July 6, 2011

By James Wood

In his masterful book on visual design, Beautiful Evidence, Edward Tufte has an extended discussion of “sparklines.” If you don’t already know, a sparkline is a small graphical representation of data, usually in the form of a line graph. Tufte says sparklines are: “data-intense, design-simple, word-sized graphics.” Rather than showing all of the information necessary in one, confused graph, the data is broken out into discreet chunks to be analyzed separately. Whether looking at stock performance, medical data or the average rainfall in the Amazon rainforest, sparklines can be used to make the raw numerical data comprehensible at a glance.

According to Tufte, information isn’t enough nor is beautiful design, but both together work in concert to convey more than either could alone. Being able to see at a glance that the DOW was up for the day, but only after steep mid-day losses versus the steady gains experienced by the S&P 500 gives more information than just the end-of-day numbers.

In order for sparklines to work, however, the resolution needs to be very high. Traditional displays are too blocky to show the minute detail necessary for sparklines so Tufte’s brilliant design concept has been unused due to the limitations of technology. With high definition displays the sparklines are finely differentiated and subtly show the vital information.

Clarity Matrix display walls offer a stunning 1920 by 1080 pixels of resolution per display. Each individual component of a Clarity Matrix wall is full HD resolution by itself with over 2 million pixels on a screen. When you start adding up the pixels for a nine panel wall you start seeing the power of an image with 18 million pixels. The finest detail is crisp and sharp.

So, when you need to know an enormous amount of information about dozens or even hundreds of individual items, take advantage of the design genius of Tufte and the technological brilliance of Planar. The Clarity Matrix display will allow you to clearly see the performance of each individual company in the NASDAQ at a glance or the vital statistics for all of the patients in a medical trial laid out together.

June 21, 2011

By James Wood

The rectangle dominates signage. Billboards, menus, movie posters and nearly every sign is locked into the rectangle. Digital signage has been following the same path, largely due to the form factor of display panels (surprise, surprise, also rectangles). But the growing trend seen in digital signage is different shapes. It might be an arch, a wave, a tower or a spiral, but the shapes are coming out to play.

It’s not the individual panels that are changing in size, but the configuration of the panels that provides different shapes. Two things are necessary to allow the variety of configurations to work at all: a versatile mounting system and a powerful video processor.

Lo and behold, the Clarity Matrix Video Wall has both. Not only does the EasyAxis mounting system allow the individual screens in the video wall to be individually adjusted on six different axes, but it also lets you configure the matrix with differently oriented panels and curved arrays. So the banner display can wrap around a building or follow the curve of interesting architectural pieces.

Planar’s own Indisys image processing system can break up an image across any configuration of panels imaginable. So the text can spiral along the path of the curving panels or the image can appear to be seen through the shape of the video wall. And each of the panels, like the Clarity Matrix MX 55, a 55 inch high-def display, communicates to the video processor where it is in the array, automatically.

The rectangle is no longer the only shape possible for signage. But some things have to be seen to be believed.

May 20, 2011

On May 12, Jacob Slevin, Co-Founder of DesignerPages.com and Guest Curator of Huff Post Art's Design Thursdays posted an article on HuffingtonPost.com on "Trend Forecasting: Digital Surfaces to Transform Spatial Design" that highlighted Planar displays that exemplify creative and dynamic digital design in a variety installation environments.

In his article, Slevin showed a number of examples that have led him to predict that "digital surfaces will emerge as a leading material and surface in the coming years, one which will be specified and installed by both design professionals and homeowners alike."

Two prominent Planar Clarity Matrix Video Wall installations made the list: Planar's 2X4 video wall display in the lobby of the Hotel Deluxe in Portland, Oregon, and the large Matrix display wall at the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. Slevin described the Kentucky Derby Museum installation as capturing "the same kind of heart-pounding excitement that captures the spirit of their organization, located in a traditional museum with otherwise static exhibits."

To view Jacob Slevin's full list of digital design examples, read his article on HuffingtonPost.com. Additional examples of Planar digital walls on video canvases can be seen on the Planar "Design Inspiration" gallery.