Aston Villa Football Club’s stadium in Birmingham, England, is now home to one of the “world’s biggest team photos,” reports the club. The banner, measuring 3 x 25 meters (9.84 x 82 feet), was part of a promotion of the new season’s Villa team shirts; any fan purchasing a shirt via the club’s website or club shops could have a picture taken wearing it for inclusion in the photo. Approximately 1500 fans participated, and the fan images were montaged along with pictures of the Villa team to produce the final image.

Print provider Fosco Hayes & Hurdley (foscos.co.uk) used its two HP Scitex XL1500s to output onto mesh banner material. Fosco chose the mesh material due to the high wind conditions at the stadium site and to help the banner to hold up in direct sunlight.

Another challenge, says Fosco managing director David Nicholas, is that fans had to be able to recognize themselves: “Since the banner is mounted at ground level, image quality had to be able to stand that level of examination.” The banner was output at 370 x 740 dpi (apparent resolution).