Hong Kong has hundreds of video screens but they all serve fairly distinct purposes. Many of them show mostly news with the occasional advertisement (no different than what you’d find on, say, RDI or Newsworld). There’s one outside a movie theatre that shows trailers for what’s playing inside.

As for energy consumption, neon is actually more efficient than incandescent bulbs. But LED lights are most energy efficient of all: they use a tiny fraction of the energy a regular light bulb uses and they last pretty much forever. They can also can colours. They’re pretty much the ideal solution for lighting up a street without using ghastly amounts of electricity.

This photo at the top of my November post on urban light is one that demonstrates the potential of LED lighting perfectly. This is a Seoul department store that was built in the 1970s. Until recently it had a blank concrete facade. With the installation of energy-efficient LED lights on the exterior, it becomes something akin to a glowing lantern that changes colours and displays text.