Emmis Communications Receives New Digital Sign
Emmis Communications Corporation is a diversified media company, principally focused on radio broadcasting. The Emmis Communications' building is located on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. The sign on the front of their building has been a feature of the circle for more than 20 years. We were grateful to be apart of giving this sign a much-needed upgrade. Jeff Good, with Daktronics reached out to Huston to replace the existing 20-year-old electronic message center (EMC) . The old EMC was a monochrome display with a neat, curved appearance. A monochrome display means it only has the ability to display one color. Typically, that one color is used to display text that scrolls across the screen. Digital sign technology has changed so much in the last 20 years, and it was time to install new state-of-the-art technology to give Emmis Communications the ability to display so much more on the front of their building.
First, our technicians went out to site and surveyed the existing EMC and structure. After getting in contact with Rik Pike, Emmis Communications' Director of Engineering and Integrated Technologies, we put together a game plan to replace the sign. The decision was made to keep the existing structure and cast aluminum letters that read "Emmis Communications." The goal was to just replace the old technology of the EMC with new technology that would allow a full color display. The new full color display would give Emmis the opportunity to display all sorts of new content including multicolor text and graphics and even photos. Renderings and engineering plans were created and once agreed upon, the permitting process began. All the information was sent to Daktronics to create a new display that would work with the existing structure. Fabrication for the new sign took about 6 weeks. During that time, Huston's electrical service division went out to Emmis to provide a new power connection for the new digital sign.
The removal of the existing EMC and the installation of the new one took our technicians about three workdays to complete. The traffic and busyness of monument circle is a common obstacle when we work downtown. However, to our benefit, this installation was during the coronavirus pandemic and the traffic on the circle was greatly decreased. Once the new EMC was installed on the front of the building, we also installed new communication hardware to act as the mission control center for all communication between the graphics software on the computer and the sign. Thank you again to Emmis Communications for choosing Huston, especially Rik Pike who was a great help during the entire process. Rik is pictured here in our gallery of photos standing under the new sign that he is proud to manage for Emmis Communications.
Next time you are downtown Indianapolis, on Monument Circle, check out Emmis Communications' new digital sign!
