Dataton WATCHOUT User's Guide

Outdoor presentations are particularly challenging. Using carefully placed
shades or specialized outdoor display technology may help. Here you’re
strongly advised to team up with a manufacturer or staging company specializing
in outdoor display technology.
Audience Placement
In determining the location and arrangement of display areas, the expected
location and size of the audience is an important factor. Many display technologies
– most notably LCD panels – are more or less directional, making the
viewing angle an important consideration.
For a small, stationary and concentrated audience, you may arrange display
areas so they face the expected location of the audience. This gives you the
greatest freedom in choice and placement of the displays as well as the sound
system.
If the audience is large or spread out for other reasons, take this into account
by choosing displays and screen material with very wide viewing angles. This
is particularly true if displaying images that span across multiple displays,
since color shifts or other phenomenons caused by differences in viewing angle
often become very obvious.
In some cases, the audience move through the presentation environment; for
example, a museum, an amusement park ride, or similar. This is even more
challenging, especially in terms of the sound system and loud speaker placement.
In this case, multiple sound channels for local sound effects are often very
effective. Also keep in mind that any given person in the audience may only
see a small portion of the overall presentation at a time, which is easy to overlook
in the story-boarding phase.
Chapter 5: Planning 51