A video wall was used to enhance the entrance to Brazil’s retail giant Riachuelo’s flagship store.
3. Immediate gratification
Museums, theatres, symphonies, and many other non-profit organizations survive based on the generosity of their benefactors. In even a modest-sized organization, there are constant additions and changes to boards of directors, donors, and other supporters.
Video walls enable non-profit organization managers to quickly and easily update their lists of benefactors. When a donor makes a commitment on a Monday and sees his/her name on the list of benefactors at Saturday’s performance, it demonstrates the non-profit is well-run and well-organized, reinforcing the new donor’s decision to commit.
- Brand reinforcement
Organizations of all types must continuously reinforce their brand and value proposition. Artistic deployment of video walls enables marketing teams to quickly and effectively communicate their company’s offerings, differentiation, and competitive advantage, whether deployed in a corporate lobby, trade show exhibit, or related venue.
Strategies to create a successful video display
To maximize the return on investment (ROI) of a video wall and to avoid unpleasant surprises, such as cost overruns, it pays to strategize and plan in advance. Among the many factors organizations must consider are these five:
- Core architecture
Today, many displays have daisy-chaining capabilities, and can easily connect to each other and display content, although somewhat limited (and not very cost effective). Another approach is to have a media player, or a computer, ‘at the edge’ (at each display), but this approach can also be limiting, and not ideal when it comes to updating the content and troubleshooting (being in uncontrolled environments can take a big toll on the equipment). A newer approach, known as server-centric architecture, consists of a single computer that does all the processing, and can be located anywhere. It also enables centralized video management, increased display functionality, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
- Video wall controller or scaler
These products split one or more video streams into multiple outputs. Video scalers tend to be less expensive, but offer lower resolution and typically support only basic grid configurations. Video wall controllers support content resolution up to 8K, allow multiple simultaneous content sources to be viewed, and enable a wide variety of configuration of those sources.
- Wiring and connectivity
The video wall controller can be located at the video wall location or somewhere else. There are benefits to each, but through the use of Ethernet networks (and its rapid affordability in recent years), having the controller away from the video wall only requires one Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable connecting to a gigabit switch at the video wall location (and a switch to distribute the content to each display), making it a much more streamlined and cost-effective solution.
