Why customers demand diagnostics and zero downtime …

A recent sighting in Times Square: A monster ClearChannel LED board with an Adobe Flash error message and not a lot else.

The problem was reportedly corrected in 20 minutes or so. Stuff happens … but when it is a site with that profile, it almost can’t.

I wonder if the player was using a legit license? It looks like Flash 9 when I squint, which is a no-no.

UPDATE: Kris Matheson, Digital Signage Man of the Year and International Man of Mystery, sent me a note just as I was posting this:

Ed Moltzen – The Chart
December 01, 2007
Flash Crash on Broadway, Ten Stories High

Two major advances in technology over the past few years include the ubiquity of Flash, and the emergence of digital signage as a viable, eye-catching way to reach the masses.

But they don’t always work well together.

Today, in Manhattan, with what seemed like millions of holiday shoppers and revelers walking the city streets, a 10-story digital advertisement for CNN – – using Flash – – just out and out crashed in the middle of the lunch hour.

The sign, owned and managed by Clear Channel, posted the all-too-familiar Flash error message and just hung there for about 20 minutes. Ten stories above Broadway. Staring down at thousands and thousands of passersby.

Then, someone in the IT department had the good sense to reboot the thing.

Within a few minutes of rebooting, another moving advertisement began scrolling. What was the new ad for?

Adobe.

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