Display Technology

Nanolumens, Ford AV team on “Oculus” LED installation at Houston airport

Photo: Ford AV

March 9, 2026

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Nanolumens and Ford AV have created a 220-foot custom curved LED installation called "Oculus" at George Bush Intercontinental Airport's Terminal E.

The display is designed to welcome travelers with an immersive digital experience reflecting Houston's identity. The suspended elliptical display uses more than 2,000 custom Nixel Series LED modules and nearly 49 million pixels to form a high-resolution media canvas visible from both arrivals and departures levels, according to a press release.

The installation is part of a significant transformation of Terminal E's International Central Processor. The vision called for a 220-foot rounded, continuous LED structure suspended at a 60-degree angle between the Arrivals and Departures levels.

"It is 100% meant to be an element that shares the sense of place for the city of Houston," Darryl Daniel, chief technology officer at Houston Airports, said in the release. "For many, this is their first experience of Houston and for others, it's the last thing they see before they leave."

Ford AV, which led system integration and was responsible for installation, content systems and commissioning, selected Nanolumens' LED displays and services due to their expertise in engineering nonstandard geometries.

The design consultation was led by Dan Rossborough, director of strategic projects, and pre-contracting services were led by Todd Alan Green, global director of transportation and transit, Nanolumens.

Following the award, Nanolumens' research and development and mechanical engineering teams engineered the custom componentry required to achieve the design intent.

Unlike conventional flat LED video walls constructed from uniform rectangular cabinets, the curved installation forms a truncated elliptical cone composed of smooth, connected arcs.

More than 2,000 Nanolumens Nixel Series LED modules were custom-fabricated and positioned within millimeter tolerances. Each module is slightly trapezoidal to preserve the oval form and maintain continuous radii across the structure.

Nothing was off-the-shelf. Every LED cabinet, every pixel alignment, and every curve had to be engineered for this exact shape, according to Ford AV's project team.

To make the complex geometry constructible and maintainable, the design team translated the form into eight arc sections, each built from 36 custom polygonal LED modules.

Nanolumens developed nine unique Nixel Series LED frame shapes and fabricated 84 discrete frames to create the seamless sculptural surface. The display measures 93 feet in length and 16 feet in height, with a total linear span of 226.5 feet and approximately 1,955 square feet of LED surface. The modular Nixel system allows front-service access, so in The Oculus delivers a resolution of 34,584 by 1,416 pixels, totaling nearly 49 million pixels, with pixel pitch ranging from 2.0 millimeters to 1.4 millimeters to support close viewing distances within the concourse. The brightness is calibrated to 800 nits to ensure clarity in the well-lit terminal environment. Each LED module was factory color-matched to maintain uniformity and Nanolumens engineered and integrated passive and active thermal management systems to support reliable operation in Houston's hot and humid climate.

Before full production began, Nanolumens constructed a full-scale factory mock up at its Georgia headquarters to validate mounting systems, panel alignment and image performance. After initial approval, Ford AV rebuilt the mockup in Houston so airport stakeholders could evaluate the installation in-person and the field team could rehearse the precise assembly process required for final deployment.

The installation presents 27 content sequences that interpret Houston's identity through motion graphics, environmental imagery and references to the city's role in human spaceflight. As passengers move beneath the structure, occupancy sensors capture motion data, which is processed through Pixera's real-time rendering engine and mapped to the curved LED surface. The result is content that responds dynamically to passenger flow and evolves throughout the day.

The system operates with Pixera media servers and is controlled through Smart Monkeys' ISSAC platform and Nanolumens' NanoSuite display control. NanoSuite provides centralized monitoring, scheduling and diagnostics, enabling remote oversight and long-term performance management.