Leyard took over Planar last year (Planar to be Acquired by Leyard). At this year’s ISE, there were two booths but the company is in the process of merging its sales and marketing teams. The Planar brand is likely to continue to be used and the firm will be known as “a Leyard company”, at least for the time being, as the brand has a strong heritage, especially in the US. The company did not have a huge LED display on its booth – but it did have a very impressive display on the Lang booth (based on 1.2mm technology).
The company changed its approach to promoting itself at the show, organising its booth broadly around applications rather than technology and showing how its different display technologies could be used together. For example, a Planar 98″ UltraHD panel was shown in a retail application, surrounded by a 3mm pitch LED display.
A key promotional item was a new 1200 x 675 small pixel pitch (2.5mm) LED unit that has 480 x 270 resolution and 54.5″ diagonal. The idea is that the units could be easily switched into the space previously occupied by 55″ LCD video wall panels and a 3 x 3 configuration would give 1440 x 810 resolution, while a 4 x 4 would produce 1920 x 1080 FullHD.
Also on display was a 1.25mm pitch display. Leyard told us that it is starting to be asked for this kind of display for boardroom and control room applications. The company told us that it is increasingly being asked to replace projection systems.
The TW1.2 is designed in a 16:9 54.21″ cabinet that supports 960 x 540 resolution, supporting FullHD in a 2 x 2 configuration. Brightness is 800 cd/m², contrast is 3,200:1 and lifetime is quoted at 50K hours. The device is fanless and is available with an optional dual power supply.
Other products, including Planar LCD video walls, included a demo of a new monitor using the 1.4mm Samsung 55″ video wall panel. Planar has been promoting UltraHD/4K panels for some time and has now added two 50″ models to the Planar EP series, designed for 24/7 operation.
Leyard’s 54inch LED module is intended to allow a swap with video wall displays. Image:Meko
