Samsung Uses Robotics For Transformable Video Walls

January 11, 2016 by Dave Haynes

Digital signage vet Tom McGowan was at CES last week – taking great advantage of avoiding most of the mayhem and high costs, because he lives south of the airport in Las Vegas and knows how to get to and from the LVCC with minimal fuss.

He said he was interested in going not so much for the whiz-bang tech, but more to see what exhibit and AV companies do with booth budgets that are about as big and bottomless as they get in the trade show business. You want to see what’s possible with video walls and projection and specialty mounts, he reasoned, walk a show like CES or the Detroit Auto Show.

Which brings me to this – images and video about what Samsung was doing at its CES booth last week. The Korean electronics giant showcased something they call transformable TV and/or modular displays – video displays that pivot and rearrange using robotic mounts embedded in the back walls.

Modular-Display_animated-gifs2

I have seen stuff here and there through the years about display mounts tied to robotics, but this is the slickest application of it I’ve seen to date. The two big square displays would be relatively simple, but it’s the checkerboard of smaller square displays – blended with architectural tiles – that is particularly compelling.

The absence of seams strongly suggests this is fine pixel pitch LED being used here, though I’ve not found anything from Samsung that provides any details.

Transformable-TVy_animated-gifs1

I don’t really see how this is the future of TV … for consumers. But I could certainly see these ideas – notably that transforming wall concept – being adopted and serving as inspiration for architects and high-end AV designers. These set-ups would not be cheap to start, or to maintain.

Here are two videos related to the tech.

https://youtu.be/id-DvZjBSBI

https://youtu.be/sZbs0sHZCKo

Thanks to Noah Norman, from Ancillary Magnet in Brooklyn, for sending along some questions and links about this stuff, having been at CES last week.

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