Nanolumens Nixel makes Verizon design and innovation project a reality

To design the original industrial video wall of the Verizon innovation center, a Nixel equipment from 1,5 mm Nanolumens in a matrix of 5,4 meters wide by 3,8 high.

Design concepts, engineering and ingenuity have led to the construction of the innovative center of Verizon. And this has also been reflected in its AV installations, where Nanolumens technology has had a special role.

For this center project, the group of experts Nanolumens worked to determine the complexities and potential outcomes and challenges of this high-level project. The installation posed certain challenges: a complex design, a concave wall and a new product topology

The objective was to design a screen 16:9 that will be separated from the main screen to create a videowall industrial and rebuilt to look like a circuit board.

It had to have a clean aesthetic, but also look industrial with exposed parts and wiring, as if a television had intentionally exploded. The industry has coined a phrase for this like 'Tech-o-rating‘, and the result was a very technological design with form and functionality.

The challenge and the solutions

Dan Rossborough, director of the Special Projects Group (SPG) the Nanolumens, realized that this installation posed many challenges. It took him four months to develop a new product topology for the Nixel the Nanolumens, which would serve as the basis for this design.

A mockup of a mitered chassis was created on a single Nixel to emulate the ‘Orphan Nixel’, a phrase Dan coined to describe Nixel satellite displays that were independent of the main video display.

Together with the Nanolumens R&D team, the SPG developed a 'daughter board' that could be placed on the back of a Nixel. They attached a reception card so that it could be treated as if it were a complete matrix. This custom idea simplified the management of power and data ports.

The development

Self-contained Nixels have their own chassis and data to stretch and form any array you can imagine, each programmed with its own offset in two coordinated 4K content rasters (aspect ratio 32:9).

The orphaned nixels, Housed in a custom 3D printed FDM chassis, can be front mounted on adjustable aluminum telescopic brackets 6 axes and with power/data anchors in bars to the main body.

The main body of the screen was made with miters on the top, bottom and sides, so that the whole thing seems to float. All this was possible thanks to the topology Frame-and-Skin the Nanolumens.

The orphaned Nixel chassis was 3D printed and designed with space for the 'daughter board' and the Nixel. A custom mounting bracket with adjustment 4 axes and pitch allowed the new Nixels to be precisely calibrated. Before using these 3D printed chassis, were tested taking into account thermal dynamics, and the design turned out to be solid.

This complex design required the team to work within the limitations of a concave sound attenuating wall made of MDF.. The Nanolumens solution could not be mounted on it, so he had to do it through her. Spacers were used to compress the substrate behind and allow precise alignment of the main display and its orphaned Nixels. 1,5 mm.

These are independently aligned to a tolerance of less than a tenth of a millimeter on a grid face that aligns them precisely..

Another element that helped in the design phase was a model developed in the design laboratory of Executioner, with a section of 2×2 meters as proof of concept. Nanolumens also hired a media artist to help map this complex video wall..

The results

For the Verizon Hub project, a Nixel from 1,5 mm of Nanolumens in a matrix of approximately 5,4 meters wide by 3,8 high.

The main section of the video wall is 16:9, as do each of the circuit board style 'wings'. And although Nanolumens had not used LED panels for a long time, 9 mm indoors, also provided a video wall suspended from the ceiling. It is more of a lighting element to create atmosphere in the space.. This video wall adds almost a diffuse mirror effect to the largest curved screen for the innovation center.