Joplin Mall Puts Projection-based Digital Signage System to Work

Northpark Mall is using three high-gain projection screens, projectors and the Keywest Technology MediaXtreme to reach shoppers with ads and promotions as they wander throughout the 991,000-square-foot mall.

Things inside the Northpark Mall in Joplin, Missouri, just got a little more exciting with this month's roll out of three high-gain XL-A-Vision projection screens from AccelerOptics , bright projectors and digital signage control from Keywest Technology.

With two screens positioned near major retailers and a third stationed in the mall's food court, the new signs are delivering important sales information, promotions and a variety of ads for merchandise and services available inside and out of the mall.

Not only is the installation providing a valuable marketing vehicle for tenants or the mall and a new revenue stream to its owner, CBL & Associates, but it's also serving as a proof-of-concept test site for the company before it begins a more ambitious rollout at some of its other approximately 140 mall properties across the country.

The key building blocks of the Northpark Mall installation are two 70-inch-plus (diagonal) XL-A-Vision screens -one each near a Macy's department store and an American Eagle clothing store- a 100-inch  (diagonal) XL-A-Vision screen in the food court and three Keywest Technology MediaXtreme media servers including X-WARP driving conventional video projectors.

The XL-A-Vision screens are designed to stand up to normal ambient lighting, such as that found in Northpark Mall. The 18x gain projection screens used for the installation clearly display content while rejecting the effects of ambient light that otherwise would wash out the image.

Three Keywest Technology's MediaXtreme media servers are being used to build playlists of ad segments, announcements, text, graphics and other promotional items, manage changes and adjustments to when content is played back, and play out the list to the projectors used for each screen. The X-WARP add-on for MediaXtreme corrects for any geometric distortion that otherwise might be introduced into the projected image from projectors placed off axis to the screen.

System integrator and project designer 4-State Electronics designed and installed  projection-based digital signage project. "This display was the obvious best choice," said Aaron Garman, the company's president. By using a projection-based approach that's significantly less expensive to own and operate than competing technologies, 4-State Electronics has made it easier to achieve a return on investment that should prove to an incentive for CBL & Associates to spread the digital signage excitement throughout its sizable network of retail malls.