Forbes Blog Covers Display Industry History and Future

In Venkatesh Rao's blog at Forbes.com, Mr. Rao has published an interview with Sriram Peruvemba of E Ink in a wide-ranging review of the history of digital display technology. Planar is mentioned early on in the entry titled "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Displays, But Didn't Know Whom to Ask":

[Thin Film ElectroLuminescent] came bit later. Sharp demonstrated TFEL in 1975 and made the first commercial display in 1983, and eventually Planar Systems (after acquiring Finlux in 1991) became the world leader in TFEL, sharing the market with Sharp. In the Eighties, IBM, DEC and HP all made monitors and desktop computers using TFEL displays. (Source: Dr. Chris King)

Dr. Chris King help establish Planar Systems as a spin-off from Tektronix in the early 1980s. You can learn more about EL technology and its strengths at PlanarEmbedded.com.

Planar Mosaic Hits Vegas

On Tuesday night, we enjoyed an evening of cocktails and conversations in the sunshine at the terrace pool at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. Our co-hosts were none other than Cindy Allen, editor of chief of Interior Design magazine and Roger Thomas, the iconic designer from Wynn Design and Development who is largely credited for making Vegas into the visual spectacle of architecture and design that we enjoy today. Cindy welcomed the crowd to “Roger’s house” as we enjoyed drinks on the patio. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with the design community assembled in Las Vegas for the Hospitality Design Expo and to honor contributions made by the Giants of Hospitality Design, as the event name alluded.

Planar showed a demonstration of the Planar Mosaic, highlighting the use of a mix of tiles, positioned overlapped at angles, running a single slide show. It was an attention grabber that started a lot of conversations. Designers were rattling off ideas for using it behind hotel reception desks, in corporate lobbies, in bars and restaurants, and in projects in healthcare. We also had a chance to play with the new Planar Mosaic Project Designer Online where walls can be designed, saved, and shared. It is a playground for creativity and it’s free.

Planar wants to congratulate Cindy Allen, who this week was honored with a honorary doctorate by the Academy of Art University (AAU) in San Francisco. Cindy continues to show her leadership in the design and non-profit community as a co-chair of DIFFA (with David Rockwell from the Rockwell Group whose work in hospitality circles is legendary).

Form and Technology Intro Class

Tuesday evening I participated in the kickoff of the Form and Technology workshop at the Industrial Design department at the Pratt Institute under Scott VanderVoort and department chair Steve Diskin. The goal of Form and Technology is to intersect the latest Planar products which “unleash architectural expression” with the fresh creativity of Pratt’s design students and thought leaders. My goal for the class introduction was to impart a solid technical understanding of Planar products, and impart our vision of using video as a building material. We can’t wait to see the ideas that this class will inspire!

After I gave a quick overview of Planar, we listened to Jennifer Davis, VP of Marketing (virtually by video), as she gave teasers to the workshop, including: Planar Mosaic, Clarity Matrix, and Planar LookThru product lines. In her contagiously enthusiastic way, Jennifer touched briefly on the products themselves, and emphasized the key markets to focus on: corporate, health care, hospitality, and retail. Then I took the students through a more detailed technical overview of Planar products covering the issues associated with design, install, operation, and, importantly, content. For the latter point, Scott exhorted (and I couldn’t agree more) the students to gain some basic skills in content development, and to constantly have content ideas in the background as they consider physical designs with our products.

For hands on work, Scott had previously assembled a mockup display case using an early sample of our 32" Planar LookThru open frame design. I had also brought a Salvador tile from the Planar Mosaic family, and Clarity Matrix MX46 2x2 wall which the students were familiar with. I was able to take the Salvador tile apart and explain the basics of LCD technology, and the principles behind both the Planar Mosaic, and Clarity Matrix displays, and also the transparent operation of the Planar LookThru. This “show and tell” hardware brought a lot of the concepts from my PowerPoint to concrete reality as we played with them.

Clearly these are top-notch students, and they connected instantly with the products and core technology—evidenced by the peppering of spot-on questions they hit me with. They asked about different sizes, shapes, cost, power, content management, other technologies, reliability, interactivity, social media, and more. I could almost see the gears turning in their minds as they were envisioning applications for the technology.

It was exciting and fun to engage with the Pratt team, and clearly we are planting seeds in this coming generation of designers. I look forward to what sprouts…and thanks much to Scott and Steve at Pratt for giving us this opportunity!

Benjamin Clifton
VP of Technology

Pratt Institute + Planar Systems

Planar has partnered with New York’s Pratt Institute for their summer workshop, Form and Technology, which allows students to explore Planar products such as the Clarity Matrix, Planar LookThru and Planar Mosaic. Planar’s VP of Technology, Ben Clifton welcomed students the first day and gave insight to Planar technologies and innovations. The workshop will encourage young designers to play a more dynamic role as a designer and embrace content creation & curation as a deeper way to connect with products and audiences.
The Pratt Institute workshop runs May 15 – June 14.
To view photos and information about the first part of the workshop and read weekly updates visit: http://formandtechnology.posterous.com/.

Runco LS-1 Projector featured on The Street

TheStreet.com recently revealed their list of the top ten business sales tech tools to have in your sales arsenal to close that deal and the Runco Lightstyle™ LS-1 projector was #1 on that list. Click here to view the "10 Coolest Tech Gadgets to Seal the Deal".

Runco LS-1

Planar Mosaic wins rAVe Publications Most Innovative New Digital Signage Hardware Product Award

Planar® Mosaic™ won the 'Most Innovative New Digital Signage Hardware Product' award for DSE 2012 from rAVe Publications. The first of many accolades for this now award-winning product line! See the full list of 2012 Digital Signage CHAMPS.

Definitive Concepts, Inc. Unveils Motorized Video Wall

Definitive Concepts, Inc. recently designed and installed a motorized video wall with four (4) 46" Clarity Matrix Video Wall displays which slide open at the push of a button to reveal an 80" LCD television. Check out the video below of this sleek, one of kind entertainment center:

Cool Things Happening at Planar: ClearTouch and LookThru Transparent Displays

By Cris Derr

It’s been awhile since my last post, so I would like to give you a quick update on a couple of cool products we showed at the recent Digital Signage Expo. First if you haven’t heard, we launched the 32" ClearTouch™ interactive display. The ClearTouch series of displays are beautifully designed and feature a seamless glass front with the best touch experience on the market. You can see a video here of one of our software partners showcasing this big beautiful touch screen. Then there is Planar’s giant interactive Clarity Matrix™ wall that Intel showed at both NRF and DSE. This wall is a fabulous example of how a touch enabled video wall can create a crowd gathering and informative experience.

Okay, so not exactly a touch topic but very cool nonetheless is Planar’s new LookThru™ transparent LCDs solutions. Our new LookThru transparent displays were big attractions at shows like NRF, Global Shop, and Digital Signage Expo. More than just a LCD panel, these ready-to-go transparent LCD solutions will blow you away with their bright colors, contrast, clarity and the coolest part: they are transparent. Where there was once just glass can now be interactive transparent LCDs. These transparent solutions can be used in retail display boxes, retail refrigerators, museum displays, corporate lobby displays, vending machines and much more. Seeing is believing with these displays so check out the videos below and yes that is a fully functioning refrigerator in the first video. Since the LookThru glass is also a fully functional LCD display your product can be seen in a truly eye-catching and informative way. It is no wonder that Planar was called out as the “most eye catching booth” at DSE.

So let your product be seen and check out Planar’s LookThru transparent LCD solutions today.

Grab a cold Coke. Here is a functioning retail
refrigerator with Planar's LookThru transparent LCD.



Actual shoes and phone in a
Planar LookThru Retail Display Box

-Cris