Bayer Polycarbonate Sheet Employed in LED Display in DIRECTV Lobby

Designers and lighting engineers at  Electroland envisioned a new entrance to DIRECTV’s lobby with an artistically creative design. The design needed the right material for light diffusion. The designers chose the Makrolon® Lumen XT polycarbonate sheet from Bayer MaterialScience LLC.
 
“We like to use LEDs for our installations, but LEDs can create
challenges when diffusing light and avoiding hot spots. Until now,
we’ve had to use acrylic  materials. We couldn’t believe when
the Makrolon® Lumen XT polycarbonate  sheet from Bayer came
out. It is perfect for us. The flame retardant material is 
light weight, robust and does a great job of transmitting light,”
said Cameron McNall, principal, Electroland LLC.
 
McNall pointed out that the easy-to-fabricate Makrolon®
polycarbonate sheet enabled  Electroland to have nearly all
pieces delivered in pre-cut sections.   Electroland also
used parametric building  software to design the 26-foot-high
installation. The flexible design and use of the software helped
lower manual labor costs by 2/3  because the display could be
assembled on-site without the need to hire a highly
skilled workforce.
 
The Makrolon® Lumen XT sheet has a a textured surface on one side
specifically designed for lighting lenses. It  features high
light diffusion, high light transmission, optimized surface texture,
warm (LW) or cool (LC) hue
 
DIRECTV, headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., is a leading 
providers of digital television entertainment services. Eight
high-definition televisions on two walls make up the finished
interactive  video display. A visitor entering the lobby
becomes a “star” in the sky on the wall’s surface. As the person
moves through the full-surround hall, the star moves in step
across  the polycarbonate sheet wall. The star eventually
swirls onto the bank of HD  televisions as a goddess dancing,
according to McNall.
 
“We believe it to be the largest 3D curved video screen featuring
more than  47,000 LEDs,” McNall said. “The Makrolon®
Lumen XT LC5 polycarbonate sheet helped make the design a reality
because of its light weight, great diffusion  ability
relative to light transmission, toughness and flame resistance
index  suitable for architectural interiors. The Lumen XT
panels were easy to cut and drill and they could be bent and
fastened into place during installation without breaking. The
effective diffusion capabilities enabled us to place the LEDs
close to the polycarbonate sheet without hot spotting, and the
material’s high light  transmissivity allowed us to reduce
the number of lights and conserve electricity.”