Back-to-back Clarity Matrix MultiTouch Video Walls Implemented in Advertising Agency's Lobby and Conference Room Spaces

Lowe Campbell Ewald, a global advertising and marketing communications agency, saw its move into new headquarters in Detroit as an opportunity to take maximum advantage of the state-of-the-art in digital video wall technology. The agency's leadership knew they could utilize this technology to create a memorable experience for clients, partners and others visiting their office, and also redefine how clients' communications programs are developed and presented.

Working closely with Bluewater Technologies, a leading systems integration firm, Lowe Campbell Ewald implemented a dual-sided video wall from Planar that serves as branding and initial discussion platform in the lobby space, and as a digital canvass for agency collaboration and deep-dive client presentations in the shared-wall conference room. They selected Planar's Clarity™ Matrix MultiTouch LCD Video Wall, the very latest in LCD video wall technology delivering industry-leading interactivity on the two video walls, each of which is comprised of four 55-inch Clarity Matrix MX55HDS displays in a two-by-two (2x2) configuration.

"Clarity Matrix MultiTouch gives Lowe Campbell Ewald a 'wow' factor that will not easily be forgotten," says Mark Lesnau, Media Systems Engineer, Lowe Campbell Ewald. "It's also a tool that lets the agency team develop new ideas and concepts for clients in a really different and more effective way."

The ultimate touch experience

The power of the Lowe Campbell Ewald video wall lies in the interactivity of the Clarity Matrix MultiTouch system. Whether in the lobby or conference room, Clarity Matrix MultiTouch provides up to 32 touch points and allows multiple people to simultaneously interact with the video wall without affecting other users. Further, users get a better touch experience because of the system's pinpoint accuracy and built-in technology that prevents false touch points.

In both locations, agency personnel can display images, recorded video, PDFs, presentations and content from laptops and PCs. Then they can tap, swipe or pinch/expand content elements, position and annotate a virtually unlimited number of multimedia windows. Added power comes from being able to do this with pitches or presentations on one video wall - in the conference room, for example - while viewers on the other video wall can watch agency branding content or even entertainment such as cable TV programming.

Currently, Clarity Matrix MultiTouch is deployed in Lowe Campbell Ewald's Detroit office. If the system is put in place in other offices, agency personnel and clients would be able to have the same experience, including the ability to simultaneously display different content on different video walls and also enable viewers in one location to see and interact with that same content remotely from their location.

More features matching displays to the application

Beyond its interactivity, the selection of Clarity Matrix MultiTouch owes to other features and capabilities as well. In particular, Clarity Matrix video walls feature commercial-grade, direct view LCD displays designed for 24x7 operation and have a backlight life of up to 50,000 hours. In addition, the video wall is engineered for installation on Planar's EasyAxis™ Mounting System. This system includes a six-cam adjustment mechanism that ensures perfect alignment between displays on Lowe Campbell Ewald's video walls, and enabled Bluewater to easily achieve a perfectly flat surface on each video wall, with a total mounted depth of about four inches. Also, to support maintenance and serviceability the EasyAxis Mounting System provides for the tilt-out and removal of a single display without the entire video wall having to be powered down and dismantled.

As Lowe Campbell Ewald places a premium on presentation quality, it demanded a video wall with exceptional visual performance. Clarity Matrix delivers this in a number of ways, including a tiled bezel width of 5.5 mm; native resolution (per display) of 1920 x 1080; 800-nit brightness; 3500:1 contrast ratio; and an ambient light sensing feature that increases or decreases the display brightness according to the lighting conditions in the room or space.

Not to be lost is Clarity Matrix's distributed, off-board electronics design. Planar engineered Clarity Matrix so that power supplies and electronics modules need not be contained within a display. Instead, they can be installed in a remote rack room where they can be easily monitored and serviced if necessary. An added benefit of this capability is that these heat-inducing components are removed from the display, reducing potential sources of heat-related problems or failures. Further, since the display runs cooler, it is more inviting to touch and the user avoids having to invest in additional cooling where the video wall is installed.

Lowe Campbell Ewald concludes that Planar's Clarity Matrix MultiTouch Video Wall System combines form and function that is unmatched. "This technology allows our agency to uniquely showcase its work to clients in an immersive and interactive way, says Mark Lesnau, Media Systems Engineer for Lowe Campbell Ewald.