Twenty years ago, the thought of creating a building to celebrate New England Patriots history would’ve been met with loud laughs and boisterous ridicule given the team had what can best be described as a checkered past.
But, with four Super Bowl championships since 2001, it’s no surprise that thousands of loyal Pats fans fill the Hall at Patriot Place every year. And it’s probably even less surprising that one of the Hall’s most popular areas is the Hall of Fame gallery, an interactive area where fans can learn more about the best Patriots players and seasons.
HB Communications recently helped the Hall at Patriot Place take on a more modern look by installing double-sided NanoLumens NanoSlim video displays in four 22-foot-wide-by-4.5-foot-tall pylons that entertain those in the Hall and outside it too.
Installers cut large pieces of plywood and painted them black before attaching the NanoLumens screens to them. They used 9MM pixel pitch for the exterior screens and 5MM pixel pitch inside the gallery.
“They didn’t want any significant down time for this part of the Hall,” says HB account representative Andrew DeCesare. “All the legwork we did on the front end made a huge difference.”
HB staffers brought the equipment into the Hall each morning from 6 to 10 a.m. from a truck that was loaded backward to give them access to what they needed when they needed it, says project manager Chris DeSimone.
With an elevator rated for 4,500 pounds, the staggered approach worked best. As HB finished each pylon, staffers turned it on and made it available to Hall visitors.
“It was a bit of a struggle but we were able to do it with a lot of coordination,” says DeSimone.
HB Communications has a long-term agreement to upgrade the technology at the Hall at Patriot Place and CBS Scene, a restaurant within the Patriot Place shopping complex next to Gillette Stadium.
“LED technology has improved so much since we opened this building in 2008,” says Bryan Morry, executive director of the Hall at Patriot Place. The pylons feature 10- to 12-minute loops on the exterior featuring video highlights from the Patriots’ Super Bowl wins and Hall of Famers featuring statistics and biographies of the 22 Hall of Famers and two honored contributors. Cortina Productions provided the content for the pylons and Gefen extenders send the content to the pylons.
Four touchscreens include information on the honorees.
“It really pops for our visitors,” says Morry. “It’s such a dramatic improvement over what we had. The difference is dramatic.”
NanoLumens officials are proud to be part of the project. “The Kraft Group…set out to…set a new standard for interactivity and engagement,” says Dana Michaelis, director of Northeast sales at NanoLumens. “The result is a series of stunning visualization solutions that forge a closer bond between fans and their team.”
HB Communications also upgraded the Legends box and Celtics Courtside Club at TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.
“We’re doing a lot more large-scale LED deployments than a few years ago,” says Gerard Wolfram, senior quality control field engineer for HB Communications.
The Patriots also created the Optum Field Lounge, Gillette Stadium’s first ever field-level space. The 20,000-square-foot lounge offers season-ticket holders an array of video technology, including a 30-foot-by-9-foot 2.5MM pixel pitch NanoSlim Engage solution and two 5MM 35-foot-long ribbon displays. Between games, the lounge can be rented for a variety of private events.
This story was originally published on TD sister site Commercial Integrator.
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