The City of Côte St. Luc has chosen a high-tech way to publicly inform residents of important coming events.

Instead of the ubiquitous banners the city has draped for years on railway and roadway overpasses to get the word out, large LED screens will start appearing in some key spots around Côte St. Luc next year.

At city council’s meeting for December last week, an agreement was approved with Kazoo Digital Inc., a Montreal-based company that specializes in the production and distribution of LED screens for public displays and commercial advertising.

According to the three-year agreement, Côte St. Luc will be getting four digital display signs at no charge. The first will be set up for a year at Kildare Road and Cavendish Boulevard. Others will follow at Westminster Avenue and Côte St. Luc Road, in front of the Samuel Moskovitch Arena, and at one other location.

Côte St. Luc is jumping on the digital display bandwagon much later than a lot of other municipalities. From Dollard des Ormeaux on the West Island to St. Léonard in Montreal’s east end, the brightly lit displays have become a common sight. They are often set up where cars come to a stop for several minutes when the traffic lights are red at key intersections.

Although Côte St. Luc had been exploring various ways over the past four years to acquire digital displays and found most very costly, the deal with Kazoo is free because the company earns revenue through advertising. The city believes it will be getting a lot of visibility, while Kazoo will be selling time on the displays to private advertisers.

“They will give us a very substantial amount of free time to publicize any of our events, and then they will sell the rest of the time to whomever they want,” says Councillor Mike Cohen, who is responsible for sponsorship, communications and corporate identity on council. “We’ll obviously keep a close eye on who they go after (as advertisers) and make sure that it’s not inappropriate.”

The deal specifies that Côte St. Luc is entitled to 25 per cent of the space in a two-minute continuous “loop” of advertising. The city is further entitled to 40 per cent of the loop time for 12 days throughout the year to promote special events, such as the Canada Day festivities and winter carnival. Côte St. Luc will be getting 57-inch, high-quality, commercial grade LED screens.