Lighthouse Screens Shine During 2008 Euro

The recent Euro 2008 football tournament once again pointed to the importance of out-of-home viewing measurement as thousands of fans gathered across Europe in front of massive LED screens to share in the revelry. One of the hottest spots was the Fan Zone in Vienna that featured Lighthouse LED screens supplied by one of the Europe’s leading screen rental companies, Vienna-based Medien Werkzeuge.

Generally, the screens are provided by a sub-contractor and, in Vienna and a number of other locations around Austria and Germany that responsibility fell to a leading Austrian rental company, Medien Werkzeuge GmbH.

“We have a long history of involvement with entertainment events in Vienna,” says Christian Wymetal, managing director of Medien Werkzeuge. “And although cost is an important factor when targeting this sort of business, clearly the quality of the screens we provide, the operating personnel and references from customers, all play a big part.”

The screens that Medien Werkzeuge provides are all Lighthouse. “We’ve invested in Lighthouse since we started the business in 2001,’ Christian explains. “Our unique selling point was to have all our big screens sourced from just one supplier — a reliable and reputable supplier — providing the kind of good-value, top-quality LED screens that would help us get a good return on our investment.”

Fan Zones are a relatively recent phenomenon. The craze took off at the 1998 World Cup in France, where screens were erected in town squares to give ticket less supporters a chance to join in the football frenzy.

“It’s great that everyone can enjoy a big match together, even if they haven’t managed to get a ticket,” concludes Christian. “It is certainly safer, more comfortable and much more fun than trying to cram into a bar to watch a game on a flickering TV set.

At the official UEFA Fan Zone in Vienna City all the LED screens were Lighthouse, with 10 LED screens with a combined size of around 320 square meters on hand. The Fan Zone stretched along Ringstra e, one of the most elegant, tree-lined boulevards in the old city centre, and the total area it covered was about 2,000 square meters.’

Medien Werkzeuge also provided a 10 square-meter screen near the famous Ferris Wheel in Vienna, along with screens for three other cities in Austria, three locations in Germany and one site in Switzerland.

“We used all our stock of R7-ER, supplying the screens and fibre optic connections, but we didn’t build any of the structures,” Christian adds. “We simply advised the design consultant which screens would be best in which location, and then lined-up two people to look after each of the screens throughout the three-week event.”

One of the Euro 2008 football venues, the ‘Red Bull’ Stadium Salzburg, Wals-Siezenheim, was already equipped with two Lighthouse R12-ER screens. “We installed them two years ago and Red Bull actually bought the success from us last autumn,” Christian explains.

“Throughout the tournament, Lighthouse maintained a massive profile across Europe,” says Michiel Hettinga, Lighthouse’s sales director, Western and Central Europe. “Our screens were commissioned through a number of our European rental partners including AV-Control kft (Hungary), AVMS GmbH, Cassiopeia, CT Germany and Velten GmbH (Germany), Fantasy GmbH (Austria), Hulskamp and JVR (Netherlands), Screenco (UK), XL Video (Belgium) and VGC (Poland). The network provided a staggering 1,266 panels of R7-ER alone, which is proving to be the ideal product for such events.”