Field retrofit kit for converting a static billboard into a dynamic electronic billboard, and methods of retrofitting and using same

• US 20140267896A1
• Filed: 03/16/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ADTI Media LLC
• Original Assignee: ADTI Media LLC
• Inventors: Cox, David Franklin, Carlson, Arne E., van Dorn, John, Frederick, James Warren, Romano, Richard J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,330,583 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/383
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 9/3026 Video wall, i.e. stackable semiconductor matrix display modules video wall control systems G06F3/1446, G09G2300/026
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2300/026 Video wall, i.e. juxtaposition of a plurality of screens to create a display screen of bigger dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/06 Remotely controlled electronic signs other than labels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/32 semiconductive, e.g. using light-emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/63 Generation or supply of power specially adapted for television receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/66 Transforming electric information into light information scanning details H04N3/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49117 Conductor or circuit manufacturing

Abstract

An electronic billboard generally includes a plurality of hand mountable structural frames mounted to the poster panels of an existing in field non electronic static billboard; the hand mountable structural frames being laid out in an array; and where individual ones of the hand mountable structural frames are configured in a further array of structural bay members adapted to receive therein display modules with dual LED display panels; a plurality of preformed power and data harnesses electrically and mechanically coupled between individual ones of the bays and a universal power and data distribution system coupled to the harnesses for providing data and direct current low voltage to the display modules to facilitate the conversion of the distributed data display information into visible radiant energy which is displayed by the electronic billboard.

Claims

1. An electronic billboard, comprising:

a plurality of hand mountable structural frames removably mounted to a static billboard poster board and arranged in an array of frames, wherein each individual frame is configured in an array of bays to facilitate the display of dynamic visible radiant energy indicative of display information;

a power and data harness coupled between individual ones of the bays and a utility box which receives data and universal electrical power for rectifying the electrical power to a constant power source and for controlling the data for distribution to individual ones of the bays; and

wherein each individual bay is adapted to receive therein at least one light emitting diode module and to be coupled to said power and data harness to provide data and constant power to said module to facilitate the conversion of the data into visible radiant energy for display by the electronic billboard.

2. An electronic billboard, comprising:

a plurality of hand mountable structural frames arranged in a frame array defining an electronic message board for the display of changeable information, said frames being hand mounted on a plurality of poster boards of an existing in field non electronic static billboard;

wherein individual ones of the structural frames are configured in another array of display module bays for helping to define a plurality of display module mounting locations within said frame array;

a plurality of power and data harnesses electrically and mechanically coupled between individual ones of the display module bays and at least one utility box disposed on a rear side of said plurality of poster boards which receives a stream of data and power from a universal source of electrical energy;

wherein said at least one utility box is adapted to rectify said universal source of electrical energy to a source of low voltage constant current power and to control the stream of data for distribution to individual ones of the bays; and

wherein each individual bay has disposed therein at least one light emitting diode module to facilitate the conversion of the stream of data into visible radiant energy which is displayed by the electronic billboard.

3. A field modification kit for converting a non electronic billboard into an electronic billboard, comprising:

a plurality of hand mountable structural frames hand mounted on a plurality of poster panels forming part of the non electronic billboard to help facilitate the conversion of the non electronic billboard into the electronic billboard;

wherein said plurality of structural frames are arranged on said plurality of poster panels in an array of structural frames and wherein each individual structural frame is arranged in an array of bays;

a plurality of hand mountable light emitting diode modules for converting electrical data into visible radiant energy for display by the electronic billboard;

wherein each individual light emitting diode module is configured to be latchingly removably received in an individual one of the bays to facilitate the displaying of visible radiant energy; and

a plurality of power and data harnesses mounted in said plurality of frames and routed to said individual ones of the bays to mechanically and electrically couple said plurality of light emitting diode modules to a source of rectified electrical power and to a source of data to further facilitate the conversion of the non electronic billboard into the electronic billboard.

4. The field modification kit according to claim 3, further comprising:

a utility box coupled to said power and data harness for receiving electrical energy and display data to be rectified and used by said plurality of light emitting diode modules to convert the display data into visible radiant energy for instantaneous display.

5. The field modification kit according to claim 4, wherein said plurality of structural frames and said plurality of poster panels are further arranged to define a set of cooling conduits in fluid communication with individual ones of the bays for facilitating the cooling of said plurality of light emitting diode modules.

6. A method of in field conversion of a non-electronic billboard into an electronic billboard, comprising the steps of:

arranging a plurality of hand mountable structural frames in an array on a plurality of poster boards of the non electronic billboard, wherein each individual one of the hand mountable structural frames is arranged in an array of bays;

electrically and mechanically coupling a plurality of preformed power and data harnesses between individual ones the bays and a utility box adapted to be mounted to a backside of said plurality of poster boards, the utility box being adapted to receive data and to rectify a source of power for use by the electronic billboard; and

electrically and mechanically coupling individual ones of a plurality of weather sealed light emitting diode modules in the individual ones of the bays to facilitate the conversion of received data into visible radiant energy.

7. A self contained in-field retrofit kit for a static billboard coupled to a universal source of electrical power, comprising:

at least one modular hand mountable compound structural frame adapted to be mounted to at least one poster panel of a static billboard, said at least one modular compound structural frame and said at least one poster panel cooperating to provide a plurality of self cooling vents and a plurality of wire routing paths between said at least one modular compound

wherein said at least one modular compound structural frame is provided with a plurality of nodes and wire routing guide adapted to receive substantially identical power and data wire harnesses to couple electrical energy along a plurality of wire routing paths within said structural frame;

at least one modular electrical conversion device disposed partially within an individual one of said plurality of self cooling vents and partially within said at least one modular compound structural frame and adapted to be coupled to a universal source of electrical power via at least an individual one of said plurality of wire routing paths for transforming said universal source of power to a constant power source;

wherein said at least one modular electrical conversion device is further adapted to be coupled to a data source via said at least an individual one of said plurality of wire routing paths; and

wherein said at least one modular electrical conversion device includes a plurality of electrical elements coupled to said constant power source and to said data source for converting electrical energy into visible radiant energy indicative of a electronic message intended for pubic viewing.

8. An electronic billboard, comprising:

a plurality of hand mountable structural frames arranged in an array of structural bay members arranged in pairs of columns;

said plurality of hand mountable structural frames each being mountable by a backside surface thereof to a frontside surface of a plurality of poster panels for helping to provide natural airflow cooling to a plurality of display modules, each individual display module having dual light emitting diode panels, each individual one of the light emitting diode panels being coupled electrically and mechanically to a preformed power and data wiring harness arrangement to facilitate providing the light emitting diode panels with low voltage direct current power rectified from a source of universal high voltage alternating current power and to further facilitate providing the light emitting diode panels with streaming data to facilitate the display of changeable image and text information on the electronic billboard.

9. The electronic billboard according to claim 8, wherein each individual one of the plurality of hand mountable structural frames is defined by a primary wall structure having a long Y axis dimension an intermediate X axis dimension and a shorter Z axis dimension;

and

wherein said Y axis dimension, said X axis dimension and said Z axis dimension are selected to provide each individual one of the plurality of structural frames with sufficient wind resistance strength to substantially prevent breakage of any frame when mounted in face to face abutment with said frontside surface the plurality of poster panels when said poster panels and said structural frames are subjected to a wind load force of no greater than 100 pounds per square foot.

10. The electronic billboard according to claim 8, wherein each individual structural frame is generally rectangular in shape having a greater longitudinal length than lateral length and includes a primary top wall structure, a primary bottom wall structure, left side primary wall structure, and a right side primary wall structure;

wherein each individual structural frame has a plurality of weight reduction cutout portions distributed in said primary wall structure to facilitate a sufficient structural frame weight reduction for its hand placement on said plurality of poster panels but not a sufficient structural weight reduction to subject said structural frame to break under a wind load force of no greater than 100 pounds per square foot.

11. The electronic billboard according to claim 10, wherein each structural bay member is dimensioned for receiving therein an individual one of said plurality of display modules;

wherein each individual one of said plurality of display modules includes a right side display panel and a left side display panel; and

each structural bay member has a long X axis dimension, an intermediate Y axis dimension and a shorter Z axis dimension.

12. The electronic billboard according to claim 11, wherein said right side display panel and said left side display panel, each includes a 512×

512×

512 red, green and blue light emitting diode area to form 512 pixels on said right side display panel and 512 pixels on said left side display panel.

13. The electronic billboard according to claim 12, wherein each structural bay member is generally rectangular in shape having a greater lateral length than longitudinal length;

and

wherein each individual one of said plurality of structural frames further includes a plurality of spaced apart elongate cooling vent structures to facilitate providing the structural frame with a plurality of natural air flow paths for natural air cooling of individual ones of said plurality of display modules.

14. The electronic billboard according to claim 13, herein each individual one of said plurality of spaced apart elongate cooling vent structures extends from said primary bottom wall structure to said primary top wall structure;

wherein said primary bottom wall structure, and said primary top wall structure, include a plurality of chimney vent slots for receiving removably therein individual ones of perforated chimney vent covers.

15. The electronic billboard according to claim 13, wherein said primary bottom wall structure and said primary top wall structure each are adapted to receive a plurality of perforated chimney vent covers to facilitate air flow along said cooling vent structures and to substantially prevent insects and small animal from finding ingress into a void space formed between abutting surfaces of said plurality of structural frames and said plurality of poster panels.

16. The electronic billboard according to claim 15, wherein said right side wall, said left side wall, said bottom wall and said top all are each provided with at least one bee stop slot dimensioned for receiving therein a bee stop cover, said bee stop cover substantially preventing bee-like insects from infesting and nesting within an interior area of the structural frame.

17. The electronic billboard according to claim 16, herein said right side wall includes a plurality of alignment slots each being dimensioned for receiving therein a plurality of corresponding side wall alignment tabs to facilitate left to right alignment of said plurality of structural frames.

18. The electronic billboard according to claim 17, wherein said side wall tabs are spaced apart from one another and each extends perpendicularly outwardly from said left side wall.

19. The electronic billboard according to claim 18, wherein said bottom wall includes a plurality of alignment slots each being dimensioned for receiving therein a top wall alignment tab to further facilitate bottom to top alignment of said plurality of structural frames;

wherein said top wall alignment tabs are spaced apart and extend perpendicularly outwardly from said top wall.

20. The electronic billboard according to claim 19, wherein each individual structural bay members is subdivided into a plurality of display panel receiving areas including a right side receiving area and a left side receiving area.

21. The electronic billboard according to claim 20, wherein each individual structural bay members includes a daughter board alignment structure, said daughter board alignment structure being disposed between said left side display panel area and said right side display panel area.

22. The electronic billboard according to claim 21, wherein each individual structural bay members further includes a plurality of latch receiving protuberance structures, said protuberance structures being arranged to orient a plurality of display module latches in a plurality of different X and Y axis orientations to facilitate establishing a display module latching patterns to substantially prevent display panel dislodgement frog an associate structural bay member during wind load forces of not greater than 100 pounds per square foot as defined by a municipal code.

23. The electronic billboard according to claim 22, herein each individual one of said plurality of structural frames includes a plurality of groups of spaced apart outwardly projecting hook like harness wiring guides for defining harness wiring paths with the individual one structural frame for facilitating providing power and data to said right side display panel and said left side display panel.

24. The electronic billboard according to claim 23, wherein each individual one said plurality of structural frames includes a plurality of wire harness node locator structures for receiving thereon over mold structures associated with a data and power harnesses to help secure the data and power harnesses to the structural frame and to protect the power and data harness from accidental damage during installation of said display modules.

25. The electronic billboard according to claim 24, further comprising:

a plurality of power and data harnesses electrically and mechanically coupled between individual ones of said plurality of hand mountable structural frames and at least one utility box coupled to said plurality of power and data harnesses;

said at least one utility box disposed on a rear side of said plurality of poster panels for distributing data and power from a universal source of electrical energy;

wherein said at least one utility box is adapted to rectify said universal source of electrical energy to a source of low voltage constant current power and to control a stream of data for distribution to individual ones of the plurality of display modules; and

wherein each individual structural bay member has disposed therein at least display module to facilitate the conversion of the stream of data into visible radiant energy with is displayed by the electronic billboard.