If you visited Manhattan between February and April of 2007, you may have noticed a striking motion-picture billboard projected on the side of a building on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, just off Times Square.

The video board was unique in that it utilized cost-effective LCD projection technology, rather than a far more expensive LED display.

“People are going to remember this when they see it,” said Michael Canfield, CAVCOMM President and CEO. “We can now put equipment outdoors that has never been outdoors before–and with HD resolution. We can create a projection display in any weather, for any length of time, on any size surface, horizontally or vertically, from a billboard to a building.”

The inaugural display for the new system –available from CAVCOMM on a rental basis– was a 90-second video loop created for CBS Outdoor by Monster Media to promote the Microsoft Vista operating system.

CAVCOMM used two new Barco FLM HD18 video projectors to display superimposed high-definition images onto a very large surface—for the billboard, a screen 27 x 48 feet in size. The FLM HD18 is a compact, award-winning device that projects an extremely bright image rated at about 18,000 ANSI lumens. A proprietary CAVCOMM processor performs the edge-blending that allows two side-by-side images to be merged into one, or in this case, superimposed one over the other for a double-bright image.

CAVCOMM technicians installed the projectors in an Environmental Protection Enclosure–a big, weatherproof aluminum box designed by CAVCOMM to be hung, by crane, onto the side of a building across the street from the intended projection surface. Perfected partly in a salt-bog chamber used to test missile and rocket components, the enclosure maintains a spring-like interior temperature of 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit regardless of external conditions. Impervious also to vibration, the entire system can be transported by truck or even by helicopter.

The projection system and enclosure is ideal for use in advertising, corporate and special events and public festivals. As it was designed to, the system successfully weathered the powerful Valentine’s Day 2007 Nor’easter that blanketed New York City with snow and sleet.