Molson’s Clock now with LEDs

1549

Molson BreweryI like having to wait for the light at Cypress and Cornwall on my commute home. It gives me a chance to look at the clock on top of the Molson brewery to see whether I need to huff it up the hill or whether I can take my time. And the temperature reading gives me validation for why I feel so cold or, conversely, why I’m sweating so much.

Tuesday, I noticed that the clock wasn’t working, and it looked like they were doing some work on it. Afraid that they were removing it, I used our Twitter account to contact Molson’s social media guys, and sure enough, within no time MolsonBryan, via MolsonFerg, was able to tell me that they were replacing the lights with more energy efficient LEDs.

Yesterday the clock was working again, and the lights look crisper than ever.

Picture from the Molson Blog

Last modified: February 25, 2009

19 Responses to " Molson’s Clock now with LEDs "

  1. kitsgirl says:

    it looks nice, but now it doesnt tell the temp.!!!

  2. Erik says:

    Yeah, I noticed some tweets back and forth between a few people about that. But according to @molsonbryan (via @toniahammer) the new display has a temp. reading and that this morning it read -1C.

  3. Need the temp girl says:

    Please say its true the temp is back…it wasn’t up there at 6:15 this morning. Love the new bright lights but need the temp.

  4. Erik says:

    Agreed! How else am I going to play my little “guess-the-temperature” game with myself as I ride across the bridge…

  5. Bren says:

    Am I the only person who misses the old clock? Even though I live close by and have an unrestricted view of the clock I find the new LED version difficult to read and am disappointed to find the fahrenheit temperature has been removed. Don’t understand why the change was necessary. Does anyone have the answer to that?

  6. Tonia says:

    Hi everyone,

    The temperature is being displayed on the plant side of the brewery at the moment (not the Burrard St. side). All sides will be up and running as of Monday, and the temperature will be shown in red LED’s (in both F and C degrees).

    Thanks for checking in with us guys – Have a great weekend!

    Cheers,
    @toniahammer

  7. Bren says:

    I should clarify my previous comment: it is only the numbers on the clock that I find difficult to read. I have no trouble reading the running info along the other side. Would be interested to know if anyone else has difficulty reading the numbers.

  8. Bill Barilko says:

    The numbers aren’t nearly as bright as they previously were, somewhat different font and altogether underwhelming.

    As is sometime the case ‘new and improved’ is anything but.

  9. Bren says:

    Glad to find someone agrees with me that the numbers on the clock leave something to be desired. You’e right, it’s the new font that’s the problem. Now if only Molson’s would heed our concern and fix it, but I guess that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

  10. AJ says:

    I live on the plant side of the brewery and enjoy the clock and temperature but find the new display very difficult to read. The larger sign facing Burrard Bridge is now red and casts a hellacious glow over the whole plant (and the view from my living room window). This is especially creepy when steam is being released. I guess if i had to look for a positive side, it’s like living with a constant fireworks display every night.

  11. Dave says:

    The intention of the new clock was to install something that is more energy efficient. Molson works closely with BC Hydro to reduce it’s energy consumption as much as possible and is an energetic supporter of the Powersmart program. The new sign will save roughly $10,000 or so in energy costs every year. That will power a lot of households.

    The new sign was selected to be as close as possible to the sign it replaced. The colour was matched and the size was replicated. The digits on the temp/time sign are roughly the same height, but narrower than the ones they replaced. It’s not a perfect match as a full custom sign to the exact specifications would have been unreasonably expensive.

    Somebody pointed out that the reader board is red in colour and the temp/time has amber LED’s. As mentioned above, the idea was to replicate the existing signs as closely as possible. Unfortunately, the manufacturer ran out of amber LED’s and decided to install red LED’s on the reader board as a temporary solution until they could replace them with the correct one’s. However…opinions are mixed, but people seem to be leaning towards the red LED’s. The plan right now is to replace the amber LED’s on the two time/temp displays with red LED’s, but feel free to cast your opinion on the matter.

    As for the temperature displays, well, nothing works perfectly when you first start it up, right? I looked at the sign tonight though and it is displaying time and temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius.

    Dave

  12. Bren says:

    Thank you Dave for the detailed explanation above. I’s good to know that Molson’s is taking steps to conserve energy.
    Since you welcome our opinions, may I say I’m okay with the reader board in red LED, but would definitely prefer the temp and time in the amber LED.
    Also, I have asked my neighbours how they like the new digits on the clock, and without exception they echoed my reaction, i.e. that the narrower digits, followed so closely by the degree sign and the centigrade & fahrenheit initlals, make the temperature difficult to read. This is especially so when one is not looking at the clock straight on. Would it be possible to alter the spacing betwen them without incurring undue expense?

    Bren

    Bren

  13. AJ says:

    Thanks for the info – great the Molson is working to reduce energy consumption. I echo Bren’s thoughts and also think it would be great if the main reader board were either switched to amber, or somehow lowered in brightness (if possible).

    On a side note, I was in the West End last night visiting friends – they commented that they could always read the old amber board from across the bridge, but from a distance the new red one is blurred and illegible.

    AJ

  14. cj says:

    I totally love the idea of the LEDs but the spacing does in fact make it impossible to read.

    I live in Kits and used to use the clock/temp every morning to decide what to wear (I can see it from my living room much like many of my neighbourhood) and it’s completely illegible now, just a big messy blur of amber. I miss it!

    Given that you can’t go back to the old clock, my suggestion is twofold:

    1.) Reduce the thickness of the LEDs on both signs so Molsons neighbours/community get some value back from the clock and consider deleting the C/F symbols

    2.) update the other side to amber, I would imagine that very bright red glow is awfully disturbing to the apartments across the way

    keep us posted Molson!
    -cj

  15. Angie says:

    Our apartment window looks right at the Molson display and we have been missing the temperature! Thank goodness it’s back!

  16. Bren says:

    Pleased to see the LED lights have been changed from red to amber, presumably as a result of the concerns expressed here and elsewhere. As for the time and temperature which I have complained about, I admit I’m slowly becoming accustomed to the new look, except for the centigrade and degree symbols which I still believe are too close. Molson’s has said they are looking into the possibility of fixing this problem , so I am looking forward to receiving an update from them very soon.

    Bren

  17. DAVE says:

    Glad to see the comments in this post. I saw when it was changed to the bright red sign, and then all of a sudden it was orange. I thought i was going crazy.

    I vote to keep the orange… The red was a bit too bright and intense.

    Though, the nice LED Blue would be cool too 😉

    mmm. beer.

  18. Bren says:

    As there’s only been one message in the past month I guess everyone except me is now satisfied with the new LED signs. I continue to find the centigrade temperature difficult to read so I got quite excited to see a workman up on the clock side today. But whatever he was doing up there, turns out it wasn’t to change the sign as I had hoped. Oh well, looks like I’ll just have to quit complaining and move on …..
    Bren

  19. Bill Barilko says:

    No I’m not at all Happy and for Molson’s information rarely look @ their ugly almost unreadable sign any longer-nor do I but their products.