Trade shows are great for growing companies to meet potential clients, but when their booth is surrounded by dozens of competitors, it can be difficult to be seen.

Advanced Extruder Technologies (AET) manufactures large pieces of custom equipment for a range of plastic extruding applications. CEO Fred Jalili had seen how bright, crisp, and adaptable our SEG backlit pop up displays were. Intrigued, he wanted to see if these cost-effective displays could do more. He had a 20×20 island booth at the upcoming NPE 2018 plastics show in Orlando. Island booths come without the height restrictions of smaller spaces. He wanted a design that would tower over AET’s competitors’ booths and, using the power of backlits, attract attention to large images of their product.

To help bring Fred’s vision to life, we developed a 3D rendering of a 10ft w X 7.5ft d X 12.5ft h backlit structure. It was comprised of nine separate modular backlit pop up displays. Suspended from the ceiling above was a 10ft  x 10ft x 4ft square hanging fabric graphic. Together, these displays made a highly visible statement that everyone at the show would be sure to see.

Since this was a novel use of our hardware, we built a proof of concept with the SEG frames. The display was structurally sound and looked great. AET was thrilled and gave us the green light to proceed with full production of the structure. We pulled the specifications for the graphics, turned them over to Catherine Walker at Head Productions, AET’s marketing/design firm, and went to work on creating this unique structure.

Our pop up system comes equipped with special braces designed specifically to combine and stack the frames. Utilizing this functionality, we attached three 7.5ft x 7.5ft displays to form the three walls of the base. Two more 2.5ft x 7.5ft displays were appended to the ends of the walls leaving a 2ft wide gap between them to form a doorway and the 4th wall of the tower’s base. The opening allowed access to the lighting equipment from inside the structure and also provided a hidden storage space for their storage containers and other equipment.  A 24” retractable banner stand was used to conceal the doorway during show time.

The second tier of the tower was constructed by laying four 5ft x 7.5ft displays horizontally and attaching them to the top of the base, again, with the special connectors.

Lastly, each display was outfitted with its own set of LED ladder lights and skinned with an SEG graphic. This ladder light system is an essential engineering element that makes the system highly versatile. Unlike edge lit systems, this quad-by-quad modular lighting provides consistent, even lighting no matter how many quads get hooked together. Opaque backers were attached to the backside of the frames to control light spillage and maintain the bright illumination behind the graphics.

We sell our backlit pop ups in four basic configurations: 2.5ft x 7.5ft, 5ft x 7.5ft, 7.5ft x 7.5ft, and 10ft x 7.5ft. While they are useful as stand-alone backlit displays, it may not be apparent how useful they can be in other ways, backlit or frontlit, to create innovative and low-cost modular designs. What is also important is that the same hardware pieces can be reconfigured as needs and booth spaces change. Furthermore, their tool-less set up makes them incredibly easy to assemble saving you the cost of having to hire installers. Each set comes in a simple blow-molded case for easy transport.

In the end, AET walked away with much more than a backlit tower. Head Productions designed graphics that allowed each of the backlit pop ups to be used as independent displays. Moreover, they can be reconfigured to work together in a variety of other structures should AET decide to use a different layout at future shows.  Benchmark can also print replacement graphics anytime AET’s product line changes or expands.

This custom backlit tower is just another example of the cost-effective solutions Benchmark’s team can devise to meet clients’ needs and stretch their budgets. If you have any questions about our products or capabilities, please give us a call at (847) 290-0002.

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