Emory U's new public health bldg embeds giant MicroTiles wall

March 21, 2011 by Dave Haynes

Things have improved a lot on recent years, but we’re still largely seeing digital signage deployments with screens that are bolted on to walls or hung from things. It’s still rare when it is built in, which is why I like this.

This is a display in the atrium lobby of the new Claudia Nance Rollins Building at Emory University/Rollins School of Public Health. It uses 48 of Christie Digital’s MicroTiles (disclosure: I write here and there for Christie, but didn’t know about this) built into a convex, wood-paneled enclosure.

“We wanted a beautiful banner to receive people into the school,” said Mark Conde, director of information services at the Atlanta-based school. “We examined traditional display technologies and didn’t want to worry about the interface between LCDs. We learned of Christie MicroTiles and were pleased that many of the characteristics of the traditional LCD – and its accompanying problems – weren’t issues with the MicroTiles.”

The release adds:

“The only time the MicroTiles are off is weekends – unless there is an event going on,” said Conde. “We run a wide variety of content from Visix AxisTV to the MicroTiles to include campus bus service, lectures videos, school history, and student and faculty photography from around the world. We can also stream content onto the MicroTiles from events happening all over the school.”

Ambient lighting – both artificial and natural – presents challenges for any installation. However, Christie MicroTiles are designed for maximum image quality in demanding indoor, high ambient light environments.

“We get a fair amount of light coming through at certain times of day via a very large curved window,” concluded Conde. “It’s bright, but the MicroTiles do quite well under those conditions. I was a little bit nervous at first because MicroTiles is new technology but Christie allayed those fears. We got what we wanted with MicroTiles: a beautiful banner and a great first impression for visitors who enter through the building’s main lobby.”