Grammy Museum Visualizes Music History with Planar 4K Screens and Video Wall

UltraRes Series 4K and Clarity Matrix solutions create a stunning visual and interactive experience to learn about the roots of Mississippi music and these awards.

The city of Cleveland, in the state of Mississippi (EU) is the home of the new Museo Grammy, which like its counterpart in Los Angeles, is dedicated to exploring and showing the past, present and future of the history of recorded music, along with the famous awards that give it its name and the cultural context from which it emerges.

Under this concept, the museum combines public events, educational programs, permanent and traveling multimedia presentations and interactive exhibits. The design of this new museum includes three digital viewing platforms of Planar, company of Leyard.

These large-format displays show visitors the impact of composers, Mississippi producers and musicians in the traditional and modern music scene, who can also interactively explore this content in ways not currently found in any other museum in the United States.

For this project, the systems integrator Mode Systems of Castle Rock, based in Colorado, recommended to those in charge of the museum, who indicated their need for the most advanced visualization platform, Planar UltraRes Series 4K LCD displays, the Clarity Matrix video wall system and the Simplicity series LCD displays.

These large screens display almost life-size video images, with images of great intensity and impact that attract visitors. An example of this are the two screens from the Simplicity series that are located in the lobby and offer general information about the museum., of the events, etc, so that the visitor can explore everything that this facility dedicated to music can offer them.

The museum's first gallery is designed around the Grammy Awards, the prestigious music awards, which is flanked by identical video walls, whose screens are programmed to present a unique video montage of artists performing short segments of their songs.

These videos appear on UltraRes Series 4K LCD flat screens, 84” (model UR8450), in video wall configuration of 3×2, and are complemented with interspersed fragments of the winners' speeches.

“The presentation is really effective and impressive., because you see a continually changing set of presentations and speeches that are very interesting and displayed practically life-size, which makes you feel like you are right there with the artist.”, notes Vickie Jackson, Planar manager.

In addition to the size of the UltraRes series screens, They show very bright and clear images. Each system operates at 500 brightness nits, delivers 4K content at true 60Hz, with an Ultra HD resolution of 3,840×2.160p. “They are so big and bright that when people see them, They just say 'wow'. That is the reaction we hoped to get and we do it”, assures.

Besides, The slim profile of UltraRes systems accommodates the exhibition space and gives it a much more modern look than the projector-based systems that can be found in many museums today.

“These video walls are less than four inches in total mounted depth. As a result, work well in this high traffic environment, with uninterrupted operation and fully comply with the American Persons with Disabilities Act (ADA)”, añade Marc Headley, the Fashion Systems.

Another of its advantages is its flexibility, maintenance convenience and low energy consumption, key elements for those responsible for the Mississippi Grammy Museum. So, Planar UltraRes series models feature a kickstand that tilts the display away from the wall, to access and/or remove the front service, without having to dismantle the entire video wall.

Regarding the power management system, These displays include a fail-over power supply design, automatic shutdown signal detection, with a consumption of 460 watts and a fanless design, which also results in silent operation.

To show in a different and unique way the deep musical roots of Mississippi, the design required an equally unique display platform, for which a video wall installed as a table was chosen, and named as is: Mississippi music table.

This unique visual table is configured with six 55” Clarity Matrix MX55HDS LCD screens, installed in vertical orientation, with half accessible from one side of the table and the other from the opposite side. Visitors stand on either side to see a representation of the Mississippi River, with bubbles floating on the table, each of which contains interactive content about a particular artist.

At the Mississippi Music Table, Each screen is covered with Planar ERO extended optics and resistance technology; an optically bonded glass surface that ensures protection against damage.

Both the Planar UltraRes display series and the Clarity Matrix video wall were supplied to Mode and the museum as ready-to-install solutions.

“They are well designed systems; so much so that they came with all the components we needed to get them up and running in a very short period of time.. We didn't have to go and buy parts, which saved us time, and required little to no adjustments to get the image quality we wanted, in addition to always having the Planar team to help us”, punctuates Headley.