Artistic/Mosaic Video Walls – RPT Motion Inc. Digital Sign Mounts

Tale of Two Screens

Monitor based video walls and Direct View LED Video walls both have their places but do not yet directly compete with each other. It’s important to understand some of the key differences between these two display approaches.

NEC Display Systems, one of the few manufacturers that offer deep choices for both technologies, had impressive examples of both types of video walls on display at their recent NEC NYC 2018 Showcase.

RPT’s DigitalSignMount.com business specializes in challenging and non-conventional mounting of video walls, modular and portable in most cases and often without a wall to mount on. We try to follow trends that might affect our growth and to become aware of new business sectors we can provide modular video wall mounts for and for those changes that might obsolete or require new thinking in our expertise.

Except for some trade show modular displays of Direct View LED systems for importers and resellers, our video wall mounts are usually for simple and artistic arrays of narrow bezel video wall monitors from 22”- 65”, but we are expanding into creative modular mounting systems for Direct View LED.

RPT 98″ Pop Up Portable Video Wall with 2 x 2 Array of 49″ Monitors with 1.8mm bezels:

Two Hypothetical Walls:

For this discussion we’ll build two hypothetical top quality 110” Video Walls for discussion. We’ll ignore video wall controllers and mounts for this discussion; those choices should be part of the planning only after you’ve chosen the appropriate display technology for your application needs and budget.

Direct View LED:

This discussion is based primarily on indoor video walls, so for Direct View LED wall we will choose the NEC F Series in the finest available pitch (1.26mm). Conveniently the F Series are a 16:9 aspect ratio and when arrayed matches well in size to NEC 55” Monitors. The 1.26mm pitch is the finest in the NEC Direct View LED line, and in the standard 608mm x 342mm module there are 480 pixels wide x 270 pixels high.

Sixteen panels of NEC LED-F012i, in a landscape array 4 modules wide x 4 modules high, assemble into a nominal 110” diagonal Video Wall with resolution of 1920 x 1080 ( Full HD). In Oct 2018 we searched online for best pricing and the best price we found was $ 6,829.99 per panel, for a cost of $ 109,279.84 for 16 panels only.

Monitor Based Video Wall

For equal size comparison we have chosen the NEC UN551VS Ultra Narrow Bezel (0.9mm) 1080P Video wall monitor. Four of these monitors form a 110” diagonal Video wall with pixel pitch of 0.63mm and total resolution of 3840 x 2160 (Full 4k). Typical pricing at this writing is <$4,500 per monitor, total approximately $18,000.00 for monitors only.

Cost per resolution comparison

On an equal surface area, panels only basis, the Monitor based video wall is 1/6^th the cost for 4x the displayable resolution. Stated in another way a single pixel of Direct view is about 24 times more expensive than a single pixel on a 55” monitor. These costs will move closer with time, but are unlikely to become anywhere near equal in the near future.

Viewing distance differences

The use case where most people currently find Direct View LED video walls is large physical format walls where the viewing distance is long so that pixel pitch can be larger without affecting the visual image. In these applications the significantly higher pixel density of Monitors adds no improvement in visual quality because the human eye can’t resolve the extra resolution and all that extra resolution is essentially wasted. One significant benefit of the NEC F series Direct view video walls is the ability to choose from a variety of pixel spacing on the same mechanical framework.

There are many viewing distance calculators available online, for this discussion we have used one from Starico. They calculate a factor called Visual Acuity Distance which they define as:

“The Ideal Viewing Distance based on Visual Acuity: This distance is calculated based on the reference resolving power of the eyes. The human eye with 20/20 vision can detect or resolve details as small as 1/60th of a degree of arc. This distance represents the point beyond which some details in the picture are no longer able to be resolved, so pixels begin to blend together. Closer to the screen than this may result in the need for higher resolution display.”

The calculated Visual acuity distances for our hypothetical video walls:

110” 1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution Direct View LED Video Wall calculates at 14.3 feet.
110” 3840 x 2160 (4K) resolution Monitor Based Video Wall calculates at 7.2 feet

Depending on use, video walls are often quite close to the customer, and at those distances the Monitor based video wall enables a much cleaner visual without visible (to viewer) pixels at closer viewing distances. Even a 110” video wall at the rear of a storefront window display is generally too close for good visual image quality even using the finest resolution Direct View LED Video Wall modules, but if the budget permits, a high mounted storefront video wall designed to be viewed from further way inside a retail mall benefits from the lack of bezel gaps, higher brightness and better reliability that Direct View LED offers.

Other differences and considerations:

Direct View LED can have very high refresh rates, much higher number of displayable colors and higher contrast ratios and often higher maximum brightness.

Direct View LED panels have longer life and when well installed less maintenance will be required over the lifetime of a video wall. Failed modules can be replaced in small sections while Monitor based video walls will require replacing an entire monitor.

Monitor based video wall monitors with ultra thin bezels are fragile units that must be carefully handled and mounted to avoid inter screen contact and especially edge and corner impacts which will destroy the screen. In portable or rental applications, we recommend 3.5 mm A-A monitors for reliability at the expense of larger bezel intrusion into the image.

Summary:

Direct View LED Video Walls will grow in the number of applications and installations as pixel pitches get finer and costs drop more significantly. To properly justify the higher cost of Direct View LED will require a complete understanding of the applications they are being proposed into and the benefits that derive from Direct View LED. In a small but growing subset of video walls, Direct View LEDs make perfect technical sense. Monitor based video walls won’t compete where they can’t meet technical advantages of Direct View LED.

Monitor based Video Walls will continue to dominate the Video Wall market. The significantly higher resolution and lower cost per pixel or area of screen, plus the ability to view high quality visuals (albeit with small bezel gaps) from closer distances will continue to make monitors the best choice in most retail and commercial installations. In this hypothetical example, you could potentially deploy six monitor based 110” video walls for the display cost of a single 110” Direct View LED wall.

Often Direct View LED are chosen for portability reasons. The simplicity, accuracy and rigidity of the modules and connection systems are an excellent advantage for large portable video walls that need to be hung or ground stacked. RPT Motion has great reliable systems for portable arrays of Monitor based video walls perfect for events and trade shows at significantly lower capital cost. Please contact us for more information:

RPT Ultimate Desktop Array Mount

This is a preliminary post, the first public showing of RPT’s Ultimate Desktop Array Mounting System will be at the NEC New York Showcase October 24, 2018.

RPT wanted ultimate monitors for the Ultimate Desktop Array, so we partnered with NEC who have an expanding range of superb desktop monitors from 22″-27″ that have ultra thin bezels and the convenience of real digital signage features that are perfect for small arrays like Control Link.

NEC builds superb monitors of all sizes. Great monitors deserve perfect alignment, especially desktops where the user will spend many hours per day up close and personal with large amounts of data or images on multiple displays.

The perfect mount provides full six axis (X, Y, Z, Tilt, Pan, Roll) adjustment for each monitor allowing the monitor to accurately float in 3D space a few thousandths of an inch from each adjacent monitor. Angled desktop arrays bring geometric challenges that make perfect alignment an incredible challenge, a test that most mounts fail.

This sneak peek unpolished hand held cell-phone picture is from our prototype assembly shop demo area with six NEC EA271F-BK 27″ Monitors display controlled by Userful’s Software Video Wall Controller. The total resolution of this array is 5760 x 2160.

At the NEC New York Showcase this same layout was on display with six of the higher native resolution NEC EA271Q-BK Monitors for a stunning desktop array resolution of 7680 x 2880.

Here’s a link to a Rave Publications video clip from the NEC NYC Showcase about the EA271Q in this array.

Small Monitor Artistic Video Walls

NEC Booth at InfoComm2018 Las Vegas

Artistic video wall of 13 small monitors using some superb NEC Desktop Monitors.

Mounted on RPT MotionInc. DigitalSignMount.com QVWM-UA6 6 Axis VESA 100 Mounts.

Arrays of large monitors get unimaginably huge quickly. Video walls don’t have to be huge monitors. Artistic arrays of small monitors can fill even a large wall quickly and with good content will make a significant visual impact. Perfect for corporate reception areas, retail stores, clubs, restaurants.

NEC wanted to showcase these possibilities for their smaller monitors at InfoComm2018 and came to us for the best mounting solution on the market.

In just 2.6″ of thickness, using CNC machined billet aluminum and creative precision design we pack:

Drop on monitor interface (VESA 75, 100,150,200 options) with locking full 360 degree roll adjustment
2.0 “(+/- 1.0”) Horizontal Micro adjustment
2.0 “(+/- 1.0”) Vertical Micro adjustment
3 Point planar micro adjustments for tilt, pan and depth to allow perfect array plane without stressing the monitor frame

Our DigitalSignMount.com business is based on our 37+ years of high precision Industrial automation equipment, so it’s natural that our mount looks completely different than any other mount. We built a set of specifications and did a clean sheet design without looking at how “they” were doing it. In reality, “they” aren’t doing what we’re doing for small monitors.

Installers of small monitor video walls, rectangular array or artistic face a lot of challenges and time trying to align monitors. Most give up or run out of washers and shims long before getting close to perfection.

Because our mounts are an engineered and precisely manufactured product we have a unique method of precision engineered installation support for artistic video walls.

We’ll take your sketches, pictures and choice of monitors and build a 3D model for approval and render it against a wall of the design size. Here’s a 15 monitor example using wonderful NEC EX241BN Ultra thin bezel monitors. The blue frame is a 16:9 aspect ratio which gives an idea of how much of a typical 4K content will display on the monitors. This is the time for adjustments in layout, angles, design, etc.

Once the array design is finalized, RPT generates a CAD model of the drilling pattern to place the mounts on the wall. We add any known important dimensions, like wall width, center lines of the array, monitor outlines, etc. We plot that on a large format printer, 100% full sized. The precision mounting template is taped to the mounting wall and carefully leveled at the desired height and placed horizontally as desired. Drill four pilot holes on the marks for each QVWM-UA6 mount and you’re ready to attach the mounts. The monitor outlines also let you decide where to drill pass-thru holes for cables and if bezels are unequal which side the fat bezel is on. Mount the mounts with 4 screws each and you’re ready to drop on monitors one after the other and align the array perfectly at the design rotation.

For more on the QVWM-UA6 Mount see: http://digitalsignmount.com/2017/09/26/qvwm-ua6-mount-ultra-aligned-arrays/

If you’re interested in an Artistic video wall from small monitors, get us involved early and let us help you take your design from concept to perfectly presented reality.

Fields of View

The digital signage industry is significantly about delivering dynamic content on monitors to generate customer engagement. Too often we fail to consider how we might better locate and focus displays to increase the chances of those displays being visible enough to quickly catch the eye of that customer we want to engage.

Placement and aiming of monitors in retail or other public spaces is a complex subject that could fuel neurological behavioral doctoral dissertations, but a basic understanding of a few parameters might significantly improve your monitor’s chances of being seen well enough to grab the viewer’s attention.

A walking pedestrian is actually a very poor target for digital signage, because we’re programmed with a self protecting nature that focuses while walking on identifying potential obstacles in a narrow forward band from O degrees( level) to approximately 10 degrees downward. As a result, unless we start embedding monitors in floors, it’s most likely that your monitor will first be seen in the peripheral vision of the target audience.

When an object enters the peripheral vision of a walking person we don’t actually think about it, rather it is quickly processed in our subconscious process and evaluated as to importance before we might turn our conscious focus towards it. First priority is danger then interest. It seems entirely logical that a monitor better aimed at the target will probably stand a much higher chance of interrupting the walk, while a monitor aimed poorly will generally just be ignored.

The better the aiming of the monitor at the eyes of the viewer, the more likely the message will be processed as relevant enough to grab the conscious attention of the viewer, ideally even stopping their walk and lifting their eyes.

The harsh reality of most public environments is that monitors must often be mounted in less than perfect locations, above the heads of walkers, or on the sides of typical walking patterns or attached to walls facing on perpendicular or parallel planes to your potential customer’s Field of View.

Stacked monitors starting near floor level and if possible aimed outward from the wall and towards the target are possibly better at getting attention than a single horizontal row of monitors at eye level or above heads.

Many have come to understand that Artistic or Mosaic arrays will also grab more attention. Perhaps some of the subtle magic of an artistic or mosaic array is that their irregular shape can’t simply be processed to be subconsciously ignored as just another rectangular screen.

Here’s a great example video worth watching from Userful of an Artistic Video Wall that’s really impossible to ignore.

Walking towards this complexly creative video wall from either direction will engage a downward looking view because the stacks of monitors rises from close to the floor, plus the 3 high portrait stacks are angled towards the viewer rather than being flat on the wall. The back sides of each zig-zag stack forms a second video wall that engages the reverse traffic with different content. This video wall is a real stop and stare opportunity that grabs attention.

A flexible mounting system is important, but most commercial monitor mounts have evolved slowly from the early era of mounting single monitors flat on a wall. Mounts that can quickly and rigidly mount digital signage monitors at different precisely designed angles aimed at a target are not common. If enough monitors are being mounted, sometimes a custom engineered and fabricated mount is a good option, but that’s likely expensive and long delivery.

Mounting monitors using precision modular assemblies is one of RPT Motion’s specialties. We have extended our proven modular Quick VESA industrial monitor mounting system to include modules that allow freely adjustable or fixed by design options for combinations of pan, tilt and roll angles for an installation may require something different for best visibility. RPT can now offer these options in quickly custom engineered mounts with precise angles that allow much better optimization of where your monitor is aimed.

RPT’s Quick VESA Targeted Focus or QVTF range of products is modular, allowing RPT to quickly propose, quote, build and deliver from one to thousands of ready to install mounts precision built to the best angles for your installation. The QVTF range is especially capable when working with small to medium (24-42”) monitors with VESA 100×100 thru VESA 200×200 mounting patterns. We also have excellent options for larger monitors, so we can offer you angled and multi-sided solutions targeted at all monitor sizes and layouts.

Here’s a standard very simple straight RPT Double sided wall mount which puts the aim of the monitor parallel to the walls and walking path. The “arm” can extend the monitors as far as you wish away from the wall, but they still don’t really ever face most viewers walking towards them.

In the same setting here’s another type of double sided RPT Wall Mount with the monitors angled. The angled monitor faces more easily engage directly with more eyes. These monitors protrude less from the wall, but are more visible.

Our point today is that to maximize your investment you should go beyond generic catalog mounting and properly explore the best options for mounting and aiming your monitors. RPT Motion’s DigitalSignMount.com group has a comprehensive range of monitor mounting engineered modules and 25+ years of quickly building precision modular assemblies with t-slotted extrusions. We combine those assets into custom built for your application monitor mounting systems for just one or thousands of monitors. Mount it properly and it will generate better interest and better returns.

Send us a note about how you want to mount your monitors. We’ll quickly offer you reliable, proven options that are quickly and cost effectively custom tailored to your monitors and location.

QVWM-UA6 Mount Ultra Aligned Arrays

Update: InfoComm18 June 2018 Las Vegas:

NEC Display Solutions will have a thirteen monitor Artistic smaller monitor video with four E221N (22″), four E241N (24″), four E271N (27″) plus one EX241UN (24″) monitors all mounted in three sub-groups on RPT QVWM-UA6 mounts and powered powered by Userful’s Software video wall controller. Small monitors maybe, but even arrays of small monitors get big quickly, this wall is twelve feet wide.

NEC Display Solutions builds the best possible quality product, they will have nothing less than the best possible RPT mounting system to present their superb monitors.

What do badly aligned arrays say about your brand’s attention to detail and quality?

The DigitalSignMount.com group at RPT are a highly critical bunch when it comes to Digital Monitor mounting. We have spent 36+ years designing, machining and assembling precision assemblies accurate to tiny tolerances for all types of ultra precision industries.

We bristle and cringe when we see misaligned expensive arrays in high end locations, and frankly we see very few that we give the thumbs up to. Don’t just blame the installers, especially on arrays of smaller monitors, there have been no outstanding mounting systems for those arrays, so they take time, patience, a stack of washers and rarely end up perfectly aligned, even after many hours of tinkering and tweaking.

Most of our own RPT Motion precision mounts are three axes of adjustment, but we have the extra benefit of having our own exceptionally accurate frames to build on with those mounts when they are freestanding or overlays.

Our experience is that a quality monitor out of the box is truly a high precision part, but that inherent flatness and accuracy degrades a bit every time you handle or mount the monitor. Small corrections and twisting alignment tweaks carefully applied by brave and skilled installers generate good but rarely perfect results by re-bending the frame of the monitor slightly.

Until today, there were simply no solid, accurate and fully adjustable (Six Axes) mounts for arrays of 24-39″ monitors.

Today RPT changed that as we proudly released our QVWM -UA6 from development to production.

A few words on RPT nomenclature,

QV is for Quick VESA which is a series of engineered modules serving VESA 75 x 75 thru VESA 200 x 200.

WM is for Wall Mount (many of our mounts are free-standing structures without a wall)

UA6 is for Ultimate Alignment 6 Axes

For the adjustability it offers, the thickness from Wall Surface to VESA Mounting Surface is a very slim 2-5/8″ at the mid range of the planar adjustments. Plus it’s small enough to hide behind a typical 24″ monitor rolled to any artistic angle.

The six axes the QVWM-UA6 mount can adjust are:

X or Horizontal Axis MicroAdjustment
Y or Vertical Axis MicroAdjustment
Roll Axis with full 360 degree monitor rotation with lock and drop-on monitor system
Z Axis front to back MicroAdjustment
Tilt (Top to Bottom) MicroAdjustment
Pan (Side to Side) MicroAdjustment

Here’s an image of an intentional misalignment on one of our testing rigs to demonstrate the range of the tilt adjustment using 24″ NEC EX-241UN Ultra Thin Bezel Monitors:

Here’s the aligned flat and level result a minute later:

RPT has pioneered the use of a 360 degree roll axis with rotation lock for mounting both Artistic arrays and rectangular arrays. We find it a faster and more effective way to get perfect final adjustments than the more common roll adjust by differential heights on each side. Plus, because our roll axis provides 360 degrees of rotation the exact same mount works for artistic, rectangular, and mixed portrait-landscape arrays. We’ve built our roll axis and rotation lock right onto the drop on monitor adapter.

Here’s the wall mount portion of the final prototype version in RPT’s testing area showing the other five axes of adjustment:

The X and Y axes are precision machined aluminum screw driven micro-adjustable linear slides. The central hex head drive is the Y Axis adjuster, the black hand knob on the right adjusts the X axis position.

The X-Y slide system is mounted on RPT’s three point planar adjustment system. In this case, the pan is adjusted pointing quite far left of center. The three point wall mounting with hex head plane micro adjusters allows pan, tilt and Z axis micro-adjustments while making it impossible to stress or twist the monitor frame.

If you’re installing arrays of smaller monitors, either rectangular or Artistic/Mosaic please contact us to discuss how we can make that installation fully adjustable the final results can be as perfectly aligned as your brand.

If you’ve got a monitor model and layout sketch (even Pencil sketch), when you purchase RPT QVWM-UA6 mounts RPT will generate a CAD drawing showing the mount centers dimensions so your installer can quickly mark the monitor centers on your wall and use our mounting template to locate and drill the mounting holes.

In-Line Array Ideas

We’re tossing some array ideas out to get you thinking outside of a rectangular box.

Sometimes video walls are simpler, single dimensional in-line arrays.

Here’s a nine monitor alternating landscape portrait array.

Here’s the same nine monitors slanted 20 degrees which adds interest:

RPT manufactures a line of modules that form ultra simple precision mounting for in-line smaller monitor arrays like this.

We use an industry standard precision t-slotted aluminum extrusion as a horizontal bar of any desired length up to 20 feet in a single bar.

Then we add one RPT drop-on receiver, and one RPT 360 Degree Rotating Drop On VESA 100 x 100 Adapter per monitor. If no monitor rotation is required we can use the even simpler RPT FM VESA mounts which we developed for Industrial Shop Floor Monitors. The receiver positions adjust as required along the length of the extrusion and simple angle brackets slide along the slots to bolt into supports as required.

Linear arrays don’t always need a wall, they might be bar mounted across reasonable distance open spaces or hung on a post off a wall and those arrays can be double sided. Here’s a view down the middle of a wall mounted sign post showing the simplicity of our RPT FM-VESA Mounts. Each monitor adapter connects to the extruded bar with a single bolt and alignment precision is machined into the parts.

A wall mounted signpost structure that can be expanded with more monitors.

Ends of aisle, or along walls:

Because our mounting systems are modular, RPT Motion Inc. can quickly design and deliver a single monitor or array of monitors mounting system configured to your needs.

Tell us what you need, we’ll get back to you quickly with a custom proposal delivered quickly with standard RPT Modules.

Mounts for Mosaic Video Wall of Smaller Monitors

Example 9 Monitor Mosaic Video Wall layout

Eye grabbing Artistic or Mosaic Video walls are often built with smaller 24-32″ monitors. Smaller monitors are especially interesting where wall space is limited, the viewer will be relatively close to the video wall, or perhaps higher overall resolutions are desired. Common examples would be a wall behind a reception desk in a corporate entry, or a shallow retail storefront window.

The pixel density per square inch is higher with an array of small monitors than with larger monitors. The nine monitor layout above, designed with NEC’s exceptional EX241-UN 24″ Ultra Thin Bezel 1080P Monitor is 58.5″ High and 83.5″ wide at the points and has 18.6 Million individually displayable pixels. For reference it takes up the wall space of an approximately 102″ diagonal single monitor, which if 4K resolution would display only 8.3 million pixels.

Displaying high resolution content on multiple displays is no longer a challenging software or hardware problem. Video Wall Controllers, like Userful’s Software Video Wall Controller, simplify the display and content management of a wide variety of high resolution source content output to multi-monitor arrays of rectangular, or rotated and randomly placed monitors. Userful can output full resolution 8K video which has over 33 million displayable pixels and even higher resolutions for static images like fashion photos.

Typically 24″ ultra thin bezel monitors like the NEC EX241-UN or the the Viewsonic VP2468 will have a VESA 100mm x 100mm mount. Smaller VESA wall mounts were designed for mounting single monitors at the lowest possible cost, they have minimal or no adjust-ability and are therefore very poor choices for mounting arrays, especially artistic or mosaic arrays where rotation is required. If you don’t have the required adjust-ability in the mounting your array will rely on a lot of installer skill and a lot of time to properly align, if it’s even possible to get a good alignment.

With the introduction of RPT Motions’ QVWM-DM3 wall mount, mounting and aligning complex arrays of small monitors is no longer an obstacle.

RPT Motion Inc. identifies the key adjust-ability requirements for mounting rectangular or artistic arrays as:

X axis (horizontal) Micro Adjustable
Y Axis (vertical) Micro Adustable
Rotation Axis adjustable through 360 degrees and lockable
Drop on- Lift off monitor interface
As thin as possible to minimize projection from wall

With a mount that allows these adjustments, you can simply locate the design center of your monitors on the wall, secure the mounts to the the wall within about half an inch of the design locations, drop the monitors on in sequence, “float and rotate” the monitors into perfect alignment finishing with a small even gap between bezels in a minute or less. Once aligned, the monitors lift off and replace with precision.

Adjustments to monitor plane (Tilt, Pan and Z axis) are less critical for small 24″ monitors than giant 60″ monitors. A precision built mount on a flat wall can usually provide very good to excellent array flatness without the complexity and physical size of those adjustments.

When mounting small monitors in arrays, what we at RPT Motion call the wall-print or the face view X-Y size of the mount is critical as it must be small enough to hide behind a small monitor rotated to any angle the array designers decide upon.

RPT has released their QVWM-DM3 Mount that’s perfect for arrays, simple or complex, rectangular or artistic of small monitors.

Here’s that same layout of NEC EX241-UN 24″ monitors as above, with the central monitor hidden so you can see the small wall-print of the ultra compact RPT QVWM-DM3 mount:

For 36+ years, RPT Motion has built high precision industrial automation components and systems for manufacturing and aerospace industries. We hold CNC machined tolerances of < 0.001″ every day, and we design tightly integrated mechanisms using state of the art CAD/CAM.

The basis of the RPT QVWM-DM3 is a precision CNC machined aluminum ultra compact micro-adjustable X-Y translator that provides an easy to mount stable wall plate with 2.00″ (+/- 1.0″) of X via hand knob and 2.00″ (+/- 1.0″) of Y via 7/16″ hex micro-adjustment and an integrated receiver slide for the drop on system.

The QVWM-DM3 monitor interface provides an integrated handle for easy lift off, full 360 degree rotation with locking, and can be delivered with 75 x 75 or 100 x 100 VESA Mounting patterns. Other sizes (100 x 200, 150 x 150, etc.) are possible, and an upcoming big brother will handle VESA 200 x 200. The precision drop on slide engages easily and repeats location very precisely.

Here’s how the drop-on works:

The QVWM-DM3 is very thin for a mount with these features and this much adjust-ability, just 2.5″ from wall surface to VESA mount surface:

And here’s a rear view of that 9 monitor array using QVWM-DM3 mounts.

The capabilities, rigidity, adjust-ability and precision of the RPT QVWM-DM3 mount are unique in our industry and finally make quick accurate mounting of complex arrays of small monitors simple.

Please contact us for more information:

Mount Basics

How much adjustment is enough?

We at RPT just can’t walk past a video wall without looking at and most likely critiquing the installation and alignment. Most video walls are not well aligned and we wonder why. Recently, at InfoComm 2017, the AV industry showcase convention, I walked the floor and estimate that fully 75% of the video walls could have been improved significantly with proper alignment and 25% of them were just plain awful. Our own industry should be showing perfectly aligned video walls, if not something is wrong with either the mounts or the installers.

Let’s face it; mounts are usually the final afterthought in any video wall project, the last thing to worry about and buy before slapping those expensive monitors onto the wall. Mounts are simple, aren’t they?

If mounts are so simple, then why are there so many badly aligned video walls? Perhaps installers aren’t as skilled as they should be? The wall was more crooked than we expected? We ran out of time, money or both?

A poorly aligned, badly installed video wall is a poor reflection on your brand and your attention to detail, so you should understand how to avoid installation problems. It begins with understanding what a mount needs to do and buying a mount that can be adjusted in your application.

RPT has researched monitor mounting and developed our own mounts where we couldn’t find acceptable alternatives in the industry. We’ve proven, in our testing, that quality Monitors are very accurate and a rigid precision assembled structure can deliver acceptable alignment without any adjustments. In the real world, walls aren’t precision structures, and installers don’t have the tools to measure and mount to less than a hundredth of an inch. SO adjustment will always be required.

There are six axes of possible monitor adjustment:

Lateral (X axis)
Height (Y Axis)
Tilt (Top to bottom relative to wall)
Pan (Side to side relative to wall)
Roll (Rotation about center of Face, clockwise or counterclockwise)
Depth (Z Axis)

Mounts you choose may offer all of these axes of adjustment, or only a few. Some axes may be achieved by combination, example Roll is most commonly adjusted by differential adjustable heights left and right and that works well. Buy onyly what you need, but choose too little adjustability and even the best installer won’t be able to deliver a perfectly aligned video wall.

The Minimum number of adjustable axes to easily achieve good alignment really depends on the flatness of your mounting surface, the skill of your installer and the time allowed to align the array.

Three axis Mounting

A well built flat wall can align an array with three axes: X, Y and Roll only. The bezel to bezel spaces can be near perfect but the planar alignment may not be 100% perfect if the array face is viewed from the side at a steep angle.

RPT’s MVW-GHB L3 Modular Portable video walls are precision assemblies. We build them with RPT GHB 3 axis precision machined mounts of our own design with excellent results. Our customers move these video walls many times per year, and set-up and alignment must be fast and accurate each time. One big advantage is that we don’t need or use a wall; we mount onto a precision modular free-standing structure that assembles flatter than most walls,

Six Axis Mounting

A badly out of true wall will generally need all six axes of adjustment and if the mount chosen has the range of adjustments, and the installer is well equipped, skilled and allowed enough time, the array can be adjusted absolutely flat and perfectly aligned. A badly aligned array with excellent mounts is the installer’s fault.

RPT’s MVW ConnexSys L6+ single or double sided freestanding video wall structures are a great six axis example. We integrate them with the Chief ConnexSys mount that provides wide range full six axis stress free adjustment system with a pull-out for installation and service.

Pull out or drop on?

Monitors should be easily loaded onto the mount. Small monitors drop on easily to some mounts. Large arrays of large monitors should have a pull-out feature to allow center monitors to be removed and replaced without removing a bunch of other monitors. Pull outs also allow easier connections after that heavy monitor is supported. There’s more engineering with pull-outs. You must confirm that the mounting wall’s structure can safely accommodate the overhung loads of your monitor’s weight pulled out to the maximum the mount allows, and one shouldn’t presume that only one monitor at a time will be pulled out at a time. You’ll need to manage a strategy for releasing the monitors or ensuring that they can’t be released by just anyone.

Stress-Free

Hard for me to believe and I won’t name names, but some big name six axis pull-out mounts for large monitors can be adjusted in combinations that twist and stress the frame of that expensive thin bezel monitor. Thin bezel monitors are expensive, and fragile. At RPT we insist that mounts never impart extra stress to the monitor no matter how they are adjusted.

Arrays of small monitors

Small monitors (VESA 100×100 and 200×200) present special challenges because there are few fully adjustable options for those smaller monitors. As a result, RPT has developed the RPT Wall Mount 3 Axis Artistic Drop on that handles rectangular and artistic layouts of small and medium monitors. We will soon release a full six axis version of the same mount, making perfect alignment of small monitor arrays easy.

Goals

Arrays of monitors should have tiny spaces between bezels. Commonly described as the thickness of a business card, approximately 0.025 Inches or 0.6mm is perfect. Not all monitor bezels are perfectly straight, so we set the design gap at 0.040 or 1 mm and ensure that there is a small gap everywhere along each edge. Gaps are essential to ensure that the weight whole stack of monitors isn’t pushing down on the top edge of the bottom monitor. A business car should slide down the gap without binding. Easy to adjust mounts make that perfect gap easy to set while harder to adjust mounts get the “good enough” in frustration and the result rarely is good enough.

Arrays should present as flat a face as possible. If the array is set back some distance and only viewed from relatively narrow front angles, this is far less important than other adjustments. If a person can walk past parallel to the face of the array, planar misalignment becomes much more obvious and just looks sloppy.

Summary

The cost differential between great mounts with enough adjustment and terrible mounts that can’t be aligned is a tiny fraction of what your video wall will cost. Don’t blame your installer if you choose the wrong mounts and they can’t install a perfect video wall, usually for cost reasons, and the results are less than optimal. On the other hand some installers don’t have the skills or attention to detail even with the best available mounts.

If you want more information on RPT Video Wall Mounting Systems or wish to discuss challenging video wall installations please contact us.

Single Monitor Video Walls

When we hear “Video Wall”, we usually think many big monitors and lots of money to spend. It doesn’t cost a huge amount of money to try digital signage or video walls. If you’ve got or can create content that can pass messages to your customers and drive some sales improvement a small investment can pay back quickly even in very simple implementations. A simple web page of daily or weekly specials isn’t that hard to generate as a start.

Video Walls can start as simple as one small monitor each, and expand to as many locations as you need. Most facilities with successful digital signage grow to many digital signs, each either single monitors or arrays of monitors.

It’s good practice to plan early for success and required future growth, because you don’t want to lock into hard to expand or manage structures for video wall hardware and software from the beginning.

Here’s a simple start: a standard RPT Motion simple rugged signpost mount, designed for wall mounting of one, two or more monitors back to back. Commonly used on ends of aisles or along sides of aisles to highlight and inform.

We’ll use an hypothetical small grocery store as an example, and start with a simple, attractive, rugged and affordable RPT Digital Signpost Mount with two 24″-39″ 1080P monitors of your choice, one on each side in either portrait or landscape. Place it somewhere with traffic, just above a tall head walking past.

There are many ways to drive two monitors at low cost. Example One would be a low end signage player, a Mini Windows 10 PC like an Intel NUC which can drive two monitors, connects to the Internet via WiFi. To keep it low cost, you can then use a free content management system like Rise Vision to prepare, schedule and manage what’s being displayed when and where. There is usually a fan and perhaps other moving parts if you use a hardrive instead of an SSD.

Additionally, there will be inevitable Windows updates and other PC management of the NUC Player, but really not a big deal as you’ve only got one tiny simple PC to add to your thinking. Any updates or maintenance will require a keyboard and a mouse to work, so you’ll need a ladder to connect and update as required.

Windows base players just can’t deal with separate screens, so to stay cheap you’d have to be a bit creative and accept some inconvenience with Rise Vision or other content managers to set up the back to back screens as one Windows desktop and then build your presentations accordingly. Probably just easier to bite the bullet and manage with one Intel NUC player per screen, they’re really not that expensive, just double the number of NUCs and power supplies and put one on each monitor.

The above solution works, is quick, simple, low cost, relatively reliable and also short sighted. It’s hard to manage and hard to grow.

Very few locations have just one aisle or location calling for digital signage, so now let’s deal with the future scenario of ten double sided end of aisle units highlighting specials in each aisle.

Now, you’ve got twenty monitors requiring a different content source for each, in effect twenty small single monitor video walls.

Suddenly you’ve got twenty mini PC’s with power supplies and fans to manage and maintain, hanging up in the air accessing your WiFi with twenty passwords that need changing if you change your router WiFi password. No WiFi connection, no content.

Twenty is a realistic number of screens for a small to medium grocery store with active marketing plans and content, a larger store could eventually swallow a hundred screens with each screen adding sales opportunities every minute of every day. A chain of stores, local, regional or national could have thousand of screens to manage.

You need a simple, reliable and fully scalable solution with a low cost of entry. The good news is that it’s ready for you.

Here’s an affordable reliable starting strategy with unlimited growth potential:

If your content is basically static images or web pages, a single low end Userful Software Video Wall Server, based on standard PC hardware that can cost less than an Intel NUC costs, and can easily feed content to nine 1080P screens via a single Gigabit Ethernet Switch. Two standard Gigabit Ethernet ports wired to each signpost is easy to do, not expensive, easy to manage and very reliable compared to WiFi.

Probably better to spend just a little more and start with the mid-range Userful Software Video Wall Server for better performance, growth potential to forty 1080P monitors and 4K input cards, guarantees the ability to smoothly add more input sources, and smooth video wherever needed for more active and creative promotions.

The Userful Video Wall Server can be located anywhere on the network in your building, so it can be securely locked in an office. The almost unlimited content sources and configurations can be managed by the browser based Userful UCC from any PC, tablet or smartphone on the network, so when those avocados on sale in aisle 7 sell out, it’s easy for the produce manager to bring up the next special sale for aisle 7. Userful’s API allows much more complex scheduling and control, if needed.

Each monitor would have a “no moving parts, and no maintenance” Zero Net Client, which is included in the cost of the USerful license, mounted to the rear of the monitor, drawing just a few watts of power from a monitor USB port or via POE. The Userful Server uses the Zero Client to decode from Ethernet to full 1080P HDMI at the monitor.

You can use your choice of Content Management systems or devise many local only or web strategies to schedule and manage your content and sources, including HDMi inputs if you want to distribute broadcast TV to some signs.

In the future, you might decide to add a few multi-monitor video walls around your store, and that’s no problem because Userful can handle up to 100 monitors per Userful Software Video Wall Server. Just install the monitors, connect Ethernet and add licenses.

Start small, but be smart early and success will come easier and at much lower cost.

Think ahead and plan for success by building unlimited video wall potential with RPT’s Video Wall mounting systems and Userful’s Software Video Wall Server from your first screen.

Contact us by this form to talk about one or many RPT Digital Signpost systems with Userful Server starter package that fits your needs now and can grow with you.

RPT Artistic Video Wall Mounts

Artistic Video Wall layout example:

Video walls are evolving to be much more than a giant rectangular wall mounted screen. Artistic or Mosaic video walls draw more attention and are simpler than ever to implement and control. A great article on artistic video layout by Userful: https://www.userful.com/blog/integrate-digital-displays-into-your-space-balance-aesthetics-and-functionality

A key player in enabling artistic video walls is Userful. Userful’s Software Video Wall Server can drive up to 100 monitors from one PC hardware based appliance, and easily allows unlimited design freedom. Layouts with mixed monitor sizes and orientations (portrait and landscape) as well as complete freedom of rotation are simple to set up. Monitors positioning can be edge to edge, or purposely designed with layout gaps or overlays of any size in any direction. Static images, video and any digital input or content can be output to any layout of up to 100 monitors in one or many video walls.

Artistic video walls are often built with smaller (24″-40″) monitors, and monitor manufacturers have responded with ranges of smaller high quality narrow bezel monitors, often with close color matching and many other digital signage features. Two great small 1080P monitors for video walls are the NEC EX241UN and the Viewsonic VP2468.

The Viewsonic VP2468 is even available in a two-monitor pack without desk stand or extra parts, so it’s clearly been tagged for the multi-monitor market of video walls. The ultra thin bezels and high quality color matching monitor to monitor are other great features.

I’ll make no secret that my favorite small video wall monitor is the NEC EX241UN . It’s marketed as a high quality desktop 24″ monitor but it’s available in a wall mount pack that skips the desktop base. NEC delivered serious digital signage control option, including a super simple daisy chain for monitor adjustments, Serial and Ethernet control options and the ability to daisy chain up to 25 monitors rectangular grid layout. Of course daisy chained arrays lose resolution as they can only expand the input resolution of the display port. Connected to Userful, every pixel is addressable and full resolution 8k video can be presented.

See RPT’s CDS 8K Cart for more on large high resolution 8K video.

Monitors are easy, and Userful makes configuration and presentation of high resolution content easy, so that leaves properly mounting and wiring an artistic video wall as the major remaining challenge.

Monitor mounts, in their most common form, are generally designed to hold monitors straight and level. While some manufacturers have introduced add-ons allowing rotation, most of the solutions for artistic rotations of smaller monitors are in one way or another quite compromised.

RPT Motion has 36+ years of experience delivering precision mechanical motion sub-systems to industrial applications including flight simulation and other manufacturing. We have our own CNC machine shop using state of the art CAD/CAM and manufacturing. We build modular video wall structures, mostly free-standing and portable. We specialize in modular, quick assembly systems. It was natural that we decided to build a system of precision monitor mounts perfect for both rectangular and artistic video walls.

The key features we included are:

Compact enough to hide behind rotated 24″ monitors
Adjustable in horizontal and vertical axes
360 degree monitor rotation with rotation lock at final adjustment
Lift off and replace the monitor without losing any adjustments
Thin to minimize projection from wall
Solid, precise and reliable for 24″-40″ monitors with VESA 75 x 75, 100 x 100, 100 x 200, up to 200 x 200 as well as custom.

We’ll admit that it probably doesn’t look like any other mount on the market. It can’t look like any other mount because there’s no other mount that does all those things, period.

RPT started with a clean sheet of digital and distilled it down to include every required function and feature.

RPT QVT-WD100 Artistic Video Wall Mount

How the monitor adapter drops on:

Precision CNC machined from Aviation quality aluminum.
Four 1/4″ mounting holes to wall with large surface to spread load.
Thin 2.500″ depth wall surface to Monitor VESA pattern surface
2.5″ Horizontal adjustment via a simple slide and lock based on t-slotted extrusion.
2.5″ Vertical adjustment via a screw driven micro-adjustment
360 degree Rotation axis and rotation lock is nested into the drop-on slide and VESA interface
VESA 75×75, 100×100, and 200×200 versions available, all at same depth
The t-slotted horizontal slide is field re-configured in a few minutes using simple hand tools for left or right extension to allow best mount hide at any desired angle of rotation.

This unique combination of features allow you to design, quickly mount and perfectly align any simple or complex array of small and medium sized monitors that you can conceive.

Send RPT Motion Inc. your array ideas, either CAD layout or even a pencil sketch including monitor models, spacing or screen center locations and rotation angles and we will quote you with a mount rendering of the best RPT QVT-WD series mounts and locations.

When you purchase the RPT’s QVT-WD mounts, we’ll pre-configure them into the proper combination of left and right and send you a dimensioned CAD layout of monitor center points to use with our drilling template for super quick installation. Then mount the adapters and quickly adjust your video wall.

If you’re considering insatlling an artistic video wall, I’d be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to go deeper into some of the reasons we’re so enamored with Userful, which we consider to be the best video wall controller on the market. It happens to be a software video wall controller, so it evolves and advances continuously.

Once your RPT QVT-WD mounts are on the wall and the array is adjusted and aligned, pull off all the monitors. No fear you won’t lose any adjustment.

Userful uses a small Zero-Net Client for each monitor and they can be powered from a USB port, wall transformer or POE. You can mount the Zero Clients to the back of the monitors and connect to the monitor USB port and a short HDMI cable for 1080p video. Then as you drop each monitor back in place you need only connect an AC power cord and an Ethernet cable.

Userful’s Software Video Wall Server can be easily configured via Userful’s UCC app, via a browser connection the UCC allows you to define one or many simple, complex, or complex artistic video walls quickly. Userful features include alignment patterns to perfect adjust the image and compensate for bezels and distances between monitors. Userful allows you to easily define as many input sources as you need to display, and simply drag and drop the configured video wall icon onto the source you wish to view.

Finally, here’s a rear view of that first layout mounted with RPT’s QVT-WD Double mounts, 18 monitors mounted on nine mounts with full adjustment for each monitor and lift off and drop on monitors:

Please contact RPT for more information on RPT’s Artistic Video Wall Mounts or Userful

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