LEDs rock!

LED tiles have been a known technology for years within Barco, and are mainly used for large outdoor entertainment and advertising displays. Just think about the displays used at rock concerts, or on Times Square (New York) for example. Pixel sizes for the early LEDs were large, as big as 1 cm, and pixel pitch (distance between pixels) even larger. But they were very bright, because they literally had to outshine the sun to be visible outdoors.

Nowadays, LED tiles are also commonly used in indoor applications, like retail stores, lobbies, and museums. In the next 5 years, pixel pitches will become smaller than 1 mm, creating a hugely bright high-definition screen. Add to this a number of additional advantages, including modularity, the complete absence of seams and a very small form factor, and you could wonder why we wouldn't introduce these LED walls into the control room.

Any architect's dream

Indeed, having a small footprint, easy installation, the possibility to create curved surfaces, wide viewing angles, long lifetime, noiseless operation, and of course brilliant brightness, are all interesting propositions for control room displays. And no other technology can top LEDs on these domains. Resolution is a bit less than the HD-screens we know, but if operators sit at a convenient distance this is never an issue. And budget? Well, this could be a showstopper, as prices are literally calculated on the pixel per square meter, and this is indeed higher than with conventional techniques.

As Barco, we have the luxury to propose the best fitting display technology to each customer. At the moment, we see the window opportune to position high resolution LED tiles into new applications. They are ready for the job, and fit to stand beside the rear-projection cubes and near-seamless LCD video walls. If you look to make a great impact in a form factor that any architect would love to work with, LED tiles are definitely what you are looking for.

About the author:

Guy Van Wijmeersch
Market Director Utilities

Guy Van Wijmeersch is the responsible strategic marketer for the Utilities and Telecom market of Barco's Industrial and Government division.
He started with Barco in 1992 and held industrial designer and design director positions in Belgium, Germany and the USA.
Guy holds a master degree in product design (Artesis University College of Antwerp) and a postgraduate degree of product design from University of Irvine, California, USA. He also holds a master degree in B2B Marketing, and is a member of the Ergonomics Association and Design Management Institute.

Over the last 13 years, he has been involved in several global signature key projects in control rooms and meeting rooms at Reliance, Saudi Aramco, Dubai Police, Telecom South Africa, RWE, National Grid, Airtel, China Rail, etc.
After working for Barco in California, USA and Germany, he is now again based in Belgium.

distributed by