Definitive Concepts, Inc. recently designed and installed a motorized video wall with four (4) 46" Clarity Matrix Video Wall displays which slide open at the push of a button to reveal an 80" LCD television.  Check out the video below of this sleek, one of kind entertainment center:

November 18, 2011

635 million in three days. No, that is not the number of votes from the last American Idol finale or even the amount of money raised by the winning candidate in the last election. 635 million is actually the amount of money raised in three evenings of art sales by Philips de Pury, Christie’s and Sotheby’s last week in New York. With well over a half a billion dollars pumping through the art world in only three days it is clear the art world has not heard that the economy hasn’t fully recovered.

This latest news might surprise many, but not Planar. Planar’s vision for the convergence of art and technology will make its debut at the end of this month with a showcase at several venues during the highly acclaimed Design Miami and Art Basel Miami Beach event. Planar will kick off the week at Design Miami with a by-invitation press and industry event titled, ‘Pictures + Furniture,’ which will take place on November 30th at Avant Gallery in creative partnership with Surface Magazine. The exhibit is in its third year at Avant Gallery, but will mark the first time Planar will be participating; providing several large digital displays for top industrial designers and furniture artists to display their video art presentations.

In addition to the Pictures + Furniture event, Planar is equally excited to be showcasing exhibits at the PULSE contemporary art show at the Cristin Tierney Gallery, featuring the digital artist Yorgo Alexpoulous’ work on Planar’s Clarity™ Matrix LX-46 media wall. Finally, Miami SOLO, presented by Artexpo, will include a showcase of two prototypes of Digital Canvas™ in partnership with Samsung Semiconductor.

Planar is eagerly anticipating all the events and is looking forward mingling with the art world to learn from and gather feedback regarding ongoing product development designed for this community. If you have plans to be in Miami Beach during the time of Design Miami and Art Basel please let us know as we would love to extend an personal invitation for you to join us at the Pictures + Furniture event.

October 31, 2011

Congratulations to our customer, Hotel deLuxe who was recognized by Sunset Magazine with a 2011 Hotel Award. The Clarity Matrix in their lobby illustrates the hotel's vision in creating a compelling experience for their guests.

Also, congratulations to our friend Yorgo Alexopoulos for his "digital art columns" installed at Las Vegas' Cosmopolitan Hotel. His work was called out as a key part of creating a sophisticated and totally unique property in a town that's hard to impress.

September 22, 2011

Planar, maker of many kinds of cool display technologies, approached ADi with a unique proposition. Conceive and design an animation for a video display. The display is pretty much one of a kind – ten feet tall, made of 4 display panels with almost no bezel. They are mounted on a tree-like frame that sprouts up out of a base that cleverly disguises the media player and inner workings of the “Art Wall”. We are going to follow the progress of this project and show you step by step how it comes together.

Today, we speak with Seth Cameron Short, ADi Creative Lead about his approach to designing for this unique platform as well as Jennifer Davis, VP of Marketing at Planar:

What intrigued you about this project?

Seth: This project was both exciting and unnerving at the same time. Typically, when clients approach ADi that want us to do something with their brands and their products – fundamentally, it’s about selling something. This project was different because it was about inspiring the imagination (of architects and interior designers). Our limits were not creative ones. We were limited by the shape of the art wall, that’s about it.

Why was it important to Planar to bring in an outside creative partner for this project?

Jennifer:Planar is a company full of creative and innovative people, but we are not a creative agency. We knew that by collaborating with a firm of artists who understood the tools of video design and communication would lead to a great collaboration. We have seen this play out many times in our projects and installations, as creative forces join together to create something unique and relevant.

How did you come up with ideas and concepts?

Seth: Our first thought was to create something we’d want to see. Something fresh and new. We did a lot of group brainstorming. Our team is very used to this process and we have a certain level of trust that makes it work well. It’s great to get many different perspectives. It’s ok to be crazy or “out there” in the brainstorm. No one is going to say no. It’s the off-the-wall stuff that eventually gets us to a solution.

What was your process for pulling all the ideas together?

Seth: First I gathered my notes and everyone’s note and reviewed them. We had also pulled some reference images and a few folks had done doodles and sketches. I kept going back to my first inclination which was asking myself – “Would I like to see that?” I also had to look at what was possible in terms of time and content. We had a few ideas that had a sort of narrative to them and they were great, but it wasn’t realistic to think that someone walking through a hotel lobby is going to stop and watch a 12 minute story unfold.

How important were the visuals in terms of showing the ideas?

My first step in organizing the concepts was to write up written descriptions, and then start to think about how to show them visually. In the final presentation, most of the words were all stripped away and we let the visuals do the talking. We shared written descriptions with the Planar team, but mostly for their reference – it was very conversational.

How did the Planar team react to the concepts?

Seth: Well, we brought 6 concepts total. We presented them in a sequence and I confess at first I was nervous because they weren’t reacting much. Suddenly, once we were through about the third one and they were able to compare ideas side by side, they really started to spark. They then started adding ideas of their own or combining ideas. Seeing the client dive in and get involved is my main goal.

Jennifer: We loved the range of concepts and the clear thought and preparation that had gone into each. Although the graphics associated with each were rough and meant to be illustrative of the concept, we could see clearly how sophisticated and clever the resulting designs could be. In our design review, we were able to narrow down to a concept (or combine a few into a single concept) to take to the next phase.

What concept were you most excited about?

Seth: I’m really partial to simulating physical things – particles, liquids. We had one concept that used a liquid simulations and took advantage of the physical “frame” of the art wall to make things happen dynamically. Kind of a really fancy lava lamp.

Jennifer: My personal favorite was the “behind the scenes” mechanism concept. I liked it because it was unexpected and brought the shape of the displays into a depth dimension by creating a world behind the displays. It also allowed us to combine some of the things that we liked about the others (ie, fluid dynamics, etc) into one unifying concept.

How did you react when Planar picked their favorite concept?

Seth: Well, none of the ideas we presented were ideas I didn’t like. I was really happy to see them react to the “Mechanism” concept. They even found the little robot character sort of hidden in the scene. It’s great when you realize the client has really started to take it into their minds. That’s when I know it’s really clicking. It was fun to see them connect with it.

What are the next steps in the process?

Seth: The next thing we’ll be doing are storyboards. Those will include more written descriptions of the action and flow of the animation, as well as more visuals. I’ll be working very closely with our Art Director Vince Nimmoor on those.

Do you see ways to carry this concept forward into the future for different configurations?

Jennifer: Absolutely. The wonderful thing about video displays is that they can show anything. The wonderful thing about art is that the ideas never cease. I imagine that this first implementation will just inspire new rounds of creativity. We also know that our customers, which range from architects to AV installers in industries as diverse as utility control rooms to retail merchandising, will find inspiration as well.

For the final audience for this project, architects and interior designers, what do you want them to think or feel when they see the final art wall?

Seth: It’s more than a customizable painting. I want to “break the 4th wall”, so to speak. I want them to see how this could work, even if they don’t use that particular style or feel for their own project. This whole project is a sort of deconstruction – a whimsical deconstruction.

(From AnimationDynamics.com, By Nancy Hoffman, September 22, 2011 - Click here to read the original post).

September 7, 2011

From Planar Systems comes another entry for the “Famous Firsts” list at TheLongestListOfTheLongestStuffAtTheLongestDomainNameAtLongLast.com: the first integrated multi-panel touch screen display. While that may not roll right off the tongue, it’s a tremendous breakthrough. Prior to the launch of the Clarity Matrix Touch on June 15th at InfoComm 2011 in Orlando, Florida, multi-panel touch screens had to be cobbled together from different vendors with various components. It was a situation that would challenge the inestimable Dr. Frankenstein’s skills of stitching parts together.

You can now order a 2-by-2, 2-by-3 or 3-by-3 video wall made up of Clarity Matrix displays. That means that you can have anywhere from a 92 inch diagonal display to a 138 inch screen. On this gigantic display you can touch, tap, drag, pinch and swipe. The multi-touch capabilities can be used to manipulate all sorts of interactive applications from digital whiteboards to maps to playing a giant game of Spider Solitaire. The Clarity Matrix Touch comes with full support for the Windows 7 Touch Pack, so you can just hook up a computer and start working.

For the worrisome-mom types out there (you know who you are) who are already thinking of how many ways this can be damaged by all of the wanton poking and touching it will receive, you can rest easy. The Extended Ruggedness Optics (ERO) glass that covers the screens protects them from finger pointing and even more. The ERO glass provides another first: the Clarity Matrix is one continuous touch surface that is made up of separate pieces of glass. In the past touch screens couldn’t go past the edges of a pane of glass, either requiring a huge pane of glass or a smaller touch screen. Planar has solved that problem with an optical bonding process so the Digital Vision Touch technology provided by SMART Technologies sees nothing but the open expanse of one touch screen for your fingers to roam.

August 31, 2011

By Jennifer Davis

As people are using the Clarity™ Matrix LCD Video Wall for art or ambiance, we get questions from our resellers and clients as to where they can find artwork to put on their Matrix that shows off the massive resolution that is possible when you tile the displays together into a wall-size array. For instance, a 3x3 Clarity Matrix MX-46 is over 4,000 pixels wide. A 3x3 wall of our new MX-55 version is 5,760 pixels wide and 3,240 pixels tall. And using full-resolution artwork is stunning on the display, as those who saw our booth at InfoComm can attest.

There are a variety of stock photography and video houses that provide high-resolution imagery and video that could be used to transform your WindowWall from entertainment to art. Most have online collections numbering in the millions that you can browse, preview in “light box” mode, and license in multiple resolutions. Remember that most of this photography or illustrations were created for print, which requires very high resolution artwork (much greater than what is typical for even HD video). Here are a few of our favorites:

• Pond5: their collection features photography, video, and illustrations. They offer a week of free downloads so that you can test content.
• iStockPhoto: their collection also features photography, video, illustrations, and Flash animations. They represent several video artists and agencies and can even broker custom commissions.
• ArtBeats: they specialize in video footage, up to 4K resolution, and offer a free research service to find the perfect piece for you.
• GettyImages: One of the leading sources for journalists, their collection includes a variety of entertainment and sports imagery featuring celebrities and professional athletes.
• CorbisIMAGES: Their collection includes world events and fine art.
• Fotosearch: they are an aggregator of professional images and footage and are a favorite of corporate brands.

Of course, there is a vibrant and growing community of video artists that are using a digital canvas to create incredible artwork by custom commission or for license. You can find their work featured in museums, galleries, and online. You’ll see their work in commercial projects in hotels, airports, and the like. They exhibit at art shows for private and institutional collectors like Art Basel, Art Expo, and in galleries for Art Week in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities around the globe. We have begun to develop some relationships of our own with this community and would be happy to make a recommendation.

And let’s not forget that you don’t have to look past your own camera (or that of your agency) as a source of art. 9 megapixel or higher digital cameras are very common and produce native photography that is larger than native pixel of many Clarity Matrix installations. If your agency is used to creating photography or illustrations for print, they will be well-accustomed to high-resolution requirements. Your own corporate photography and the like can become beautiful digital wallpaper on your Clarity Matrix video wall. For higher-than-HD resolution video, you might just want to splurge on a RED digital camera and turn yourself into a filmmaker in your own right.

August 25, 2011

By Jennifer B. Davis

I have been reading a great book by Tim Brown, a founder and thought leader at the famed industrial design firm, IDEO, called “Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation.” In the book he emphasizes that traditional fields of design (i.e., art, architecture, etc…) approach problems differently than other disciplines and having a more design-centric view can lead to more revolutionary outcomes. Hospital emergency room redesign, an example he uses in the book, is not just about the efficiency of filling out forms or the staff-to-patient ratio, but about the materials in the waiting room and how the process makes the patient feel. Design thinking is about approaching a problem holistically and understanding (or seeking to understand) the larger context of the problem at hand.

This is the kind of thinking that influenced our design of the Clarity Matrix LCD video wall system. The face that it is a system, rather than monitors that you can buy and hang adjacent to each other, is in itself telling. We didn’t limit our design to just the display. We developed an innovative mounting system and revolutionized the industry by allowing tiled LCD video walls to meet the stringent ADA requirements. We innovated the electronics design, placing fans, power supplies, and sources away from the wall. This alone creates huge benefits with regards to product life (less heat), installation costs (no power outlets behind the wall), and human factors (less noise), but also has significant serviceability benefits that we knew well from our long and pioneering history in video walls for demanding applications. The innovation continued with power supply redundancy, front-serviceability of the display tiles themselves, and image processing that is included, allowing you to stretch one video or image over an entire wall or portions of the wall as your needs dictate. Options like our ERO™ technology and Clarity Matrix with Touch are changing the usage model for video walls again.

Our approach is so unique that has created a whole new category of video walls: tiled LCD video wall systems. We are the world’s leader in this new category. The Clarity Matrix is a great example of design thinking and just one of the many product lines at Planar that reflect this kind of innovative approach.

August 4, 2011

By James Wood

Our field of view is everything that we can see at one time. Human sight can take in 180 degrees of horizontal visual information including the main vision and peripheral vision. From top to bottom, we can take in about 100 degrees of vision. So if you’re standing just ten feet from something it would need to be about 35 feet wide to fill you whole visual field (and about 20 feet tall). Since we can only really see with any clarity within about a 120 degree arc, the realistic size of an immersive screen would have to be 20 feet tall by 25 feet wide. A wall display that provided complete immersion for someone standing just 10 feet away would take 70 display panels in a Clarity Matrix Display Wall.

But our vision isn’t flat and a Clarity Matrix array doesn’t have to be either. The EasyAxis mounting system allows for the Clarity Matrix panels to follow the curvature of a wall which gives a more natural field of view using far fewer panels than a flat display could accomplish. Similar to how an IMAX screen makes the audience feel like they are in the middle of the action. A curved Clarity Matrix design will engulf people in the experience.

If you laid out your Clarity Matrix wall on a curve rather than in a flat line it would take only 30 feet of visual width to encompass 180 degrees and 20 feet to fill 120 degrees. That translates into 20 fewer displays on the wall to give you the same effect of being engulfed in the image on the screen. So with 30% less screen space you can provide the same feeling of being in the middle of what’s happening on the screen.

You may not be installing a two story high video wall that completely fills the visual world of the people seeing it, but the ability to have a curved Clarity Matrix Display Wall match the natural arc of human vision scales to any sized application, uses one third fewer panels and feels more natural and immersive.

July 18, 2011

By James Wood

In kindergarten I learned the subtle art of getting in line. At the beginning of class, at the end of class, before lunch and recess getting in line was the rule. We were taught early and often about how important it is to stand in line. Don’t cut. Keep the lines straight. The same practice is applied throughout my life at the coffee shop or the movie theater. Lining up is still important.

Lining up is a metaphor for things working perfectly. If everything lines up then all the pieces necessary are exactly where they need to be. When it comes to a multi-panel display the phrase “lining up” is no metaphor for perfection, it’s the prerequisite. If every display isn’t perfectly aligned with all the other displays around it then whenever motion crosses the boundary between the two it will be glaringly obvious. Think of looking at the action on a football field through a glass of water. When you look through the water things will be lined up at one level, but at the boundary between the water and the air it will look like things are broken and offset. A poorly aligned display wall makes it seem like you’re looking through glasses of water and everything is broken up.

The lack of alignment destroys the illusion of one, large display and makes all the viewers acutely aware of the individual screens rather than the whole array. But with the Clarity Matrix Display Wall you can rely on the EasyAxis Mounting System to line up everything precisely. Each screen in the display wall can adjust in six directions with fine accuracy so that depth, height and width adjustments are all tuned perfectly.

The EasyAxis wall mounts are included with the Clarity Matrix Display at no extra charge so that your screens are exactly where they need to be. But lining up once isn’t the only thing that the Planar crew taught the EasyAxis mounting system. You can also tilt the individual screens from the front to be able to access the rear panel for connection and maintenance throughout the life of the Clarity Matrix Display Wall. My kindergarten teacher would be proud.

Scientists have been busy unlocking the secrets of the human brain: how it works, how it fails and what all that means. The field of neuroscience is making new discoveries daily, but who’s to explain the science to the rest of us? John Medina (Dr. Medina, that is) is a neuroscientist at the University of Washington. He’s not only a researcher but also an educator training up young scientists-to-be. But what you really need to know about him is that he’s been able to translate the obtuse language of the academy into a few simple statements. The research on the human brain can be summed up and applied to daily life and Medina writes about it in his book, Brain Rules.

It’s not an option to ignore what’s being gleaned from this research. Cognitive function affects literally everything that happens so it’s recklessly irresponsible to remain uninformed. Rule number ten (of 12) says that “Vision trumps all other senses.” This means that the brain weights what is seen more than what’s heard, tasted, touched or smelled. Every other sense acts as a supporting character to sight, like Diana Ross and the Supremes (or not).

Visual dominance isn’t just what comes in through our eyes, but what our eyes expect to see. Written language is still words and requires the brain to access the secondary language center rather than the primary visual center. Each letter is dissected by the brain into its constituent shapes then matched against patterns for recognition before being recombined into words that have meaning.

“Little Billy was sad because his ice cream cone fell on the ground.” We think about the situation. We process the language and we have a logical understanding of the situation. But all that is communicated with a wordless picture showing an ice cream cone slowly melting on the pavement or the tears welling up in the eyes of a child. Signage isn’t just about conveying information to people but connecting with human beings. Connections are made through vision and image.

Instead of showing streams of text on a billboard, install a Planar EP-Series display that can show full, high-definition video in a light, durable, energy-efficient package. The EP-Series uses edge-lit LED backlight technology to reduce energy cost and high quality LCD components to increase reliability so you can run them all day and night for years.

Or choose the Clarity Matrix™ display wall that marries a grid of displays into one giant screen or into a screen with multiple, independent sections. The slim mounting EasyAxis system means the LCD screens will stick out just four inches into the room. The remote power and video processing mean that the wall will be quiet, cool and won’t require any electrical outlets for the screens.

Take advantage of the primacy of vision. Connect with people in the most powerful way possible.