A torrent of information flows out of the Reuters news service on a constant basis. With 2260 journalists, photographers and videographers in 216 bureaus around the world, the London-based media giant's text production alone totals over 8 million words a day in more than two dozen languages.

And now, the company is displaying its headlines, photographs and TV images in the new Reuters Refresh café, adjacent to its Fleet Street headquarters in London's financial district. The company calls its digital signage system there an "information travelator."

Matt Hassock, technical manager of Reuters Marketing Communications in London, says that by showcasing the company's content and programming in the high-profile "juice and information bar," the travelator is helping Reuters build consumer awareness of its brand.

"We wanted Reuters Refresh to reflect the wide variety of things we're doing in a visually stunning way," says Hassock. "The displays do a stellar job of representing the information that we are disseminating throughout the world."

Specific elements of the travelator include:

* A bank of eight horizontal and six vertical rear-projection digital LCD display screens produced by Clarity Visual Systems (Wilsonville, Ore.). These 40-inch screens "were the only ones available on the market that offered a seamless look across all the displays," Hassock notes. The horizontal screens run above the length of the café's juice bar, while the vertical array dubbed a "cascading photo waterfall" by Reuters runs from the floor to the ceiling.

* Multimedia content, including live pictures, news stories and captions produced by Reuters journalists around the world.

* A looped movie abstract on London and its environs, including street scenes featuring the city's trademark double-decker buses and shots of prominent historical sites.

The display system is also connected to a video-matrix switch that can display up to 24 different sources of information, including TV, PowerPoint and Internet files. "That flexibility means we can use the space to show off Reuters' capabilities, while also making the space amenable to informal meetings and presentations," Hassock explains.

Other elements of the 3000-square-foot café include tables equipped with custom-built Internet portals that allow customers to order wine online, get the latest sports scores or surf the web. In addition, headphones are available at the bar for customers who want to listen to music.

The travelator won top prize in the 2002 Design Week magazine awards for the TV/Film and Video Graphics category. Judges in that contest said, "It brings digital technology off the desktop and into the wider working and leisure environments a move we can expect to see more of by digital artists."

Designer: Hodges Associates, London James Hodges, creative director

Suppliers: Blitz Interactive, London (audio/visual); Clarity Visual Systems, Wilsonville, Ore. (digital displays); Wates Interiors, London (ceilings, flooring); Reuters Design Studio, London (audio/visual, graphics, signage)