Planar deploys interactive Led visual innovation at Thunderbird School

This prestigious American business school has chosen Planar, as a visualization technology partner, to install innovative and creative interactive Led systems in your multipurpose spaces and classrooms.

Coinciding with its 75th anniversary, Thunderbird School of Global Management, belonging to the Arizona State University, has inaugurated a new headquarters in downtown Phoenix, after two and a half years of construction. The installation, with five floors and 10.219 m2, The latest technology has been equipped to create flexible classrooms, with forward-thinking visualization and collaboration systems.

For this, Thunderbird selected Planar as your display technology partner to make the best selection of interactive Led screens, and work closely with the school's audiovisual consultant HT Consultants, as well as with the project architects.

Among other systems, Planar chose a great LED sphere 2,5 meters in diameter, personalized with school logo; a wide variety of curved systems; a video tape 360º LED and multi-touch and interactive LCD tables.

To Sanjeev Khagram, CEO and Dean of Thunderbird School of Global Management, “Our vision is not only to be the most global leadership and management school in the world, but also the most digital and technological. That was our mantra in designing and building this fantastic new world headquarters., and it is the long-term partnerships with collaborators like Planar that have created it”.

Circular visual design

At the main entrance of the building, Planar has created a custom circular Led screen, which is integrated with a steel sculpture with the Thunderbird logo, in which the names of the new founders of the school appear.

The ring is made up of a series Led video screen CarbonLight CLI from Planar (68×2), with a pixel pitch of 1,9 mm, providing the school with a visual brand canvas, display key messages or welcome visitors.

The creation of this circular and “exceptionally unique” installation, as the company emphasizes, required the manufacture of each custom Led module. The result: a spectacular Led screen with the Thunderbird brand that symbolizes its vision of “being the most digital leadership and management school in the world”.

Multifunction space

Located near the ground floor entrance of the building, the so-called Digital global forum It is a dynamic open roundabout in which impressive LED screens are integrated with the architecture of the space..

Designed to be a multifunction space, he Digital global forum can be used to host a variety of events and presentations, such as round tables and talks in the style TED. Upon entering, Visitors are surrounded by gently curved LED screens in all directions, which includes a custom visual sphere of 2,5 meters in diameter, with a pixel pitch of 3 mm suspended from the ceiling.

One of the screens is a 360º LED video tape, with dimensions that measure 44,5 meters long and 1,9 high, contiguous - both physically and digitally- still videowall Led curvo of 7,9 meters wide and 3 high located under the tape.

This LED installation of exclusive design is made up of screens Planar CarbonLight CLI VX, with a pixel pitch of 2,6 mm (CLI VX model 2,6). A Led CarbonLight CLI video wall from this manufacturer is located in a separate section on the wall., designed in a matrix of 5,4 m. wide and 1,5 high, with a pixel pitch of 1,5 mm.

Thanks to the immersive technology and motion design and engineering company Elumenate, Users can make gestures in front of the Led video wall to control the content of the Led sphere.

During high-level events or meetings at school, el videowall Planar CarbonLight CLI VX, larger size, Used for presentations or live camera broadcasts. Besides, The 360º Led tape can support up to twelve zoom or camera streams.

From the Led video wall, Users can interact with the motion tracking system to explore the solar system and weather-related content, as well as activate visual representations in the upper Led sphere.

However, Thunderbird has a lot more going. Nathaniel Holland, director of HT Consultants and who designed and specified most of the building's technology, explains that the sphere can be used to visualize global trends and migration patterns, making instruction more useful.

“We have introduced layers from other data sets to simulate different things, like the spread of COVID-19; monitoring water and the environment - he points out -. The sphere provides them with a complete presentation device to view information in a more understandable and impactful way..

On the third floor, Thunderbird has built a surround viewing room, powered by a curved video wall 9 meters wide (40×16) from the series CarbonLight CLI Flex from Planar, with a pixel pitch of 1,5 mm.

Used by the studios of the main television networks, This video wall model provides a spectacular presentation and broadcast background for the room, called Global decision theater. The school is also deploying this Led system to visualize economic data analysis and simulations.

“Using the servers, Faculty can run different scenarios and have students perform test case studies, as the simulation of the effects of geopolitical events on the economy adds Holland-. Having a simultaneous view of live and simulated information is a great tool to understand how to make better decisions”.

Besides, thanks to the impressive performance of the fine pitch LEDs and the smooth curved screen, This video wall can become an immersive stage of extended reality (XR) and used to attract any person or class from around the world. “It is a super flexible canvas that can be used in many ways in the future.”, said Holland.

Interactive tables for collaboration

In the classrooms on the first floor, Planar has selected nine multi-touch tables, each of them composed of LCD screens of 55” ultra-narrow bezel, with optical touch interactivity in a 3 configuration×1.

These systems were designed in collaboration with the North American specialist Heckler Design, which manufactured sturdy, powder-coated steel and aluminum brackets for the displays.

Each table incorporates 32 cameras, allowing an unlimited number of touchpoints to interact simultaneously at each table between six and eight, working independently or collaboratively, with a true multi-user experience.

These tables are interconnected with a network of servers that allows users to send data to other multi-touch tables and monitors installed throughout the building., and even on different Thunderbird campuses. With collaboration and presentation software, students can easily interact, share content and create projects, while instructors have more options to teach.

In addition to the wide range of customized display solutions, The entire Thunderbird building contains hundreds of Planar monitors and LCD screens for digital signage, orientation, presentations and support learning and collaboration in nearly every classroom and meeting space.

Planar solutions include a pantalla OLED transparente LookThru de 55” located at the main entrance and which serves as a virtual hall to welcome guests, as well as three touch LCDs 100” UltraRes X Series located in the Thunderbird pub on the 5th floor.

Added to this are two touch screens HB Series de 75” Huddle Board in the dean's suite, along with hundreds of Planar LCD displays 4K in almost all classrooms and meeting spaces, with sizes ranging from 55” to 100”, with multi-touch and non-touch models.