They are everywhere. And there will be even more of them. They are already creating cyberpunk cities [WIDEO]

As soon as I entered the Stage of Tomorrow conference, I saw dozens of devices with even more buttons. Huge projectors, intimidating control consoles, powerful laser lamps – this is how spectacle is created today. I felt like I was backstage at a concert by Jean-Michel Jarra, whose shows using lasers and lights made an incredible impression two decades ago. 20 years later, these ideas are still being developed, and the most impressive of them are presented on the Stage of Tomorrow.

But the stage of tomorrow is also today’s cities, which are increasingly integrated into smart cities. Cities that, thanks to technology, increasingly resemble the metropolis from Blade Runner. Cyberpunk visions from a few decades ago are literally coming true today. Cities are evolving and paper advertisements are placed on boring, static billboards. They are replaced by screens on which advertisements come to life, like photos in the Daily Prophet, a popular newspaper from the world of Harry Potter.

Big, bigger, and the biggest. Screens are no longer just TV sets, but also large-area technologies

The most spectacular screen in the world has to be the Sphere. Completed last year, the $2.3 billion concert hall in Las Vegas is basically two screens. One outside with lower resolution and one inside. So great that even though U2 played there at the opening, – as our interlocutor Damian Rezner, the operational director of Screen Network, said on the Stage of Tomorrow – the audience came not for Bono, but for Sphere itself. In Las Vegas itself, we also have the Resort World Hotel, a large part of the facade of which is a screen.

However, Sphere has serious competition. A building that is as impressive as the one in Las Vegas. Or even two buildings, because we are talking about the Twin Towers in Chengdu, China. They are over 200 meters long and each of them is entirely a screen, with LED diodes embedded in their facades. If these two buildings don’t make you think of “Blade Runner”, it probably means you haven’t watched this movie in a long time.

In Europe, the largest screen is the facade of the Ukrainian Gulliver Shoping Center. Interestingly, it was opened after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. It’s a screen so large that it dwarfs the one in Piccadilly Circus, which attracts tons of tourists.

You can’t miss the moving screens in Time Square. Not only are they huge, but whenever the need arises – for example, a Shakira concert – they can be opened and transformed into an interactive stage.

There will probably be no shortage of space for placing large screens. Today, the image can be projected in the air. All you need is a fleet of drones and voila – we have a screen in the sky. Drone shows are stunning.

Not just ads. Screens also have a social function

However, cyberpunk is not only about technology, but also about social issues. Screens resembling dystopian visions of the future make us wonder if we really want to go in this direction? Cyberpunk is, after all, a world of extreme social inequality and cyber surveillance by private companies that have replaced the state. Do we really need more screens and not trees?

– I am not in favor of having a lot of these screens. I am in favor of fewer of them, but they were spectacular. So that they are placed in specific places and attract attention, as is the case at Piccadilly Circus in London, where the screen is built into the historic architecture – says Damian Rezner. – So the point is to place these screens rationally. In the early 1990s, these media were placed everywhere, they did not have brightness management systems, they blinded drivers and to this day there is black PR behind screens in Poland – he adds.

At this point, such screens have systems that automatically adjust to the surroundings in terms of brightness and are turned off at night. In my opinion, they complement urban space, not disfigure it. But this is of course a matter of taste, location and operation

– says Damian Rezner.

In his opinion, screens are just tools that people can use in various ways. Like fire, the invention of which made humanity move forward, but which also gave us the opportunity, for example, to set an entire village on fire. Thus, in China, screens scan people and even their garbage, while in the European Union, a Dutch company had to suspend its smart advertising project for data protection reasons. So everything depends on how we will implement this technology – notes our interlocutor. And there are already examples, including local ones, that can be considered role models in terms of using the potential of outdoor advertising, also known as outdoor advertising

For a long time, 20 thousand Screen Network displays RCB alerts. Thanks to this, people who missed the message on their smartphone are warned about the threat. The company also cooperates with the National Blood Donation Center. – Individual regional blood donation centers, which know exactly what blood is needed in a given area, have a special panel. They can choose which blood group is needed and automatically the screens, for example in Wrocław, will display information about what blood is needed now and where it can be donated – explains Damian Rezner.

Screen with information about blood needed photo: Screen Network

Screen Network also works with the Police Headquarters. They display messages for drivers on screens along the road. – We had an action in which we informed drivers that they were driving with damaged lights. We may not see it because we get in the car and drive away. But the sensor on the screen is able to verify this and can also detect the brand and color. This allowed us to display messages such as “driver of a red Alfa Romeo, you are driving with a broken headlight,” says Screen Network’s director of operations. He also explains that today, screens in urban space are closer to smartphones than to televisions, as they have numerous sensors – smog, humidity, temperature and vision.

In Poland, screens are also used to search for missing people. – Thanks to AI, we bring their images to life, because research shows that moving images attract our attention more. So, on screens in urban space you can see photos of missing people, which are brought to life and animated thanks to deep fake technology. We style them as people who are confused, wondering where they are, with lost eyesight. This increased the level of interest significantly. The Itaka Foundation’s report shows that there were many more calls about missing people and thanks to this action, eight people have been found since the end of 2022, when the campaign started – explains Damian Rezner.

Screens with animated photos of missing persons photo: Screen Network

There is a park in Chicago with two screens displaying the faces of city residents. Everyone can add a photo with their face, which will be displayed in a group of other photos for a certain period of time. – Chicago is a multicultural city that brings together many people of different nations and languages. The screen is used to visualize it, bury divisions and make us realize that these people are among us – says the director of operations of Screen Network.

Damian Rezner also argues that screens are better than classic paper media when it comes to advertising. Firstly, because they can already give us personalized messages. One of the screens, for example, detected the size of a dog being taken for a walk and displayed an advertisement for treats adapted to the size of the pet. This interactivity was also used in the anti-smoking campaign. Whenever someone passing by with a cigarette, a figure coughing from smoke appeared on the screen.

Our interlocutor assures that this aspect, among others, thanks to the development of artificial intelligence (AI), it will only get better. Different ads will show in the rain and others on a sunny day. The same applies for social purposes, as roadside screens can adapt messages to the situation on the route – we will receive different information when there is a traffic jam and different when the route is empty. In Stockholm, when the temperature dropped, information about the nearest shelter for people in crisis of homelessness appeared on the screens.

There will be more and more screens. The environment will benefit from this

Unlike a static billboard, the space on an interactive screen can be divided for various purposes. The same advertisement does not have to be displayed 24 hours a day. Various products can be promoted there, interwoven with messages from the city. Like in city buses. The city can therefore install such screens at low cost, in cooperation with advertisers, for both advertising and social purposes, thanks to the flexibility offered by this technology.

There will be more screens everywhere, because they are a means of communicating with a client or a petitioner at the tax office. They can show information that there is an accident in front of the driver, or they can be used to display a match or a concert in a public place

– says Damian Rezner.

What about privacy? – The screens do not scan us, as in “Minority Report”, but only analyze the surroundings. They collect information anonymously in real time, they do not save this data on any servers, the data is used by the computer to adapt the message depending on the situation. There is no direct breach of personal data here, it is more a matter of elements of environmental analysis – assures the operational director of Screen Network.

There is also the issue of costs. When it comes to financial outlays, we are still waiting for a critical point, a turning point that will allow us to achieve the scale that will allow the digital out of home market to enter the mainstream. We’ll have to wait for that, but c. – The domestic market has a lot of catching up to do, but it’s growing quickly, our interlocutor notes.

Once we install them, we do not have to print new banners again and again and generate a carbon footprint by traveling to put up such advertising. Yes, screens require power, but as Damian Rezner says, more and more advertisers use photovoltaics. And now screens are able to generate electricity themselves. For now, however, this technology is not efficient enough to make the screens self-sufficient.