Delhi | After two years of planning and construction, India’s most ambitious digital-out-of-home installation has gone live. Weighing 350 tons and delivering a 12K visual experience, the Skycom Social Tree is not only among the highest resolution LED DooH structures ever built in the country - it is almost certainly the heaviest and most distinctive.
Social Tree: India’s Most Iconic DooH Screen
In the heart of Delhi’s business district, Blackstone operates Nexus Select Citywalk, the capital region’s highest‑grossing shopping mall. For nearly 20 years, the affluent neighborhoods surrounding the centre have treated it as a weekly – and for many, daily – destination. Apple chose this shopping mall to open its first-ever store in India.
Skycom India already runs an extensive DooH network inside the mall, with pillar LEDs, perimeter boards, and kiosks. The locations consistently perform at the top of the market, buoyed by strong footfall, proximity to the point of sale, and India’s only trusted Quividi‑based audience measurement deployment. But CEO Shekhar Rao aimed higher: he wanted an iconic landmark at the mall’s main entrance – a signature installation unlike anything in India. Inspired by global showcases and past DSS conference, the concept of the Social Tree began to take shape.
Engineering a 350‑Ton DooH Landmark
The final installation features four LED screens mounted on a tree‑like LED-illuminated structure designed for interactive experiences, immersive content, and branded events. Realising this concept required complex structural engineering including a massive concrete core to provide sufficient weight for extreme wind situations. The existing parking deck beneath the plaza could not support the immense load, forcing engineers to extensively reinforce parking deck pillars to carry the 350‑ton structure.
Weather resilience added another layer of complexity. The entire system – from trunk and branches to LED modules and server housing – is fully climate‑controlled and engineered to withstand Delhi’s challenging environmental conditions, including high winds, tropical downpours, and severe air pollution. Dynamic lighting along the branches synchronises with on‑screen content, creating a cohesive, sculpture‑like visual experience.
A New Selfie Magnet – Even Before Launch
Long before its official launch, the Social Tree has become a crowd magnet. At night a light and motion show plays, featuring exclusive content from Seoul‑based digital art collective D’strict. The licensing deal alone reportedly spans more than 100 pages.
The project proved significantly more complex than anticipated, and Skycom is already planning further expansion phases.
A First for India’s DooH Market
India’s LED landscape has so far been dominated by roadside billboards and standard indoor mall screens. Large architectural digital installations remain rare. But with a rapidly growing middle class, strong mall culture, and increasingly seamless collaboration across Asian supply chains, landmark LED projects are expected to accelerate.
For Shekhar Rao and his team, the focus now shifts to commercial performance. The investment runs into the millions, and early responses from agencies and advertisers suggest eager demand for a high‑profile, iconic new iconic dooh canvas in the nation’s capital.
