GB2291249A - A display apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A display apparatus comprises a number of individual display units 10 placed side by side and controlled by a central control unit. Each display unit 10 comprises an advertising web (21, Figure 3) supported inter alia on web winding rollers 17 and 18 and adapted to be driven backwards and forwards by motors 15 and 16. The individual units are synchronised with each other under the control of the control unit whereby an advertisement made up of component webs can be changed by changing the position of individual webs in synchronism. <IMAGE>

Description

DISPLAY APPARATUS This invention relates to display apparatus and more particularly to the type of display apparatus which incorporates a series of adjacent advertisements on a roller, allowing the advertisements to be displayed sequentially.

The apparatus has usually consisted of an elongate box-shaped or wedge-shaped housing resting on the ground.

The housing has an aperture cut in one side and one or more motors inside to wind a roll of advertisements in one direction and in the opposite direction, such that advertisements on the roll are displayed sequentially.

The aforementioned display apparatus has proven particularly successful within sports stadia. However, the display apparatus has often comprised complex gears and drive belts linking motors to the roll on which the advertisements are supported. This has resulted in the apparatus being expensive and heavy.

Another problem with wedge-shaped display apparatus has been that because of their wedged nature; that is because they have been slightly broader at their base than the tops; they have tended to intrude into the arena or playing area. In larger stadia this has not proved to be a problem, but in smaller stadia, where there is much less space, intrusion of the display apparatus is considered undesirable from a safety point-of-view, as players may injure themselves by falling over or onto the display apparatus.

Another disadvantage of existing display apparatus has been that a gap existed between two adjacent display apparatuses. This resulted in a waste of advertising space.

Also it meant that the advertising equipment could not be used with advertisements which were designed for use when they were placed side-by-side one another. That is those advertisements which comprised too many words and/or images to fit onto one roll or web and which were split into two or more rolls or webs. Furthermore there was a risk, even when these types of "split" advertising webs were used adjacent one another, that one device would run ahead of the other and thereby fail to display the two adjacent advertisements in synchronism.

The present invention seeks to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages by providing an improved display apparatus.

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a display apparatus comprising a first and second web roller and a first and second motor associated with each web roller, and connected to its respective web roller, such that a drive shaft of each motor is coaxial with its respective web roller.

Preferably the motors are mounted external to the housing. This removes the need for gears and/or pulleys and drive belts connecting motors to respective web rollers as the motors may drive the rollers directly. The motors may be stepper motors.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided display apparatus comprising a first and second housing, the housings being adapted to be placed adjacent one another such that first and second webs for supporting advertisements, housed in the first and second housings respectively, are substantially contiguous.

The term substantially contiguous is intended to mean that, although the separate advertisements do not touch, when viewed from a distance of a few metres the overall impression given is that the two units are one and that there is no significant gap between the adjacent units.

In the first housing the two motors are arranged relatively close together and in the second housing the two motors are arranged relatively further apart. Each housing comprises a box type structure having end sections. In each end section two apertures are removed. In the first housing, wherein the motors are relatively close together, the apertures are spaced relatively far apart; in the second housing, wherein the motors are spaced relatively far apart, the apertures are spaced relatively close together. The result is that when two housings; one of the first type and one of the second type, are placed adjacent one another the motors protruding from the end of each housing pass through the apertures cut in the end section of the other housing.

The overall effect is that the first and second type housings may be "dove-tailed" together with only a minimum gap between adjacent housings. The gap is due to the thickness of the wall of the end section. This may only be a few millimetres and when viewed from a distance the two display apparatuses appear to be a single unit. This effect is further enhanced by careful synchronism of the motors.

Catch means may be provided on adjacent housings so as to connect the first and second type housings together so there is little or no relative movement between adjacent housings.

The gap between adjacent housings is preferably less than five millimetres. In use, such as in sports, stadia, the advertisements are often viewed from distances of many metres.

Accordingly when viewed from such a distance there appears to be no gap and adjacent advertisements appear to conjoin giving an overall single advertisement.

According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a system of advertising comprising a plurality of housings, the housings being of a first and second type; and adapted, such that in use adjacent housings may be placed together enabling adjacent advertisements within said housings to appear to be conjoined, each housing having first and second motors capable of moving advertisements in an upward and downward direction respectively within a housing, and a control unit connected to the motors, which control unit is arranged to selectively energise one or more motors.

Preferably two or more motors are energised simultaneously so as to displace adjacent advertisements in adjacent housings at substantially the same velocity.

The controller may be remote from the advertising housings so as to permit a user to control separate motors in different housing individually or in groups. For example, some advertisements may comprise very long words and/or images, as is the case in a particularly well known advertisement for soft drinks. Individual advertising webs supported on rollers within each housing may have successive portions of the advertisement such that when adjacent webs are rolled concurrently the advertisement appears as a single word or image.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a display apparatus having a first and second rollers; first and second drive means for rotating said rollers such that in use a web supported by said rollers, is displayed; the apparatus further comprising a memory device for storing a control signal, said signal being intended to control the instant of activation of a drive means and the instant of deactivation of the drive means.

Preferably the memory device comprises an integrated circuit having electronic memory storage capacity. The device may be programmable RAM such as EPROM or EEPROM. The sequence of display of advertisements and the duration of their display can be downloaded onto individual memory devices so that no remote control is needed.

The energy supply to each display apparatus may be by a battery or from a mains supply via a transformer. Preferably a 24v supply is provided to drive the motors.

According to yet a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a plurality of display apparatuses which when arranged in a predetermined order are capable of displaying a single advertisement.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, and with reference to the figures in which: Figure 1 shows a partial plan view of a first display apparatus; Figure 2 shows an end elevation along the arrow A of Figure 1; Figure 3 shows an end elevation along the arrow B of Figure 1; Figure 4 shows a plan view of a first and second display apparatus placed adjacent one another; and Figure 5 is a block diagram of an example of a control system.

Referring to Figures 1 to 4, Figure 1 shows end portions of a display apparatus 10, comprising a front frame portion 11, side frame portions 12 and an end plate 13 in a parallelepiped box-type arrangement. End plates 13A and B have no projections or external fittings. The end plate 13A, as shown in elevation in Figure 2 has first and second apertures 14A and 14B cut in it. A first drive motor 15 and a second drive motor 16 are mounted on external end plate 13A in line with web winding rollers 17 and 18 respectively.

Rollers 17 and 18 are connected to end plate 13B, at- their other ends, by bearing houses 17A and 18A respectively. The display apparatus 10 further comprises two pairs of web guide rollers 19A and 19B and 20A and 20B which are mounted in upper and lower portions of the display apparatus 10 respectively.

An advertising web 21 is shown in ghost lines in Figure 3. The advertising web has a plurality of advertisements printed or glued onto it. A loaded roll of advertisements (not shown) is mounted into a first position on web winding roller 17, such that the web supporting the advertisements passes over guide roller 19B, then over guide roller 19A and then over guide roller 20A such that the advertisements face in an outwardly direction and, in use, would hide the inner workings of the display apparatus 10. The web 21 then passes over guide roller 20B and onto web winding roller 18.

Motors 15 and 16 are used to wind the web 21 backwards and forwards so that advertisements roll into the open portion of the frame defined by a frame portions 11 and 12.

Strengthening struts 30 and 31 are shown in partial hidden view in Figure 1. These then strengthen the display apparatus 10 and prevent it from twisting in high winds. The struts also enable the display apparatus 10 to be carried without it bending or warping. Typically a continuous roll of web may hold between 20 and 25 separate advertisements.

The advertisements per se are printed or painted onto vinyl and joined together by a length of white tape on the front and back. Each display apparatus is then individually synchronised with the remaining apparatuses such that when all the advertisements are changed the new face is displayed, automatically lined up with the adjacent advertisement.

The operation of the system will now be briefly described with reference to Figure 5. Five individual display units 10 have been given the initials P, Q, R, S and T. These are linked to a central control unit 50 via a daisy chain link 60. A data bus 51 links the units to a computer 52. By transmitting a control signal from the computer 52 a particular unit it will be appreciated that control of individual advertising webs may be achieved.

Synchronised control of adjacent units is also achievable simply by transmitting suitable control signals, on respective lines to adjacent units in parallel. Each unit is individually addressable by virtue of it having an individual address code.

A serial link connector enables each unit to be controlled via the computer 61. Direct broadcasting to selected units is possible as is mass broadcasting to all units because of the selectable switch coding facility.

The coded selectable switching facility enables1 for example individual units to be swapped about or their order changed with the requirement that only the address code of that unit needs to be "updated" to a new code corresponding to a unit's new position in a series of units. This particular facility makes the system modular and enables replacement units to be easily fitted into "series" when a particular unit requires repair or maintenance.

It will be appreciated that the above embodiments have been described by way of examples only and that variation to them may be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

Variations to the embodiment described include adapting the housing such that it has legs or stilts which enable it to be free-standing. Alternatively a collapsible leg or legs may be fitted to the housing which permit it to be leant or tilted over.

Another variation to the apparatus includes adopting it to be wall mounted for permanent fitting, whereas the other embodiments are transportable.

Claims (8)

1. A display apparatus having first and second rollers; first and second drive means for rotating said rollers such that in use a web supported by said rollers, is displayed.

2. A display apparatus according to claim 1 which further comprises a memory device for starting a control signal, said signal being intended to control the instant of activation of a drive means and the instant of deactivation of the drive means.

3. A display apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the memory device comprises an integrated circuit having electronic memory storage capacity.

4. A display apparatus according to claims 2 or 3 wherein the memory device is programmable RAM such as EPROM or EEPROM.

5. A display apparatus according to any of claims 2 to 4 wherein the sequence of display of advertisements and the duration of their display can be downloaded onto individual memory devices so that no remote control is needed.

6. A display apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 5 wherein the energy supply to each display apparatus may be by a battery or from a mains supply with a transformer.

7. A display apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 5 wherein a 24v supply is provided to drive the motors.

8. A control system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.