LEDs Take Center Stage at the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony
August 12th, 2008By David Hsieh, Vice President, Greater China Market, DisplaySearch
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games opened at 8:08 pm on August 8, 2008. This time has special meaning because the number 8 symbolizes “fortune” in China. So much about the ceremony was wonderful: the very large scale of the ceremony, the splendid fireworks show, the spectacular demonstration of Chinese culture, and the amazing coordination of the thousands of actors involved.
Of course, for those of us who are in the display industry, the enormous LED display right in the middle of the Bird’s Nest was the best part! This LED display was an important feature of the opening ceremony. At the beginning of the ceremony, it rolled into the venue, and then slowly opened up like an ancient Chinese painting scroll. The display is 147 meters long and 22 meters wide and acted like a big movie screen through the show, showing Chinese calligraphy, Chinese paintings, Chinese characters and Chinese expeditions.
No doubt that there will be more interest in the LED display industry after this show, which had tens of millions of viewers in the US and billions of viewers worldwide. The LED provider for this scroll and for the lighting in the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube is Cree, a US-based LED company and one of the largest LED companies in the world. Their China Division manager is speaking about this during the DisplaySearch China FPD Conference on September 4-5.
