Full Text
DYNAMIC DISPLAY TERMINOLOGY EXAMPLES For Missoula City Council PAZ Committee – 7/29/09 By Earl Allen – Hi-Noon Petroleum ---PAGE BREAK--- DYNAMIC DISPLAY TERMS & QUESTIONS FRAMES HOLD TIME TRANSITIONS MESSAGE LENGTH / DURATION EFFECTS & ANIMATION VIDEO STATIC MESSAGE BRIGHTNESS HOURS OF OPERATION ---PAGE BREAK--- FRAME & HOLD TIME A “frame” is an individual section of a message that contains an image or sprite, and/or text for display (think from school) “Hold Time” is the length of time that a frame is fully displayed on the sign face Related example - what you’re seeing now This slide is the equivalent of a frame. The amount of time I leave it on the screen is the “hold time.” ---PAGE BREAK--- HOLD TIME EXAMPLES The frame to the right has a hold time of 1 second This frame to the left has a hold time of 3 seconds This frame on the bottom has a hold time of 5 seconds ---PAGE BREAK--- MORE HOLD TIME EXAMPLES The frame at left has a hold time of 8 seconds The message at right has 8 frames with a hold time of 1 seconds each ---PAGE BREAK--- LONGER HOLD TIME EXAMPLES The frame at the top has a hold time of 30 seconds The frame at the bottom has a hold time of 60 seconds ---PAGE BREAK--- TRANSITIONS “Transitions” are…just what they say – the transition, or change-over, from one frame to another Transitions can be assigned a certain amount of time to complete This amount of time adds to total message length or duration This also allows a “softer” more flowing message that is easier to read There are various types Pushes, Wipes, Slides, Fades (through white or black), Expanding, and more All of these can be done in various directions ---PAGE BREAK--- TRANSITION EXAMPLES WIPE PUSH SLIDE BLINDS FADES ---PAGE BREAK--- MESSAGE DURATION The total amount of time for a message to be completely displayed This time is the total of frame “hold” times + “transition” times ---PAGE BREAK--- EXAMPLE The message above has: 8 frames that hold for .5 second each with transitions of .35 second between frames This message has a duration of 7 seconds ---PAGE BREAK--- OTHER EXAMPLES The top message has 10 frames that hold for .75 sec each with transitions of .5 sec and lasts 11 seconds The bottom message has 11 frames that hold for .5 sec each with transitions of .25 sec and lasts 8 seconds ---PAGE BREAK--- “FRAME EFFECTS” (ANIMATION vs MOVEMENT) EXAMPLES Animation is causing a sprite or object to become enlivened (parts of the object move “giving life” to it) Movement is progressively changing the position of the entire object, or even text, on the screen and may create the impression of animation Other frame effects include crawling text, sparkles, fades, rotation, scale Effects usually start and end in the same frame Similar example: movement of this text into this power point slide ---PAGE BREAK--- VIDEO EXAMPLE May be better on larger, higher- resolution full-color sign Frames and their hold times must be as long as the video clip Ordinance limitations on message duration and size of sign for a given business may make true full-motion video difficult to use For smaller lower-resolution signs (like in my case): Difficult to use due to resolution and size of sign (hard to see) Video Clips combined with text make for an ineffective message ---PAGE BREAK--- STATIC MESSAGE 1 frame with no transitions and a hold time of 60 seconds End users may try to jam more words in small amount of space Messages or abbreviations may not make sense to the viewer Multiple businesses on using same sign can cause confusion to customers – (ruins efficiency) Messages will be harder to read and could be more dangerous to drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians who strain to read messages Ineffective communication makes the display virtually useless and / or obsolete – especially 1-line signs (Campus Inn, Jiffy Lube Locations, or Five Valleys Bowl) ---PAGE BREAK--- Small sign (1 or 2 line) examples ---PAGE BREAK--- Brightness Examples ---PAGE BREAK--- Brightness Settings 40% Auto Set 100% 50% 10% NIT = cd per pixel X pixels per m2 My sign tells me a power level as a percentage, but not NITs – how do I tell? The sun in N. America averages 5000 NITs during the day. ---PAGE BREAK--- Hours of Operation Questions Can a business turn off the dynamic part of the sign without turning off the rest of the sign? Multiple businesses or business units sharing the same sign? A casino could be open from 6 am to 2 am, so their dynamic display could be on from 5 am to 3 am – what does that save? Equal standard? How many NITs do traditional “manual” changeable copy signs put out? Are they at an advantage of being lit overnight vs. operation hours of dynamic signs? ---PAGE BREAK--- THANKS!