Zachary Todd is a marketing communications coordinator with SNA Displays and works out of the company’s Dallas office. He writes and edits company blogs, case studies, press releases, and numerous other types of marketing copy. Since joining SNA Displays in 2020, he’s also become an amateur photographer, capturing company events and Dallas-area LED installations.
With SNA Displays building LED video experiences of all kinds around the world, I don’t always get to see our work first-hand, so I jumped at the chance to see the new Times Travel museum in person. (For details about the technology behind the immersive museum experience, visit SNA Displays’ Times Travel case study page or if you want to learn more about the history behind the development, check out the news release.)
The gist is this: Times Travel celebrates the history of Times Square and the famous New Year’s Eve Ball Drop. It’s a combination of video, light, digital art, physical artifacts, and interactive exhibits all housed inside the iconic One Times Square. If that name doesn’t sound familiar, trust me, you know it. It’s the skyscraper that was the original home to The New York Times and around which enormous crowds gather every December 31 for the biggest New Year’s Eve party in the world.
The lobby centerpiece is the Centennial Ball that was dropped only once for the 100-year anniversary of the NYE ball drop. There’s something special about a museum experience that doesn’t ensconce its artifacts behind glass enclosures — you can actually go up and touch a piece of history. Another thing I noticed was the steel beams that thread through the building. They don’t seem to fit the modern aesthetic but, as our tour guide noted, they are part of the original bones of the building that remained throughout the decades and numerous transformations. To me, that speaks to how well this space is designed to preserve and celebrate history.
The dvLED experience begins at the entrance just above the stairs that lead to the basement-level Crystal Core with a custom video display featuring artistic content intended to lead guests toward the tour. Then, I was completely surrounded by a twisting hallway covered in tight-pitch, flexible LED panels featuring more of that curiosity-driving content, which was pixelated and indecipherable until it later morphed into recognizable data and imagery. It was a dazzling light show that gave me the most immersive feeling of any other project I’ve visited.
It’s one thing to write about how dvLED technology “snakes through the space,” but entirely different to actually walk that subterranean, winding path oneself. That same video experience continues throughout several levels in the building as hallways and waiting areas also have the same flexible LED tech mounted to their walls. It builds excitement and engages the senses on multiple levels, including some amazing sound design, but it’s more than just a mood setter.
The reason why this first sensory experience is called the Crystal Core is, well, because it has an actual crystal core. Legend has it that the quartz-filled bedrock on which New York City is built pulses with energy that seeps into the heart of the city itself. It’s a reminder that the Crossroads of the World has an electricity deeper than the lights (and LED video) above ground. This is all represented by a stone pillar with a quartz crown that includes an unexpected interactive experience. As soon as I stepped on the surrounding metal plate, I felt a vibrating energy course up through my feet.
As my guide explained, that haptic design element represents the energy that flows up from the ground, through the crystal, and out from the NYE ball into the world. Sounds a little mystical, sure, but it’s a fun experience.
Another impressively immersive experience is Decades of Change. This exhibit puts you in the backseat of a virtual taxi as you zip through years’ worth of famous Times Square landmarks and theater marquees. The screen wraps 180 degrees, so I had plenty to look at as the virtual driver gave me the skinny on all the changes to the city. The video was about two minutes long and packed with insider information delivered in a very characteristic style that made me feel like I was listening to an authentic New York cabbie.
I continued to travel upwards until I reached Eternal Midnight, a series of LED screens that wrap both sides of a hallway and feature New Year’s Eve revelers throughout the decades, starting in black and white from the 1930s through the grainy color of the 60s and 70s all the way up to high-def modern times. It was a fun way to feel like one of the crowd without having to stand around for hours in the cold.
But what is a true New Year’s Eve experience without the ball drop? Well, the next part answers that question with a bang in the next interactive exhibit. Walking into a room with an open floor plan, the first thing I noticed was the large NYE ball in the back.
Ticker displays above eye level showed me how much time there was to the next ball drop, but more interesting were multiple screens with miniature NYE balls that you press to give yourself a mini ball drop experience on a large, but personal, LED screen. There’s also a couple of stations where you can write your New Year’s wish on a piece of confetti that gets blown into the room for a fun group countdown experience, made even more impressive by the huge LED video wall that features more celebratory content.
I also enjoyed the chance to get up close to a real NYE ball and run my hands over the gorgeous Waterford crystals that make up its exterior. Then I got a peek of the inside, which reminded me of what spaceship modules look like on the inside.
The experience ends with a dramatic view of Times Square from 19 stories in the air.
How can I describe the skywalk? It was a breathtaking, dizzying experience. Just above me was where the NYE ball drops, hundreds of feet below me was the iconic Time Square. It was surreal, made even more so as I walked all the way around the building on glass flooring that made it seem like I was floating stories upon stories above the street. It was somewhat terrifying, if I’m being honest, but not something I’ll forget!
All in all, the tour took us about 45 minutes, but not a single minute is wasted as each new experience is more memorable than the last.
For more digital signage topics, articles, and project deep dives, visit Limelight: The SNA Blog.