North Shore Neon Sign Company McDonald'sWith the recent installation of a 9,200-square-foot LED digital display for McDonald’s® on the iconic BowTie Building at 1530 Broadway in New York City, North Shore Neon Sign Company can now lay claim to the five largest screens in Times Square. The McDonald’s display comes in as the third largest.
近日，麦当劳在纽约百老汇1530号标志性的领结大楼内安装了一个9200平方英尺的LED数码显示屏。如今，麦当劳在时代广场的五个最大显示屏中占据了一席之地。麦当劳排在第三位。
“It’s just a continuation of us being able to do the biggest projects that New York can throw at us,” says Patrick Dooley, vice president of North Shore Neon Sign Company.
北岸霓虹灯标识公司副总裁帕特里克•杜利（Patrick Dooley）表示：“这只是我们能够承接纽约能交给我们的最大项目的延续。”
North Shore has been working in the metro New York area for over sixty years. The full-service, third generation family-owned sign company has done everything from signage for car dealerships, retail outlets, and banks to the mega LED displays of the signage spectaculars in Times Square.
北岸已经在纽约市区工作了60多年。这家提供全方位服务的第三代家族标识公司，为汽车经销商、零售店和银行提供标识，并在时代广场(Times Square)展示大型LED标识。
McDonald’s is no stranger to North Shore’s work as the two companies have a professional relationship that spans twenty years. In that time, North Shore has installed signs for a variety of McDonald’s locations in the New York metro area as well as manufactured and installed custom signage and storefront façades for the restaurants.
麦当劳对北岸的工作并不陌生，因为这两家公司有着长达20年的专业关系。在此期间，北岸已经为纽约地铁地区的许多麦当劳门店安装了标识，并为餐厅制作和安装了定制标识和数码显示屏。
Drawing on those two decades of experience—and thanks to the facilitation of North Shore Vice President Michael Colamussi, who has worked with McDonald’s over the last twenty years—McDonald’s tasked North Shore with upgrading the billboard on its new Times Square restaurant to digital.
凭借这20年的经验，以及在过去20年里与麦当劳合作的北岸副总裁迈克尔·科拉木斯（Michael Colamussi）的推动下，麦当劳让北岸负责将其新时代广场餐厅的广告牌升级为数字广告牌。
Having engineered and built the original 100-ton sign structure in 2016, North Shore was very familiar with the site. “We were contracted by the building to remove and replace the traditional ‘stick built’ static billboard as part of a complete building upgrade,” says Dooley. “We convinced the team that it would be in their best long-term interest to build the structure to one day be able to structurally receive an LED display. We had no idea that it would only need to wait two-and-a-half years to see that happen.North Shore Neon Sign Company McDonald's
在2016年设计并建造了最初的100吨标识结构后，北岸霓虹灯标识公司对场地非常熟悉。杜利说：“作为整个建筑升级的一部分，我们与该建筑签约，移除并替换传统的静态广告牌。我们让团队相信，从长远来看，他们最感兴趣的是，有朝一日能够在结构上接收LED显示屏。我们不知道这只需要等待两年半就能实现。”
“McDonald’s, knowing that this option was available to them, negotiated a lease for the rights to the structure and made the investment in going digital, understanding they would not only generate foot traffic for the new store but also get a return on their investment through the potential advertising revenue.”
“麦当劳知道这个选项对他们来说是可行的，于是就该结构的租赁权进行了谈判，并进行了数字化投资。他们明白，他们不仅会为新门店带来客流量，还会通过潜在的广告收入获得投资回报。”
In order to get the existing structure ready for the LED display, North Shore completed a technical survey to ensure new vertical steel that was installed would be plumb and level. “We were working from the existing primary structure that was in place for the sign, and then we needed to take those still existing dimensions and create a sign to fit around them,” explains Dooley.
为了使现有的结构为LED显示做好准备，北岸完成了一项技术调查，以确保安装的新垂直钢将是垂直和水平的。杜利解释说：“我们从现有的主要结构入手，将标识放在适当的位置，然后我们需要利用那些仍然存在的维度，创建一个标识来适应它们。”
Adding to the challenge was a slight bend, or radius, in the sign. “When the most recent static structure was configured for that roof, they used all of the restrictions based on setback, height above roofline, etc., and found out the placement area where the sign could go,” says Dooley. “Then they did some line-of-sight studies to represent where the greatest potential exposure was from all angles within Times Square. So they felt that they could generate greater visual exposure by going a little east up there on the roof. And in order to accomplish it, they did that in a radius.”
更让人头疼的是，路标上出现了轻微的弯曲或半径。杜利说：“当为屋顶配置最新的静态结构时，他们假设了所有基本设施的限制，像屋顶线以上的高度等，并找到了标识可以放置的位置。然后，他们进行了一些视线范围内的研究，从时代广场内的各个角度展示了最大的潜在曝光量。所以他们觉得他们可以通过在屋顶往东走一点来产生更大的视觉曝光。为了达到这个目的，他们在一个半径内做了这个。”
North Shore’s steel shop created shop drawings and fabricated all of the vertical steel added to the existing structure.
北岸的钢铁厂绘制了施工图，并在现有结构上添加了所有的垂直钢筋。
“The tolerances accepted in the original billboard had to be completely removed from the structure because of the tight tolerances inherent in building an LED display,” says Dooley. “We had to determine which existing horizontal rail was the most far forward, and from there, we developed a shim schedule and built the vertical steel out so the new steel would be perfectly straight up and down. This is an extremely critical step when building large displays because over a large continuous face like this screen, a slight tilt can turn into a difference of multiple feet.”
杜利说：“由于LED显示屏固有的严格公差，原先广告牌的公差必须完全从结构中移除。我们必须确定现有的水平钢轨是最先进的，从那里开始，我们制定了一个垫片计划，建造出垂直钢轨，这样新的钢轨就可以完全垂直、向上和向下。在建造大型显示器时，这是非常关键的一步，因为在像这样一个连续的大屏幕上，轻微的倾斜可能会导致多英尺的差异。”
North Shore tapped Daktronics for the digital display, and the company was able to deliver the electronics on time so that the sign company could stay on a very compressed schedule.
北岸公司选择达科电子（Daktronics）作为数字显示器，是因为该公司能够按时交付电子产品，这样标识公司就可以保持非常紧凑的时间表。
The 124-foot, 9-inch-wide-by-75-foot, 6-inch-high Daktronics display is a DVX-2801-10MN with a 10mm pixel pitch. The challenge with installing this display is that it came in small sixteen-square-foot cabinets, which led to more pieces. “In the past, we’d get cabinets that were significantly larger. With the smaller sections, we had a lot more pieces that we had to assemble in the field—more potential seams, a lot more picks,” says Dooley. “We had to be dead-on in making sure that the structure was plumb and level in all directions; otherwise we were going to create a systemic problem within the installation.”
达科公司的显示器长124英尺，宽9英寸，宽75英尺，高6英寸，是DVX-2801-10MN，像素间距10mm。杜利说：“安装这种显示器的挑战在于，它是装在16平方英尺的小柜子里的，这导致了更多的展品。过去，我们的橱柜要大得多。对于更小的部分，我们有更多的部件，我们必须在现场组装——更多潜在的接缝，更多的镐。我们必须确保结构在各个方向都是垂直和水平的，否则，我们就会在安装过程中产生系统性问题。”
Since the billboard was located in busy Times Square, North Shore had to complete a vast majority of the installation—including delivery and installation of the steel—afterhours. North Shore’s SMART Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 137 handled the installation of all of the vertical steel as well as the digital display.
由于广告牌位于繁忙的时代广场，北岸必须完成绝大部分的安装工作，包括钢材的交付和安装。北岸的智能钣金工人当地工会137负责安装所有的垂直钢以及数字显示器。
North Shore used a variety of cranes, which it owns, on the project, including a Skyhook 130 EXHD, 45-ton Demag AC-40, 36-ton National Crane, JLG 1850SJ Ultra Series Telescopic Boom Lift, and JLG 1350SJP Ultra Series Telescopic Boom Lift.
北岸在该项目中使用了其拥有的多种起重机，包括130 EXHD天钩、45吨Deutsche Maschinenfabrik Aktiongesellschaft（德国机器制造公司） AC-40、36吨的国际起重机、JLG 1850SJ超系列伸缩臂举升机、JLG 1350SJP超系列伸缩臂举升机。
North Shore also had to contend with the yearly crane embargo. The embargo runs from about a week before Thanksgiving through the New Year and prohibits the operation of heavy equipment like cranes in areas of New York City that become heavily populated during the holiday season. When they couldn’t use large cranes, North Shore instead employed a variety of installation techniques ranging from mobile cranes and man-lifts set up on the Times Square Plaza to hanging scaffolds with a winch installed on a davit attached to the sign structure.
北岸也不得不应对每年的起重机禁运。禁运从感恩节前一周开始，一直持续到新年，并禁止在节日期间人口密集的纽约市地区使用起重机等重型设备。当他们不能使用大型起重机时，北岸采用了多种安装技术，从移动起重机和时代广场上的人工升降机，到在标识结构的吊柱上安装绞车的脚手架。
A significant portion of the work was the primary electrical feed. Using their electrical license, North Shore’s Local Union No. 3 IBEW electricians installed 300 feet of large diameter four-inch conduit and pulled the primary electrical feed of 1200A from the basement to the roof of 1530 Broadway.
这项工作的很大一部分是主要的电力供应。北岸的当地工会第3号IBEW电工利用他们的电工执照安装了300英尺直径4英寸的大水管，并将1200A的主电源从地下室拉到了百老汇1530号的屋顶。
According to Larry Brown, lead electrician at North Shore, they installed electrical panels distributing the service to the individual LED cabinets. Additionally North Shore provided a rooftop-mounted control room, which was comprised of steel dunnage, an HVAC system, and sufficient electric to power the content management system driving the display.
据北岸的首席电工拉里•布朗(Larry Brown)称，他们安装了配电板，将服务分配到各个LED灯箱。此外，北岸提供了一个屋顶安装的控制室，由钢板垫层、空调系统和足够的电力管理系统驱动显示。
Going through the process of securing the necessary power for the sign could have really slowed down the project, but North Shore’s long-standing relationship with the local utility was key here. “There is a very short supply of electrical current available to midtown Manhattan. They’re using up every ounce of power that they have running down there, so they’re very particular about how the electric is going to be distributed down in that area,” says Brown. “We were able to expedite some aspects of this on the ground level based on our relationships.”
为了确保标识所需的电力供应，整个过程本可能会使项目进度放缓，但北岸与当地公用事业公司的长期关系是关键所在。“曼哈顿中城的电力供应非常短缺。他们正在用尽他们在那里运行的每一盎司电力，所以他们对电力如何分配到那个地区非常挑剔。”布朗说，“基于我们的关系，我们能够在基层加快这方面的一些工作。”
All in all, the McDonald’s display was completed on schedule, within budget, and with all parties’ expectations met.
总而言之，麦当劳的展示如期完成，没有超出预算，符合各方的期望。
What makes this feat even more impressive is that North Shore completed the project without a general contractor. To keep the project on track, North Shore held almost daily meetings and fell back on its employees’ experience.
更令人印象深刻的是，北岸在没有总承包商的情况下完成了该项目。为了保持项目的正常运行，北岸几乎每天都召开会议，依靠员工的经验把项目顺利完成。
“We have employees who have been working at North Shore for over forty years, and we do thousands of signs every year,” says Dooley. “Between the volume of work and the experience within the company, we have seen everything at least once, and we know how to get things done in the city. There is also a good division of work with an emphasis on teamwork so no one person is relied upon too heavily. Everyone is a professional and has a strong feeling of personal responsibility for the projects we are hired to complete.”
“我们的员工已经在北岸工作了40多年，我们每年都做成千上万的标识。”杜利说，“从工作量和公司内部的经验来看，我们至少见过一次所有的事情，而且我们知道如何在金融城把事情做好。”还有一个很好的工作分工，强调团队合作，所以没有一个人是过于依赖谁的。每个人都是专业人士，对我们受雇完成的项目都有强烈的个人责任感。”
McDonald’s was very pleased with the final product. “We build restaurants not giant rooftop LED structures in the middle of Manhattan,” said Michael Kazarian, U.S. construction manager, McDonald’s Corporation. “Recognizing North Shore could provide all aspects is what gave us the confidence to release not only the physical LED portion but the entire project, and they outperformed my expectations.”
麦当劳对最终的产品非常满意。麦当劳美国建筑经理迈克尔·卡扎里安(Michael Kazarian)说：“我们在曼哈顿中部建造的是餐厅，而不是巨大的屋顶LED建筑。认识到北岸霓虹标识公司可以提供所有方面的服务，这让我们有信心不仅发布实体LED部分，还发布整个项目，他们的表现超出了我的预期。”
In fact, the LED display was so impressive that the McDonald’s marketing team went back to create new and dynamic content that would match with the capabilities of the display and provide unique experiences to guests dining at the restaurant.
事实上，LED显示屏给人留下了深刻的印象，麦当劳的营销团队重新设计了新的动态内容，与显示屏的功能相匹配，为顾客在餐厅用餐提供独特的体验。
“They were looking at the board more as an adjunct of the restaurant that they were building below,” says Dooley. “[They didn’t fully realize] the capability of the display and what it could provide to them from an exposure standpoint as well as from an advertising standpoint. And as the process started moving along, I think they started to catch on to what they were actually getting.
杜利表示：“他们更多地把董事会看作是他们在楼下建造的餐厅的附属设施。他们没有完全意识到展示的能力，以及从曝光和广告的角度来看，它能为他们提供什么。随着这个过程的推进，我想他们开始明白他们真正得到了什么。”
“To put it in terms of a car comparison, they were expecting a Cadillac but quickly realized they were actually getting a Porsche!”
“从汽车的比较来看，他们本来想要一辆凯迪拉克，但很快意识到他们实际上买的是一辆保时捷!”
One thing’s for sure—the new LED display will be driving in traffic to McDonald’s for years to come.
有一件事是肯定的，新的LED显示屏将在未来几年推动麦当劳的客流量。
