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Itäkeskus

The largest Digital Signage system for the largest shopping center in the Nordic Countries


Itäkeskus in Helsinki, Finland, is the largest shopping mall in the Nordic Countries and has recently taken in use a digital signage system consisting of more than 100 large screens. The core of the system is a Black Box solution through which the live video is distributed around the facility.


The floor area of Itäkeskus (The Eastern Center) is almost 120,000 square meters (1,300,000 square feet), it accommodates 300 different shops and it has 22 million yearly visitors. Every shop wishes to tell about themselves to each visitor so the chaos of advertising is potentially considerable and for a single shop it is difficult to be distinguished in the big crowd.


The possibility to be seen for everybody


- Our function is to lease out premises for the shops and to ensure them as good as possible circumstances for making profitable business, says Mr. Atte Köykkä, Managing Director, Itäkeskus Shopping Center Ltd. - Everybody wants to advertise so we had a large and logical total solution built, which gives our lease holders new possibilities to appear. With this solution even a small shop can be seen for each of our visitors, besides at very reasonable expenses.


The system is owned and the contents taken care by Maxin.TV Group Ltd who offer visibility for the shops in ten second spots, repeated five or ten times an hour. If needed, the advertisements are also produced for the customers into the bargain. And the advertising really works: the expense for an ad is so low that even a small shop can afford it. A campaign for a sewing machine shop brought more sales than in the highest Christmas season and the sales of a Kebab restaurant doubled because of their ad.


ItisAdvanced image transfer technology


The program to be shown is transmitted into the system by regular player machines. As a distribution network there is a mixture of fiber optic cables and existing CAT cables used because of the large quantity of the displays and long distances.


In the computer room in the basement there is a 4 channel Black Box Fiber Transmitter from which the image is transmitted through multimode fiber to four distribution points. From there the image is further transmitted with Black Box Wizard Multimedia Hubs through CAT cables to receivers near the screens and further to the screens in digital mode.


The strengths of the system are redundant Plug-and-Play implementation, which means that no external software or special hardware is needed; completely nonbreaking video transmission; undisturbed and very sharp image and easy expandability. If needed the system also supports audio transmission.


ItisA functional solution


- According to our interview both shops and customers are very happy with the new system, says Mr. Köykkä. - Actually I have heard no negative feedback at all. The images are sharp and undisturbed in all screens and the texts are easy to read. The Black Box technology functions remarkably well.


- Itäkeskus is our largest installation, says Mr. Jari Tapanainen, development manager, Maxin.TV. - We have had a successful cooperation with Black Box earlier in smaller installations. In Itäkeskus the limits of a solution are really tested and the Black Box solution gets a full score.