Planar Debuts Family of Seamless, Fine-Pitch LED Video Walls to Address Fast Growing Product Category

Advanced design of Planar DirectLight LED Video Wall System offers a tailored fit to a wide range of demanding indoor applications

Planar® DirectLight™ LED Video Wall System (Photo: Business Wire)

Digital Signage Expo 2015

PORTLAND, Ore.--()--Planar Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLNR), a global leader in display and digital signage technology, announced the Planar® DirectLight™ LED Video Wall System, which combines a proprietary, advanced design across a choice of four resolutions ranging from 1.6 to 3.1 millimeter pitch, providing exceptional visual performance, thin mounting depth, precise alignment, mission-critical reliability and adaptability to different customer uses. Planar will debut the Planar DirectLight LED Video Wall System this week at the Digital Signage Expo (DSE) 2015.

The Planar DirectLight LED Video Wall family can be optimized for a wide range of indoor environments including well-lit public spaces and corporate lobbies, as well as light-controlled conference rooms, auditoriums and control rooms. Moreover, Planar DirectLight LED video walls are suitable for demanding 24x7 indoor applications—with an architecture designed to make installation and service faster, easier and more precise.

“We see tremendous growth potential with indoor LED video walls, and we are leading the way with Planar DirectLight,” said Planar Systems CEO and President Gerry Perkel. “This is the perfect complement to our very successful Clarity Matrix LCD Video Wall System for customers who have been asking for a seamless, high-quality video wall that can meet mission-critical requirements for indoor environments. Planar DirectLight meets that need, further extending our longstanding commitment to video wall innovation and leadership.”

Planar DirectLight offers a modular, seamless LED video wall system in four narrow pixel pitches - 1.6, 1.9, 2.5 and 3.1 millimeters - providing an exceptional visual experience close up, from a distance and at wide viewing angles. With stunning, crystal-clear picture quality, flexibility to accommodate almost any indoor environment and the ability to withstand the most rigorous, 24x7 operations, this unique family of video walls represents the next wave in the fast-growing direct-view LED market.

“Narrow pixel pitch LED solutions (3mm pitch and below) are evolving rapidly to become a serious option for indoor video wall applications that require higher resolution and greater image quality,” said Chris Mcintyre-Brown, associate director of displays & broadcast equipment for Futuresource Consulting. “While the market for high resolution LED is still in its infancy, the segment experienced more than 100 percent volume growth in 2014 over the prior year. And with growing adoption in vertical markets such as control room, conference room and retail, we expect that trend to continue. Experienced high resolution video wall vendors such as Planar are well placed to leverage their technological skills, deep market understanding and specialist channel partner networks to capitalize on this growing new market.”

Outstanding Visual Performance

From bright public spaces to light-controlled control rooms, Planar DirectLight LED video walls offer an unsurpassed visual experience. Benefits include:

  • Superior performance in any environment: For high-resolution applications in corporate environments and control rooms, excellent low brightness color performance and gray level control is critical. Planar DirectLight LED video walls are factory-calibrated and tested to perform consistently from high to very low brightness settings. And with features such as electronic seam correction, deep black contrast utilizing Planar® MicroGrid™ Shader and wide viewing angles without loss of brightness, Planar DirectLight LED video walls deliver excellent visual performance across a range of indoor video wall needs.
  • Excellent physical alignment: Planar DirectLight LED video walls include the proprietary Planar® EasyAlign™ Mounting System for unmatched precision alignment, offering two levels of Z-axis adjustment to obtain a perfectly flat video wall. Designed for seamless installation, EasyAlign gives audio visual integrators the capability to produce an expertly aligned video wall quickly and easily, all without the expense and complexity of special mounting structures.

Wide Range of Indoor Applications

Planar DirectLight LED video walls can be easily installed in even the most challenging indoor environments. Some of the advantages are:

  • Easily customizable to any environment. With a single advanced architecture and four resolutions to choose from, customers can design a video wall to fit their unique space, then decide on the pixel density or resolution that’s right for their application, viewing distance and budget. The modular nature of Planar DirectLight LED video walls allows it to fit nearly any shape wall configuration, including portrait, landscape, square and concave curves. It offers a slim profile that extends less than four inches from the wall, making it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
  • Simple to install and maintain: Planar DirectLight LED video walls are easy to install with displays and components removable from the front, eliminating the need for behind-the-video wall maintenance that wastes space and can be awkward to access for service.
  • Remote power and whisper-quiet operation: Off-board power, with a redundancy option, makes it possible to locate video walls up to 200 feet away from a power source, improving access and eliminating the need for power outlets behind the video wall. In addition, minimal heat allows for fan-less, quiet operation for environments that require less noise.

Unmatched Reliability

Planar DirectLight LED video walls are built for a long life of continuous operation. The benefits include:

  • 24x7 reliability: All Planar DirectLight LED video wall models offer mission-critical performance that include redundant power supply and video cabling options to ensure uninterrupted operation in the event of failure - even in the most rigorous 24x7 environments.
  • TAA compliance: Planar DirectLight LED video walls are fully compliant with the Trade Agreement Act (TAA), meeting a key requirement for certain U.S. government and military customers.

The Planar DirectLight LED Video Wall System will begin shipping in Summer 2015 through the company’s global network of authorized resellers. Visit Planar at the Digital Signage Expo 2015 (Booth #1018) for a demonstration of Planar DirectLight LED Video Wall System. For more information, visit www.planar.com/DirectLight.

About Planar

Planar Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLNR) is a global leader in display and digital signage technology, providing premier solutions for the world's most demanding environments. Retailers, educational institutions, government agencies, businesses, utilities and energy firms, and home theater enthusiasts all depend on Planar to provide superior performance when image experience is of the highest importance. Planar video walls, large format LCD displays, interactive touch screen monitors and many other solutions are used by the world’s leading organizations in applications ranging from digital signage to simulation and from interactive kiosks to large-scale data visualization. Founded in 1983, Planar is headquartered in Oregon, USA, with offices, manufacturing partners and customers worldwide. For more information, visit www.planar.com.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 relating to Planar’s business operations and prospects, including statements relating to the market for direct view LED display products. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections that are subject to change, and actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, including the risk factors listed from time to time in the Company’s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release.

Contacts

Media:
Blu Print Public Relations
Kristin Whitney, 503-953-8080
kristin@bluprintpr.net
or
Investors:
Planar Systems, Inc.
Ryan Gray, 503-748-8911
Ryan.Gray@Planar.com

Contacts

Media:
Blu Print Public Relations
Kristin Whitney, 503-953-8080
kristin@bluprintpr.net
or
Investors:
Planar Systems, Inc.
Ryan Gray, 503-748-8911
Ryan.Gray@Planar.com