next stop - the moon?

'The Lion King' Helps Inaugurate the Brightest New Lights on Broadway as Durst Introduces Radical Sign Technology Atop 4 Times Square
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Disney First Up for 'Psycho-Physics' Display from Australia's Lumacom

NEW YORK, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The fabled bright lights of Broadway are about to get brighter, higher, more high-tech and more "green" than ever before.

At sunset on Thursday evening, April 21, The Durst Organization will inaugurate a spectacular 2,500-square-foot electronic display at the top of the western facade of its 48-story flagship tower at 4 Times Square. The sign incorporates a revolutionary high-resolution, energy saving technology linked to psycho-physics, the science of sensory processes and perception. The resulting display will be clearly visible and readable to viewers as far away as the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.

The sign, by Australia-based technology company Lumacom, will occupy the highest space (above street level) available for third-party advertising in North America, and possibly in the world.

A display for Disney's landmark production of The Lion King will be the sign's first imagery. The Lion King, which has won six Tony Awards and is now in its eighth year on Broadway, will occupy the LumaGraph panels for at least several weeks.

Tom Bow, senior vice president for leasing for The Durst Organization says that space for similar types of signage is being made available on 4 Times Square's three other facades.

"We're at the forefront of what we believe is the future of outdoor commercial display, with a technology that is visually stunning but low-impact in terms of the environment and cost of maintenance," says Mr. Bow.

Lumacom CEO Rodd Sala says the 4 Times Square sign will be the first psycho-physics-based commercial display in the Western Hemisphere. He explains that the proprietary "LumaGraph" panels achieve their effect by using only about 10% of the light elements, or pixels, of a conventional sign display. The pixels are arranged in a special matrix that induces the viewer to perceive the fully intended picture without the need to actually illuminate the entire surface area of the display screen.

In New York to oversee final commissioning, co-inventor and Lumacom founder Oscar Sala said: "The LumaGraph panels are lighter, more cost-efficient, and far more environmentally friendly than conventional electronic signage. They provide the full-range of color, motion and resolution, but use much less energy and generate far less heat, eliminating the need for complex cooling systems."

The sign is pitched slightly forward from the top for ease of viewing, and its displays have an extraordinarily wide-angle viewing range of 170 degrees.

Lumacom is using the local expertise of Spectrum Signs, Inc., based in Farmingdale, N.Y., which is in charge of engineering, installing and servicing the sign. On 4 Times Square. Tom Morra, director of New York City projects for Spectrum, is overseeing the project. Clear Channel Spectacolor has the advertising assignment.

Lumacom is in the process of sourcing and installing a world-wide network of its LumaPanel electronic advertising bill-boards, with the first of such systems represented by the installation at 4 Times Square and two equally stunning screens totaling more than 3,000 square feet in Istanbul, Turkey.
The installation in Istanbul is on an equally commanding location atop the Marmara Hotel in Taksim Square -- the "Times Square" of Turkey.

Lumacom is a publicly listed company headquartered in Perth, Australia. Formerly a private company known as Display Systems Advertising -- founded and managed by Rodd, Oscar and Mickey Sala -- Lumacom went public in the year 2000. Oscar and Mickey Sala are the inventors of the LumaPanel technology.

The Durst Organization, founded in 1915, is one of New York's oldest and largest privately owned real estate firms, with an office-building portfolio comprising more than 8.3 million square feet. The firm is widely recognized as a world leader in the development of technologically advanced and environmentally responsible commercial property.

Among its newest projects are the 2.1-million-square-foot Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park, which is being co-developed with Bank of America; and The Helena, a 600-unit "green" rental residence on Manhattan's West Side, which is expected to become one of the first multi-family buildings to earn a gold LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) from the U.S. Green Buildings Council.


SOURCE The Durst Organization