When your dishwasher or refrigerator at home breaks down or is no longer up to standards, you don’t immediately buy a completely new kitchen. You just replace the product and avoid the cost – and the annoying construction works – of a complete refurbishment. Logical, right? Then why don’t you apply the same pragmatism to your critical control room’s overview video wall?
Technology is moving at a lightning fast pace, and the large screen visualization market is not an exception. Since the introduction of rear-projection cubes (RPCs) in the late 1990s, we have seen a multitude of light source technologies replacing each other. Starting from CRT, we moved to single LCD, Psi LCD, Lamp DLP, LED DLP to end with the fantastic RGB Laser DLP. In a few control rooms, the early versions of RPCs are still operational, but are in fact way past their retirement age. Think about it: some of them were actually installed before the mobile phone era!
Many of these ‘vintage video wall’ owners are a bit reluctant to replace their installation, though. For sure, there is an investment involved with such a purchase, but let us not underestimate the additional disruptive infrastructure works – and the downtime to the critical operations they bring along. This is where the refrigerator comparison steps in …
Barco has an installed base of over 15,000 video walls and is a proven global leader in control room visualization. We have offered our customers the unique opportunity to upgrade their video walls to the newest generation state-of-the-art technology without the architectural hassle. We simply replace the projection engine and the input board, but keep the cube housing and the screen intact. This is quite a straightforward operation and can be done one cube at a time – which means that the rest of the overview video wall remains operational during the upgrade. The result? A video wall that is good to go for more than 10 additional years thanks to longer light source lifetime and Barco’s awesome service packages!
Now let’s talk business. A video wall is a big investment, and few organizations go lightly over such a purchase. It is thus essential to benefit from the initial investment as long as possible, and keep the re-investment as budget-friendly as possible. Also in this area, Barco can answer customer requirements, and offers multiple financial options. Customers can choose between CAPEX and OPEX contracts, depending on the preferences of the CFO’s staff. Ask your Barco contact for more details!
Preserving the environment is the task of every human, so organizations need to take responsibility as well. In this context, the upgrade kits make a lot of difference – Why? – Just because they not only minimize waste (after all the bulk of the RPC remains in place) but also reduce power consumption & heat dissipation by up to 50%. Both LED and laser technology need less energy to produce the similar light output. Additionally, the light sources last a lot longer (up to 100K hrs. in eco mode so they don’t need to be replaced) and there is no rotating color wheel that is susceptible to wear – which further reduces the waste pile.
Maybe you have heard about our upgrade kits before. Because - Yes! In fact they have been around since 2005. First we offered an upgrade from LCD to lamp, followed over the years by kits to go to LED, and now to RGB Laser. Thousands of customers have already benefited from this option. Our new offering, however, allows customers to also upgrade the legacy RPCs with a 4:3 aspect ratio to RGB Laser, so we can offer the latest technology to most of our installed base. Our website tells you all about the possible upgrade options.
Are you interested to know more about upgrade kits offering? Then visit us at ISE 2019, February 5-8 at the Amsterdam RAI.
And, as a special treat, we give you the opportunity to reserve your ISE 2019 ticket on us, free of charge! Simply use the link below and click the "REGISTER" button. The Barco invitation code is 703630.
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