FOCUS - OUTDOOR ADVERTISING: Changi goes hi-tech with screens

Capital City Posters (CCP) has partnered up with Hitachi Asia to install a first-of-its-kind, high-tech imaging screen at Singapore's Changi Airport. The Hitachi Selectop On-Glass Projection System, launched on November 1, is potentially a new, sophisticated medium for advertisers at the airport. The screen uses a film technology developed by Hitachi, which allows images to be projected onto normal glass surfaces coated with the film. CCP managing director Peter Kemeny likened the effect to a set of hanging images that "come out of nowhere". In Japan, the less-than-a-year-old technology has been used in retail shops and convenience stores, but Changi is the first airport in the world that features the screen. Compared to traditional light-boxes where images are static, the Selectop can project more sophisticated images. "It can do anything that a computer can do since it's a computer technology," said Mr Lim See Kor, business development manager of Hitachi Asia. He said that the screen's translucent effect is a plus point, as it allows retailers to see what is going on outside their shop windows and security officers in airports to observe movements outside the immigration area. Mr Kemeny said there had always been a demand for advertising space at departure points at Changi but it was not easy to convince the airport that they should occupy those space with advertisements. "Eventually, they said we could do it, as long as we didn't touch the walls," he said. "When we came across Hitachi's revolutionary film, we saw a way of doing it." CCP is test-running the screens in four locations at Changi's departure halls for a period of three months before marketing the medium to commercial advertisers. During this time, Mr Kemeny said they are "testing for complete product reliablity", and want to be able to offer an "almost 100 per cent guarantee to advertisers". Eventually advertisers will be able to buy 10-second spots in two-minute cycles, running 20 hours a day at 20-30 locations within the airport, for S$20,000 a month. The screens measure at only 120cm by 90cm but Mr Kemeny said they could "easily put four to six of those in a row to make a 20-foot long screen". While he saw the potential in the new medium spreading to other areas in Singapore, such as the glass walls along the MRT tracks, he believed that only the airport can justify the high costs of running the screens. The costs include regularly replacing the lightbulbs and other components to maintain the quality of the images. Currently, he said, the screens' resolution is "fairly low", and rely on computers to run. Mr Kemeny said they plan to eventually control the images remotely from their office, but for now have set up a maintanence unit at the airport. CCP has spent almost S$300,000 to install the screens at Changi.

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