Integrated Systems Europe 2016 marked the first major tradeshow since Planar was acquired by Beijing-based Leyard for $157 million in August, and the innovative displays manufacturer showed no signs of slowing down.
The two brands teamed up to strengthen their LED lineup while showcasing Planar’s LCD and OLED solutions as well.
LED Video Wall Solutions
Planar showed off its DirectLight LED Video Wall system, which appeared at DSE 2015 and InfoComm 2016.
It’s a family of seamless, ultra-fine pitch, direct-view LED video wall that Planar says is optimized for a wide range of mission-critical 24×7 indoor environments including well-lit public spaces and corporate lobbies, as well as light-controlled conference rooms, auditoriums and control rooms.
Planar DirectLight LED Video Wall
Leyard showed its TW Series of fine-pitch LED video walls with pixel pitches of 1.2, 1.4, 1.8 and 2.5 millimeters. It says the fine-pitch solution supports extremely close viewing distances
Both companies demonstrated a 0.9mm LED video wall solution.
LCD Solutions
Planar was focused on some advances to its Clarity Matrix LCD Video Wall System product line.
It demonstrated an upcoming “extreme-narrow” bezel Clarity Matrix LCD video wall model with bezel width of 1.4mm. It discussed the Clarity Matrix Video Wall Fiber Video Extension, which is designed to offer a longer and more secure way to connect Clarity Matrix LCD video wall displays to off-board electronics. With video extension support for up to 300 meters, it provides integrated video over a standard multi-mode or single-mode fiber optic cable, eliminating the need for third-party USB extenders.
Meanwhile, its new Clarity Matrix App was on display, enabling users to perform basic functions like turning on a Clarity Matrix video wall and switching sources.
OLED Gets Transparent
Planar’s LookThru OLED transparent display, which was announced in November 2015, allows users to view video content, digital images and text on a virtually frameless glass display while enabling designers to overlay this content onto real objects or scenes that sit behind the glass.
The emissive display means there’s no backlighting required and the LookThru OLED comes with HDMI or display ports, said Jennifer Davis, VP of marketing and product strategy, at the time of the release.
The LookThru OLED is a full HD display and can be paired with Planar’s content creators’ guide to help them realize all the things the new product can do. Planar is taking pre-orders now on the LookThru and will begin mass production in February.
“It opens up a lot of possibilities,” said Davis. “The main thing is we want people to see the product and pique their interest. It’s important to demystify it and have people realize it acts just like a monitor. Once people understand how it works, they’ll be off and running.”
