Daktronics Powers LED Live Stream for 2019 Prada Runway Show

Every year, Prada introduces a new collection to the world through their runway show, most recently presenting the Resort 2019 collection at Times Square. The show added something different this year by also presenting the show on LED displays in the Square. Making the most of concentrated foot traffic, Prada adorned the surrounding skyscrapers with 2019 Resort-themed content mirroring the interior design inside and also displayed a live stream of the runway show.

Daktronics helped execute this coordinated display presentation to bring the runway show to onlookers outside and provide Prada with a powerful presence in Times Square.

The Opportunity

Prada’s concept was to live stream the runway show on three displays with strategic placement: Nasdaq, which is positioned to onlookers’ left, Thompson Reuters, which is positioned to onlookers’ right and Tower 1, which is front and center. Daktronics assisted with integrating and commissioning Tower 1, managed by New Tradition. We also communicated with Prada on New Tradition’s behalf about content requirements and planning event-day operations.

New Tradition is a company more familiar with managing high quality digital out-of-home media than integrating LED displays, so they were looking for some assistance with executing the runway vision. Daktronics had local experience with supporting live event on other surrounding displays including the Metropolitan Opera and a roadblock event for Teleflora, so New Tradition turned to us when the Prada runway show came up.

The Daktronics team assisted with integrating and configuring the Tower 1 system to sync with neighboring Nasdaq and Thompson Reuters displays. We also worked with Prada and Branded Cities to coordinate content.

Focus Areas:

Getting live video to the display. Effort number one was getting video streaming to the board. Tower 1 needed someone to bring the video feed to their doorstep, so Daktronics brought in Encompass, a third party with experience bringing video to different buildings in NYC via fiber.  We worked with Encompass to figure out the logistics of getting the video feed to the display.

Fitting a standard video feed on a nonstandard display size. Because Tower 1 has a portrait mode shaped display and the feed we were taking in was 16×9, we did some custom work to arrange the feed on the shape of the display.

Coordinating three different display teams. Compared to scheduled content running 24/7 in the square, this event provided a finite amount of time to make an impact on the audience, so the support team conducted extensive testing before the event. Our team worked with the teams operating the other two displays to test synced scheduling, ensuring the show synced up the content in unison.

The Result

The entire event lasted from 6:30pm-9:00pm, with the Times Square displays showing a mix of scheduled content the coordinated with the look and feel of the inside of the venue. Around 7, the operations team went to a live shot of the runway, which lasted about about 12 minutes. All three displays showed coordinated footage of the Prada models walking down the runway showcasing the latest collection.

After the runway was done, the displays ran a loop of replayed footage. Throughout the whole event, Daktronics has event support onsite and remote support via webcam to ensure the event went smoothly.

Watch footage of the 2019 Prada Runway Show.