Nebraska Furniture Mart of Texas

Planar Displays Create Customer Interest and Support Commercial Business Strategies for Retailer

The Nebraska Furniture Mart of Texas (NFM), located north of Dallas-Fort Worth, is the newest retail store in the Nebraska Furniture Mart chain. The 560,000 square-foot store is an anchor to Grandscape, a 400+ acre mixed-use development that when fully completed, will provide a unique destination for retail, dining and entertainment for up to 10 million visitors annually.

The NFM design included leading-edge digital signage technology to attract customers into the store and help them easily find products and services. For these reasons the retailer chose two of Planar Systems' most advanced display solutions, the large-scale Planar® UltraRes™ Series 4K LCD display, and the one-of-a-kind Planar® Mosaic™ Architectural Video Wall.

Lee Summers, NFM's Marketing/Technology Manager says, "The two products make a strong statement about the store and demonstrate our ability to meet the needs of both consumers and commercial customers." The digital media and integration firm, Reflect, based in Dallas, was fully on board with this vision for NFM, and played a key role in getting Planar Mosaic video wall and Planar UltraRes Series display installed and up and running.

Planar Mosaic's design and display capabilities capture customers' attention

Planar Mosaic is a family of video tiles – including the industry's first truly square version – created to provide a highly creative video wall on which to deliver brand, business and other messaging. It was seen as an ideal solution for the east entrance to Grandscape where a main "boulevard" will lead into all stores, including NFM. "Installed here, Planar Mosaic will help create an experience which amazes customers as they enter the country's largest furniture store," says Arnie Rivera, Senior Vice President of Solution Delivery and Client Services for Reflect.

The "draw" of Planar Mosaic is its use of the different sizes of video tiles, which can be installed in virtually any position relative to each other and at almost any angle. "We can separate, rotate, stack and place each tile to create an artistic visually pleasing pattern that attracts your attention and sets the stage for the rest of store experience," says Rivera.

The Planar Mosaic video wall is comprised of 27 tiles arranged in a symmetrical layout whose 16:9 aspect ratio allows NFM make use of its library of stock imagery. The layout consists of Planar's 46-inch Planar® Pablo™ rectangle tiles (AD46) and the 22-inch Planar® Salvador™ square tile (AD22). The content is high definition video of nature and Texas-inspired images that can be changed to support the store's many merchandising themes and promotional strategies, as well as appeal to different viewer demographics.

Planar Mosaic's design flexibility and ease of installation also make it appealing to the integrator. Installation is simple since each Planar Mosaic tile is has its own mount, which allows for any rotation or pitch. Built-in push-in/push-out snap catches and auto-alignment posts eliminate the need for fine tuning." Other important features include, for Planar Salvador and Planar Pablo, respectively: slim bezel width (5.9mm/5.7mm), brightness (450 nits/700 nits) and native resolution (960x960/1920x1080).

Planar UltraRes Series is proof of NFM's commercial solution capability

The Planar UltraRes Series (84-inch Ultra HD display) was chosen for NFM's electronic design, installation and consulting department (EDIC), where it occupies a prominent position above the reception desk. "It is definitely a show-stopper," says NFM's Summers. "It is proof that we are able to serve the commercial market, which is what the EDIC department is all about."

A big driver for the Planar UltraRes Series is its UltraRes™ MediaPlex™ multi-source viewing capability, which allows Summers to divide the screen into four quadrants and show four different sets of content simultaneously — MediaPlex allows up to eight sources to be viewed, four at a time in full HD, and any can be up-scaled to fill the entire display area. Currently, content ranges from a two-minute video loop of EDIC messaging, to an action feed of sporting events or area entertainment. Further, the display is used to help consumers schedule appointments with EDIC consultants to plan out a customized Planar UltraRes Series install for a commercial-grade home theater system or a large-scale display platform for their restaurant, bar or other business.

Other important UltraRes features include fanless, whisper-quiet design, low to modest power consumption, fail-over design for continuous operation, up to 500-nit brightness, 1600:1 contrast ratio, native 3840x2160 resolution and the very latest LED backlight design.

Planar display platforms are a powerful visual merchandising combination

"Taken together, the Planar Mosaic video wall and Planar UltraRes Series display are significant business assets," Lee Summers says. "They contribute to a personalized shopping experience for a large-format store, they give us platforms on which to uniquely present our offerings, brand heritage and values, and they are visual merchandising elements that provide the flexibility to create an ever-changing and fresh experience for customers."