Local firm to put cell photos on Times Square big screen

New Year's Eve revelers in New York's Times Square typically mug for the TV cameras. But there may be another way to get their faces on screen.

PIXELFire Productions, a small, Seattle-area tech company, will enable people in the crowd to snap pictures of themselves and their friends with their cell phone cameras and potentially see them displayed on a giant JVC digital billboard in the middle of Times Square.

The high-resolution JVC billboard debuted in early December. On New Year's Eve, it will encourage people to send cell phone photos to an email address, and select photos will be displayed from 6pm to midnight.

PIXELFire founder Steve Bumstead will be in Times Square himself, in a nearby office building, screening the photos as they come in. Bumstead said he'll weed out photos that might give JVC a "black eye."

"The whole idea is we’re trying to help brands that have these big screens leverage these advertising mediums to interact and engage with their audience," said Bumstead, who's heading to New York tomorrow.

People who send in photos will be sent a return email with a link where they can download a Times Square photo postcard.

PIXELFire, a four-person company in Renton, has been around for eight years and creates digital billboard content for car dealers, casinos, and others, Bumstead said