Visual Vibe takes screens off-grid with solar partnership

Digital advertising company Visual Vibe Limited is moving to take its entire network of outdoor screens off the national grid as it seeks to halve energy costs and eliminate outage-related downtime. Following a recent partnership with Florida-based renewables firm Rush Hour Engineering, the Kintyre Holdings (JA) Limited subsidiary is getting ready to install solar power across its network of outdoor advertising screens. Kintyre Holdings founder, chairman, and CEO, Tyrone Wilson, who also heads Visual Vibe, said the plan is to have every screen in the network — existing and new — powered by solar energy.

Visual Vibe currently operates 14 outdoor digital signs, for which energy costs now averages about $24 million annually, but the company will be adding another 15 screens shortly, which Wilson said could push annual electricity costs to as much as $60 million as the network expands. The solar roll-out is, however, expected to reduce those costs by at least 50 per cent, bringing yearly energy expenditure to about $30 million. Members of the Kintyre and Rush Hour Engineering teams photographed together.

From left: Tyrone Wilson, CEO of Visual Vibe; Edwin Xiao, CEO of Rush Hour Engineering; Adrian Smith, chief investment officer and deputy CEO of Kintyre Holdings; and Dane Fairweather; chief operating officer of Rush Hour Engineering. “Electricity cost has long been one of the digital advertising business’s largest single monthly expenses, and with the war pushing up gas prices, we don’t see that easing anytime soon. So we had no other choice than to tap into solar,” Wilson told the Jamaica Observer.

“If we can cut our electricity bill by about 50 to 60 per cent, that would lift Visual Vibe’s profits enough so that we can keep funding growth from our own cash flow instead of seeking outside investment,” he further said to the Business Observer. Stressing the need to have more efficient systems, Wilson said the new partnership also allows Visual Vibe to offer greater reliability to its clients during periods of disruption. “Reliability is the currency of advertising.

When a brand invests in our network, their campaign must be on screen every single time — and rising energy costs and grid outages have been a real challenge for our entire industry, and so this partnership with Rush Hour Engineering aims to solve those issues permanently “ Wilson said.