Comprehensive digital signage design, installation and management services.
Comprehensive digital signage design, installation and management services.

Alight Media – Custom Screen Enclosure

The brief

Alight Media is the UK’s fastest-growing out-of-home media owner which operates a UK-wide digital screen network.

It wanted to improve the design of its (D6) single and double-sided bus shelter screen enclosures to improve resilience and maintainability, whilst keeping the same sleek, modern look/feel.

The design and manufacture of the screen enclosures had to be cost-effective and meet Samsung’s approval in order for Alight to secure screen warranties. It also had to use the same type of locking system to keep maintenance straightforward across their estate.

Alight needed the design work and hardware produced within a tight timeframe to allow it to remain within the deployment deadline its own client had set.

The solution

Saturn was chosen for the custom screen enclosure project for four key reasons: its Samsung-approved channel partner status, its experience in designing and producing Samsung-approved enclosures, a third-party endorsement Alight received, and because of the speed and cost at which it could design and mass produce the enclosure hardware, which surpassed all other rival tenderers.

Saturn worked with Alight to fully understand the issues it was facing and improvements it wanted to make, and developed a design and prototype for a more robust and accessible enclosure.

Saturn’s design team retained the same overall dimensions but altered the position of the screen/s in the enclosure, and added a glass door to the enclosure. The door consisted of one sheet of toughened glass and one sheet of laminated glass bonded together to make it more robust and resistant to mistreatment. More importantly, even if one or even two panes of glass were broken, it would protect the expensive 85” screens. It would also avoid any awkward lifting of heavy screens. A gloss border was also added to the door for a high-end finish and to make it easier to clean.

For the groundworks, Saturn’s design team used a superior ground-fixing jig for the custom screen enclosures than had been used in the past. They also added a folded steel element to the bottom, giving it a more stable base and making it easier and faster to install.

Saturn recommended an additional design detail for enclosures in coastal locations, to use a cost-effective, corrosion-resistant stainless steel as the primary material for the framework. Although more expensive, this material is more resilient to the effects of saltwater, and would therefore increase their longevity and require fewer replacements, and would reduce the amount of waste produced by Alight.

Saturn integrated the details Alight had specified into the screen enclosure design, like the specific type of locking system and bespoke catch, and the use/location of a ventilation panel for airflow (in order to meet Samsung warranty requirements). But Saturn’s designers upgraded the ventilation panel’s material from a standard perforated sheet to laser cut holes which would give a high-end look and avoid rusting – which could result in diminished air flow.

The design was also adapted to allow for light sensors in the enclosure. This would ensure that displays would automatically adjust the amount of energy they used in accordance with the relevant amount of sunlight shining on the display, making them more energy efficient.

To manufacture the custom screen enclosures, Saturn used a steel fabrication company less than 50 miles from the two locations the displays were being installed in, thereby minimising the carbon footprint of the project as much as possible.

The result

With the previous design, Alight had experienced around 30% of its enclosures being damaged by third parties, meaning longer periods of downtime. To date, the new design for the bus shelter enclosures has been 100% successful in protecting Alight’s 85” screens, despite  numerous damage attempts.

Glass door panels can now be replaced without the screen having to be moved out of place, thereby speeding up the process, reducing downtime and reducing the likelihood of screen damage during the replacement of glass panels. Alight can also order spare glass doors in bulk and use them as required at a much lower cost than previous replacements.

The seawater-resistant screen enclosures are now in place in the public domain and are expected to have a life of around 10+ years, as opposed to around five to seven years with the previous design.

“The all-round experience of working with Saturn has been great. We got good value for money and were pleasantly surprised at how quickly everything was turned around for us."

Gareth Tuxworth, Head of Operations, Alight Media

Gareth Tuxworth, Head of Operations, Alight Media

“Given that it usually takes at least six months to produce a design, prototype it, test, refine and manufacture the hardware, we’ve been surprised that Saturn not only managed to pull it off in less than half of that time, but that they made such a good job of it.

“The look and feel of the enclosure is very much in line with what we were looking for. The attention to detail from Saturn’s design team was outstanding and the new design we developed together has now become our ‘go-to’ product for future tenders.

“Installation of replacement glass panels is now much simpler and more cost-effective, as we no longer need lifting equipment, which had to be booked weeks in advance. It can now be done with a small handful of people in a couple of hours.

“We’ve been very impressed at how robust the new enclosures are. They don’t move, due to the robust ground jig and connection to the shelter roof and we’ve not seen anywhere near the damage we used to get from the old design. We’ve found footprints on the enclosure doors and broken bricks on the floor where the public have tried and failed to damage the screen/enclosure.

“As yet, we’ve not had to replace a single screen through vandalism in the new enclosures. In the past we’d expect 30% of our estate to be mistreated, with what we’ve seen from the new design, we’d now expect it to be less than 5%.”

Using a hammer to test the robustness of the new bespoke bus shelter enclosure for Alight Media

Interested in our enclosure design services? Why not get in touch to find out more?

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