Fremont Street Experience: Out with the Old, and In with the New

The Fremont Street Experience (FSE) is an incredibly popular destination for many tourists visiting Las Vegas. The FSE includes the Viva Vision light show every night that delivers a spectacular digital experience that amazes people from all over the world. Beginning in 2019, the Viva Vision show will showcase a new LED canopy from Watchfire Signs.

It all started in 1995 when Fremont Street Experience first opened. The enormous canopy was originally populated with 2.1 million light bulbs. In 2004, FSE decided to upgrade the canopy to a $17 million LED display that had a pitch of 50mm, which enabled them to add more color combinations to create a vivid show. It was labeled the world’s “biggest big screen”, and the behemoth made headway as tourists flocked to see the spectacular screen.

Las Vegas is the place for spectacles that wow people, and over time the 50mm LED canopy couldn’t keep up with the pace of technology. In 2016, FSE began searching for a new manufacturer to build a fresh, vivid display to replace their old LED canopy. Their extensive proposal process ended in 2018 with the selection of Watchfire Signs’ custom designed 27mm product for the Fremont Street Experience. This new product meets the stringent requirements for a challenging environment. Watchfire’s modules for FSE will allow light to reach street level and for the canopy to shed rain. The new canopy will increase contrast by four times and allow the Viva Vision show to take place during daylight hours.

Watchfire is no stranger to installations on Fremont Street with Watchfire signs at Slotzilla and the Fremont Hotel & Casino. Now the entire 130,000 square foot LED canopy will be designed and manufactured by Watchfire in the small town of Danville, IL, using meticulously sourced components from around the globe. Watchfire is excited to design and engineer this new LED canopy for an iconic destination that hosts over 20 million visitors annually.

Watchfire’s involvement in the Fremont Street project upgrade happened because we were innovative, incredibly thorough, and relentless in our pursuit. This project is the result of an amazing team effort and we are confident that we will provide the best product and service, and give the Fremont Street Experience visitors an experience that will be one to remember.