FEATURE: TILED DISPLAYS
IRREGULAR INSTALLATIONS It goes without saying that the ideal mounting system will also make the installer’s job as easy as possible. Where life can become more difficult, though, is when non-rectangular displays, such as eyevis’s omniSHAPES, are to be the building blocks of an installation.
“These kind of tiled
displays all have a proprietary mounting location, so for each different product, a specialist mount has to be manufactured – or the tile manufacturer’s mount has to be used,” notes Ralph Zaraiah, head of sales at screen mounting company Mode-Al. “In both cases, this will be more expensive than VESA-compliant mounting products simply because of the volume produced.” “Also,” he adds, “by their
nature non-rectangular tiles are best used in unusual or awkwardly shaped environments; this normally requires a custom mounting solution.”
“omniSHAPES have a modular design which includes a base frame unit which already provides the parts to interlock the individual base-frames,” explains Winck. “For any special configurations we provide appropriate installation parts to ensure a safe and precise installation.” “There is a variety of components available to realise almost any configuration of omniSHAPES,” he continues. “We can provide these installation parts according to the customer's requirements – for example, according to the angle of a curved installation, the angle of an overhanging installation, or special structures for
Precise mounting of three tiled displays was essential for a prestige installation such as the PSCo/Intevi installation for Savoir Beds at Harrods in London
‘For the
reliability of the system, the operating
temperature is an important issue’
Max Winck, eyevis
horizontal installations in a display floor.” PSCo represents eyevis in the UK. “All of the display solutions we work with to create tiled displays offer front, and in some cases rear, access for each individual unit, making access for maintenance and servicing easy,” says Kamffer. “In the event of interlocking frame designs, such as
omniSHAPES, this element has been overcome by providing front or rear access to the individual light engines in each tile.” “Ironically we have found that there has been very little use of the tiles’ ability to make irregular shapes,” says Zaraiah. “But when we have [been involved], we, as a mounting solution company, have always achieved our clients’ goals. We’re able to design specialist mounting solutions for each different application – but that’s more to do with where they’re used, rather than restrictions
of the tile. I don’t think it practical to try and have some sort of standard for tiles as there are so many different types of technology being used within them; it would be very difficult and not cost-effective.” “There is also the cost of
new shapes and styles as these have to be designed, checked for structural integrity, serviceability and then manufactured,” he goes on. “This is a much more expensive process than whacking a few 46in monitors on the wall. Many customers expect the cost to be the same, which might explain the low volume of tiles in use today.” Zaraiah mentions cost –
the fourth key element along with ease of installation, provision for heat (and cabling) management and straightforward accessibility for service. For single display mounting, a simple VESA mount is often all that’s required – and, for many
EYEVIS RISES TO UNUSUAL MOUNTING CHALLENGE
Some installations provide even more difficult mounting challenges – such as the eyevis media wall for the ‘Fascination Technology’ area in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. The requirement was to
retain the permanently installed glass wall in front of the display for practical and aesthetic reasons. That made front maintenance of the LCD panels impossible – and regular maintenance in a 24/7 environment is generally considered imperative.
24 June 2013
The only solution was to design the whole videowall to be moveable. This created significant challenges for the design of the wall mounting and the various mechanical components, because the total installation space – including space to move the wall – was only 90cm. Beyond this, the complete wall measured 13.5 x 2.5m – a structure that could easily topple over when moved. Suffice it to say that the
eyevis engineering team rose to the challenge.
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customers, that decision is made on price: despite the best efforts of professional mounting companies to bring value in terms of robustness, reliability and functionality, it has become something of a commodity market. The additional functionality required for a tiled display mount, together with the higher degree of precision engineering, unquestionably adds to cost and, given the wide variety of configurations possible, commodity solutions seem unlikely to prevail. “A good mounting structure – for example, for a tiled videowall using LCD screens – will usually be slightly more expensive than a wall-mount for a conventional display,” believes Winck, “because the mounting structure for a tiled installation provides alignment possibilities; the possibility to draw the display to the front for service or exchange; and a
ventilation structure.” It appears that customer needs, then, are being satisfied by either the manufacturers themselves, or by speciality mounting companies like SmartMetals and Mode-Al. Like cabling, mounting
systems are taken for granted, easy to underestimate and ideally unseen – yet their quality is a vital facet of almost every AV installation. Just like the word ‘mount’ itself, they’re capable of multiple uses in a broad range of contexts: to say that to mount means “to attach something to something else” is to underestimate the rich complexity of either the hardware – or the word.
www.barco.com www.eyevis.de www.displays.mitsubishielectric.eu www.mode-al.com www.peerless-av.com www.psco.co.uk www.smartmetals.eu
STUDY CASE
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