There you are.

I know.

I'm sorry.

It took me a while to catch up.

I just need to see the rest a couple of times.

So what's up?

That's up.

Front.

That the billboard?

Oh, what about it?

DVDs.

I wonder how to make billboards.

And I want to make advertising so large.

And I wonder how to get them up there.

Well, I guess I need to try to find Lamar.

Cool.

Lamar, you know the name that's on all the signs but you just hang here.

I'll be right back.

Man.

There are billboards everywhere, but I don't see anybody working on the outside Hey, uh, I'm sorry to barge in on you like this, but, uh, my name's Steve, and I, uh, I do a television show called Eye Wonder, and friend of mine was curious about how billboards are made, but I can't find any.

You guys do make billboards here.

Billboards are especially welcome to Lamar Advertising.

Thank you very much.

I'm Scott Shopping.

This is at a moment.

Hi.

How you know?

Nice to meet you.

What are you guys working on?

Are you guys working on a billboard?

We're working on a billboard.

We'll try to tell you what the process entails.

We've got a blank template that are account executives.

You want to fill in the top into a particular customer, they then will gather information about what the customer's needs are and come back with a very rough thumbnail sketch and give it to Adam so that he can literally create a billboard on his computer.

Okay.

From there, they they already have decided they like the design.

Or how does that work?

We'll take the actual billboard itself.

Oh, wow.

It's like a little billboard.

That's a miniature tool so that we can take it to the client and get their approval.

Make sure they're satisfied with the design and then we will take that and put it on this or send it via email to the printing source.

Really?

You email it to them and they print it up.

You bet.

So you actually have some bigger billboard somewhere here?

We sure do.

They're hidden in the back.

Do you think I can see.

Why not go check them out.

Thanks a lot.

So this is a billboard.

This is a billboard that just happens to be inside our warehouse.

Okay.

Well, how big is this?

That is 370 square feet from 36 feet wide.

Okay.

What is it actually made up?

I mean, what is this material that would or.

This is that vinyl substrate underneath it.

There's a metal section, so you can hear the metal underneath it.

It's like a large copper canvas that's stretched out over the side of the metal sections underneath it.

Well, how did they get the image on to the vinyl?

Well, if you can see this, you can see a dot pattern.

And this is basically computer generated.

There are various companies that do this.

If you look at it very closely, it's a blurred image.

And of course, when you think about billboards, they're not meant to be viewed close up through meant to be viewed far away.

At a distance.

Everything gets crystal clear.

Wow.

That is really neat.

Now, there are all billboards printed on this vinyl substrate.

Now we've got about half of our billboards with the vinyl substrate.

The other half actually have a paper substrate.

To use out.

Here.

We certainly do.

Can we see that?

Sure.

Let's go see that now.

Great.

Cool.

What is this technique called?

This is gluing poster paper This is a completely different substrate.

This is a paper product compared to the vinyl we looked at earlier.

Right.

We pull it through this machine, and this is a storage space to tear the base glue Really nice and slimy.

Wow.

Good adhesive qualities, but something that also won't stay stuck for a long, long period of time.

Okay, Terry.

Well, we're back here and pull the paper through the machine.

Glue it put up in banks.

Our fellows will take it in our truck and put it up on a billboard.

Can we see some getting glue?

Absolutely.

I Well, so why would they use this technique as opposed to the one you just showed me out there?

Well, this type of time where we sell in 30 day increments So we need something that can stay stuck for 30 days.

It's not going to face up to 12 months because we're reselling the advertising space every 30 days.

What you saw Terry do is he took basically enough sheets to make a 240 square foot billboard.

Okay.

There are ten different shapes that when our guys go out put together, just like putting a jigsaw puzzle together and presto, you get a billboard.

So do you guys printed stuff here in-house?

No, we, we basically go to outside sources on both the poster paper and the vinyl substrate.

Hey, my name is Steve.

Compared to an L.A. graphic.

Oh, nice to meet you.

I'm trying to find out how billboards are made.

You guys print billboards here?

Yes, we do.

And we print a lot of other sign applications, too.

Cool.

So when you guys get a job in to print for a billboard company, how does it arrive?

Well, this is a lot like your home printer application.

In fact, you'll see some very large printers here today.

They're nothing more than 16 foot home printers, but we receive our files, the electronic transfer from our customers, from computer type files, our Adobe illustrator, CorelDraw, all EPS.

And they come in to us.

Either the e-mail or are they come to us in advance.

And then we go down into our computer room where we do the manipulation of the files to get them ready to go on the the printing machine.

So then once it's ready, they send it to a printer.

Like, like this one over here.

Yes.

This looks like a just a really large printer that one would have in their house, just like you're connected to your PC.

Well, just as we can blow up the image to be 5000 square feet if you need it, this is really just a blown up printing device that has the capability of printing size of this one to 16 foot in length.

So how does it work now?

This is the same vital material that we've seen at the Billboard factory.

That's correct.

So then it just print.

That looks just like the printer in my and my house.

Right.

Little more conflict, right?

The inks are a lot more expensive, but basically the technology is similar.

So explain to me about the resolution here.

Now, I understand there's a lot of little dots there and it doesn't look like much of an image from from this point.

Well, that's that's one of the keys of knowing the sign in the street is knowing the resolution of your time.

We have machines that can print in the lowest well, that's free or up as high as $360 for them.

And really, you need to know the application.

The farther away that you're going to view the sign, the less resolution you need.

That's amazing that this is going to be a sign that you can actually read on the highway that actually someone can actually generate business from.

Correct.

Well, thanks a lot for showing you this.

I really appreciate it.

And I'm going to get back to the Billboard factory.

Okay.

All right.

Good having you Hey, thanks for send me to the printers.

It was really amazing seeing how the print on such a large substrate.

Has a fascinating process.

And it.

Sure.

If in fact, it was this one also printed on the same mechanism.

No, this is actually a little different.

This is usually the style that we had been using for 20 or 30 years.

It was hand-painted.

We actually had artists of the hand-painted in our shop.

So someone actually.

Planting.

Absolutely.

And we've actually recycled it because this is a customer that's had this particular design on different locations throughout the Columbia community.

So what's going to happen to it now?

I'm going to send you out with Mike and the operations crew, and you're actually going to see this being installed on one of our billboards out on the streets.

Fantastic.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Have a great day.

You bet.

Hey, your name's not Mike, is it?

Yes, it is.

Hi, I'm Dave.

Mr. al-Zarqawi sent me out here to see you guys putting up the sign, right, that I just saw back at your shop.

Where is where is it right now?

Matter of fact, we've already hoisted it to the platform.

Really?

The guys are in the process of dropping the old one and putting out the new one.

What it consists of those three guys are two guys at the top, one on the outside platform.

Okay.

The guys go through, they pull the ratchet straps off, which are.

We have 12 of these ratchet straps across the top 12 across the bottom and three on each side.

There's a three inch pocket sewn into the model.

Three quarter inch grip.

A ball goes in a 12 foot grip of our forearm on the top or on the bottom one on each side.

They take these loops, they take the grip of our about.

They drop the bomb onto the platform, get on the platform, rolls it up, throws it off the side.

They get that done, they pull the new vinyl up, they put raw, then pull it out to the car and they put 12 of these back on the top.

The side that put three on each side and then wrap the bottom up.

So it looks like you guys are just about done.

That's it.

That's the way it's done.

All right.

Well, I'll let you get back to work.

I really appreciate you explaining it to my TV.

Good to see you.

Good to see you, Will.

See you.

All right.

Bye.

Wow, that was great.

I can't believe what they do.

Just what?

Drama city in advertisment.

Yeah, it is pretty amazing.

You know what?

Come to think of it.

I need a billboard.

I mean, I wonder.

Needs one.

I tell you what, you came up with the thumbnail, then I.

Get real DV.

Okay.

I wonder if you can answer these questions.

Yeah.

What is the original idea or design for a billboard call?

Billboards are printed on what to materials What does resolution mean?