Planar LED Video Wall Serves as Focal Point in Bank’s New, High-Tech Executive Boardroom

Founded in 1834 and headquartered in Harvard Square near the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge Savings Bank is a full-service banking institution with 17 branches located across Massachusetts. In 2019, the bank consolidated its back-office operations from three sites into a new operations center in Waltham, renovating a 76,000-square-foot building to create office space with amenities, abundant natural light and an open design.

The operations center also includes a large executive boardroom with a 28-foot-long conference table. When the boardroom was being designed, Dan Fraine, Cambridge Savings Bank senior vice president of facilities, said the vision was to create a modern, high-tech space fitted with the latest in audio equipment and video wall technology. “The driving force behind our search for a video wall was to incorporate something large enough, and with high enough quality, to offer clear viewing from any distance in the room,” Fraine said.

As the bank’s team investigated options, bezel size became a concern, said Daniel Martell, Cambridge Savings Bank first vice president of facilities. “For displaying graphics or spreadsheets, bezels can interrupt the data on the screen,” he said. “We wanted to minimize that.”

InfoComm informs choice of direct view LED

To advise on a solution, the bank’s facilities team began a consultation with audio visual integrator and technology solutions provider Adtech Systems and Senior Account Executive and Systems Designer Jim Ares, who invited Dan Fraine to meet him in at the InfoComm tradeshow to look at display technologies.

“InfoComm provides a unique opportunity to evaluate different solutions and compare resolutions to really understand what you would be getting with projection, a four-panel video wall or fine pitch LED,” Ares said.
At InfoComm, the investigation soon began to focus on direct view LED and the difference between varying pixel pitches. “We took a deep dive into understanding how close or far away people would be sitting from the video wall, as well as what kind of content would be shown,” Ares said. “Is it Excel spreadsheets? PowerPoint? Video? How good does it need to look? The experience of standing in front of each option and understanding what was going to be displayed helped the client to become fully engaged in the technology and make the best decision, weighing different costs based on clarity.”

Ultimately, Fraine and the bank team selected LED display technology from Planar, leading to the installation of a nearly 10-foot-long, 6-foot-high Planar® TVF Series LED video wall with a 1.5mm pixel pitch (TVF1.5) in a 5x5 configuration—the focal point of a boardroom technology package that includes video conferencing, camera voice tracking system, retractable table microphones and wireless presentation capability.

The Planar TVF Series LED video wall gives the bank’s operational teams a tool for video conferencing, presentations and supporting large-scale meetings, according to Martell. “The quality is great. Whether you’re in the closest or the farthest seat at the table, the image is seamless and clear,” he said. “It makes quite the impression on people who walk into the room.”