Will this be the jumbotron for the masses?

ROHNERT PARK – A team of former telecom engineers is applying its technical knowhow to the jumbo screen display market, taking aim at low-cost outdoor fairs, concerts and sporting events.

Displ’aire Inc., housed at the Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster, has come up – and down – with a flexible LED screen that works like a window shade.

“You can scroll it down from the rafters of a hall or gymnasium, or up from a field or display floor, and it’s easy to move from one spot to another,” said Leo Stearns, Displ’aire president and CEO.

He and his partner Lynton Auld are veterans of DSC, Alcatel and Calix, where Mr. Stearns was senior director of engineering. They and five engineers will have their first working prototype ready this week, he said.

Jumbotrons and similar large-scale displays are used to great effect in huge sports arenas, but they don’t scale well technically or economically to smaller venues.

The Displ’aire team believes there’s a good market to be found among organizers of country fairs, high school sports events and concerts, and display advertisers.

“Our screens, which include content management and creation software simple enough for an amateur to operate, can represent a cost reduction up to 80 percent over existing solutions,” said Mr. Stearns.

A jumbo screen, which comes with an operations booth and technicians to run the system, can cost $4,000 a day to rent. The Displ’aire trailer-based screens would rent for less than $1,000 and provide equipment rental companies with a welcome new source of income, he said.

The global LED video display market is currently about $2.8 billion, the company’s research indicates. The combined market for small venue events, live events and digital signage is about $1.6 billion.

Displ’aire already has a customer waiting for its first screens, set to debut at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. A South African company with the sporting goods concession at that event wants five or six of the screens, putting pressure on the team to deliver their patent-pending solution on time.

Displ’aire is self-funded while it develops and polishes its prototype, built by a contract manufacturer in the South Bay. Then the team will seek about $600,000 in capital to transition into manufacturing, move the first products into the live events market and introduce its technology to the small venue and digital signage markets.

“We’re going to see an increase in local, low-cost entertainment, and our systems can enhance both the attendees’ experience and the organizers’ revenues,” said Mr. Stearns.

The Displ’aire Web site, at www.displaire.com, is still under construction. For more information, call 707-664-6350.