University of Charleston Innovation Center

Planar Video Walls Enhance University's New Innovation Center

The University of Charleston (UC) is a private university located in Charleston, West Virginia that is nationally recognized for its academic programs in citizenship, communication, creativity, critical thinking, and ethical practice and inquiry. Recently, UC advanced its entrepreneurial tradition by opening a new Innovation Center on its main campus. The newly renovated building will serve as the intercollegiate athletic facility for both volleyball and basketball. The $16.5 million upgrade to the university's existing gym created a space that will bring students together not only for live sporting events, but will also serve as a recreational gathering space.

Inside the Innovation Center the university created a heightened audio-visual environment for students with the integration of video wall displays from Planar. Two Clarity® Matrix® LCD video walls were installed in the new facility—a six-wide-by-one-high (6x1) array located at the entrance and a three-by-three (3x3) video wall that serves as a central display fixture in an "entertainment hub" located in the building's atrium. The immersive and flexible Clarity Matrix video wall system combines the industry's thinnest profile ultra-narrow bezel with superior visual performance and outstanding image quality.

Simple and efficient integration

Greg Priest, a senior account manager at audio-visual solutions provider Advanced, which designed and installed the video walls, said Planar's LCD video wall solution was the ideal choice for the application due to the ability to source power remotely.

"With these monitors, the power modules are offloaded into quad controllers, which allows us to install the displays directly against the wall," Priest said. "This makes them significantly lighter because they have no immediate backing components. They don't need to be directly plugged in, thus eliminating the need for onsite outlets. We were able to hook up both displays to an equipment rack in a control room that's located about 100 feet away."

The Planar video walls have served to elevate the sports viewing experience at the Innovation Center with the addition of rich, high-quality visual content. Since the opening, UC has used the video walls to relay school-related information and to broadcast live sporting events.