Employees, vendors, and customers of the industrial giant passed through a spectacular 157-foot-long curved LED tunnel featuring hundreds of visual images on individual tiles reflecting the most cutting-edge work of Rockwell, as well as a 30-foot-long virtual reality display.

“I can’t tell you how many people came behind the wall to see how things worked. Even the CEO of Rockwell,” said Bill Johnson, Senior Account Executive for the audiovisual production company, SmartSource.

Providing Innovation to Innovators

SmartSource knew they wanted to bring their own innovation to an event that was focused on innovation when they were making their plans for the project. When they decided on the long, curved LED wall, they knew who would have both the expertise and materials needed to build it.

“We needed 450 1.9-millimeter LED tiles and we knew Evolve would have it, and a lot of it. And we knew they would do a good job because we had worked with them before. That’s what prompted us to use them,” explained Johnson.

He said the project required a lot of math because the wall would be ground supported. Together, SmartSource and Evolve spent four months in discussions to make sure everything was going to fit right.

“They were always on the calls when they were supposed to be and always got back to us in a responsive manner,” said Johnson.

Evolve Supplies the Infrastructure and Meets Each Challenge

At 6,000 pounds the wall was a behemoth supported by 20 trusses, all provided by Evolve as well as the processors to run the imaging.

Challenges included:

• Leveling each truss fitted with hundreds of tiles onto the uneven concrete floor of the venue.

• Because the attendees would be at eye level to the images, the resolution of the tiles had to be higher than standard as most LED walls are viewed from a distance.

• Content had to be projected in optimal resolution and aspect ratio to the tiles, and adjusted when necessary during the event.

• Proper spacing had to be achieved with the design elements of the wall.

Evolve Provides Technical Experts for the Build

Two Evolve technical experts joined the SmartSource crew during the event to help set up and tear down the wall as well as assist with its operation during the event.

“It was one of the most creative, interactive designs I’ve ever worked on,” said Josh Richardson, Lead LED Technician with Evolve who helped build the massive wall.

He added that the biggest challenge in building an LED wall of this magnitude was the part of the design where the wall curved.

“To keep that curve, we had to make sure each tile was level using a 360-laser level on each side,” he said adding that it took a team of ten two and a half days to build the wall and two additional days to color correct all the seams where the tiles met.

“Evolve is one of our true, good partners,” said Johnson. “We can take a project to them and they provide good service and keep their product line fresh.”

SmartSource, with the support of Evolve, received the ultimate compliment from Rockwell International about their performance and execution of the marvel LED wall.

Rockwell wants to do it all again next year.