed, and the image is not as clear as in the abovementioned cases. In the future, as the LEDs continue to develop, it wiill be possible to apply LEDs with even higher luminance to enable a clear image in direct sunlight.
The prototypes were evaluated both quantitatively applying spectroscopic measurements and qualitatively based on visual observations. For the latter, a questionnaire was prepared and answered by independent test persons (Figure 4.1.12). In particular, the results confirmed the importance of accurate alignment between the LEDs and the light guides and its effect on white balance, live image perception etc. In general, the majority of the viewers thought the overall quality was good and it was clear what was shown on the screen. However, joints between units should be minimized to provide a seeming less joint free display. In the prototype, the joints were 5 mm, but it is possible to minimize the joints according to future requirements.
Overall the assessment can conclude that the developed Digistone screen works sufficiently to display movies, images and text. The assessment also represents the beginning of a design guide or design specifications for this future display technology.
Potential Impact:
IMPACT
EXPECTED IMPACTS
Users/Market
The accomplishment of a successful market introduction of DIGISTONE will represent step-change innovation in the digital outdoor advertising industry – end entail a series of strong and obvious benefits for the end-users. In the section below, we outline and quantify the main benefits for the end-user (Figure 4.1.13).
End-user benefits presented as Unique Selling Points:
Main economic benefits for the users
For purposes of both realism and analysis, annual savings generated by substitution of a current standard street furniture installation with the DIGISTONE solution are considered for a commercial customer over a time span of 10 years - equivalent to the expected product lifetime. Specifically, 100 displays are installed in an urban space in an average EU country. We assume that 100 advertising faces – 2 m2 Rotating Poster Panels – are exchanged with 100 DIGISTONE faces. The installation takes place on places, where conventional digital technology cannot be used due to non-resistance to outdoor elements and vandalism. The additional advertising revenue of installing DIGISTONE can thus be derived from the end-user’s documented effects of conventional substitution of static with digital technology. Additional benefits are similarly based on a main market player’s experience combined with an assessment of the claimed advantages of DIGISTONE. The total economy of the two scenarios are derived and the result shows a value added of 398.667 € per year in favor of DIGISTONE.
Market Characteristics
The outdoor digital signage market is a part of the global Outdoor Advertising Market. Out-of-home advertising grew slightly below trend in 2010, up by 6.4 % vs. 6.9% for the global economy. In 2011, growth of 7.9 % was realised, and in the coming years the sector should grow at a faster pace than advertising overall. The sector accounts for $26.3 billion in revenues in 2011, and is predicted to generate $38.6 billion in revenues in 2016. Digital out-of-home will almost double in size, from $2.6 billion in 2011 to $5.2 billion in 2016 (a growth rate averaging15.2 %). South Korea, India, China and the Philippines are all among the fastest growing countries globally, but the US, UK, France and Japan will remain among the most important in years ahead, much as they are today. Driven by the emergence of technology and new public-private business models (which create breakthrough value for second-tier non-costumers, municipalities, and lower their costs for urban furniture) in urban architecture, the DOOH field (DOOH: Digital Out Of Home), moreover, is slowly merging with the global street furniture sector – itself approaching $5.8 billion in 2010, which further underlines the size and dynamism of the industry.
The advantages of digital outdoor displays over conventional media are compelling as the networking capability and possibility of remote and even client-driven content management of multiple screens reduces an estimated 90 % of content labour cost. Therefore, overall ease of instalment, network flexibility and management, the ability to remotely control multiple screens, and increased reliability are driving growth in the digital segment of the market. Many low power-consuming devices have also aided the digital outdoor signage market, as screens used in outdoor advertising are generally required to operate 24 hours a day without downtime so low powered systems can provide a cost effective system. These include ecologically compliant panels, low-power LED backlight panels and nascent auto stereoscopic 3-D displays. Research indicates that digital signage presents a good ROI in closed environments where a captive audience is exposed to digital signage. Crucially, for DIGISTONE, the concept is directly targeted towards exploiting the market’s core drivers and constraints:
- Overall, the lowering of capital expenditure has an important impact on the media’s feasibility for advertisers in general – and for individual buying decisions. As demonstrated above, DIGISTONE has a lower total cost of ownership than current offers due to its resistance to vandalism and low service and maintenance costs.
- The market’s reception of and the attractiveness of innovative display technology – for instance flexible screens and RGB Glass emission technology has underlined, that immaterial differentiators such as design flexibility and aesthetic appeal are particularly important in the advertising industry.
- As all sensitive components are protected by a highly resistant concrete interface, which acts as the actual screen, DIGISTONE is – unlike most current technology - not as sensible to problems of resistance and operational reliability due to harsh and perturbated outdoor environments, including environmental soiling from airborne particles and externally induced temperature variation. These environments represents peak burdens for which the technology has not been designed to cope with – and which directly affects service and maintenance costs (cleaning accounts for up to 60 % of the total cost of ownership over a 5 year period) as well as product lifetime.
- All current offerings are relatively more prone to vandalism, graffiti and malicious damage due to basic structural properties.
We are convinced that DIGISTONEs response and impact on these differentiators will position the technology favourably towards several attractive market segments. We assume that the technology will first and foremost be attractive to the segment, where static, urban billboards and street furniture for advertising purposes would be substituted with high-end digital alternatives, but where these due to external factors (weather, vandalism) are still difficult to install. Whereas the market data illustrates the enormous overall potential and dynamism of the industry, the digital signage and outdoor advertising value chains are highly complex, and the variation of business models means that it is problematic to derive reliable data and top-down quantification of annual revenue for display technology alone. Specifically, this difficulty stems from large variations in business models, which often see joint or shared ownership between public and private infrastructure owners. Instead, we choose a more reliable approach, and build the business case for our company bottom-up – departing from the industry’s own assessment of relevant urban advertising faces. According to a recent study the global potential amounts to approx. 1.5 million advertising faces. Despite the overall industry growth, we assume that this figure will remain relatively stable – mainly due to regulatory and legislative constraints stemming from public opinion and urban landscaping policy. While possibly too pessimistic - for analytical purposes, this has the added advantage of adding a conservative bias to the business case. It is anticipated that the introduction of the DIGISTONE system onto the urban advertising and street furniture market will have a series of positive effects on the competitiveness of the SME participant as component manufacturers and installation contractors as well as the end-users.
As mentioned above, we assume that the DIGISTONE technology will first and foremost be attractive to the segment, where static, urban billboards and street furniture for advertising purposes would be substituted with high-end digital alternatives, but where these due to external factors (weather, vandalism) are still difficult to install.
Benefits for the SME Consortium
Since the production costs of the full DIGISTONE system are generally higher than those of currently available static and other digital signage technologies, the pricing of the system and initial capital expenditure will also be higher. From the outset, in the business case of the SME consortium, the feasible pricing point for DIGISTONE lies in the interval between, at the lower end, total costs of the system as faced by the consortium, and, at the high end, the total advertising revenue minus operating costs during the lifetime of a DIGISTONE installation. We assume the capital costs and advertising income over product lifetime of 10 years, and – furthermore, modest profit margins at the beginning of 15% so as to ensure attractive sales prices needed to kick-start the sales. Margins increase as economies of scale kick in and productions costs are lowered.
The business case calculations shows that the DIGISTONE is a very promising business opportunity. By year 5 post project we assume capture of approximately 0.5 % market share in the street furniture market is gained and the business yields a total revenue of 90 M € and a contribution margin of 36 M €. The assumptions concerning market capture are defined according to a major market players current experience with the introduction, uptake and roll-out of new and innovative display technology on their global market – combined with an evaluation of the innovative and real differentiating capabilities of the DIGISTONE system.
Societal and political objectives
In addition to the benefits for the SME consortium and its individual commercial end-users, we finally assess the impact at the third and final level, i.e. the positive societal effects of the project in a number of areas, also supporting European policies.
Energy savings
DIGISTONE will contribute to the EU’s objectives for energy efficiency and energy policy, first and foremost the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET) which holds the strategic plan to accelerate the development and deployment of cost-effective low carbon technologies and fulfilling the potential of end-use efficiency, which is estimated to contribute to more than 50% of CO2 reduction by 2030 – and thus plays an important role in reaching the ambitious target of 20 % reduction in carbon emission in EU by 2020 (EU: 8-9 March 2007, European Council: Presidency Conclusions; COM(2009) 519 final, Investing in the Development of Low Carbon Technologies (SET-Plan)). The substantial reduction in travelling of the poster workers when eliminating the heavy manual operation of changing the posters will have a significant environmental impact through reduced fuel consumption and consequent lower carbon emissions. As mentioned previously, the number of saved service visits associated with DIGISTONE is in the area of 90% on an annual basis. The total potential CO2 saving from DIGISTONE is equal to 22,000 tonnes, where we expect DIGISTONE alone to contribute with 2000 tonnes/year of CO2 saving by year 2020 (National Energy Foundation (UK) Standard calculator of CO2 emissions).
Impact on urban heritage and environments
The aesthetic integrity of the urban public realm is a key concern in member states’ and EU urban policy (European Commission, 2006, Making our cities attractive and sustainable - How the EU contributes to improving the urban environment) - and is a lingering concern of the outdoor signage industry. New planning codes have been put in place to reform outdoor advertising in, for instance, the UK and Australia. These were driven by the desire for aesthetic order and land-use control. Despite the additional advertising revenue and possibilities for efficient communication, it is evident that outdoor advertising might detract from other landscape values that might be attractive to residents and tourists. Prominent urban planners and opinion makers have therefore increasingly called upon the industry to propose new forms of outdoor advertising as a solution to the ‘chaos’ of the outdoor media landscape (Kurt Iveson, Branded cities: outdoor advertising, urban governance, and the outdoor media landscape, University of Sydney, Working Paper, 2010). DIGISTONE will through the integration of the advertising in street furniture provide such a solution that safeguards the aesthetic integrity of the urban area to the benefit of the public.
In conclusion, the DIGISTONE project is expected to result in a series of benefits for the SME consortium, the end-users of the DIGISTONE technology and the EU as a whole.
List of Websites:
www.digistonescreen.eu
