Giant sign has Clearwater company sky-high

By DAVE GUSSOW
Published October 24, 2005

---

Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's one darn big electronic sign on a blimp.

The 2,100-square-foot sign (30 feet by 70 feet) is the largest ever made by Hi-Tech Electronic Displays Inc. in Clearwater, and company president Ralph J. Paonessa was pretty excited after recent test flights in Oregon.

It's not just the size that makes this sign distinctive, Paonessa says. It can show full color - and live video - at night. During the day, it's a black-and-red display. During the tests, Paonessa says, the sign could be read from about 2 miles away, though video is clear up to about a half-mile away.

And unlike similar-size signs that can weigh 12,000 pounds, this one is an almost-svelte 900 pounds.

Paonessa can't name the first customer for the sign, and will say only that it cost "substantially less than $1-million."

For Hi-Tech, it's also another sign of growth. Since 1999, the company's revenues have doubled to about $30-million, the number of employees is up to 210 and its four facilities are running 16 hours a day, 51/2 days a week.