If there was one thing that really impressed me last week at #dse2013, it was the 4K screens, which I first saw at Planar Systems [1]‘s booth and, subsequently, at a couple of others which I’ll mention in later articles.
[2]Steve Seminario
Steve Seminario, senior director of product marketing, gave me the grand tour of Planar’s offerings, but I couldn’t help going back to its 4K screen.
These screens are really superb for indoor use: you can go right up to literally inches from the screen and cannot see a pixel.
Planar’s UltraRes 84” ultra-high definition screen has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 (four times the resolution of high definition).
While I can envision it being used for high quality fashion advertising and the like, it’s also superb for wayfinding, because the smallest streets or hallways can be identified without blurring. Beyond that, medical imaging, architecture, control rooms are only some of the possible uses beyond digital signage.
Seminario says that the UltraRes screen is equipped to continue to run if the power fails, and that it’s fanless yet stays cool. He says it was developed in-house. Planar UltraRes displays are ideal for professionals in a wide variety of commercial industries who require a large viewing area, very high pixel density and enterprise-level features that allow teams to collaborate around more immersive and detailed visual information.
I also liked Planar’s Mosaic that come in three sizes: a 22” square and two rectangulars: 46” and 55”. These can be laid out on a wall in any type of design and the demonstration wall with angles and overlays was really attractive. I would think of its being competitive to Christie MicroTiles and eyevis omniSHAPES.
Planar is a public company founded in 1983 and, selling its products through integrators, it has installations globally. President and CEO is Gerry Perkel, based in Portland, Oregon.