Architizer News
What Would You Display on Planar’s Massive Reconfigurable Video Walls?
February 15, 2012
Remember watching a flat screen TV for the first time? Everything – right down to the most banal infomercial – was exciting to watch on that waifish screen, hanging delicately from your parents’ living room wall. We’re guessing Planar Mosaic, a new video wall system that allows you to tile flatscreen LCDs in any configuration imaginable, will have a similarly hypnotizing effect.
Mosaic addresses a common pitfall of current digital screen technology: the seamless integration of a complex piece of electronics with architecture. For example, think back to the last time you were in a gallery using flatscreen displays. Did you notice the clunky power supplies hanging from the back of the screens? Or the awkward off-the-shelf sizing of the screens? Using digital screens to display art was once an imperfect means to an end. Mosaic takes the functionality of the LCD screen and integrates it tidily into the architecture of a space.
It’s flatscreen as building material (think tiles or wallpaper) rather than flatscreen as appliqué. Read on.
Here’s a quick rundown of Planar‘s proprietary technology. Firstly, the screens (which come in three tile sizes) have an “off board” power source eliminating the bulky electronics you commonly see on the backside of screens. They’ve also developed highly configurable mounting hardware that can accommodate any – any – angle you can imagine (including convex and concave). Since the point of the Mosaic system is to utilize many screens working together, Mosaic comes with its own software that makes it easy to choose and preview the content on display.
The possibilities are pretty much endless, and range from the James Bond-esque (tile them along your entranceway to usher guests into your home, robot butler-style) to the psychedelic (design a convex spiral of tiles, creating a IMAX-like viewing space), to the simple (use them as a way to display art of the two- and three-dimensional variety). Us? We think the photography of Andreas Gursky would look pretty wild on Mosaic, especially if the tiles were integrated into a poured concrete wall.
Interest piqued? Come check out the official unveiling of Mosaic on at Cristin Tierney Gallery on February 29th. Planar’s invited digital artist Yorgo Alexopoulos to show his work on the screens, along with work from a curation of work from young New York architects. In the meantime, check out our post about the party, or head over to Planar’s Brand Page for more information.











