In New York, everyone decorates for the Christmas holidays. Stores, libraries, homes, office buildings, etc. And, of course, public spaces, perhaps the most famous of which is Rockefeller Center, with its Christmas tree that becomes the unofficial heart of the Christmas season in the city
A camera in one Bloomingdale’s window inserts your face into the LED image behind the Grinch. (Credit: M. Brennesholtz
While all stores have Christmas displays in their windows, most of them feature products you can buy in the store. However, several major department stores have dedicated Christmas display windows not related to products sold in the store. These are actually holiday displays since they normally avoid all the religious aspects of Christmas and sometimes avoid even the non-religious aspects such as Santa Claus. In the distant past, these windows were mostly physical constructions, including animated objects. Typically, lots and lots of glitter and sequins were used and I’m happy to say it still is. Recently, however, display technology has increasingly taken over from these models and puppets. On December 20th, I took a tour of Midtown Manhattan to take a look at how these windows use display technology.
In one window with “The Marvelously Mechanic, Fully Automatic, Entirely Systematic Gift-O-Matic” toy machine,
Bloomingdale’s had a pipe shooting out transparent, moving stars. (Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
I found Bloomingdale’s on Lexington Avenue to be the most technologically sophisticated. In one window there was a giant Grinch in front of an LED screen and next to a tiny camera. The camera must have had a very wide field of view because you didn’t have to stand directly in front of it for it to see you. Facial identification software found your face in the acquired image and showed it on the LED screen. The software didn’t stop when it found the first face.
When one of a group of high-school girls pushed the “take your picture” button, the software found every face in the image and within a few seconds displayed them all in sequence. Clever! I stood and watched it for a while and when nobody pushed the button, the Grinch wasn’t concerned – he kept showing faces he’d acquired earlier until someone else pushed the “take your picture” button.
The Gift-O-Matic used a rotating LED display to show a cannon shooting its transparent holiday stars. (Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
A second rotating LED display allowed you to look down a cannon barrel into a workshop full of wonderful things.
(Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
In a different Bloomingdale’s window (They have lots of windows!) There was a pipe shooting moving holiday stars out of it’s mouth. The stars were transparent and you could see the physical objects were behind them. My first thought was it one of those transparent LCDs or OLEDs you see at trade shows and occasionally in real digital signage applications. Second thought was it was a rear-projection system on a transparent, off-axis screen. Finally I realized it was a rotating LED display. I should have guessed that first because of the relatively low refresh rate, perhaps 20 frames per second. Comparing a photo taken in ambient light with a relatively slow shutter speed to a flash photograph with its higher shutter speed confirmed this. The rotating display had four arms and produced one of the best images I’ve ever seen from this type of display. A similar display was used in a second window to allow you to look down a canon barrel into a toy workshop.
Meko’s Matt Brennesholtz goes on a a virtual reality sleigh ride with Santa. (Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
Inside Bloomingdale’s there was another holiday display treat. It was a virtual reality sleigh ride from VRPark for children and adults like me. The system used a head mounted display (HMD) from Oculus with attached stereo earphones to take you on a high-tech ride first through Santa’s village then around the world, with a near-miss collision with the Polar Express. The eggs were mounted on motion bases and as the sleigh climbed, dove and curved around the virtual mountain peaks, you got a very realistic feeling of motion. There were two VRPark eggs side-by-side and I took my ride with one of Bloomingdale’s younger customers. His slightly bigger sister refused to ride. While the eggs had hand controllers, they must be used with other VR shows since the sleigh ride was fully pre-programmed.
The traditional Lord and Taylor window displays were replaced by LED displays and “This Location Closing” signs. (Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
Lord and Taylor is another department store that has traditionally had very nice Christmas window displays. Not this year, though, since the company is selling the store on 5th Avenue to WeWork, the supplier of co-working spaces. Two of the Lord and Taylor windows had LED displays set up showing holiday content while all the other windows had giant going out of business signs. People watched the LED displays anyway – the content was pretty nice and fully in the spirit of Christmas.
Macy’s Santa travels in a jet-propelled sleigh against a background sky formed from four LED tiles.
(Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
Macy’s on Herald Square, billing itself as the world’s largest store and a major tourist destination, has always had child-themed windows. This year they featured a jet-propelled Santa’s sleigh moving against a background of four LED displays that formed the rear, two walls and floor of the window display. Other department stores, most notably Sak’s Fifth Avenue used this same approach, using LED displays for the background with real objects in the foreground.
Bergdorf-Goodman windows eschew modern technology and only use real objects in their windows,
plus lots of LED lamps to make those objects sparkle. (Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
Bergdorf-Goodman is situated on perhaps the most exclusive and expensive corner in New York, the corner of 5th Avenue and 57th street. They are an old-school company and did not use displays in any of their windows. The result can only be described as opulent. Presumably, it is also expensive because of the complex, detailed objects they use, but apparently they can afford it. I went into their men’s store and saw a rather nice, but basic, men’s wool sweater for only $1,250 so Bergdorf-Goodman may not need to worry about the cost of their Christmas window displays. I don’t think I understand the very rich.
Digital Signage on 5th Avenue normally shows ads for products rarely bought by bus passengers.
(Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
Don’t think only the major department stores have Christmas displays since virtually every store in New York is decorated for the holidays. As I said before, most of these other windows feature products for sale in the store. For example, Brooks Brothers had a Christmas tree in the window, a tasteful collections of men’s shoes sitting on glittery fake snow plus the digital signage display they have year round showing holiday-themed content. The digital signage in New York isn’t only in stores or on Times Square. Digital signage is everywhere, including on every bus stop in town.
Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a good Boxing Day. Don’t forget, the New Year is coming soon, too. Happy Winter Solstice and whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year! And remember, from now on the days are all getting longer till spring comes again. –Matthew Brennesholtz
