Westfield Stratford City project recognised with ‘Best Digital Signage Project of the Year’ award

Westfield Stratford City project recognised with ‘Best Digital Signage Project of the Year’ award

Esprit Digital last week won the ‘Best Digital Signage Project of the Year’ by industry experts at the prestigious InAVation Awards in Amsterdam.

Following its previous award-winning screen installation projects on London Underground and at Heathrow Airport, the digital display company won this most recent award for the rollout of giant video walls and ultra-thin marketing pods at the new Westfield Stratford City shopping centre, the gateway to the Olympic Stadium for the 2012 games.

Challenging project pays dividends

Starting on 20 May 2011, the team were given three months to complete a programme to deliver 12 double-sided ‘wafers,’ four internal and six external wall mounted 55-inch digital posters: ten 12-screen bulkhead displays above each of the main concourses; a five-by-five screen wall in the Vue Cinema foyer; two 27-screen walls; one above the other outside Marks & Spencer; and finally, the centrepiece, a 102-screen double-sided wall outside John Lewis – the largest LCD video wall in Europe.

Chris Lynham, Westfield Shoppingtowns national mall retail, brand & media account manager, said: “Esprit Digital were appointed to deliver the digital signage strategy for Westfield Stratford City, an obvious partner given the requirement for technology that was both quickly available in large quantities, sufficiently robust for a shopping centre environment and capable of being designed into the infrastructure of the building.

“Westfield had no previous experience of managing their own digital network in the UK and Esprit worked with us to overcome the obstacles of a large construction project against exceedingly challenging timescales, while advising on all aspects of the project to ensure all the large format video walls were fully operational for the launch on 13 September.

Pioneering technical deployment

“The bulkheads were a particular challenge, as they had never previously been implemented on such a scale before. They included the enormous 102 screen, five-tonne monster outside John Lewis, and all screens were designed and installed sympathetically to the architecture of the building. Showing a combination of Westfield marketing messages and brand-partner content, these displays have been very positively received. Esprit's installation teams worked tirelessly around the clock to ensure the success of the project and we have employed them again to deliver the same solution for our London White City site.”

Peter Livesey, Esprit Digital managing director, commented: “Esprit’s long history of delivering these projects successfully has definitely given us the edge in this market and being recognised by the industry last week capped a great year with turnover up over 400%.”