Carpenters Center goes live with LED Display

The Carpenters Union went live today with a major component of the Carpenters Center: a 32’ H x 21’ W transparent LED display. The display is located at the South side of the building and is visible to traffic traveling north along I-93.

A striking component of the building’s façade, the display is made up of horizontally-oriented LED sticks, offering superior brightness, contrast, and image quality. The display is perfectly suited for photographic images, both black and white and full color. It can handle millions of colors.

The horizontal orientation and spacing of the LED sticks allows for 53% transparency, while supporting an average of 40mm resolution. Technology evaluations provided the necessary image quality at viewing distances of 150’, or equal to the distance that passing cars will be viewing the display from the highway.


Looking out to the Expressway from inside the building.

There are only one or two transparent LED installations in the US which are approximately half the resolution of this display and 1/3 the potential brightness - making this sign clearly visible in the middle of the day.

The Carpenters Center display will meet all Federal Highway mandates including the minimum length of time an image must be displayed, known as the digital billboard’s “hold time.” The industry’s average digital displays hold time is 8 seconds.

Federal Highway Administration regulates digital display’s brightness by mandating that all digital displays be adjusted to compliment ambient light levels. This display’s brightness levels will be scheduled by a content delivery system that is able to adjust the brightness of the display to match the ambient light levels. This will ensure that the display’s brightness is appropriate to the time of day and seasonal light levels.

Selection and implementation of the LED Display was done with strong consideration given to its impact on the surrounding neighborhood. The display will have no paid advertising content and the brightness levels will comply with the regulations mentioned above.

"We want the sign to send a message about who we are, what we do, and our connections to the communities we live and work in,” notes Mark Erlich, NERCC Executive Secretary-Treasurer.