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 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.

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:

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