A Combination of Contemplation and 'Wow'

The University of Virginia’s new Contemplative Commons, located within the 57,000-square-foot Contemplative Sciences Center on the Charlottesville campus, was envisioned as an inviting central hub that could bring the campus together and support wellness and mind-body practices through studios, gathering spaces, and shared learning environments. But when thinking about how to integrate technology into the new space, a central AV need emerged: a large-format LED canvas visible from the street that serves as an experiential, immersive entry point.

The donor for the video wall system envisioned a large display within the lobby to show contemplative scenes from nature and complement the building entry. This request led to the design and installation of a floor-to-ceiling, 16x24-foot Planar DirectLight Ultra Series LED video wall with 1.2mm pixel pitch. It definitely provides a visible “wow” when people enter the space. The display also features an ERO matte coating, a practical option to provide durability in a public space where students mill around and may brush or tap against it.

Planning Phases (and Pauses)

Project design began in 2019. To help realize this vision, Aidlin Darling Design served as the design architect for the building, with VMDO Architects as the architect of record. Planar worked closely with Apeiro Design, which provided design consulting for the AV systems and architectural lighting within the Contemplative Commons.

But this long timeline, including some brief project pauses due to COVID-19, can be challenging in the ever-changing world of products. “That’s a lifetime for products,” said Lainie Mataras, general manager and consultant, Architect Design Group with Planar. “Technology is changing so quickly, so you can design with one product and then end up with a different product.”

Even with such early planning, the install followed a familiar pattern in the AV world. “It can take three years talking about it, but about three days to actually install it,” said William Seifert, president–Southeast for Pavion, which served as the AV integrator.

While the size of the video wall helped create the "wow" factor, its location posed technical challenges for the team. The lobby design includes floor-to-ceiling windows, which can complicate LED use.

“One of the biggest challenges was the temperature when the sun hits directly at a certain point in the day,” explained Mike Shaner, account executive with Pavion. “We installed temperature sensors behind the wall to monitor it. If the module is below 92 degrees, it’s green, but the minute that it gets over 95 degrees or higher, the affected module will actually appear red, and the video wall will shut down, so there’s no damage.”

Speaking of heat, as a lobby space with furniture arranged to encourage communal gathering, installers wanted to avoid heat from the video wall affecting people’s ability to do that. “You never want to have too much heat bothering the people who are relaxing in that lobby space," Mataras noted.

With the installation occurring at the same time as construction, the wall also needed protection from "all the other trades and all that dust," Shaner said, as it was part of an active job site. This required extensive coordination with all other on-site trade partners to ensure their work could progress while keeping the display protected from the comings and goings of ongoing construction. For the display itself, ActiveLock technology helped maintain positive contact between modules by accounting for vibrations, heating, and cooling, keeping everything aligned.

The Content Conversation

When it came to managing the video wall, Analog Way’s Picturall Quad Mark II media servers were selected to support operational simplicity and provide continuous playback, helping the impressive video wall avoid becoming an expensive, dark screen. “That’s one of the major reasons why we sell the Picturall server line— it’s designed specifically for 24/7/365 playback,” said Seth Teates, senior regional sales manager for Analog Way.

The goal was also to minimize downtime risk on the video wall, and the Picturall media servers provided features to help with this. “The machines have redundant power supplies built in, so if you should have a power supply failure, there’s no downtime,” Teates added. “It’s a Linux-based system running on all server-grade hardware with our own proprietary drivers."

For a canvas of this size, the content often is the difference between being impactful and awkward. “How many lobbies do you walk through where there’s a video wall with something like the Weather Channel on stretched beyond recognition?” Seifert offered. “Nobody planned for it, they just said they wanted a big TV in the lobby.”

Planar agreed and emphasized that content was the most important topic to discuss before display specifications. “When we start a conversation about an LED video wall, we often talk about content way more than we talk about the actual video wall,” Mataras said. She added that many end users neglect to consider the cost of content and its management, which can exceed the cost of the video wall over time.

For UVA, these complexities were magnified by the unconventional aspect ratio, but that’s where the Picturall media server shines, as it is designed to display high-resolution content across a multi-output canvas. “The end user can create the content files at full native resolution of the wall, load those right into the machine, and the machine just automatically sends it to the right segment of the screen,” Teates explained.

An Architectural Element

Full-resolution, pre-recorded custom content was used to showcase nature scenes from around the world, highlighting the space’s natural design elements, such as the beautiful stone wall set beside the video wall.

Pavion noted the final content wasn’t available at the outset, so temporary content was used during the early stages of the install. “It wasn’t until the very end that the firm came in, and we had to make sure Analog Way was there at the same time,” said Shaner. He added that this required multiple visits with the content team, making adjustments during each visit.

“In AV design, the challenge is always designing a system that users who are not necessarily AV people understand and find easy to use,” said Daniel Mei, associate principal, AV technology, Apeiro Design. Analog Way did its part, providing field engineers to train the UVA team on the Picturall GUI and the Media Manager workflow, helping them build playlists, set the playback order, and define transitions between segments without disrupting the canvas.

One thing all the partners agreed on was that the video wall functioned as an architectural element within the space, not just as AV. “I look at spaces like this, and I’m most proud of the fact that LED is now kind of considered an architectural element,” said Mataras. “You don’t look at it and see a space that added an LED wall.”

Seifert said the video wall is receiving the reaction Pavion was hoping for within the space. “Everything I’ve heard has been extremely positive," he added. "It’s that 'wow' factor, and it sets the space apart."

To learn even more about video walls, download your copy of SCN's Integration Guide to Video Walls.