Clarity Matrix Video Wall is Key Marketing and Selling Tool

Being recognized as the nation's premier builder of luxury homes – a designation Toll Brothers has earned repeatedly – acknowledges many things about the company, including the unique manner in which it markets its properties to its target customers. This is particularly evident in New York City, where Toll Brothers City Living is marketing its newest condominiums at Brooklyn Bridge Park using video wall technology from Planar in its Brooklyn sales gallery.

"A condominium at Brooklyn Bridge Park comes with floor-to-ceiling windows that offer a one-of-a-kind view of the park, the East River and the Manhattan skyline. The Planar video wall gives us the ability to present this view in the presales setting," says Todd Dumaresq, Toll Brothers City Living Marketing Manager. "It could not be done more dramatically or effectively in any other way, and as far as we know, no other developer is using digital video wall technology in the manner that we are. It truly is a unique tool that has allowed us to market very successfully in a business environment that is among the most demanding and competitive in the country."

Clarity Matrix video wall supports key business objectives

The Planar video wall concept for the Brooklyn Bridge Park project came from Communications Engineering Management (CEM), the Paramus, New Jersey-based systems engineering company. After reviewing various options, CEM chose Planar's Clarity™ Matrix LCD Video Wall System, and recommended a design using 32 Clarity Matrix MX46HD LCD displays, installed in a four-wide-by-eight-high (4 x 8) orientation. The design accommodates time-lapse video (in 4K resolution) that portrays the view from a condominium window as the owner would see it at any season of the year and any time of day.

"We could see that Clarity Matrix would digitally create the breathtaking view a condominium provides, and deliver the wow factor that Toll Brothers City Living was looking for," says Eric Olsen, Managing Partner,) of CEM. "Clarity Matrix is the best solution for this application because of its image quality and the fact that it avoids shadows you get with projection systems, and ambient-light washouts that are common with other LCD video walls. So it really supports the customer's business objectives."

Mounting system speeds and simplifies installation

The Clarity Matrix video wall in the Toll Brothers' sales gallery is installed on a wall replicating that which a potential buyer sees in an actual condominium. The installation began in the late summer of 2013 and was completed in the fall. CEM's Eric Olsen says the installation went smoothly, in part due to the use of Planar's EasyAxis™ Mounting System. This is an installation solution unique in the industry and one designed to speed and simplify the mounting of small video walls and large ones such as Toll Brothers City Living. EasyAxis is a cam-based mounting system that allows for very precise alignment of video wall panels in relation to each other. The system takes advantage of the ultra-thin bezel of the MX46HD, allowing panels to be positioned within 5.5mm of each other, creating a virtually seamless electronic canvass.

CEM's Olsen likes the EasyAxis Mounting System for other reasons as well. "The frame mounts very quickly to virtually any surface, and also provides space behind the wall through which we easily can run cabling to a remote rack room. A video wall of this size can be installed by two people in about half the time it would take with other mounting systems. That makes our jobs easier and supports our cost, time and profit objectives. It also made Toll Brothers happy since we could have their video wall up and operational quickly so they could begin using their new sales center quickly."

Clarity Matrix design delivers benefits to the integrator

The design of Clarity Matrix, including the EasyAxis Mounting System, allows a video wall to be mounted very close to a wall (total depth less than four inches) which, in Toll Brothers' case, meant it would integrate very well with the architecture of the model condominium in the sales center. "Because it doesn't protrude into the space, it looks like a real window instead of a typical flat-screen TV array," says Dumaresq. "That makes quite an impact on the potential buyer because it gives the feeling of looking out a real window as they would see it in their condominium."

Further, Clarity Matrix and the EasyAxis Mounting System allow for the remote location of a number of elements of the system including power supplies and various controllers. This design keeps heat-generating elements away from the video wall – which reduces the likelihood of heat-related problems – and also keeps maintenance and other costs down. "If a particular panel needs attention for any reason, we can troubleshoot the problem in the rack room, which is much easier and less intrusive; and if a panel needs servicing, we can access it without having to power down the entire video wall," CEM's Olsen adds.