AMD Lights Up Broadway With Times Square's Largest High Definition Display

[btarunr]

AMD today announced details behind one of the world's largest and most technologically advanced display walls, located in New York's Times Square at 1535 Broadway, between 45th and 46th Streets. The stunning visuals that drive the digital sign's massive size -- 25,000 square feet of Ultra-High Definition digital signage incorporating nearly 24 million pixels -- are powered by AMD FirePro professional graphics cards.

The sign, with playback system designed and managed by Diversified Media Group, is a single surface covering a city block in length and stands eight stories high. Driving the visual display are three AMD FirePro professional graphics cards using AMD Eyefinity Technology, with each card powering six sections of the display for a combined resolution of 10,048 x 2,368 pixels. The individual display sections are synchronized across graphics cards and zones using the FirePro S400 synchronization module.



"Graphics realism is a key driver for the next generation of immersive experiences, whether through display walls, virtual reality, or other aspects of visualization," said Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager, EESC Business Group, AMD. "The Times Square display powered by our AMD FirePro professional graphics and scalable Graphics Core Next architecture is a great example of how AMD is ready and able to innovate with customers and push the boundaries of visual technology."

AMD FirePro graphics and Graphics Core Next architecture meet a broad set of application needs by executing an enormous number of operations in parallel within a single computer clock cycle. Those operations, applied to billions of polygons every second, are what make a display wall or animation look real to the human eye.
"The visual and technical requirements for creating one of the world's largest display walls and with Ultra-high Definition were daunting," said Mitchell Mittler, vice president, Technical Solutions, Diversified Media Group. "To achieve a state-of-the-art implementation on this scale necessitated industry leaders who could meet these requirements and also deliver rock solid support. With the cutting edge AMD FirePro professional graphics cards, AMD delivered on all fronts and we couldn't be more pleased with the result."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[qubit]

I'm sure the cost of this little stunt with their dodgy finances will put AMD under, lol.

Yes, I'm being cruel, I know, but I don't think better marketing is gonna help them. Only better, more up to date products.

 

[ISI300]

Damn, that's a lot of pixels!

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

I'm sure the cost of this little stunt with their dodgy finances will put AMD under, lol.

Yes, I'm being cruel, I know, but I don't think better marketing is gonna help them. Only better, more up to date products.

You would be surprised. I know many people who still go "What whos AMD?" In my area. Better marketing brings exposure on top of that most people are too stupid to tell you if AMD or Intel is faster. They still regurgitate Pentium 4 nonsense lol.

 

[R-T-B]

Heck, the pentium 4 was worse than the g5 on a higher die process... Netburst in general just sucked...

 

[Haytch]

I am surprised McDonalds hasn't got a few of these screens.
Better marketing is what AMD need.
You do not have to have the best product in the world to make the most sales and become extremely successful, just take a look at Apple.
AMD's product range are overkill for the average every day user.
We here at TPU only complain because their CPU's are much lower than Intel's top of the range and their GPU's play tag with Nvidia's. We forget that AMD is constantly under attack from multiple fronts.

 

[xvi]

just take a look at Apple.

Zing! The hardware *is* pretty nice, but true. Most people are just frantically buying it because of the name. *cough cough Apple Watch cough cough*

I know many people who still go "What whos AMD?" In my area.

True, but even the people who say "Who are these ADM people?" will still see the logo on a laptop next time they're at Best Buy looking to make a purchase.

 

[v12dock]

"Who are these ADM people?"

Archer Daniels Midland

They have a plant where I live and it stinks

 

[qubit]

You would be surprised. I know many people who still go "What whos AMD?" In my area. Better marketing brings exposure on top of that most people are too stupid to tell you if AMD or Intel is faster. They still regurgitate Pentium 4 nonsense lol.

Yeah, you get those clueless everywhere, but I don't think they're the ones holding up the bottom line so much. A lot of their market do know what they're buying so AMD still needs to make better products, not just better marketing. If that wasn't the case they wouldn't be in the dire straits that they are in now.

 

[Casecutter]

I am surprised McDonalds hasn't got a few of these screens.

Exactly, last time I went in to order, they're display were hard to read for pixel/brightness, and while old the eye's aren't gone yet. The worst part was they kept changing while trying to find something... just give me a grilled McWrap!

The use and partnering of something like this in McD, and then in the lower comer just a little AMD triangle logo could go a long way...

 

[newconroer]

Well they may be "processing" the revolution, but what the hell is funding the revolution?

 

[HumanSmoke]

You do not have to have the best product in the world to make the most sales and become extremely successful, just take a look at Apple.

Except that: 1. Apple are at the forefront of trend curves - a market leader rather than a market follower, 2. They have fan base that almost prides itself on overpaying for hardware, 3. Offer a total package - hardware, sales, software, and support, and 4. Have competent marketing and well defined long range company strategy.

We forget that AMD is constantly under attack from multiple fronts.

The same can be said for most companies. Intel could (and probably will) wield less influence in the future as new technologies undermine Intel's underlying IP hold, and Nvidia could well become a shadow of its self - or disappear altogether, if the discrete graphics market gets eroded before the company has a chance to gain footholds elsewhere. You don't see many people on forums saying prayers for the continued presence of many companies aside from AMD whose position could be described as tenuous.

 

[GhostRyder]

Yeah, you get those clueless everywhere, but I don't think they're the ones holding up the bottom line so much. A lot of their market do know what they're buying so AMD still needs to make better products, not just better marketing. If that wasn't the case they wouldn't be in the dire straits that they are in now.

While I agree its not exclusively AMD's fault they have lost all their presence. They have not helped it and in many ways have made bad decisions in the past and present. However there were many contributing factors that have pushed them down many notches in the world including Intel's shady business practices. If anything the loss of many OEM's is what caused a big chunk of their problems and have caused them to basically be focusing on other departments instead of their CPU business.

Heck, the pentium 4 was worse than the g5 on a higher die process... Netburst in general just sucked...

I loved my P4, but it ran pretty hot for the time and caused me quite a few problems later on (At that time I got a steal on a Dell PC that I turned into a gaming machine for myself but they decided that just having a basic heatsink over a 2.8ghz P4 was somehow going to work. Had to do some modifications to make that stop from overheating while playing BF2).

 

[qubit]

@GhostRyder Yeah true, that billion dollar settlement with Intel proves they were breaking the law somewhere all right. Also, AMD had some really good innovations such as Mantle and x64 to name just two off the top of my head. With x64 especially, I remember how Microsoft held off the release of XP 64-bit for something like a 1 or 2 years so that Intel could catch up. That just stank and I remember feeling quite frustrated about it.

Still, AMD have still got mostly themselves to blame for the situation they're in, I think. They were getting called out for a lot of stupid decisions over the years by pundits and forum posters like us so there has to be some truth in it.

 

[Vayra86]

Now let's play The Witcher 3 on that screen, then we've got some real news.

 

[Disparia]

 

[WithoutWeakness]

I'm sure the cost of this little stunt with their dodgy finances will put AMD under, lol.

Yes, I'm being cruel, I know, but I don't think better marketing is gonna help them. Only better, more up to date products.

AMD didn't build the screen. They just provided 3 FirePro GPUs and probably some technical support to help get the giant array of panels to function as a massive single display.

Though, given what some companies are paying to put their advertisements on this screen, maybe they should have built one. According to the New York Times it costs more than $2.5 million to post your ad on this screen for 4 weeks. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/b...nsive-digital-billboard-is-set-to-shine-.html

If you can get ads on that screen every day then you're pulling in $32.5 million a year. Given its size, resolution, and most importantly location I can only imagine the length of the list of companies in line to put their ad on that screen. Whoever owns this thing will be making a lot of money off of their investment.