“Barco's LED video wall has been developed based on a long heritage of LED expertise, as we have been designing and producing LED signage since the nineties,” commented Mathieu Massart, director of product management of Barco's Displays technology unit. “As an illustration, today we process more than two million LEDs every week. So, we know LED and its characteristics like no other company. This way, we have been able to considerably improve the existing LED rear-projection state of the art and we have succeeded in significantly optimising image quality, ease of use and cost of ownership.”

Barco's OL rear projectors come with Sense6, a unique sensor technology which co-ordinates across multiple rear-projection modules to provide brightness and colour stability over time and across the entire video wall screen. An integrated spectrometer continuously measures brightness and colour characteristics of the full visual spectrum.

Sense6's algorithms monitor the outputs of these spectrometers in real time and then dynamically and automatically adjust all the projectors of the video wall to generate an image that is most suited for viewing by the human eye. Unlike factory-calibrated systems, the OL continuously measures and adjusts colour and brightness in real time and therefore requires no maintenance or manual adjustments.

Barco's LED-lit video walls have an advanced heat management system based on state-of-the-art liquid cooling to efficiently counteract the effects of high temperatures on the LED light sources. In comparison to heat pipe systems, Barco's liquid system can provide an additional ten degrees of temperature decrease on the LED light source. This effectively doubles the lifetime of the LED light source and reduces noise substantially.

Barco's OL series makes a more compact control room design possible. Thanks to the space-saving cube design (only 450mm/17” deep) and front access option, it is possible to significantly save on real estate costs. The new OL series has also been specifically designed for ultra-fast set-up and configuration, which allows for savings on installation time and expenses. The projection module is delivered as a pre-installed and pre-aligned unit. Colours and brightness auto-calibrate. The micro-engine needs no alignment stage, since the imager itself is motorised.

LED projection technology has allowed for a much more environment-friendly approach, since the illumination unit has less integrated consumable parts and because, contrary to UHP lamps, LEDs contain no mercury. With Barco's OL series of video walls, this green approach is even taken one step further, with a lightweight and space-saving design, recyclable video wall enclosure and low noise operation.