As he moderated the What Will Video Walls Be Like in 2019? Webinar on May 21st, Commercial Integrator editor Tom LeBlanc said that old video walls looked a lot like Lego towers.
But as video walls become sleeker, cheaper, and easier to install, they are popping up in places smaller than the Times Square skyscrapers, and becoming an expectation in day-to-day life.
Here’s why:
1) The costs are coming down
Video walls, like ones from Samsung, offer cost-effective solutions for any budget. Plus, video walls will reduce electricity costs in the long run, in some cases up to 40 percent.
2) Easy to install
Jonathan Brawn, principal Brawn Consulting says that with less parts and lighter weight, video walls take little effort to assemble.
“Since the depth of these displays has changed, things have gotten lighter and easier to install,” he says. “Now, free standing video walls can be installed in a few minutes.”
3) Bezels are disappearing
Bezels, which are the black spaces in between each display on a video wall, are getting smaller and smaller by the year.
“They’re starting to bring out panels [with bezels] that are 1.75 millimeters from screen edge to screen edge,” Brawn says. “That’s incredibly tiny. When sizes are shrinking, companies turn to different technologies with zero bezels” to minimize the seam between panels. “Companies like Prysm are doing this. The race to zero is going to be pretty rapid.”
4) Flexible, adaptable “tech-orations”
George Tucker, host of AV Nation says that video walls are becoming recognizable chameleons with their imagery abilities and resistance against annoying light, and make for an adaptable feature when “tech-orating.”
“Light across the images on a video wall is less of a concern ,” he says. “You don’t have to worry about light wash because they are a brighter, emissive source with higher resolution. Video walls are cleaner and less work. They work well in conference rooms, and are more useful in schools as digital signage; you can set them up in high-light areas.”
He also says that some video walls can endure a beating from the weather, and can fit in the weirdest corners in an interior setting.
“Some are weather proof and can have outdoor system,” Tucker says. “You can put them in more oddly shaped, curved spaces [inside, too].”
5) Cultivates interaction and collaboration
Ben Guan, a CTO at Yorktel, says that the new versions of video walls are more multi-user friendly, and provide an opportunity for colleagues to work on the same projects at the same time.
“You’ll start to see these in collaboration rooms,” he says. “People are doing more with videoconferencing, and are focusing more and more on content, how they can share it coming by coming together. People can collaborate more efficiently.”
6) Coming to a college near you
Guan says that video walls are increasing their presence on college campuses, especially in lobbies and in atriums
“We will start to see them more in classrooms too,” he says. “Classroom video walls will need high resolution images and other [features].”
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