The Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis is a diverse space that celebrates "52 Weeks of Culture." The space provides visitors with locally made art, produce, and baked goods, as well as international entertainment. Helping guide guests around the multipurpose space are new wayfinding displays and digital boards, brought to life by Key Digital's KD-MLV4x4Pro multi-view tiling processor matrix.
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Located in one of the more historic buildings in Minnesota, the space opened in 1928 as the Midtown Exchange and later served as a Sears warehouse and retail store until 1994. The city acquired the building in 2001, but it remained vacant until Midtown Global took it over in 2005. Today, it serves midtown visitors with a bazaar-type atmosphere with a food court and grand center stage, providing a culturally immersive experience with sights, sounds, and tastes with a global flare.
The upgrade itself was put in motion in 2021, but the deployment took a mere three days in May 2023. Innovative Sales Solutions, based in Edina, MN, ran all electrical, data connections, mounting equipment, and programming. The initial plan was to upgrade the digital signage to allow vendors to advertise and help visitors find their way around the marketplace. But there was more—and a second phase is still in the works.
"Their grand plan was looking to us in the partnership and asking what we can provide," explained Matt Brumm, director business development at Innovative Sales Solutions. "And we showed the entire solution. But they just wanted to go a little bit slower. Phase one, let's get all the endpoints and wayfinding done, and then phase two, talk about the entertainment value for the grand center stage."
Flexible Messaging
Initially, the thought was to upgrade the existing 2x2 video wall; however, Innovative Sales Solutions had another idea, which was both simplified and aesthetically pleasing. "We looked at that and we said, 'Well, we don't need to do a 2x2 again,'" explained John Peterson, vice president technology sales at Innovative Sales Solutions. "If we put an 86-inch [RCA] in here, it'll take up just about the same size. Then I can use Key Digital's MLV4x4, which I love because I can do full screen for when they do a sporting event or something like that.
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"Most of the time it's just going to sit as a quad," he continued. "I just put my four inputs in, set them up as a quad—one's a directory, and then the other one does the digital signage. And then we added a loop TV in there just to fill a space."
The install was relatively quick thanks to a lack of challenges. Though the original plan was to have a pair of 55-inch displays at each entrance, the team went with eight RCA commercial displays (six 55-inch panels and two 86-inch), Peerless-AV ceiling and wall mounts, and an array of Key Digital solutions including the KD‑MLV4x4Pro and a 2x8 distribution amp.
That's not to say there weren't any mountains to climb in a busy, historic building. "We were working during the day," Peterson said. "Getting the lift around [the crowds] was hard because it's a 1928 building as well. The cement is not the newer Spancrete, so it was much harder to fasten the ceiling mounts; we went through a lot of drill bits. We also had to use a little more cable because instead of cutting across, we went down the aisles."
Innovative Sales Solutions also installed the Revel Digital digital signage and media distribution system. Per Brumm, that not only gives the Midtown Global Mart insight on how to monetize their displays by charging for ad placement and pulling reports to show impressions to businesses, but also allowed Innovative Sales Solutions to add a QR code to the wayfinding signage.
To say that visitors like having a map on their phone that doesn't require an app is an understatement. "It's amazing how many people were using it when we watched it just after we installed it," said Peterson.
That was the advantage of working with Innovative Sales Solutions: Midtown Global Mart had a painless and quick installation in a matter of days. "We managed the entire project," Brumm said. "It took the load off them of having multiple people. There's a lot of relationships in place down there, so I just offered up everything we do—and it's the entire ecosystem around digital signage, product side, and CMS.
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"It's bringing in the right technicians that know what they're doing and doing it timely, and taking that whole plate of items and checklists off them and taking it to us. And there is a benefit to that because that way we can stay on task with a determined timeline versus waiting for their partners to come in when they can or when they cannot and setting our schedule around them. Their win was having one partner do it all and do it in a timely fashion once we pulled the trigger."
Revitalizing the Area
The content on the displays is easily managed by the facility administrators' team and updated weekly. A wayfinding map is displayed on two quadrants in the back-to-back display kiosk in the heart of the market but doesn't need much updating unless a new merchant comes in or an old one leaves.
As far as phase two, the project is still ongoing. "It's a bigger project than phase one," Brumm explained. "We're working with internal teams to make it trouble free, so anyone can grab an iPad, integrate it with Key Digital, and take control of lighting and sound for that zone of the center stage.”
Located about two blocks away from George Floyd Square, the city itself is investing money in the area to revitalize it. The Midtown Global Mart, which offers something for everyone, now provides a modernized facility with Pro AV solutions to serve as a welcoming beacon to rejuvenate an area that wasn't previously thriving.
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While merchants and vendors were excited to see themselves on displays and wayfinding maps, it was equally rewarding for Innovative Sales Solutions. "It was really exciting to be part of this because that part of Minneapolis is really going through a rebuild and a rebirth after COVID and some other things," said Erin Brumm, president and CEO of Innovative Sales Solutions. "It's such a wonderful space and opportunity for merchants that would not be able to do this anywhere else. They would not go and lease space in a building to show their handicrafts; it wouldn't happen. It's gotten a lot of press from the mayor of Minneapolis and people now go there for lunch. It's a unique place and very inclusive space. It was happening right at a time where the city really needed that."
