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Experiential · August 24, 2026

SNA Displays Builds a 2,700-Square-Foot dvLED Network Inside One Times Square's New Times Travel Museum

More than 86 million pixels across six exhibits tell the history of Times Square's most famous address.

By AVinBrief Editorial Desk ·

What is Times Travel, and what role does dvLED play in it?
Times Travel is a multi-sensory, experiential museum occupying One Times Square; the 26-story building at the intersection of 42nd Street, Seventh Avenue, and Broadway in New York City that has hosted the New Year's Eve Ball Drop since 1907. Owner and developer Jamestown opened the attraction to let visitors move through centuries of Times Square history across six interactive exhibits, from the building's basement to a 360-degree rooftop viewing deck 19 floors above the plazas. SNA Displays manufactured and supplied more than 2,700 square feet of direct-view LED (dvLED) video hardware throughout the experience, and the combined network processes more than 86 million pixels.
Which exhibits got the most display hardware, and what are the specs?
Two exhibits anchor the dvLED scope. In the Time Flies/Time Stands Still exhibit on the basement level, 142 linear feet of SNA Displays' BRILLIANT™ Interior panels line a winding path in both concave and convex curves, all at a 1.5 mm pixel pitch. On the 16th floor, the Decades of Change exhibit features a 50-foot-long concave LED screen; also at 1.5 mm pitch; that wraps the room to simulate a virtual taxicab ride up Broadway through decades of the neighborhood's history. Indoor pixel pitches across all six exhibits range from 1.5 mm to 6 mm.
How did the curved display geometry get built, and who else worked on the project?
SNA Displays performed the LED installation work directly, with AMA Signs providing installation support. Experience design firm Roto, which specializes in museums, aquariums, zoos, and cultural attractions, handled design consultation for the exhibits. Elevate serves as the property's operating partner and exclusive brand partnerships agency. The BRILLIANT™ Interior product, deployed in the basement exhibit, is SNA Displays' indoor-grade panel line and was configured in both concave and convex curve profiles to follow the serpentine path of the Time Flies/Time Stands Still space.
Does SNA Displays have any other display work at One Times Square beyond the interior museum?
The Times Travel installation is the second phase of SNA Displays' work at One Times Square. The company also recently completed an upgrade to the building's exterior video network, a separate project also done in partnership with Jamestown. SNA Displays describes itself as the only LED display builder headquartered in Times Square, and Pete Simon, the company's New York City-based sales director, characterized the combined scope as covering the building "from top to bottom, inside and out."
What does the full Times Travel experience include beyond the LED exhibits?
Six named exhibits run from the basement through the upper floors: Cellar Crystal Core uses motion-activated photo portals and virtual storytelling to access the building's archived "memories"; Times Machine is a tech-enabled glass elevator compressing centuries of neighborhood history into seconds; Building One Times Square recreates the 1904 construction through the perspective of original owner Adolph Ochs; An Airship Above Manhattan flies visitors through 1930s New York; Decades of Change delivers the virtual taxicab ride up Broadway; and Eternal Midnight presents the New Year's Eve Ball Drop from two vantage points, including a virtual zipline through Times Square. The experience ends on the Times Square Skywalk, a 360-degree wraparound deck with a glass walkway 19 floors above street level. Replica ball drops, including the original 1907 Ball and the "Big Ball" that ran from 2008 through 2025, are on display throughout.

The Take

What does the Times Travel installation tell integrators about specifying curved dvLED for permanent experiential environments?

At 2,700 square feet across six exhibits in a single building, Times Travel is a useful reference point for integrators who specify dvLED in museum and cultural-attraction settings. Three things about this project are worth examining before a similar spec goes to bid.

First, the curved geometry. Deploying BRILLIANT Interior panels in both concave and convex configurations along a 142-linear-foot path is a fabrication and rigging problem as much as a display problem. The 50-foot concave wrap on the 16th floor is comparatively straightforward; the basement exhibit’s alternating curves demand consistent tile-to-tile alignment and seam calibration at every inflection point. Integrators should ask SNA Displays specifically how the BRILLIANT™ Interior cabinet system manages the structural tolerances that determine whether seams stay tight after the building settles and ambient temperature cycles.

Second, pixel pitch selection against viewing distance. A 1.5 mm pitch on a basement-level winding path where viewers may stand within a few feet of the surface is a deliberate choice that pays for itself in image quality at close range. The minimum comfortable viewing distance for a 1.5 mm pitch works out to roughly 12 feet. Exhibits designed around close-proximity, moving viewers demand that discipline; a looser pitch chosen to reduce cost can undercut the whole experiential premise. The 6 mm upper end of the indoor pitch range at this project likely serves exhibits where viewing distance is greater and per-pixel cost pressure is real.

Third, the total cost picture. A network processing 86 million pixels across six floors of a landmark building carries a content and management overhead that the display hardware cost alone does not capture. Ask about content processing architecture, pixel mapping across the non-standard geometries, and what remote monitoring and servicing looks like for a museum that operates daily and cannot take extended dark days for maintenance. The managed-services model (where the integrator or manufacturer holds ongoing responsibility for uptime) is worth raising explicitly on a project of this complexity.

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