A large format backlit fabric graphic for the Mattamy Athletic Centre

What the job demanded

Backlit graphics do not scale gracefully. A small box can be made even with a shallow cavity and a modest LED count, but as the face grows the illuminated area increases faster than the depth available behind it, and the result is banding, hot spots or a bright centre falling away to dim corners. Joins become the second problem. Printed film is limited by roll width, so a large face made from film means a butt join or an overlap through the middle of the image, and a lit seam is far more visible than an unlit one. Venue conditions add the rest: concourse graphics are seen from a distance and at an angle, they sit in high ambient light, and access for servicing anything behind the face is usually awkward.

How it was produced

The face was dye sublimated onto wide-width backlit polyester. Sublimation drives disperse dye into the fibre under heat and pressure, so the colour sits inside the material and transmits evenly rather than sitting on the surface as a film. Wide-width fabric also removes the join problem: the graphic can be produced as a single drop across a span where printed film would have to be seamed, and where a seam is unavoidable, fabric can be sewn rather than butted. A silicone bead sewn around the perimeter presses into the channel in the Procura extrusion, pulling the face drum-flat, which matters more when lit because any slack shows as a shadow across the image. Frame depth and internal diffusion were set to let the LED output spread and overlap before it reaches the fabric.