The new Unilumin Unano rental screen with a 1.8mm pitch at ISE. Some of the custom mounting and transporting hardware is visible in the background. (Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
Unilumin had a large booth at ISE and was showing a number of new and existing products. I got a complete booth tour from Peterson Liu, sales engineer. He first showed me the new Unano product, specifically designed for the indoor rental market. As such, the mechanical system had been specifically designed for mechanical reliability, ease of assembly and disassembly and precision curves. The unit shown had a 1.8mm pitch but other members of the series have1.3mm and 2.3mm pitches. To go with the LED modules, there was some special packaging designed, in some cases, to allow smaller arrays never to be disassembled. Just fold up the combination carrying crate and stand and it was ready to ship.
The Umesh was another new product. It is an outdoor system that comes in 800 x 800mm modules and has an 8mm pitch. The structure has about 12% transparency. Liu told me this was more to reduce the effect of wind in outdoor applications than for its optical properties.
Three Unilumin UTV-P poster displays with a 2.5mm pitch at ISE. (Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
Unilumin, like many other LED videowall manufacturers, is moving into the integrated product market. They were showing two different integrated products at ISE, the UTV-P poster display and the UTVIII LED Smart TV. The poster on display had a 2.5mm pitch although a 1.9mm pitch is also available. The unit is similar in design and application to the iPoster from Transtech (Transtech Shows Three New Products) except that the Unilumin lacks the iPoster’s 3G connectivity.
Unilumin UTVIII system at ISE. (Credit: M. Brennesholtz)
Unilumin showed its UTVIII LED Smart TV at ISE. It’s hard to appreciate from the photo, but this is a 4M x 2M 2K screen with a 1.9mm pitch. This is a complete, integrated system, including features TV viewers expect like playlists, etc. Unilumin claims LEDs have several advantages over LCDs, for systems with this screen size. First, it is visually seamless, unlike tiled LCD arrays. Second, it has a better color gamut and a wider viewing angle. Since it is shipped disassembled, shipping is less of a problem than with a monolithic large LCD. On-site assembly time is said to be about four hours. It is also easier for a customer to get a custom size to fit a specific space, such as a corporate lobby with an LED system than a LCD system. For the time being, these systems are likely to be professional rather than consumer TVs, due to the high cost of LED compared to projection for home theater in large sizes. A variation on the UTV system, the UTV-B with a 2.5mm pitch, can create a 2-sided screen for public display.
Peterson Liu told me that the 0.9 mm pitch screen was used in a kiosk display in the booth, which was not a new product. He added that while Unilumin can do a LED display with a 0.8mm pitch, that size is not yet currently in production. – Matthew Brennesholtz
