‘Landscape Video’ turns London’s Olympic Stadium into massive video screen

Of everything that went on during the 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony — the electronic Freddy Mercury reacting to the crowd, a Spice Girls reunion, and Eric Idle leading everyone in a rousing rendition of his famous song from the end of The Life of Brian, the most impressive could have been how the all of the spectators became a massive, 360-degree video screen.

[ Related: How London 2012 has changed the Olympics forever ]

Unlike in Beijing, where performers unrolled a huge LED screen across the centre of the stadium floor, London's Olympic Stadium had 70,500 "pixel tablets" mounted next to the spectators' seats. Each of the 9 LEDs on every pixel tablet can independently display any colour needed, and can be independently programmed with any sequence desired. The effect of using all of the 624,500 LEDs together allowed the Olympic organizers to use the stadium seating like a giant TV to display whatever images or videos they wanted.

Tait Technologies, the company that supplied and installed the pixel tablets, had already used this 'Landscape Video', with impressive results, in last year's Pan Arab Games in Doha, Qatar.

According to the Tait's website, "Landscape video opens unlimited opportunities for the use of this type of large scale LED technology in stadium video displays and architectural environments."

Well said, and having seen it in action, I suspect businesses and entertainment venues are likely scrambling to get access to it for upcoming events.