Now screaming for your attention: The billboard that's also a window

Tuesday evening at 7:15pm at the Crowne Plaza Times Square, a group of media executives put down their cocktails, filed across Broadway as cops halted traffic, and stared back up at the blank hotel. There was a 10-second countdown, and suddenly, a vibrant video billboard appeared where a minute before, there seemed to be only empty space.

It was the New York unveiling of something called MediaMesh, an ingenious invention of LED lights strung unobtrusively across building exteriors. At first, the 783-square feet of woven stainless steel mesh, which upon closer inspection looks something like a pigeon net, seems innocuous, but at the flip of a switch, it turns into a giant TV screen.