back to article Google bags huge Times Square ad space for New Year's

Google is the first customer to book advertising space on a gigantic new billboard on Times Square, which has a going rate of more than $2.5m for four weeks. World's largest billboard on New York's Times Square The newly unveiled megascreen is currently showing a digital art exhibition until 24 November, after which the …

  1. Joel 1
    Headmaster

    Don't think you meant that...

    " The obscenely large adverts will be displayed on the highest resolution LED of its size in the world, with a pixel density of 2,368 by 10,048, far higher than 4K ultra high definition."

    Don't think you meant density - or do you mean a ridiculous level of ppi?

    Thought not.

    1. illiad

      Re: Don't think you meant that...

      I guess the brains are already on holiday??? the proper word is 'resolution' guys... and did no one managed to get a size??? NYtimes did ...

      820.2 feet long and 39.3 feet tall, waddaya mean, metres???? :)

      1. Lionel Baden
        FAIL

        Re: Don't think you meant that...

        so not quite the 8 stories they said in the story !!

        more like 4 max, or is this times square in pigmy land?

        And yes the pixel density issue.

        Please can you take this reporter out back and spank him / her with a leather strap !

        THOU SHALT NOT COPY PASTE WITHOUT READING

        1. Eddy Ito

          Re: Don't think you meant that...

          Actually, according to folks who should know the sign is over 77 feet tall and nearly 330 feet wide, which I assume includes the wrap around the corners.

          The sign that's 820 x 39 is installed near the King Khaled International Airport in Saudi Arabia but it's nice to know I'm not the only one who misses a few details every now and again.

          1. Joel 1
            Headmaster

            Re: Don't think you meant that...

            @Eddy Ito

            According to the "folks who should know"

            “Pixel density of 2,368 x 10,048 — the highest resolution LED video display in the world of this size, dwarfing 4K ultra high definition pixel density by 15 million pixels”

            They clearly don't know...

            1. blairhoughton

              Re: Don't think you meant that...

              If you measure density as "pixels per screen", then maybe...

          2. davemcwish

            ElReg Units ?

            For the confused, here's the conversion to ElReg units we all love.-

            Height - 169.1487 Linguine (2.5687 Double Decker Bus, 0.1712 Brontosaurus)

            Length - 717.7226 Linguine (10.8944 Double Decker Bus, 0.7266 Brontosaurus)

            Area - 114.5098 nanoWales (0.1145 microWales, 0.5873 Football Pitch)

      2. WraithCadmus
        Headmaster

        Re: Don't think you meant that...

        More Imperial/US Customary units? For god's sake we're slipping backwards.

        If illiad's measurements are correct then it's 144 nanoWales. Or 2994 m^3.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why?

    Is there anybody with an internet connection who doesn't know Google

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why?

      HMRC?

    2. RyokuMas
      Devil

      Re: Why?

      "Is there anybody with an internet connection who doesn't know Google[?]"

      The question here is not "how many people with an internet connection do not know Google?", but "how many people with an internet connection do not know how much Google know about them, and what does Google do with this data?"

      1. ratfox

        Re: Why?

        Everybody knows about Coca-Cola, but they still have ads…

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Why?

          always

        2. JDX Gold badge

          Re: Everybody knows about Coca-Cola, but they still have ads…

          Everybody knows about them because they promote the brand so heavily.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Everybody knows about Coca-Cola, but they still have ads…

            They promote the brand so heavily because competitors do, too. Whichever of them stops pulling loses the tug-of-war to the slow alteration in people's impression of their importance and value. Some people (me) will still choose the one we like, because iconoclasm. But we're not the only people, there are a lot who lack emotional strength, and there are new people made every day who may take years to realize there are differences in the product worth seeking out. If by that time they simply have a denigrated opinion of one or the other brand, it's a lifetime net win for the winning one. And the margins on fizzy-sugary-drug water are phenomenal.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Trollface

        Re: Why?

        So google are going to post your details up there?

  3. Alistair Swanson

    Half a million cars per day?

    That is a lot.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Half a million cars per day?

      And how many lawsuits for accidents caused by drivers reading it?

  4. tin 2

    you can replace "innovative and thoroughly distinctive" with "massive" for 10000% less marketing poppycock density

  5. J.G.Harston Silver badge

    Missing noun

    For New Year's what?

  6. launcap Silver badge
    Go

    Display pwned in 3.. 2.. 1..

    I wonder who will be the first? And what they would display..

    1. phil dude
      Coat

      Re: Display pwned in 3.. 2.. 1..

      How about Weird Al Jankovic on a loop...

      P.

      1. MrWibble
        Pint

        Re: Display pwned in 3.. 2.. 1..

        Kudos for the obscure reference!

        "Robert DeNiro's mole has got to be ten feet wide"

        1. fearnothing

          Re: Display pwned in 3.. 2.. 1..

          We can also watch The Simpsons from 30 blocks away :)

    2. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Re: Display pwned in 3.. 2.. 1..

      Bingo.

  7. Duncan Macdonald

    Very cheap

    If Google got this for $2.5million for 4 weeks then they got a bargain. I would have thought that a huge animated display in Times Square for 4 weeks in a very busy shopping period would have cost far more. (This is less than the rate for a 30 second commercial during the Superbowl.)

  8. BigBruce
    Mushroom

    Power requirements

    So nearly 72 million led's at say 2.4V and 20mA (which is on the low side) and displaying white is 3 to 10 MW - ouch.

    At that rate the eleccy costs will be about a third of the rental rate.

  9. Elmer Phud

    Thank you, El Reg

    "almost as long as an American football field"

    I am constantly baffled by the use of 'football field' as a form of measurement as used on the telly.

    English accents narrrating a U.S. programme and I am never sure whether it is an F.A. field or U.S. field. El Reg's accurate reporting wins again.

    1. Velv
      Headmaster

      Re: Thank you, El Reg

      Especially since the size of a football field (soccer) is variable

      1. MrWibble

        Re: Thank you, El Reg

        But, the football field is a recognised standard! http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html

        1. ratfox
          Headmaster

          Re: Thank you, El Reg

          It might be a recognised standard, but I struggle to figure out which pitch this is about. The football pitch is said to be about an acre, or 4'050 square meters; but all the football pitches I could find, from the diminutive American football field's 6'400 square yards to the massive Australian rules football fields (variable, but over 10'000 square meters) are much bigger.

  10. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge
    Coat

    So ...

    ... the backside of Kardashian's jeans wasn't available?

    OK, I'll get my coat. The one with the corporate logo stitched on.

    1. Gazareth

      Re: So ...

      You may have heard, she's recently ditched the jeans.

  11. Peb

    Is this what they've been building on the front of the marriott marquis?

    1. Peb

      and answering my own question... it is

      "when it switches on a 330-foot (100-meter) digital billboard wrapped around the front of the Marriott Marquis Hotel on Broadway between 45th and 46th streets. "

  12. Speltier

    Security

    Bet the security is going to be tight for the display access around midnight on the last day of 2014. They are likely to have a live feed of the ball thing dropping, so if you can tap the line and inject your own image stream, well that would gain some headlines and an entry in Wikipedia once you are caught, publicly pilloried, and then hired by Google.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hope it has motion blur and judder,

    Just like every other piece of shit LCD out there.

    1. The Axe

      Re: hope it has motion blur and judder,

      Its LED, not LCD.

  14. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. P. Lee

      Re: How many DPI is that?

      >That makes it roughly *1* DPI!

      And yet, still perfectly readable.

      In yer eye "retina-resolution" phones!

    2. IanRS

      Re: How many DPI is that?

      Based on the corrected 330x77ft size posted later, each pixel is pretty close to 1cm x 1cm. Hardly high res, but from anywhere far enough away that you don't get a crick in your neck looking up at it, I suspect it looks pretty good.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To many people

    Google IS the Internet.

    Why advertise?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    can i get one for my living room, eyes are fading and i cant see my porn cleanly.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Childcatcher

    How secure?

    I mean a giant advert for Anon on Nov 5th next year might be a change

  18. stringyfloppy

    I vaguely remember the Google search engine. I've always used HotBot.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I've been to Times Square for New Years' Eve, got 6 blocks away. It was a load of crap.

  20. Zangetsu
    WTF?

    who the hell is the Chocolate Factory ?

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Zangetsu

      It's our slang for Google.

      C.

    2. davemcwish

      Why didn't you Google it ?

      @Zangetsu

      http://wikibin.org/articles/mountain-view-chocolate-factory.html

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Please, please PLEASE ..

    .. God, let it be driven by Windows, so we can enjoy an around-the-block BSOD on New Year's eve.

    That would simply be the most epic picture to enter 2015 with *ever*. There is simply no message that would convey more sarcasm than that. I'll be able to die happy then (probably from alcohol poisoning, although my aunt's cooking may beat it to it).

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