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.

Multi Deployment Portable Video Wall Systems

Introduction:

RPT Motion ( www.DigitalSignMount.com) designs and builds two related portable Video Wall systems:

RPT Modular Portable Video Wall System: For larger video walls (up to 5 high usually) and specific use cases like trade or road shows. These systems are custom Modular Custom built portable free-standing video wall structures designed to support larger arrays in a single or a variety of configurations. Building block modules connect quickly via precision machined quick connectors. Individual modules are small enough to be hand mounted by one or two people to quickly form a rigid ground supported precisely spaced system of RPT GHB drop on monitor mounts.

RPT PopUp Portable Modular Video Wall System: A system of rolling Monitor Stack modules that deploys 2 or 3 monitors high. Monitor Stacks connect horizontally with precision machined structural spacers building arrays as many monitors wide as required. RPT PopUp Modular Video Wall Systems are designed with RPT GHB drop on monitor mounts for fastest simplest deployments almost anywhere. This system is ideal for rental use where flexibility and speed of deployment adds significant value.

RPT’s GHB Mount is common to both of these systems. The GHB mount was developed for portable applications and is a precision machined 3 axis adjustable modular mount that allows quick drop on of monitors to an exactly repeatable position as last adjusted. The GHB mounting system maintains the planarity of the monitor faces and the three axes of micro-adjustability allows quick and precise non-contact bezel alignment and the use of monitor manufacturer corner connection keys.

White Paper:

Multi-Deployment Options for Modular Portable Video Wall Systems

Wall mounted video walls are now relatively common and are becoming more affordable. Larger arrays are becoming more popular as video wall controllers evolve making them easier to configure and simpler to deploy and manage content.

Direct View LED panels and Thin Bezel LCD monitors each have their respective places and uses in the marketplace. Each technology brings a set of limitations, control and mounting complications and costs to potential uses. One key differentiator is that any requirement for the audience to be physically close to the video wall favors the use of high resolution LCD monitors.

This paper concerns portable video walls based on arrays of ultra thin bezel monitors, typically 49” or 55” 1080P video wall monitors.

Video walls return investment by enhancing image or by improving event and meeting results by displaying informative presentations with content and resolution that is difficult or impossible to present well on a single monitor or projector based system.

Video walls usually rely on delivering an audience to the video wall and are mounted permanently in high traffic area. Portable video walls can remove that constraint, letting you take the video wall on the road, allowing you to deliver the content to potential customers at events, trade shows, training or product launches.

Video walls are a significant investment, whether rented or owned, and they become more expensive when they need to be portable. Portable video walls must to bring their own wall structure to the deployment, be free-standing and modular for quick precise assembly. To maximize use portable video wall systems need to be able to be moved quickly and deployed into multiple configurations and locations. The simpler and more reliable a portable video wall deployment, the lower the overall cost of operating it becomes and the more places it will find good uses.

This document explores the use of a very complete and flexible RPT Modular Video Wall System combined with RPT PopUp Modular Video Wall System with using a single pool of Ultra Thin Bezel LCD monitors to serve multiple use cases within a single corporate environment or rental operation.

Example Monitor Pool: 25 x Ultra Thin Bezel 49” or 55”

Use Case One (Largest Deployment): 5X5 for Event or Theater Use

Use summary: Performance or presentation stage backdrop to replace front projection display.

Frequency: 4-6 Times per year for 2-14 days per event.

Mounting Structure: RPT Modular Video Wall: 5 high x 5 wide Landscape ground supported freestanding for 49” 3.5mm bezel to bezel monitors.

Video Wall Controller: Userful Software Video Wall Controller with ThinGlobal Minipoint DS POE Zero Clients mounted on structure. Userful allows maximum flexibility to quickly configure large video walls for a wide range of inputs and content in any layout desired on the 5×5 array. The HDMI over IP basis of Userful allows small POE Zero Clients to be mounted on the modular structure so that any monitor can drop onto any mount without re-configuring the video wall array.

Mounts: RPT GHB-L3 provide secure drop on and easy adjustment of monitor alignment.. The GHB-L3 mounts were designed for portable video wall use. The GHB-L3 mounts maintain planarity of video wall arrays and have 3 axes of micro-adjustment to quickly align bezel to bezel spacing. The mounting system is slightly asymmetrical to allow the ease use of corner key alignment plates common on video wall monitors.

Layout: Fully modular, six legs with leveling feet, two layers. Bottom layer is 3 monitors high based on 3” x 6” structural t-slotted aluminum. Top layer is 2 monitors high based on 3” x 3” structural T-slotted aluminum. Longest module is less than 90 inches long and heaviest module is less than 75 lbs for easy assembly by two workers without heavy lifting equipment.

Flexible Deployment options: This RPT Modular Video Wall structure will allow the video wall to be quickly deployed as either 3 or 5 high and user choice of 2, 3, 4 or 5 wide.

Expansion: One video wall five monitors high will be the vertical limit, but additional columns wide can be added at any time in the future, subject to continued same monitor model availability.

Storage of frame and mounts: RPT Modular frame and RPT GHB Asymmetrical mounts will be disassembled and stored on wheeled storage carts. RPT, as much as possible, will present modules on storage carts in normal assembly order with allowance for less than full deployments if possible.

RPT Modular Portable Video Wall Full 5×5 Frame assembled:

RPT Modular Portable Video Wall 5×5 with Monitors:

Note: Height of bottom monitors is a design variable and can be higher. Front feet will typically be covered with a modular carpeted step.

Use CaseTwo:

Multi-wall multi-facility Deployment for varied uses of smaller video walls

Use summary: When not deployed in Event or Theater mode: Some, most or perhaps all of the 25 monitors will be deployed into smaller arrays in one or more rooms or perhaps different facilities.

Typical deployments will be freestanding 2 x2 and 3 x 3 video walls. The mounts for this use case will be RPT PopUp Portable Video Wall System. We will suggest a mix of 2 High RPT PopUp Monitor Stacks and several RPT PopUp Stacks with the 3 High fold up option. This allows easy expansion should a location require a larger deployment (more walls, bigger walls, or both) for any specific event or purpose.

RPT PopUp Portable Video Wall deployment options:

The RPT PopUp Portable Video wall system uses the same RPT GHB monitor mounting system interface. This reduces overall cost and allows easy exchange of monitors between the RPT Modular 5×5 Video wall and the RPT PopUp video walls. Any monitor in the system can drop onto any mount in the system.

For simplicity of content and set-up, these smaller Multi Purpose Video Wall deployments may or may not have a Userful controller. The controller may have local PC with enough HDMI outputs, or be a controller-less 2×2 or 3×3 daisy-chained tile mode from 4K monitor input.

Here’s a 2 x 2 RPT PopUp Portable video wall, front and rear view for typical trade-show or against the wall use. For corporate or event use we usually propose optional rear covers and doors.

Usually one monitor stack per deployable video wall will have a RPT Modular Rack for the power distribution and video player or controller for each 2×2 or 3×3 RPT PopUp video wall.

The RPT PopUp Stacks are wheeled and flexible. The optional third level deployment is via a fold-up top layer shown folded down in picture below, so they can be deployed 2 or 3 high.

This back folding option keeps the rolling height under normal office and truck door levels and allows rolling onto passenger elevators. The stacks without monitors can roll and deploy almost anywhere in any of your facilities.

Basic Two high stacks can have the third level retrofit at any time, making it easy to start small and expand over time.

Flexibility of deployment:

RPT PopUp Monitor Stacks quickly connect horizontally with precision machined structural bars, and multiple arrays of like or different deployed height can be connected. This allows the great flexibility of deployment almost anywhere,

RPT PopUp Monitor Stacks can be deployed as wide as you have monitor stacks and connectors. Mixed height arrays are easy, so 2 high and 3 high stacks can move and deploy easily and be connected into much larger video walls.

Here’s an example of a 17 monitor array connected from two 2×2 RPT PopUp Video walls flanking a 3×3 RPT PopUp Video Wall. In this deployment case with this hypothetical 25 monitor pool, there would still be eight monitors free allowing two more 2×2 arrays available for deployment at the same event or elsewhere in the company.

Monitor Road Cases:

Monitors must be removed to clear doors when the video wall is moved room to room. For monitor safety during transport or for storage road cases are required.

Some number of Monitor road cases will be required to reasonably protect and transport the monitors from Theatre Use deployment to Multi-Purpose deployments. If required, the transport of monitors and mounts will generally be accomplished by private truck with ramp, lift gate or loading dock level load and unload. Any monitors moving location to location will require road cases and also road cases for any monitors not deployed for safe storage between deployments.

The monitors may not need to be all loaded into road cases at any one time, but more road cases mean fewer trips to harvest and re-deploy monitors between uses. The Calzone-RPT road cases we supply are specially designed for monitors with the RPT GHB interface bracket attached and each holds two monitors.

For a 25 Monitor pool, presuming local deployments for mixed use cases like this system we’d suggest at least seven double monitor road cases to store or transport up to 14 monitors. This limits a complete re-distribution of all monitors to maximum of two loads and assumes that at least 11 monitors must remain deployed on structures at all times.

Summary:

Portable video walls expand your opportunities to present your message to more audiences at more events than a fixed video wall installation. Flexibility and ease of deployment will increase the opportunities.

RPT Motion supplies portable video wall systems with precision modular mounting technology that allows fast reasonable cost deployment. The ease of deployment will result in higher utilization of the significant investment that portable video walls represent.

A system like the comprehensive 25 monitor one outlined here is a very significant investment. It is important to remember that the modularity of the RPT systems will protect your investment by allowing expansion. Acquisition of this comprehensive 25 monitor system could be staged over a period of time by a series of fully functional sub-set acquisitions. A single 2×2 RPT PopUp Portable Video Wall can immediately bring a new dimension to your presentations and events and become the first part of a much larger future system.

Request more information or ask us for a copy of this white paper in pdf format.

RPT PopUp Video Wall Integration

From naked RPT PopUp Monitor Stacks ready to integrate into your own PopUp Portable Video Wall, to custom fully integrated systems, RPT has got you covered. We know what is required and available to help you ensure that your RPT PopUp Portable Video Wall system is a reliable success in the shortest possible timeline.

We don’t sell monitors with our RPT PopUp mounting systems, because that would just add to the final cost of a portable video wall. Instead, we qualify and approve several high quality Video Wall monitors in both 49″ and 55″ sizes and build standard quick delivery systems to use with those monitors. We can likely build custom dimension RPT PopUp Stacks to accommodate customer needs or existing fleets of monitors in rental programs that want to add RPT PopUp video walls to their offering. In today’s competitive market, you’re frankly better off buying monitors on our list from the best priced dealer or re-seller in your area or on the Internet.

Monitor Road Cases are a must for any Portable Video Wall, even one that stays in the same facility for its entire working life. We don’t sell Monitor Road Cases, but we have a monitor case partner, Calzone Case Co. who build reasonably priced, very high quality custom road cases that store, protect and safely ship two monitors per case. We work with Calzone Case Co. to ensure that the approved monitor with RPT GHB mount interface attached fits perfectly. RPT supplies a part number for the case and then you deal directly with Calzone Case Co. or you can choose to get your own cases built at your own effort, time and risk.

The RPT PopUp Portable Modular Video Wall System is purposely designed to allow very flexible customer integration. We’ve done a lot of integration and the results are available for our customers. RPT can provide a lot of advice and components to simplify integration of the perfect PopUp Portable Modular Video Wall system for your own choices of hardware. We’ve solved most of the problems you or your local integrator will face. If you’d rather, and are willing to work with the hardware the RPT knows will work, RPT can build and deliver custom fully integrated RPT PopUp Portable Video Wall systems.

Modular means flexible. We can offer many optional features like rear door panels to fully enclose and hide the wiring and mounts while still allowing easy access for adjustment. Because our system is based on structural t-slotted aluminum extrusions, we have tremendous flexibility to add things that you may need.

Unless you’re doing the simplest tiling of a single input 4K image onto a single zone 2 x 2 or 3 x 3 video wall, you will need to choose a suitable multi output media player, or a PC that can handle as many monitors as you want, or a hardware video wall controller, or a software video wall controller like Userful or MonitorsAnywhere. Each solution has specific benefits and costs, as well as limitations. But in any of these solutions, being portable means you’ll need to enclose and transport electronics and wiring.

We prefer having a RPT PopUp Video Wall system with a master stack that has the Video Wall Controller and network infrastructure on-board and connected. The basic video wall controller infrastructure rolls in with one of the stacks.

RPT is a fan of Zero-Client based Video Walls. Zero Clients are basically HDMI over Ethernet decoders. The same exact Zero-Clients and network infrastructure can handle MonitorsAnywhere’s PC based Network Video Wall or Userful’s Software Video Wall Controller. Userful has huge capacity for monitors, inputs, content and complex layouts including artistic layouts and Cloud based management. MonitorsAnywhere basically turns your video wall array into a giant Windows monitor, so anything you can display on your Windows PC can display on your video wall.

Here’s an example of an integration option: RPT PopUp 19″ Rack (4U) that can be added to the rolling base of any standard RPT PopUp Video Wall stack at the rear.

There is a latching rear door and a latched down top cover to protect wiring once your system is deployed. We use industrial grade wire mesh on all other sides for airflow. We can easily customize the height (rack depth) and the types of panels or mesh as needed.

A small PopUp Stack detail that we include standard: You’ll note that just on the other side of the rack is a wire bin that’s built onto every RPT PopUp Stack. It’s an open top enclosed place to drop the extra wire you’re sure to have when quickly setting up RPT PopUp video walls.

This rack has a small format (not rack mount) PC based Userful Server held in place with an RPT CPU Clamp and there’s also a 19″ rack mount POE (Power Over Ethernet) Gigabit Switch. The T-Slotted construction makes it easy to add tie-down points for cables with a low cost quarter turn wire tie mount.

With the top cover off below, the black cables are power cables to the Userful CPU and to the Network POE Switch from the left side mounted surge suppressed power strip, the Blue cables on the right are Ethernet cables to this stack’s two ThinGlobal Minipoint DS POE Zero Clients, and the red cable is to our in-house network. Note at the bottom left are the only two external connections required to this stack: Power and if needed for content a wired Network.

Userful is immensely powerful and can handle up to 100 Monitors per high-end Userful Server. RPT PopUp Video Walls can connect as many stacks wide as you own monitors. If you needed a really large array, we’d simply add a second RPT Rack onto an adjoining PopUp Stack to your system to house a Rackmount 4U high-powered Userful Server and of course a much more powerful POE switch with enough POE Ports ad power plus a 10 Gigabit Ethernet to link the few feet between them.

Even with low monitor count Zero-Client based video walls, you’ll probably want to mount a power strip on each RPT PopUp Monitor Stack to supply power to up to four monitors. Then between stacks you need only run an Ethernet cable to each Zero Client on the other PopUp stacks to the POE Switch connected to the Userful Server or Monitors Anywhere Windows PC.

On large arrays, you will likely place the Server Equipped PopUp Stack somewhere in the middle of the array and cable the network outwards towards both sides. The latching door makes it easy to reach the Userful Server power switch or make a connection even when the top cover is latched down to cover the wiring.

Please contact us with any questions you have, we’re happy to be on your RPT PopUp Portable Video Wall integration team.

RPT PopUp Portable Video Wall Stacks

RPT PopUp Stacks are the building blocks of the RPT PopUp Portable Modular Video Wall System. Each RPT PopUp Stack is a precision mount for a column of two, three or four 49″ or 55″ Ultra Thin Bezel Video Wall monitors in landscape orientation.

An introductory YouTube video on this system:

Here’s the PopUp Stack family picture for the RPT PopUp Portable Modular Video Wall System. Each model shown folded and in the stages of deployment: Folded (if it’s a foldable version), Two High, and Three High. Not shown is the RPT PopTopUltra, an optional quick connect fourth row of monitors, which can be selectively added to RPT PopTopMax and RPT PopTop three high stacks if you need to deploy huge arrays.

RPT PopUp Stacks, without monitors, are designed to roll through standard office doors, onto passenger elevators, and for local deliveries into trucks or trailers, or for Common Carrier LTL freight into the smallest possible road-cases.

RPT PopUp Stacks connect horizontally with precision machined quick connect spacers. In a few minutes these precision spacers form RPT PopUp Stacks into a precisely spaced, rigid and precision aligned structural array of RPT GHB series 3-axis micro-adjustable mounts ready to drop monitors onto.

RPT PopUp Starter System:

RPT PopUp Portable Modular Video Walls protect your initial investment by offering an upgrade and retrofit path to build larger arrays, so there’s nothing to lose by choosing a small starter system.

RPT PopUp Portable Video Wall basic starter system, a 2 x 2 array, front and rear deployed views. This level is the starting point for small business local rental offerings as well as for corporate or commercial uses where a video wall that can quickly move to a different location within a facility or a different facility is valuable.

Extending the RPT PopUp Video Wall System:

By adding as many additional stacks as you need, any rectangular array of 2, 3 or 4 monitors high can be quickly deployed. Larger arrays require a proper Video Wall Controller. RPT can add optional custom mounted ThinGlobal POE ZeroClients and with an HDMI over Ethernet video wall controller like Userful’s Software Video Wall Controller or MonitorsAnywhere Network Video Wall it becomes very simple to reconfigure one or multiple video walls and display contents from one or multiple inputs to quickly display complex content on the array. For speed and connection convenience, RPT has options for including a small rack mounted Power Distribution and Gigabit POE Network Switch options on some of your stacks.

Here is an example of a 2 high x 4 wide array, assembled from two RPT PopUp starter systems plus one extra set of precision connector bars.

RPT

RPT PopUp Portable Video Wall Multi-Height Arrays:

PopUp Stacks in an RPT PopUp Video Wall have the same bottom row height, but don’t need top be deployed at the same top height. Here’s a simple multi-height deployment assembled from a single three high stack added to a 2 x 2 starter array:

Here’s a PopTop 3×3 Portable Video Wall

Thinking outside the box a bit, owning a 3 x 3 system with 9 monitors, adding a single extra RPT PopUp Stack to your RPT PopUp Video Wall System allows you to deploy two 2 x 2 Arrays in the same or different locations. Or deploy a single 2 high x 4 wide array, plus as many other combinations of 4 single or joined stacks as you have monitors for. That kind of deployment flexibility maximizes flexibility of uses, as well as customer options and deployments in rental businesses, significantly increasing use and payback or income.

The RPT PopUp Portable Modular Video Wall System allows you to quickly deploy small 2 x 2 to truly monster video walls quickly, accurately and reliably. To protect your investment you can start with a small system small and upgrade or expand capabilities incrementally as your needs or markets grow.

Single facility, corporate road show circuit, or small to large rental programs: just let us how big your array should be and how you would imagine using a freestanding portable video wall and we’ll propose a system that meets your needs today and expands to your future needs. Contact RPT Motion for more information on the RPT PopUp Portable Modular Video Wall System:

Tiling Video Wall Monitors

Tiling: Can or should you lose the Video Wall Controller?

The picture above is a 2 x 2 deployment of the RPT PopUp Portable Modular Video Wall System. This modular, expandable and extensible system allows users to safely dismantle, transport and redeploy small to very large video walls quickly, safely and accurately. The modules wheel through standard office doors and using passenger elevators. The 2 x 2 Entry level system above, in a corporate facility or local rental environment, might be a great application that avoids the cost and complexity of a video wall controller and gives users a simple single port input. Any bigger and you probably want the capabilities and expense of a Software Video Wall Controller.

In the chart above, the left column is a 4K resolution array of 2 x 2 landscape array of 1080P monitors (1920 wide x 1080 high). The third column, a 4 x 4 array of 1080P monitors is 8K displayable resolution which has 4 times as many addressable pixels as a 4K resolution.

You can also compare square footage of an array screen. Given same monitor size, a 3 x 3 array has resolution and screen area 225% of the 2 x 2. A 3 x 3 array of 49″ monitors is over 7 feet high (plus clearance from the floor) and over 10 feet wide.

Resolution Confusion

I recently had a conversation with a video wall customer that highlighted significant confusion some users can feel when implementing a video wall. His high resolution content was the simplest possible: a single 4K full screen feed of 4K movie playing from a dedicated PC in a loop for a museum environment on a 2 x 2 array of large monitors.

Were they better off buying 4K monitors or 1080P monitors? What was the simplest and most cost effective video output from the PC to the array? The question of signage monitor tiling came up, and the customer had been confused by prior misinformation. Once they understood the issues at hand, they chose an array of 1080P monitors able to tile 4K input.

What made this application possible without a video wall controller is the simplest possible full screen single input content, and a perfect match between the 4K input resolution and the 4K array resolution.

Typical Video Walls:

Typically Video Wall Arrays are built with 1080P monitors connected to a PC video card with multiple outputs, to a hardware video wall controller, or to a software HDMI over Ethernet video wall controller like Userful or MonitorsAnywhere. The bigger the array, the more wires and configuration options are available. There are excellent reasons to use Userful, Monitors Anywhere, or other video wall controllers, but tiling might be a good choice if your content is simple, your array small and you understand the limitations.

Content is important in your decision:

Sometimes we can avoid the complexities and cost of a Video Wall controller or use of a multi-output video card and the related complexity and cost. Before we evaluate and choose the best option, we first need to understand the limits of the content we will display and also the limits of the controller options we might choose.

Tiling: Input Resolution and Output resolution

Most serious digital signage monitors offer tiling options with single input and a daisy chained array of monitors. Earlier models have generally produced less than satisfactory results because they expand the 1080P (1920 x 1080) input signal to as many monitors as you have in your array. You can manufacture or simulate resolution missing from your input.

Each monitor is assigned an array location at set-up and displays only the proper assigned section of the 1080P signal for that assigned location. A 5 x 5 tiled array of monitors will display each pixel in the 1080p signal at a 5 pixel x 5 pixel “clump” of pixels that may be easily visible. Your array surface may be huge, but your resolution won’t be larger than the original input, so an image viewed from close distances might be grainy.

1080P Full Screen Content as input

If the content input to an array will always be a single 1080P signal displayed full screen, then even the most impressive and expensive video wall controller or monitors can’t improve your displayed resolution. Whether you tile in the monitors or expand in the controller the results will be basically the same. If 1080P will your only content input and will always be output to a full array screen, you will lose display resolution whether you output to a single 4K monitor or an array of 1080P monitors tiled.

4K Full Screen Content

4K inputs might be a single 4K PC monitor output, or perhaps a single 4K output from another 4K source like a 4K Blu-Ray player, 4K AppleTV, etc. If we have 4K content to display, we should have the full 4K monitor resolution from input to screen and be able to display it fully.

A “starter array” of 2×2 landscape 1080P monitors technically has exactly a 4K displayable monitor resolution of 3820 x 2160. If your content is produced and delivered in 4K resolution and will always be displayed full array screen, this seems like a perfect fit.

The newest generations of many digital signage 1080P monitors now offer 4K inputs that can be tiled over daisy-chained arrays, allowing full 4K display at full resolution 4K on a 2×2 Array of 1080P monitors without using a Video Wall Controller. The Viewsonic 49″ and 55″ and Philips 49 and 55″ Monitors that we have qualified for RPT PopUp Video Walls have this functionality to display 4K on 2 x 2 tiled array of daisy-chained 1080P monitors. We suggest that you download the manuals and understand the limitations that may vary between manufacturers and models when 4K to 2×2 Tiling.

These monitors also offer bezel compensation via the monitor set-up menus, so you’ve get everything you need to present a full screen, high quality 4K image from a single 4K input without the expense of a video all controller.

Ultra Thin Bezel (3.5mm Bezel to Bezel) 4K input 1080P signage monitors are common and have been dropping significantly in price as I write this.

In conclusion, for the simplest content and arrays, the availability of 4K monitor tiling on 1080P monitors brings reduced cost and simplicity of set-up to 2 x 2 or larger Video Wall Arrays. If your content is single output full screen understand the limitations of tiling, you can make an intelligent decision whether you should use monitor tiling instead of a video wall controller.

Ask us for more information on RPT PopUp Portable Video Walls in 2 x 2 Arrays with tiling:

RPT PopUp Video Wall Introduction

This will begin a series of posts leading to the launch of RPT Motion’s Portable PopUp Video Wall.

PopUp Kiosks, PopUp Boutiques and PopUp Stores are modern buzzwords and marketing tools. We’re also seeing growth in small private single supplier trade shows, training events and seasonal product launches. Usually self-managed, these events are popping up in more locations, at smaller venues, even local hotels.

Portable PopUp Video Walls would be a great marketing tool, but quality video wall arrays are difficult to PopUp. As a result, rental video walls are usually not available in smaller markets or hotels where lower potential volumes make local supply either inaccessible or very expensive. Even in larger markets Rental Video Walls are usually expensive to deliver, set-up and configure. With high set-up costs, smaller or shorter events just can’t afford a video wall. As a result, conventional Video Walls are expensive to rent and unavailable in many smaller markets.

Portable Video Walls are difficult to deploy multiple times quickly and usually difficult to reconfigure to different array sizes and inputs. This is largely because there has been no available fully integrated Portable Video Wall deployment solution that is flexible, cost effective and convenient. As well, the deployed quality and ease of content presentation varies widely from horrible to acceptable.

RPT Motion Inc. has been in the industrial automation business for 37+ years and has built custom modular portable video wall mounting systems for close to a decade. These have generally been custom built for customer trade shows and corporate road shows. Some of these systems have been deployed hundreds of times since new and are still in use. When we’ve attended trade shows with our custom modular video walls, we consistently have the fastest installed and best aligned wall in the show. But our first generation modular video walls were aimed at single layouts, rectangular or artistic and were excellent free-standing mounting systems without full integration.

Integrating a complete plug and play, high quality portable video wall system is a complex multi-disciplinary task that takes time, money, knowledge and risk beyond what most Video Wall end users are willing to invest and usually beyond their level of technical competence. Often the solution chosen is expensive and more often it’s a tinkerer’s nightmare to set-up and configure late into the night before the show.

What if you could walk in and confidently PopUp an aligned and configured video wall and display content in under an hour? Then anytime you needed to move that wall, even through people sized doorways, down hallways, into passenger elevators and again have content up in an hour or less at the next location? What if, using the same hardware you could configure a 2 x 2 wall today, a 3 x 3 wall tomorrow and even a 3 x 30 wall or any other combination of walls if you had enough monitors, space and content?

An example of RPT PopUp flexibility adding value would be a small Video Wall rental operation owning 18 monitors, usually deployed as two 3 x 3 arrays. Each 3 x 3 array could also be deployed as two 2 x 2 arrays, so you could service one large (3 x 3) and two small (2 x 2) rentals from the same pool of monitors, or deploy a single super wide array of 3 high x 6 wide at the CEO’s mansion for a March Madness Bash or Superbowl Party displaying multiple feeds from 4K and 1080P sources? With our top level PopMax series, you could deploy a 4 x 4 Array of 55″ monitors and output full resolution 8K content on a 220″ diagonal screen

In 2018 these scenarios are not just possible, it’s all easy and quick with RPT PopUp Video Walls.

RPT PopUp Video Wall: What’s Changed?

There needed to be a better way.

It’s the start of 2018 and we’re in the right place at the right time. Over the past few years a lot has changed in the technology of video walls to help enable RPT’s PopUp Video Wall Systems. The two major industry changes are Monitors and Controllers. One makes a video wall less expensive and one makes a video wall less expensive and easier to configure and implement.

Monitors: Video walls need a bunch of big monitors. You don’t need 4K monitors in Video walls because you don’t have content or display ability to benefit from all that increased resolution in an array. High quality 49” and 55” ultra-thin bezel 1080P video wall monitors, the sweet spot for RPT PopUp Video Wall Arrays, are now dropping significantly in price.

Controllers: The evolution of modern and flexible software video wall controllers with HDMI over Ethernet Zero Clients, such as Userful’s Software Video Wall Controller is advancing rapidly. The configuration of video walls and connections of content and inputs to video walls is now easier and more flexible than ever. In the simplest deployment a mid-range Userful Server can be configured as a simple appliance directing a single user output (4K or 1080P) to one or more video walls networked with Gigabit Ethernet. Extended to maximum, a high end Userful server can configure one huge or multiple smaller video walls, can use 4K and multiple 1080P inputs, Ethernet cameras, web and locally stored content all configured, scaled, scheduled and looped as needed.

A high end Userful Software Video Wall Server can handle one hundred monitors. If you needed a 2 high x 50 wide, 3 high x 33 wide, 4 high x 25 wide or multiple arrays of some random mix of heights and widths, Userful can deliver content to it. The RPT PopUp Video Wall System is 100% ready to deploy in that or any other configuration. A more likely real world example is that a 20 wide foot trade show booth rear wall can be completely filled with a 2 or 3 high x 5 wide array of 55” monitors.

Ask us for more information on RPT PopUp Portable Video Walls

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.

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.

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