SNA Displays truly values a team mentality, so when it comes to projects as vast as 40,000 square feet of networked LED/LCD screens at mega-entertainment destinations like American Dream, it’s “all hands on deck.” It took a large team spanning several divisions at SNA Displays to make this vision a reality. Special thanks to Anne St. Mauro, George Hanratty, Nick Gioia, Dennis Menjivar, Mikell Senger, and Rasool Sayed for contributing their expertise to this behind-the-scenes peek at some of the technical aspects of the amazing American Dream project.
American Dream Meadowlands is one of the largest indoor/outdoor retail and entertainment venues in the world and the largest mega-mall in the United States. The massive site spreads out over three million square feet and includes a sprawling network of digital signage provided by SNA Displays. On top of its more than 500 retail stores and restaurants, the destination entertainment venue features an ice-skating rink, DreamWorks Water Park, Big SNOW America—the first indoor ski slope in the U.S., two mini-golf courses, and a Nickelodeon Universe® theme park.
SNA Displays supplied more than 36,000 square feet of digital signage throughout the American Dream campus and continues to roll out indoor and outdoor LED displays as further development continues. Throughout the development, SNA Displays is manufacturing 41 dynamic LED displays, including one at the Nickelodeon Universe® theme park and multiple large-format exterior displays visible to the heavy traffic on I-95, Route 120, and Route 3. Additionally, American Dream is splashed with dozens of LCD kiosks provided by SNA Displays. The digital signage network is managed by the Client Service Group (CSG), a team of service and technical experts at SNA Displays.
SNA Displays designed, excavated, formed, and placed rebar for several LED sign foundations. The subsurface conditions were challenging because of highly compressible soil, fill material, and water. We then had to coordinate with the support structure design to meet deflection criteria.
SNA Displays was involved in the installation of over 80 wayfinding and advertising touch-screen kiosks made specifically for American Dream.
For many of the interior bulkheads at American Dream, SNA Displays removed drywall to expose the plywood and cut out sections for ventilation before installing the LED cabinets.
SNA Displays used a combination of crane trucks and lifts to install the exterior displays.
The theme park entrance at American Dream has a curved LED display – the “Slime Tower”– that serves as an artistic backdrop to static signage wrapped around the front of it (the “Nickelodeon Universe”). This signage required a support at the very center of the LED display for two reasons: 1) To minimize the cantilever loading that the static sign would exert on the side cantilevered support beams, and 2) To diminish sagging on the signage due to its own weight, eliminating any chance of buckling over time.
To install this support, SNA Displays worked with Diversified to cut a hole in a cabinet at the center of the screen, relocating power supplies and scan cards as necessary. Furthermore, this display was supported by curved hollow structural section (HSS) tubes, bent exactly to the radii specified in our display design.
The existing static billboards required additional power to transform them into dynamic LED displays. This required trenching between the parking lot and street to bring in new power and transformers to to accommodate the power needs.
SNAPros™ adjusting the Slime Tower subframe before installation.
