OPTEC DISPLAYS PROVIDES RING SIGN FOR STERLING BANK putting a square peg (the tower) in a round hole (the ring sign).

As Optec Displays recently manufactured its first ever United States installed circular sign. The circular or 'ring' sign as it is also known was designed and assembled and installed by General Sign Company (Girardeau, MO) for their customer, Sterling Bank of Popular Bluff, Missouri. The ring sign came about because of Sterling Bank's unique location which placed it aside three converging major roadways that passed directly in front of the bank. Since the bank was also surrounded by other nearby electronic signs, Sterling Bank was challenged that their sign would have a very distinctive look. Barry Crumley, account executive of the General Sign Company noted his company's efforts in designing and fabricating this unique circular sign. The LED display ring had a twelve-foot circumference and was attached to a free-standing tower thirteen and half feet from the ground. The sign face was composed of 90 sign cabinets, each being four feet high and 8 inches wide. The sign's circular framework was composed of an upper and lower ring that were attached to each other. The overall LED sign face was a 16 mm pitch and presented as an RGB display in the classic 16.7 million color format.

The assembly of such a unique structure was described by Crumley, "the entire tower and ring structure was fabricated as four separate sign units, including the bottom of the tower section, the ring display, the upper tower segment and the tower cap with its S logo.

To complete the LED display ring, a circular steel double frame was first welded and assembled upon which 45 LED sign cabinets were installed upon the lower ring. The remaining 45 sign cabinets were connected to the upper frame, altogether creating a seamless LED fascia which circled the ring frame.
Assembled at the General Sign Company shop, trickier still was its transportation to Sterling Bank's location. To do so, a custom designed traveling harness was welded onto a flat bed truck that allowed the 12-foot ring to be vertically placed in an upright position on the truck. At that point it was then transported to the bank site, removed from the truck and lifted in place on the tower. The remaining tower parts were also assembled together and all final electrical connections made to completely power the sign. As for content, the bank uses its sign for promoting all its services and alerting customers to changing interest rates and bank sales promotions as they occur.

The sign tower sightline specific so it can either display three separate but identical messages, one for each road that passes it, or it can present a continuous horizontal scrolling message that travels around its ring face. Crumley noted that when the ring sign went live with all its brilliant color and high
definition, the observing local viewers were awestruck at its fantastic text and graphic displays. One could perhaps note, that for Sterling Bank, going in circles is a sign of progress in promoting themselves.

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