Some members of OIT’s Media Technology team took a short walk from the American Tobacco Campus over to the amazing offices of Duke’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship program in downtown Durham. Kontek was hired to do the AV integration and the cornerstone of the project was an 3×3 video wall based on NEC 55″ monitors. We asked Kontek to provide us with some details on the job. Additional questions can be directed directly to them. Very impressive space and a great AV install.
From Kontek:
“Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship really wanted an impact technology piece for their space,” says DJ James, KONTEK’s design engineer on the video wall project. “The space incorporates modern technology and architectural elements in an historic building. The bullpen, specifically, is a space with high open interior ceilings and an open wall profile, so it needed a display large enough to scale well in the space and be seen throughout. By providing the largest widescreen image that the wall in the bullpen can physically accommodate, the video wall can accurately handle 16×9 native video resolutions up to 4K (and higher – with 5760×3240 total pixels) for detailed high resolution content, and have enough overall brightness to stand up to the sunlight coming from the wall of windows on the west side of the space. “
“As well as the environmental considerations, the project needed to have this large image be driven from a single video input,” says Billy Morris, KONTEK’s account manager for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, “and that’s how this video wall is working right now. The system is also built such that the capacity to handle multiple video windows on the wall simultaneously can easily be added later, as the uses of the video wall change going forward.” Initially, the thought was that this would allow the wall to display curated and custom content easily from a single remotely located PC into the space. As the project evolved, a decision was made to add an integrated presentation system behind the video wall, to allow bullpen users to connect their laptops and mobile devices to the system. “With the addition of presentation,” says Morris, “we added wired, wireless, and – of course – TV, as selectable choices for users of the space to view.”
