Active Thermal Management (ATM), known for its electronic component and video wall cooling devices, is targeted video walls with two new thermal management products, Cool-wall 1 and Cool-wall II, expected to ship in Q4 of 2018.
As video walls have become more popular – showing up in lobbies, conference rooms, retail environments, museums and more – an electronics cooling challenge for AV integrator has emerged, as the company explains in an email to its dealers.
Video panels are commonly protected by a sheet of glass in front of them. “The glass sheets may protect the panels from vandalism and fingerprints, but they’ll also interfere with ventilation,” writes the company.
“Like receivers and cable boxes, video panels can’t be allowed to overheat if they’re going to live long and happy lives.”
ATM Cool-wall 1 and Cool-wall II
Active Thermal Management (ATM) writes that it’s in the midst of finishing the design of two new products to cool walls in the 500-1000 watt and 1000 watt+ category, the Cool-walls I and II.
[related]It adds that they’ll be “completely automatic as are other ATM products, and will be field-adjustable (with readouts) if turn-on and turn-off temperatures need adjustment after installation. They’ll also carry the now-standard 5-year ATM warranty.”
In an email to Commercial Integrator, ATM CEO Frank Federman adds that the company “will be offering no-charge engineering for integrators who need something special that off-the-shelf products such as Cool-wall just don’t quite fit.”
Asked what alternatives are out there for video wall panel thermal management, Federman says it has often required design creativity. “Until now, we’ve used our standard systems in a sometimes-unorthodox fashion to cool large walls. While others in the marketplace have rack and cabinet coolers, I’ve yet to see a dedicated wall cooler.”
Federman acknowledges that video walls by their nature vary in shape, size and design. As such, he realizes that ATM’s video wall cooling solutions will lead dealer partners to ask for one-off solutions – “which we’ll have the ability to do,” he says.
