Video Wall Shapes and Sizes
We can make video walls out of CRTs in almost any configuration you can imagine. The main limiting factors are height (it is rare that we would make a video wall higher than 6 screens high) and weight: each screen weighs 42-58kg; so large walls can only be built on surfaces strong enough to hold them. This blog will give you some more information which will help you choose the right arrangement of screens.
REGULAR SPANNED VIDEO WALLS
Usually for the simpler spanned video walls, where we make use of a video wall controller to split up the image into pieces to send to each screen, we are limited to a maximum of a 4×4 video wall per video wall controller, before we have to pick a different control solution such as moving to a large PC based server.
IRREGULAR VIDEO WALLS
This video wall which we made with our microtile DLP projection cubes doesn’t even have the screen in alignment vertically. We achieved this by using software to stagger the strips of video so that when the cubes were stacked out of alignment, then the image lined up perfectly. We also built this video pyramid with a slight curve.
CONCAVE AND CONVEX VIDEO WALLS
We can build both concave and convex curved video walls. Concave is easy; we will angle each column of CRTS just a little so that an overall inward curve is produced. This can be a really nice effect when nestling the video installation into the corner of a room, for example, or curving around the back of a DJ or other focal point.
We can also create convex video walls using our special hantarex wedge shaped CRT screens. As far as we know, we are the only supplier in the UK with these available. We have 12, so the effect is best seen with a low, wide arrangement, such as 2 high and 5 or 6 wide.
We can also loosely stack normal CRTs like in the pyramid of videos we made for an installation for Puma.
BUILDING A VIDEO WALL BASED ON THE RATIO OF YOUR VIDEO CONTENT
If you already have content that you want to appear spanned across a video wall, and you want to maintain the shape of that video, then you will need to pick an arrangement of screens which best resembles the ratio of your video. So if your video is 4:3 content, you will want to stick with a 4:3 video wall; so a 2×3, 3×3, 4×4 and so on.
BUILDING A VIDEO WALL BASED ON AVAILABLE SPACE
It probably goes without saying that if space is your limiting factor, then you can only build a wall as large as the space you have available. This chart shows you exactly what size your CRT video wall will be in different configurations, to save you doing the maths.
OTHER LIMITING FACTORS
Usually, we come to install using a single 3.5-tonne van. With a payload of about 1.2 tonnes, this means we can rarely travel with more than 20 screens. And since we always come with spare screens, in reality, that means a maximum video wall of 18 screens. Any more than 20 will require two vans or two trips, so will bump the price up a bit.