FEATURE: TILED DISPLAYS
consumption and brighter and more uniform.”
‘The market is
growing almost exponentially’ Guy van Wijmeersch, Barco
NEC VIDEOWALL HELPS VISITORS GET WITH THE PROGRAMME
De Bijloke Music Centre is a dynamic venue where international artists from all over the world meet with the public.
Once a medieval infirmary,
the building has been transformed into a modern music centre comprising four concert halls, library, foyers, offices and hospitality
assembly; if your application didn’t require a bezel-free look (such as if you were running four different sources on a 2 x 2 wall); or if you needed more resolution. A single 84in Planar UltraRes has 3,840 x 2,160 pixels or four times Full HD resolution. The larger 3 x 3 array of 46in Clarity Matrix LCD videowall panels has nine times Full HD resolution.” Walter sees things similarly. “If cost is important, a 2 x 2 arrangement could be preferable to a single screen,” he says, “and would be even
services. Located in the heart of Ghent, De Bijloke produces over 100 concerts, recitals and performances, and stages or receives another 80-plus shows and collaborative works, attracting over 100,000 visitors, classical music lovers and aficionados each year.
more cost-effective for larger sizes. And then, if you look at a 90in image size – which could be delivered using four 46in screens – you also have to consider the issue of pixel size, because large single screens currently only offer Full HD resolution. A 2 x 2 configuration offers Ultra HD resolution and might actually look better. And then there’s the high degree of installation flexibility that videowall displays provide.” “Cost and application
would be the key determining factors in
As well as seven NEC V Series 46in and 55in displays throughout the facility, there is a videowall, constructed using nine NEC X551UN 55in ultra narrow bezel videowall displays in a 3 x 3 configuration. This is located in the centre of the main hall to inform visitors of the season’s concert programme.
deciding whether to use a single screen or multiple smaller displays,” believes Joe Graziano, market development manager, MicroTiles, EMEA at Christie. “A single screen is good if you’re looking to display limited or specific information – but there are limitations as to what can be done on a single screen in terms of size, shape and content arrangement. Multiple smaller screens provide flexibility in content delivery and would be ideal where multiple windows were required to show different information.”
TV One's CORIOmaster processor is behind an unusual multi-screen installation at Edge Hill University in the north-west of England
38 April 2014
MISSION-CRITICAL APPLICATIONS Van Dijk makes a compelling case for choosing multiple displays rather than single displays when it comes to high-uptime applications. “If you were intending to run a simple single source and seamless display was important to you, a single screen would probably make more sense,” he says. “However these kinds of applications are rarely encountered in the C3i [command, control, communications, intelligence] sector. Typically we are dealing with multiple source displays where data needs to be presented in different configurations depending on the situation.
Tiled displays work much better in this kind of application – particularly where the displays themselves have the built-in intelligence to be able to manage multiple windows without external processing.” “One other factor might be that if your single screen fails, your display is gone,” he continues. “That’s clearly not a comforting prospect in a mission-critical application. With a multi-display system, you still have options such as the emergency source switching feature found in many Mitsubishi displays.” Certainly, the barriers to wider-scale adoption of multi-screen displays are being removed. It’s not just about narrower bezels, either. “Barco’s Sense6 technology provides brightness and colour stability over time across the entire display,” says Van Wijmeersch. “That allows large multi-screen installations to, in effect, maintain themselves, creating a ‘set and forget’ solution.” NEC now offers what it
describes as a fully automatic wall configurator that helps to set up a wall within seconds, and a feature it calls FrameComp that reduces delays in fast horizontal movement in content. “Products for videowall or
tiled display applications are getting thinner and lighter so that they’re easier to install,” adds Graziano, “as well as becoming more economical in terms of power
AND LET’S NOT FORGET… Of course, discussion of multi-screen displays should not overlook the projection cubes that are still favoured in the most demanding environments, such as control centres. Here, LED illumination is transforming brightness and cost of ownership, with Mitsubishi now making available retrofit LED engines for its installed base of mercury lamp installations. For non-traditional applications, eyevis offers its omniSHAPES technology not only in rectangular formats, but also five-sided and six- sided – as well as custom geometries. “Our eyeDesign software allows simple and intuitive planning, configuration and servicing of installations,” notes Hénique. “It is designed to help with the placement – positioning, rotation and so on – of omniSHAPES, and to do so with millimetre accuracy. It also allows simple assignment of signal sources to videowall areas or individual displays.” Does any of the foregoing lead us to consensus on whether or not videowalls and tiled displays – or even display walls – are the same thing? Probably not – but, equally probably, that’s not important. What’s important is that users are looking to display more information in more creative ways – and there are limits to what can be achieved with a single screen. Videowalls – or tiled displays, or display walls – are rising to the challenge. If there is a distinction between the various terms used for multi-screen configurations, it’s a subtle one – but then, it’s the subtleties of apparent synonyms that make them so compelling to students of language.
www.barco.com www.christiedigital.com/emea www.eyevis.com www.leyard.com www.vis.mitsubishielectric.co.uk www.nec-display-solutions.com www.planar.com www.tvone.com
ONLINE EXTRA: CASE STUDY
Station Square: Burnaby, Canada: The sales centre for a new residential and commercial community in the Metrotown area of Burnaby has installed two large videowalls from Planar.
www.installation-international.com
www.installation-international.com
STUDY CASE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64