Topic: The importance of having spares when purchasing / commissioning a DVLED video wall..
My wife is very particular. When we were planning for our wedding, she suggested that me and my groomsmen wear black suits. I said…
“Great! They’ve all got a black suit already. One less thing to worry about. Right?”
Wrong.
My wife explained to me that black is not black. She pointed out that if you have seven men stand next to each other in seven different black suits, then the shades of black will be noticeably different. Apparently, this would be bad for our wedding photos.
The point is – she was right. As usual. The difference of one shade of black next to another is very plain to see to even the most untrained eye. She had me. I had to make the call to my groomsmen, saying, “Sorry fellas, you’ve all got to go out and get new black suits.”
LED Panels & Batching
It’s the same with LEDs and batching. One batch will not be exactly the same as another in terms of color and calibration, so when taken together on a large video wall and compared directly with another wall made up of another batch of LEDs, there will be noticeable color differences between the two.
To address this problem, dvLED manufacturers will often provide spare modules from the same batch. This way, when a pixel goes out or a module is damaged or in need of repair, the spare can be swapped in to replace the damaged unit. If you select a solid manufacturer with U.S. service centers, they will usually repair your damaged unit and send it back to you under warranty. Once you have the repaired module back, it now becomes one of your spares.
Now, let’s say you didn’t select a manufacturer that offered spares or, perhaps, offered spares but no U.S. service. What happens when you need to replace a damaged unit? Well, best case scenario, you will be forced to purchase a new module from a different batch to replace the damaged one. The problem is that this new module could very easily stick out like a sore thumb and your brand-new video wall will forever be imperfect.
Worst case scenario, the module you are replacing was from a discontinued model and cannot be replaced. Now your video wall just became a really expensive paper weight! Try explaining that to your customer…
Exertis Almo Has Great Options
Luckily, there are handful of terrific dvLED manufacturers that offer batched spares and support based within the United States. As a matter of fact, some will actually repair and send back your damaged module within 10 business days, in most cases. The point is, you can rest easy knowing that you have a plan in the event of a module failure so your customer will never have to deal with a video wall that is out of commission.
Exertis Almo is the leader in dvLED distribution and we only partner with the best, most reputable brands, because we recognize that your success is our success, and we never want to see any of our customers in a position where they are unable to support a product they purchase from us. We have members of our staff that are dedicated to supporting individual dvLED brands, and they are here to provide you with concierge-level service to help you navigate this new and exciting product category.
So, what’s the moral of the story? Make sure you work with a vendor that offers ample spares and supports their product here in the U.S. to ensure that you and your customer are protected. And to the guys reading this – black is not black. Dress accordingly.
Contact Exertis Almo for product info, inventory availability, or to start a quote.
Coming Up Next…
Part 2: Cabinets and Modules and Panels, Oh My!!! Topic: The anatomy of a DVLED video wall
Part 3: Perfect Pitch Topic: The importance of selecting the right pixel pitch the first time
Part 4: The First Step in Installing a DVLED Video Wall is Admitting you Need Help Topic: Commissioning Assistance and why it’s important
Part 5: First Things First Topic: The importance of proper site prep and conducting a proper site survey
Are you struggling to gain customer attention and loyalty through your media investments and digital signage solutions? Every day, digital signage is a part of our lives. Whether you are viewing a menu board at your favorite restaurant, checking your flight status at an international airport, or even using social media, digital signage is all around us. So, how do we help our customers take logical steps to keep their business expanding?
Signage Options are Growing
More and more businesses are using digital signage for interactive solutions, forms of communication, wayfinding, and more. The possibilities are endless. When you are helping your customers choose a solution for their business, it is important to understand the many digital signage capability options, and what the industry has to offer.
Considerations for Helping Customers Choose the Right Solution
So, how do we help our customers understand solution options while advising them on a solution that will serve their long-term goals in a constantly changing industry? And even before we start a “technical” conversation, what questions do we ask to help guide our customers into a digital signage mindset?
The Visuals
Think about the advantages of being able to show pictures, being dynamic, getting the customer, employee, student, or retailer interested through graphics – it just makes sense.
Branding & Advertising
Not only does digital signage provide a solution for visually enhanced communication, but it can also bring in advertising revenue “It is not just a sign.” The signage becomes a strong advertising vehicle that can be updated with new content over time as messaging needs to change.
Target Markets
As technology has developed and display solutions evolve within the Pro AV market, there are multiple markets demanding it, such as schools, churches, retail stores, community banks, medical campuses, and more. Almost any target market can utilize signage. As Pro AV trusted advisors, it is our job to help qualify the customer and guide them to think outside of the box.
Environment | Interaction
What type of premises?
Are there waiting areas?
Do you know the regulations for outward-facing displays?
How far away will the audience or end customer be?
Should the signage only display content?
Do we want the customer to interact with the equipment?
The Technical Aspects
Are the premises equipped with a wireless network?
What type of equipment will be the most adapted to the needs? (Transactional terminal, kiosk, tablet, etc.)
Nature of the premises? (Leisure, HOW, EDU, health, shopping, business, work, etc.)
Content | Content Management
Do your clients have the resources to take care of content creation?
Can and will they manage their own content?
What resources are available?
Should or can the end customer interact with the content?
Exertis Almo is Here to Help You Help Your Customers
Depending on the answers to these questions, you will be able to offer your clients suitable solutions among the possible devices. Exertis Almo is the nation’s largest professional audiovisual distributor with forward-thinking product integration, training, managed services, and technical support providing customers the full distribution experience on a local and personal level. We have Business Development Managers to help you with digital signage solutions such as outdoor, dvLED, custom OLED, Conference Room Solutions, Commercial TVs, services, and more. We will help you open doors to new opportunities for your customers, with full solution sales, at a competitive price, with hands on assistance.
Contact Exertis Almo for product info, inventory availability, or to start a quote.
Did you know Samsung’s The WALL comes in a 2K or 4K Display?
Check out this interview by Gary Kayye, Director of THE rAVe Agency, featuring Samsung’s Senior Manager, Shari Sentolowitz discussing The WALL All-In-One Display.
Power on an awe-inspiring viewing experience with The WALL All-in-One! Simply choose your size and resolution, and you’re assured of a complete, easy-to-install, brilliant solution.
The Wall from Samsung is the epitome of innovation. It constantly delivers new avenues to create unparalleled visual statements. Redefining the LED paradigm once again, The Wall now solves the biggest challenge of industry, drastically improving installation. The Wall, let it transform your business. A deep black background blankets the screen with perfect uniformity, creating a seamless canvas for purer black levels with enhanced depth that delivers unparalleled contrast and immaculate detail. Colors leap to life with spectacular vibrancy to recreate scenes as if you were there in real life. Narrower wavelengths produce RGB colors two times purer and more accurate than conventional LEDs. Available in 3 sizes.
The global digital signage market size was estimated at around 23 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 7.7% from 2022 to 2030, with the largest market being North America. We’ve all seen digital signage in our daily lives and have come to expect it when we walk into a hotel, retail location, or even a corporate office. So, why are so many Pro AV integrators hesitant to make it a part of their business plan? Choices… too many of them. There are literally hundreds of CMS (Content Management System) providers currently on the market, and many integrators aren’t sure which one offers their client what they need.
Many CMS providers have attempted to make digital signage appear simple, and some have been relatively successful. The truth of it is, if it’s too simple, it probably lacks some necessary functionality. If not for your current client, most likely for the next one. Since digital signage is so varied, the software needed could never be simple while still addressing the needs of every client.
The Reason Why
So, why should a Pro AV integrator ever get involved in such a mired mess? I’ll give you a couple of reasons. First, if you’re not doing it, your competitor probably is. Second, the market is HUGE, and continues to grow at near double digits each year. Digital signage offers the unique ability to engage with your client on an annual basis, at a minimum, and develop a recurring revenue stream that builds profitability over time.
Digital signage was originally known as digital out of home advertising but is now used as a method of digital communication. It communicates ideas, data, dates, times, events, news, weather, inspiration, etc. My fingers would fall off before I can list the various uses, and there are people finding new ways every day. It’s here to stay, so you might as well jump on board. The first step is creating a strategy that doesn’t put a strain on your company, while still being able to offer everything needed for your sophisticated clients.
Step 1 – Find a Partner
Even though there are so many uses, and hundreds of software choices to help facilitate those uses, it all boils down to methods of communication. Just as there are many methods to create a beautiful painting, it still comes down to a brush, some pigment, and something to paint on. For signage, it’s content, a way to manage the content, and a display on which to play the content. As an integrator, you serve as a resource to the end user, but you don’t need to paint the picture for them – just set up the brush and canvas, and let the painters do their work.
Most projects are pretty straight forward, but for those that require a bit more, there are digital signage experts that spend their day knee-deep in the inner workings and are willing to provide assistance. The key to a successful strategy is finding a partner that has enough options to choose from, while still remaining knowledgeable in each option enough to guide you to provide the best solution for your client. These partners can be value added distributors, digital signage content creation firms, or even local digital signage integrators. This step is the key to developing a strategy, without having to hire a slew of experts internally. There are partners, like Exertis Almo, that offer a number of options, both in hardware and software, and can provide the resources needed to help with almost any digital signage project you run into. They also have some key partners that they work with to provide things not covered by the hardware or software.
Step 2 – The Committee
After securing a partner that provides resources and expertise needed, the next step is getting the key players from your client together. This is something that Pro AV integrators are extremely qualified for. Knowing your clients and developing relationships within that client is something nobody else can do for you.
The most important thing an integrator can do to ensure a successful project is get the correct people involved. Many projects are relegated to the IT department of an end user, but shouldn’t stop there. In order to be successful, we need to involve any person that will be involved with the digital signage. This should be a formal or informal committee that the end user has put together. This committee should consist of key people that will utilize the system in some way. I suggest including marketing, IT, facilities, HR, and the CEO or other officer responsible for saying “yes” to the project. You should also include the person responsible for the day to day management of the content, even if it’s a part time administrative assistant.
Having a digital signage partner doesn’t mean you’re done with the project. It just allows you to do what you do best and leave some of the technical aspects of signage to someone else. This eliminates a lot of the time suck that can be associated with signage.
Step 3 – Needs Analysis
This portion can be done via a video conference with your signage partner, or there are a few key questions you can ask your client to start the process.
No matter if you are passing the information over to a partner that will run with the rest of the project, or passing it on to an internal resource to finish out the project, there are 5 key questions you can ask to help provide direction. The great thing about these questions is they don’t require any in-depth knowledge of signage.
What is the overall objective of the digital signage?
Who will be responsible managing the content, and do they have technical skills? List everyone that will “touch” the system and indicate what responsibility they will have.
Will the digital signage be interactive or pull from a data source? Weather, news, PowerBI, database? If so, please provide details.
Do you have a preference for on-premise or a cloud solution?
Who is creating the content, and how will it be kept timely and relative?
After the needs analysis has been completed, your signage partner should be able to suggest a combination of hardware, software, and additional services that fit the needs of your client. These services can even include installation services, which can further aid in making sure you are able to service your client best, without any additional strain on your company.
Step 4 – Deployment
As a system integrator, this should be right in your wheelhouse. Because signage hardware includes an IT element, making sure you have the correct people involved is key. I suggest involving your signage partner in the planning and possibly in the actual deployment. The key to a successful deployment can sometimes hinge on having a resource for contingencies.
__________
To discuss the strategies above, or to hear more about how Exertis Almo can help you develop a customized strategy for your client, please contact me via email.
Good luck!
One thing that keeps me interested in my career is that our industry is ever-evolving as technologies are introduced and evolve over time. After 17 years of working in the world of Pro AV distribution, I never stop learning new things. Most recently, I was tasked with learning about dvLED to help support our sales team and customers on projects. While I still have a lot to learn, here are some key takeaways that I can share based on what I have learned thus far.
Pixel Pitch & Viewing Distance
The term pixel pitch was new to me, but it is one of the key factors to think about when designing a dvLED display project. Simply put, pixel pitch is the measurement, in mm, between the individual LEDs or pixels, measured from the center of one LED to the center of the LED adjacent to it. Naturally, as the pixel pitch value decreases, the resolution in a fixed size cabinet increases and allows for a closer optimal minimum viewing distance.
For this reason, it is important that you discuss with the client where the closest viewer will be in relation to the display so that you can choose a pixel pitch that is appropriate for the specific application, remembering that as pixel pitch decreases, the equipment cost increases. As a general rule of thumb that has been shared with me, you can multiply the pixel pitch by 10 to give you the approximate closest viewing distance in feet. For example, the recommended minimum viewing distance for a 2.5-pixel pitch wall would be 25 feet.
Resolution
If you are like me, then often when you think about display resolution for common applications it is typically 1080p (1920×1080), WUXGA (1920×1200), or 4K (3840×2160), understanding that there are many others, but these are most common. With flat panel displays and projectors, the image size can vary while the resolution remains constant. For example, a 4K display can be 55” in diagonal, 98” in diagonal, or several other sizes, but the resolution will always be 4K. With projection, a native WUXGA projector, whether displaying a 110” diagonal image, a 216” diagonal image, or any size for that matter, the resolution will always be 1920×1200.
This is not the case with dvLED, as the individual LEDs (or “pixels”) mounted on the surface of the module are a fixed size, so that when the size of a dvLED display changes, so does the resolution. To illustrate this, let’s look at a dvLED panel that is 16:9, 27.5” in diagonal with a pixel pitch of 1.58. The resolution of this panel is 384×216. If you require a 1920×1080 display, you will need 25 panels in a 5×5 array making a 137.5” diagonal display, while if you require a 4K 3840×2160 display, you will need 100 panels in a 10×10 array making a 275” diagonal display, requiring four times the real estate!
Structural Considerations
In many cases, dvLED displays will either be wall-mounted or flown, although sometimes they can be ground stacked with the appropriate stacking hardware. Depending upon the size of the display, they can get quite heavy. For example, a recent 165” diagonal display (6×6 array) I quoted weighed just shy of 500lbs, and a 275” display (10×10 array) weighed over 1300 lbs. It is absolutely crucial that the structure or wall on which you are mounting the dvLED or the structure from which you are rigging can support the load.
Additionally, in order for a successful installation, the dvLED cabinets need to be perfectly aligned along the x, y, and z axes so there are no visible seams between the individual panels that make up the display. Since most walls will have some imperfections and not be perfectly flat, you will be faced with either using shims or exploring mounting hardware that provides post-installation adjustment of all three axes.
Power and Data
Unlike a traditional flat panel or projector, the display does not have a single power cord with dvLED. Instead, depending upon the size and resolution of the display, multiple AC circuits are required. If we go back to the 165” 6×6 array I referenced earlier, this display required six dedicated 110v/10A outlets. In this case, each AC circuit is powering six panels with a main connection to the first, then daisy-chaining with power jumpers to the next five.
In addition to power, every dvLED display requires multiple data connections between the display and the dvLED controller/processor using data cabling, such as Cat6. The number of data runs will vary based on the overall resolution of the display, but you can expect that the manufacturer will advise you during the proposal stage on the required cabling and power requirements for the specific project.
I am seeing more and more projects come across my desk that involve dvLED, and there has been dramatic growth in overall product sales in the category over this last year. There is no reason to believe that these trends will not continue, and I look forward to continuing my education on the subject.
Over the past year, our daily lives have become increasingly focused on the health and safety of ourselves and those around us. With the importance of face coverings and frequent hand washing, it’s essential to clean a clean environment for each and every hotel guest and staff member. When soap and water are not readily available, the CDC encourages the use of hand sanitizer with at least 60 perfect alcohol upon entry of a public space. As a key measure in protecting yourself and others, frequent hand sanitation provides a safer public environment by keeping germs under control.
With Digital Signage Hand Sanitizing Units from RC Stars, the safety of guests and staff is a top priority. The auto-dispensers provide touchless sanitation while displaying customizable information and graphics, bringing convenience and cleanliness to any hotel space. With metal body housing, tempered protection glass, and water-resistant casing, Digital Hand Sanitizing Units from RC Stars provide top-of-the-line construction in a sleek exterior. Available in both freestanding and wall-mounted dispensers, the kiosks are equipped with Remote Management Software, delivering content updates to your web browser when sanitizer levels are running low.
Freestanding vs. Wall-Mounted Units
Ideal for high-traffic locations, the 21.5-inch freestanding model stands seamlessly in any space. The kiosk is maneuverable and can be reconfigured to assist with traffic slow and sanitation, providing lobbies guests with convenient access to hand sanitation.
Perfect for smaller areas, the 21.5-inch wall-mounted unit is an excellent choice for saving space. With a sleek, contemporary design and durable construction, this kiosk is a health-conscious addition to any wall.
The Best Places to Use Your Digital Signage Hand Sanitizing Unit
Lobbies
Digital Signage Hand Sanitizing Units from RC Stars are an excellent addition to any hotel lobby. With customizable text and images, the kiosk provides guests with hotel news and information while encouraging proper hand sanitation. Ideal for high traffic areas, the freestanding unit allows for frequent reconfiguration to assist with traffic flow, guaranteeing a simple and sanitary experience for guests upon entry. Take a further look into the freestanding unit here.
Fitness Centers
With zero-contact hand sanitation, hand sanitizing units are ideal for a health-conscious fitness center. Available in a freestanding unit for open areas or a wall-mounted unit for confined spaces, these kiosks are perfect for providing guests with important information while encouraging frequent hand sanitation. With customizable information and graphics, digital signage units are ideal for displaying your mask policy, instructions for sanitizing equipment, or simply requiring hand sanitation upon entry.
Elevator Hallways
With a variety of frequently touched surfaces, it’s important to ensure proper hand sanitation in elevator hallways. With space-saving construction, the wall-mounted digital signage unit delivers convenient, touchless hand sanitation. Equipped with Remote Management Software, each unit delivers content updates to your web browser when sanitizer levels are low, providing easy management of multiple kiosks.
With the RC Stars Digital Signage Hand Sanitizing Unit, creating a safe and healthy environment for hotel guests is simple and efficient. Whether the unit is installed in a lobby, fitness center, or elevator hallway, guests and staff members will enjoy the convenience of digital signage and hand sanitation in a compact, sleek kiosk.
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