Planar/Leyard was showing the latest 1.2mm LED wall that was shown at NAB. (Planar/Leyard shows Whopping 8K LED Video Wall at NAB) We asked how much it would cost to buy and we heard it would be around $2 million! The company has 0.9mm pitch in pre-production and that is likely to have 800 cd/m² of brightness, using SMD LEDs and it told us that it can continue to use SMD LEDs right down to 0.7mm pitch, but may need to switch to chip on board for smaller. The TWA series is currently available in 1.2mm, with 1.8mm and 2.5mm due later and was highlighted at ISE, but officially launched at Infocomm. The range is designed around a 55″ 16:9 cabinet that is intended to be a drop in replacement for video wall panels. The company claims that the cabinets use 35% less power than previous LEDs.
Also in LED, a new product at Infocomm was the CarbonLight range. These are intended for rental and staging, where weight is a key factor in sales, but could also be used in fixed installations, where some re-arrangement may be wanted from time to time. The units have a carbon fibre chassis and are intended to be flexible in use and do not need an external frame. The units have a mechanical element at the back of the module that can be tightened or loosened to change the degree of curve of the module, so the module is truly curved, rather than walls being made by ‘faceted’ topologies. The modules are 250mm x 250mm There are five sub ranges in the CarbonLight range:
- CLA Series: for indoor, smoothly curved LED videowalls, available in 1.5mm and 1.9mm pixel pitches. It can create arcs and columns of LED displays as low as 3m in diameter.
- CLI Series: for indoor hanging or mounted LED videowalls, available in 2.6mm, 3.9mm and 5.2mm pixel pitches. It can be used to achieve 90º corner installations
- CLO Series: for outdoor hanging or mounted LED videowalls, available in 3.9mm, 5.2mm and 7.8mm pitches.
- CLM Series: for outdoor mesh hanging or mounted LED videowalls, available in 10.4mm and 15.6mm pitches. It can be used to create large-scale, transparent display installations.
- CLF Series: for indoor or outdoor floor installations, available in 5.2mm, 6.2mm and 10.4mm pixel pitches. It can withstand a load of 500 kg per cabinet.
The DirectLight (1.6mm/1.9mm/2.5mm/3.1mm) range was launched at ISE.
Turning to LCD, Planar was showing an 8K demonstrator that was claimed to have 98% of NTSC colour coverage. The company also had a new 55″ video wall display with a claimed gap of 1.6mm that is said to be ‘image to image’ and will be available in July. It has 800 cd/m² of brightness.
