COSTS OF THE EVERBRIGHT AND OTHER INTERACTIVE FEATURE WALLS

Pricing and Cost Guide

Whether you’re planning a new building or refreshing an existing space, budget is a silent partner throughout the project.

You want people to really love the space when it’s complete. At the same time, price is a consideration. If trade-offs need to be made, you need to know up front so you can get buy-in. It’s a big decision that shouldn’t feel rushed.

A permanent interactive installation like the Everbright will become part of the daily lived experience of your space. It can make a space wildly popular for all ages. Regulars will make beelines to create with light. But which interactive light wall? How do you evaluate and compare the true costs? Here’s what you need to know to make an informed decision.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
How much does it cost to buy an Everbright?
+ What we talk about when we talk about the price of an Everbright (or any other interactive feature wall).

PURCHASE PRICE
+ What factors go into the purchase price of an Everbright?
+ Heirloom-Grade Materials and Precision-Engineered Components
+ Expert Builders and Fabricators
+ Size and Scale
+ Installation
+ Shipping and Freight Costs
+ What does the typical customer spend to purchase an Everbright?

TOTAL COSTS OF OWNERSHIP
+ What is the cost of ownership for the Everbright vs. a giant lite brite wall?
+ Estimated Costs of Ownership In a Public Library

FAQs

How much does it cost to buy an Everbright?

Each year, a number of designers, architects, executive directors, and project owners contact us wanting to know whether the Everbright is feasible for their project.

Usually, they were searching for a giant lite brite wall and discovered this instead. For people who love design, this curiosity-provoking wall of color dials seems like a better alternative. (Read about the pros and cons of the Everbright vs. the giant lite-brite.)

There are no parts to set up or pick up. It’s tactile and analog. Each dial twists to change any color of the rainbow. When not in use, it runs light shows, displays saved designs, and incorporates dynamic interactive animations. They’re sold on the concept. They just need a price range.

What we talk about when we talk about the price of an Everbright (or any other feature light wall)

There’s no one-size-fits-all cost for an Everbright. Each installation site is unique, and costs depend on variables like size and scale, installation type and site, and geographic location. That said, we will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect price-wise on this page.

Consider two factors when evaluating the price of the Everbright and other interactive feature walls:

1. Purchase price. How much does it cost to purchase, ship, and install? What standard sizes are available? What factors affect the purchase price?
2. Cost of ownership. How much will it cost to service and maintain, day in and day out? Are there any hidden costs? If so, what are they, when are they?

Below you’ll find a discussion of factors that influence the purchase price of the Everbright, typical price ranges our customers pay, a breakdown of the estimated overall cost of ownership, and cost comparisons with this and other options for interactive feature walls.

PURCHASE PRICE

How does an Everbright compare to the purchase price of other interactive feature walls?

No other interactive feature wall offers tactile, analog, open-ended creativity without removable parts.

But other interactive feature walls do similar jobs.

The giant lite brite wall is the nearest comparison. We hear it all the time. “This reminds me of a giant lite brite!” Yes. We were inspired by the lite brite, and re-imagined it for a modern world, swapping pegs and limited color selections for rotating dials that change all the colors, and that can reset or run light shows when not in use.

You can find a giant lite brite wall with pegs and flaps on the internet for as low as $7,950. A premium giant lite brite wall with pegs ranges from around $10,000 to $50,000+.

The purchase price of our smallest standard size, the Everbright Mini, is higher than the cheapest giant lite brite, but it’s comparable in price to the premium lite brite in a similar size. The Everbright Mini measures approximately 4.5 feet long and 4 feet high, and is priced at $15,000 plus shipping.

The price includes 252 dials with 158 colors in every dial, a 3-year warranty on all replaceable parts including shipping, lifetime support, a lifetime content license, and the Everbright Interaction Studio. (This is a tablet preloaded with your individually licensed copy of the Everbright app, which lets you customize the experience and receive new interactive canvases whenever updates are released.)

In comparison, a comparable premium lite brite wall with pegs is around $13,000 plus white glove delivery and installation costs.

The price for high-tech motion-sensing touchscreens, giant video walls, and other visual displays ranges from $15,000 to $150,000+, depending on size and technology. (These are a good option if you’re looking to display your own content to entertain, inspire, or instruct, but they do not provide a tactile, open-ended, self-directed creative experience.)

On average, the purchase price for the Everbright falls somewhere in between these two types of interactive feature walls.

What factors go into the purchase price of an Everbright?

The Everbright is designed and built for durability and accessibility in a multiuser, multigenerational environment.

Every dial on the Everbright is designed to rotate smoothly through hundreds of colors, for years. It’s simple to install (uncrate, secure the cleat to the wall, plug in, hang). And because it’s modular, it’s straightforward to service (in the uncommon event servicing is needed).

The result is a low-maintenance product built by expert fabricators who integrate heirloom-grade materials with precision-engineered components.

Here are the costs associated with producing an interactive light wall that meets our standards for durability and accessibility.

Heirloom-Grade Materials and Precision-Engineered Components

Every dial on the Everbright is designed and built to turn smoothly in either direction through 158 colors, by hundreds of thousands of human hands, for years, without coming off.

Doing this requires premium materials and custom, precision-engineered components, including:

• Specialty matte acrylic that resists glare and fingerprints. Our unique lens material is 1/8-inch-thick, and has a matte, textured surface that wipes down easily. It turns vibrant colors when illuminated from behind, and reverts to a neutral black when not in use (unless you’ve customized it to display a saved design or to run animations). The lens allows the colors to remain brilliant even in direct sunlight, as seen in this video.

• High-quality LEDs sourced to retain their brilliance and luminosity, and integrated in a modular way that makes them straightforward for a layperson to replace after years of use. They’re optimized for cooling air flow and passive ventilation.

• A finished, high-density architectural wood product for the dials and frame, which is moisture- and UV-resistant. The black, velvety color is infused throughout, so cannot chip, fade, or scratch away. It’s CARB-II compliant and meets green building standards for low emissions.

• Electrical safety engineering. Many interactive exhibits operate in a gray area, with individual components like plugs that have their safety certifications, but not the product as a whole. The entire Everbright as a product—and not just the individual electrical components—has been designed to meet UL 22 electrical standards, and tested by a third-party safety engineering firm. We integrate medical-grade power supplies and nickel-plated-steel enclosures. Every size we produce meets these safety standards—even large custom walls.

Expert Builders and Fabricators

The Everbright is fabricated and hand-crafted by expert builders in California. Making an Everbright requires sustained focus and meticulous attention to detail. We integrate machined parts, manufactured parts, and custom, handcrafted parts. Our QC process is thorough.

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Each dial is checked and inspected dozens of times by skilled artisans before it is approved and assembled into an Everbright. Then it’s twisted and checked some more. (Ask us about the Baby Finger Test.)

Because it takes time, care, and concentration to build to the standards necessary for beauty and durability in a public space, we only produce a limited number of Everbrights each year, and lead times are generally 12 weeks or more.

Size and Scale

Naturally, size affects price. The bigger the scale, the bigger the wow factor, and the more people can use it at the same time.

We produce three standard sizes. In addition to these standard sizes, we can produce custom installations of any length (provided the minimum viable creative canvas of at least 168 pixels is met).

Download the Everbright Price List and Datasheet.

Our largest standard size, the Everbright Classic, can be used by 20 visitors simultaneously. It’s approximately 8 feet long and 4 feet high, with 476 dials, and the price is $26,000.

Our smallest standard size, the Everbright Mini, can be used by 10 visitors simultaneously. It’s approximately 4.5 feet long and 4 feet high, and the price is $15,000.

Every Everbright comes with a tablet pre-loaded with your lifetime content license to the Everbright Interaction Studio so you can customize the Everbright.

The largest Everbright we’ve produced so far measures approximately 22 feet long and 4 feet high, and consists of 4 panels that slide together along tracks behind an opening that was created in the wall. We can customize the installation and we work with designers and architects each year to develop custom solutions for their project. Have an idea for a project? Get in touch.

Installation

After you place your order, you will need an electrician to install a standard 110V electrical outlet on the wall, and a light switch somewhere in the room.

The Everbright arrives fully assembled and ready to mount on the wall. When your Everbright arrives, installation itself is straightforward and takes about 20 minutes. Open the crate, remove the cleat, secure the cleat to the wall, and lift the Everbright up and onto the cleat.

Most of our customers have their contractor or facilities people take care of installation. Budget one hour of their time when the crate arrives. You’ll need two people total. One qualified contractor/facilities type to secure the cleat, and one strong helper.

The actual cost of installation depends on whether or not you have these resources on staff, whether it’s included in the other furniture and fixtures they’re installing after completion of construction, or whether you’re bringing in a contractor with a helper for this one-off event.

If staff is limited, we can send the French cleat in advance so a qualified contractor or facilities person can secure it to your wall with appropriate blocking if needed. When the crate arrives, you just need two strong people (each capable of lifting half of the Everbright’s weight) and an impact driver to unscrew 4 panels of the crate.

Shipping & Freight Costs

Freight shipping fees depending on geographic location, proximity to the nearest trusted local carrier, and your installation site—whether you need a liftgate and inside delivery up two flights of stairs with removal of the crate, or whether they can deliver to a loading dock just outside a major city.

Click here to request an all-in quote that includes shipping.

You should know exactly what the price will be up front. We bill for shipping and crating separately so that we can customize the delivery experience to your specific site, without billing for more or less than what you need.

We work with trusted carriers and a shipping agent who keeps you updated throughout the process. They’ll call in advance to schedule a delivery appointment, so a large 18-wheeler won’t just show up unannounced when you’re in a meeting.

What does the typical customer spend to purchase an Everbright?

Depending on size, our customers typically spend an average of $16,000 to $28,000, all-in, including shipping and installation.

Download the Everbright Price List and Datasheet.

Click here to request an all-in quote that includes shipping.

TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP

What is the cost of ownership for the Everbright vs. a giant lite brite wall?

Interactive exhibits are enormously popular. Because they attract so much attention from all types of people, they also tend to require more maintenance than, say, a large steel sculpture or a tile mosaic.

How does the Everbright measure up when compared to other interactive light walls?

It makes sense to consider not only the all-in purchase price including shipping and installation, but also the all-in ownership price. What are the total costs of ownership, week by week, year by year?

The value of the Everbright, in comparison to a typical giant lite brite, is that no one has to pick up parts, and it installs quickly right out of the crate.

Some of the known ongoing costs of interactive exhibits, such as picking up parts and pieces, don’t seem like a big deal at first.

If you don’t get many visitors to your space at the same time, picking up pieces may not be much of a concern. But if you have lots of visitors a day, or if staff needs to focus on higher-priority tasks, daily pick-up and setup can become a burden.

Let’s look at this example of a hypothetical public library.

Estimated Costs of Ownership in a Public Library

For a Giant Lite Brite Wall

A librarian in a mid-sized public library spends 10 minutes a day finding and putting away loose pieces from a giant interactive feature wall. That may not seem like much. A minute here, a minute there. Spread out through the day, it’s not too bad.

What is the true cost of 10 minutes a day?

Financial Costs

The average salary of a children’s librarian in the U.S. is $58,635 a year, according to Glassdoor. When you include healthcare, social security, workers comp, medicare, and unemployment, the all-in annual cost of a librarian is approximately $73,339 a year. Divided by 48 weeks (2 weeks vacation plus 12 federal holidays in the U.S.), that’s $38.20 per hour for a 40-hour week.

Ten minutes a day adds up to $31.83 a week,

which adds up to $1,528 a year.

That’s 40 hours a year. One full work week picking up pieces. Over five years, that’s $7,640, assuming no pay raises.

200 hours picking up loose pieces.

Let’s revise the math and say, conservatively, they spend 5 minutes a day.

That’s $764 over 20 hours a year. It’s 100 hours over five years.

$3,820 over 5 years.

To be fair, since this librarian is already on staff and in the building, these aren’t additional costs. They would have spent that time on something. Everyone has a job to be done that isn’t part of their core job description.

Emotional Costs

Consider these questions:

• Is the best and highest value of a librarian to clean up loose parts and pieces? If you had a choice, would you choose to allocate an additional $4,000 to $8,000 of valuable human resources toward this daily responsibility over 5 years?
• Couldn’t these 5 to 10 minutes a day go toward an activity that directly meets the needs and desires of the community, drawing on an educator’s knowledge, resourcefulness, and creativity?
• What do you want your space to look like after storytime is over? Is staff prepared for daily treasure hunts to discover little pieces scattered throughout the building?

Estimated Costs of Ownership in a Public Library

For the Everbright

Cost of Daily Pickup = $0

Go ahead and cross cost of pickup off the list. Staff never need to pick up pegs. They can spend those 10 minutes a day engaging with the community, being a helpful resource.

What Are the Servicing Costs?

Calculating the Average Servicing Costs Over 5 Years

Note: The following example uses the Everbright Classic (8×4, 476 dials) for modeling and cost calculations.

Starting at the 3-year mark, two facilities people (whom you may already have on staff) should come in to give the Everbright a checkup. This will take them 15 to 30 minutes. They can expect to replace 2-3 pixels after three years of active, enthusiastic use in a busy space.

Cost: Free from Years 0 to 3

If they schedule this checkup right at the three-year mark, the replacement pixels ship at no charge under our 3-year warranty. Replacing the pixels requires two strong people to lift the Everbright 2 inches up and off its cleat, then set it down upright to access the back. They’ll need a screwdriver to remove 2 screws from any pixel cups that need to be replaced. Perhaps they need to drive over to the branch, so let’s give them an hour, all in.

$38.20 x 2 people a year =

$76.40 a year, starting at the 3-year mark.

Once they see how straightforward it is, and if they know what to expect, and when to plan it into their schedule, they can handle it just as they might handle replacing a lighting fixture.

Summary of 5-Year Estimated Servicing Costs for the Everbright vs. a Lite Wall with Pegs

Lite Brite Wall Cost: $3,820

In the example of a librarian who spent 5 minutes a day putting away pegs, the cost over five years was $3,820.

The Everbright Cost: $229.20

Facilities was spending less than 1 hour a year starting at the 3-year mark. Averaged out over 5 years, that’s $45.84 a year, or a total of $229.20 over 5 years.

5-Year Savings with the Everbright: $3,590

An Everbright Classic saves an estimated $3,590 over 5 years compared to the estimated costs of daily management of a giant light brite. Plus, visitors are able to immediately use each dial without waiting for others to finish. Every dial turns in either direction through all 158 colors. More flow, easier to stop and start, better intergenerational accessibility. Even babies can turn the dials.

How Often Do Pixels Need to Be Replaced?

Based on field observations across multiple customer sites, we know that a customer shouldn’t expect to need to replace more than 2 to 3 pixels after 3 years of enthusiastic, daily use in a public space.

Our new-edition Everbrights with re-engineered pixels and interactive programming capabilities have been installed in public spaces since 2018. We now have 4 years of real-world data. We have a high degree of confidence in this data, because our lead designer conducted in-person assessments at approximately 70 customer locations in late 2021. Many of these sites continued to operate throughout the pandemic, and their Everbrights were running animations daily.

Thanks to this benchmark, we immediately know there’s an underlying issue in the rare case that a customer needs to replace more pixels than is typical. We work with them to identify and resolve the root problem, so they can get back on track to enjoy years of low-maintenance use.

What Is the Cost of Replacement Pixels After the Three-Year Warranty?

Many years after installation, you may need to replace some LED pixels if the board has been in active use, all day, every day. An annual checkup starting at the end of year 3 is a good idea for a high-traffic public space. The cost of replacement pixels is currently $12 each. We own the design and have these produced by a contract manufacturer, so our costs depend on actual material costs and component availability. We maintain a reserve inventory of replacement pixels on hand so we can provide them whenever needed.

Request a quote.

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