Full-Color Marquee Gets Passersby Excited about Community Events

The best part about the new digital marquee at Oster Regent Theater in Cedar Falls, Iowa, is how easy it is to change the message while having the display still look like the original marquee, according to the theater’s general manager John Luzaich.

The theater staff was recommended to try out Daktronics displays from employees at the local sign company Signs & Designs. David Schachterle, Signs & Designs owner, was a member of the theater’s board.

“You tend to do business with people you know and trust and people that have helped you in the past, so as a board member for our theater in the past he helped us out,” Luzaich said. “Of course, we trusted Dave and took his recommendation to work with Daktronics.”

Luzaich was impressed by how well Daktronics stuck to the proposed timeline for delivery and installation of the display.

An issue with the old marquee was that messages could only be changed every couple of weeks because each individual letter had to be replaced. This meant other businesses couldn’t use the message board for their promotions when the theater had its own events to advertise.

“The great thing about the new digital LED sign is we can constantly change the message many times throughout the day, so we can be a good business neighbor and help our business owners and managers that are in the same historic downtown district that we are,” Luzaich said.

The sign is capable of still looking like the classic marquee the community is used to, but colors and graphics can be added for show promotions to get the community excited for upcoming productions.

“We’ve heard just a ton of comments about how great the sign is and people really like it,” said Luzaich.