- The Georgia Aquarium executives turned to LG Electronics to recreate a live exhibit with video wall. The Aquarium installed 36 LG 55-inch Full HD Video Wall Displays inside of an emptied acrylic aquarium, which formerly housed “The Wall of Fish” exhibit.
The aquarium is the second largest of its kind in the world housing thousands of fish, mammals and amphibians on display within six galleriesThe aquarium is the second largest of its kind in the world housing thousands of fish, mammals and amphibians on display within six galleries. The video walls provided the aquarium’s more than 2 million yearly visitors with an entertaining visual experience.
During construction of our new Sea Lion exhibit, we had to remove life support systems that supported the Wall of Fish exhibit, leaving nothing but an empty acrylic box,” said Ryan Palley, Senior Manager of Audio/Visual at Georgia Aquarium. “LG’s video walls provided the best solution with lifelike picture quality capable of duplicating the feel of a live exhibit, to maintain the underwater experience while entertaining and informing.”
The installation process faced several challenges, namely the space allotted for the video walls. The in-house audio/visual team installed the 36 LG displays, in two 6x3 matrices, inside of a former fish tank that measures 16 feet deep and is separated by a partition in the center. The tank only allowed five feet of working room to install mounting structure, brackets, power, data and displays. With this limited space the team implemented a floating support system that uses carpet pads to protect the product and the acrylic wall on which they are installed. The LG displays were lifted and lowered into the tank given the narrow confinement, and then mounted with Crimson video wall mounts.
The aquarium's goal was to create a digital exhibit to replicate marine life at the entrance of the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and deliver a visual and interactive experience for visitors. LG’s commercial grade Full HD Video Wall, featuring a narrow bezel-to-bezel width and flexible configurations, allowed for multiple displays to be daisy chained at once.
To achieve the level of picture quality and operational reliability desired, the aquarium chose the LG 55LV77A-7B to display Full HD 1080p content on each display. LG’s IPS panel technology ensures color saturation and contrast, resulting in a display with picture quality that can be installed at any angle or height, while maintaining the integrity of the image.
The video walls’ LED screens display IPS technology and provide a temperature tolerance of up to 230° Fahrenheit. This helps alleviate a common overheating problem that affects picture quality with some other digital signage screens. The Georgia Aquarium opted to control the LG video walls using a RS-232 system to operate a total of 11 hours a day. The RS-232 system automatically powers on the video walls 30 minutes prior to the aquarium opening, and powers off 30 minutes after it closes.
“We’ve benefited greatly by reducing our electrical consumption with the LG ENERGY STAR certified displays,” Palley said. “We also chose to display the video walls in low lighting, cutting approximately 200 amps of energy for lighting alone – not to mention eliminating the energy typically needed to support aquatic life in the tank where the screens are installed.”
The LG video walls are used to communicate marine conservation messaging to help educate and inform visitors. The video walls have been well received among staffers, as they require very little maintenance.“The LG video walls are the first visuals that our visitors see when they walk into the Georgia Aquarium. It was imperative to choose the right signage and above all, the right partner, that could work with us to display our content and maintain a high quality experience for visitors,” said Palley. “We’ve been very impressed with this installation and want to continue to push the envelope with more exhibit enhancements such as this.
