With the new millennium, there is a whole new way of looking at capital equipment investments and environmental responsibility, and the challenge for designers, consultants, integrators and architects is to make installations cost effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly.

Some manufacturers realize that sustainable and scalable video display wall systems are a growing concern of socially responsible organizations. Adding to the stress of choosing to upgrade or refresh such display systems in mission-critical applications is staying educated and informed about the latest available options. It’s a chore many people often postpone until the very last minute, only to make hasty decisions that may not serve the best interest of the organization.

Luckily, now upgrading and refreshing video walls is much easier and less painful with new scalable, next-generation display wall products that have modularity and flexibility built into each cube. Decisions regarding display size, screen type, resolution, input types, light sources and maintenance access can now be made by end users, and new video walls can grow and change alongside business requirements.

Invest Once and Reap the Benefits for More than One Generation
The days of display manufacturers deciding what features your display has in your control or operations center needs are over. Next generation display walls are designed and built to be modular and scalable, offering à la carte components so you can pick and choose how a display wall is built and equipped.

With the help of experienced consultants, you can determine what is truly needed based on your business requirements, then select the components and build your wall from there. And when these requirements change or increase, an upgrade involves only a few components instead of an entirely new re-installation. You don’t need to undertake a huge project of demolishing an old display wall and installing a completely brand new wall, only to be redone every five to seven years.

A modular display wall allows you to move from XGA to SXGA+ by simply changing out the optical engine and utilizing the same exact cube cabinet and screen, which instantly increases each display screen’s resolution by over 86 percent. The same type of simple engine upgrade can also move you from single lamp engines to dual lamp engines, or even to state-of-the-art LED-based engines with the same or higher resolution. Furthermore, wall modularity allows you to enlarge a cabinet and screen size using exactly the same engines you already have. All of these available options are purely a function of your requirement and choice, which keeps costs down.

Maximizing the reusability factor of a display wall as your organization changes and grows also reduces a lot of unnecessary waste. Three consumable components that need to be replaced most frequently in a continuous operating environment are the color-wheel, fan motor, and lamps. In next-generation scalable display walls, all of these are improved to reduce consumption rates of these parts despite continuous operation.

With the option of using or upgrading to an LED-based engine, you can use an engine that operates mercury-free and offers better longevity in lamp life. Color wheels and fan motors are now also designed and built with durable, heat-resistant ceramic bearings that allow these components to last up to 100,000 hours…that’s more than 11 years, compared to currently available non-modular walls that need replacement parts in less than half the time.

Choices, Choices, Choices
This simple idea of scalability transfers the power of choice to you, the end user. New, next-generation display walls are now simply flexible and truly customizable, and most importantly, scalable and sustainable, which maximizes reusability and reduces waste. From input cards and color wheels to brightness levels and maintenance access, now you can configure the display to be exactly what you need; nothing more, nothing less.

Input cards
Input cards determine the input connections that connect your cameras, data feeds, and computers to the display wall cubes, and are one of the most essential considerations in your display wall choice. Previously, if the current display wall supports only analog inputs but your newer system supports digital signals, signal converters were necessary for the wall to display properly, which increased the cost of the display. By using a modular design, if you need multiple digital inputs, you choose your suitable input cards; simply add on and take out these input cards as needed, saving time and money.

Color wheels
The color wheel is the part of the cube that literally generates the ‘color’ it will display, and different color wheels provide different color and brightness level for the display wall. Choosing the right color wheel for your display wall is crucial since vital decisions will be made from information on the display, so settling for the ‘manufacture’s standard’ color wheel is no longer appropriate or necessary. Moreover, whichever color wheel you choose, a new long-life color wheel can last up to 100,000 hours or over 11 years of continuous use.

Brightness Levels
Getting more for less is always a good way to justify upgrades and major purchases. Displays are often treated as short-term investments because of their useful life span, but with next-generation display wall cubes, you can choose the features and settings to fit your needs. You now have a wide option of operating times ranging from 10,000 hours to over 60,000 hours. Your control room or network operation center can go from over one year of 24/7 operation to over six by just changing your optical engine or by adjusting the brightness levels. That is the true beauty of scalability: you choose the components that fit your needs now and reap the benefits for years to come.

Maintenance Access
Depending on the size of the operation center, space can get cramped and big bulky rear projection cubes aren’t always practical or appropriate. Having a choice between front or rear access maintenance allows for sleeker room designs and helps save space.

Front access display walls can be placed with the back of the display completely flush against the wall. The display opens from the front and virtually all of the maintenance can be performed from the front, freeing up anywhere from 2 to 10 feet of space that would otherwise have been needed for rear access to the cubes.

In larger installations where the video wall itself is integrated into the architecture and structure of the building, rear access display cubes are typical. And with modularity, future upgrades for this type of wall do not require a new architectural venture and the costs associated with a major overhaul.

Ensure State of the Art Technology for Your Network Operating Center
with Minimal Cost
Modularity helps customers stay current with new technology without having to undergo major re-work and or re-installations; you can upgrade and refresh your display as often as your budget permits. As new technology comes to the market, upgrades can be easily planned and budgeted.

With new modular display walls, the display wall structure can stay as long as it’s stable, and upgrading or changing internal components is all that’s needed. This allows your display wall to recover your investment and pay for itself long before you need a completely new one.

It is simply our social responsibility to reduce waste and reuse as much as we can. Now, next generation display wall systems enable you to make that responsible decision without compromising on technology. Measure twice, install once, and use your video walls for a long, long time.

About the Author

As vice president of marketing at Mitsubishi Electric Visual Solutions, Inc., James Chan oversees product and brand marketing as well as marketing communications for its projectors, televisions, professional-grade LCD monitors, display wall products, and medical and photo printers. Chan, a 20-plus year marketing veteran, joined Mitsubishi in 1999 as product manager for projectors, later promoted to director and subsequently senior director of product marketing, while the breadth of the product line under his management expanded. Prior to Mitsubishi, he worked at Panasonic and Viewsonic. Mr. Chan holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from De La Salle University in Manila in his native Philippines, and received his MBA in 1999 from California State University, Fullerton.