Premiere Design

So-called "tiled" video displays—huge screens made up of multiple smaller screens—have been employed commercially for some time, but up to now, they've been relatively impractical for home use. Runco hopes to change that with its new WindowWall, which is designed for decidedly upscale homes.

WindowWall comprises an array of 46-inch, 1366x768 LCD panels with only a quarter-inch bezel between them. These panels can be mounted in landscape or portrait orientation, and the entire structure requires only 4.5 inches of depth, allowing it to be installed on convex or concave walls. The electronics, which can use all panels for one large image or display separate smaller images in any combination, are located in a separate rack up to 100 feet away.

Of course, I wouldn't want to watch a movie on such a display—the dividing lines would be too distracting. But WindowWall is perfect for sports enthusiasts, who can watch one game enlarged to gigantic proportions or a bunch of different games at the same time. You can also display scenes as if looking out a real window (an application called "digital ambience"), engage in videoconferencing, and monitor various security cams around your property, among many other applications.

The system is completely scalable, with many standard configurations available from $20,000 to $300,000. A recent demo in Los Angeles featured nine landscape-oriented panels in a 3x3 array measuring 10.1 feet wide by 5.7 feet high with a total resolution of 4098x2304, which would cost about $95,000. Hey, if I had a big upscale house, I'd sure want one!