An Investigation into Alternative MediaWall Solutions for the UBC Faculty ofPharmaceutical SciencesSayson, Michael Lee, Sebastian Liu, SeanFudimov, AndriyNovember 28, 2013AbstractThe UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences Building contains an interactive exhibit called, TheStory of Medicine. Part of that exhibit consists of the UBC Impact Media Wall. The wallhowever, has problems relating to the component lifespan, energy consumption, displayand software. As such, this report seeks to find an alternative Media Wall product tosucceed the current Media Wall and by using a triple bottom line analysis, examining theenvironmental, economic and social impacts, to determine if the alternative product isa suitable replacement. Filtering through the various available Media Wall technologiesusing this criterion, three products: Christie MicroTiles; the Planar Clarity Matrix; andthe NEC Ultra-Narrow Professional-Grade Large-Screen Display are suitable candidatesfor replacing the current Media Wall.In doing further research this report recommends that the Planar Clarity Matrix is tobe implemented as the new Media Wall for The Story of Medicine exhibit at the UBCPharmaceutical Sciences Building.3ContentsAbstract 3List of Illustrations 51 Introduction 62 Current System 72.1 Economic Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.2 Social Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82.3 Environmental Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Alternative Systems 93.1 Christie MicroTiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93.1.1 Economic Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93.1.2 Social Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103.1.3 Environmental Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113.2 Planar Clarity Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113.2.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113.2.2 Economic Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113.2.3 Social Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123.2.4 Environmental Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123.3 NEC Ultra-Narrow Professional-Grade Large-Screen Display . . . . . . . . 123.3.1 Economic Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133.3.2 Social Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133.3.3 Environmental Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Comparison of Systems 144.1 Economic Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144.2 Social Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144.3 Environmental Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Conclusion 16Bibliography 174List of Illustrations3.1 Christie Microtiles Calculator Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103.2 Planar Re-Seller Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124.1 Comparison of Prices Over 10 Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144.2 Comparison of Power Consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1451 IntroductionThe high expense for part replacements, uneven light distribution, and ongoing soft-ware support for the current rear-view projection media wall has created a great concernfor UBC. The purpose of this report is to find a solution to these problems through analternative media wall product. By using triple bottom line analysis, we first examinesome of the possible solutions without the need of replacing the current implementa-tion, then explore the following different implementation: Planar Christie Microtiles-bright, crisp, eco-friendly displays, Planar Clarity Matrix- an inexpensive high perfor-mance system, and NEC Ultra-Narrow Professional-Grade Large-Screen Display- highperformance, easy to implement displays.The high expense for part replacements, uneven light distribution, and ongoing soft-ware support for the current rear-view projection media wall has created a great concernfor UBC. By using triple bottom line analysis, we first examine some of the possi-ble solutions without the need of replacing the current implementation, then explorethe following different implementation: Planar Christie Microtiles- bright, crisp, eco-friendly displays, Planar Clarity Matrix- an inexpensive high performance system, andNEC Ultra-Narrow Professional-Grade Large-Screen Display- high performance, easy toimplement displays.62 Current SystemThe current rear-view projection based Media Wall that is in use by the UBC Phar-maceutical building consists of 6 Panasonic PT-DW6300ULS projectors connected to aDell T3500 desktop projecting along with various other peripherals, outputs a 4800x1280(NGX Interactive, 2012, p. 4) pixel resolution image to the 7ft x26ft (NGX Interactive,2012, p. 13) glass media wall. With respect to its technical specifications, the ImpactMedia Wall is undoubtedly large enough, has a high resolution and currently has thesoftware to accomplish the pharmacys goal of having a Media Wall to capture the at-tention of visitors that are new to their building, enticing them with facts to furtherexplore their History of Medicine exhibit, and as well as provide other useful informa-tion for other audiences such as faculty members, students and staff. (NGX Interactive,2012, p. 13) However, there are concerns involving the wall. The main concerns with itare as follows: The lamps used by the projector are unsustainable, having a very low lifespan and a high replacement cost; the screens display an uneven light distribution, whichdiminishes user immersion; the wall requires a significant amount of power to operate;the software used by the wall is proprietary and is leading to concerns about currentand future support.2.1 Economic ImpactSince the Impact Media Wall has already been bought and paid for, the remainingeconomic costs come from its power consumption, maintenance and part replacement.The power consumption of the wall (including the 6 projectors and the computer pow-ering the display) comes out to 3620 watts per hour which is standard for a projectorbased Media Wall of this quality (Panasonic, 2009, p. 2). The power cost comes outto be an annual amount of about $796 per year assuming the wall is running for 40hours per week year round, using BC Hydros step 2 rate. This however pales in com-parison to the maintenance and part replacement costs of the wall which are comingfrom the projectors and projector lamps. Replacing projector lamps alone is costing thePharmaceutical building $10,000-$12,000 (NGX Interactive, 2012, p. 7) annually andthe projectors need to be overhauled every 4 years(NGX Interactive, 2012, p. 7) costinganother $1000-$2000 depending on the condition of the projectors. Furthermore a pro-jector can break, in which case, it will cost $5,000 to replace. This leads to an operatingcost of a minimum of $45,000 over the span of 4 years.72.2 Social ImpactTo begin our assessment on the social impact, we conducted a survey on November4th 2013 at the Pharmaceutical building. Asking a wide array of people includingvisitors, and students we received a variety of different responses. Some of the people weinterviewed said that they only noticed the wall their first day there and thought that itshould only be meant for visitors. They recommended that it should only be turned on forspecial events and ceremonies. An overwhelming majority of the people we interviewedmentioned that they found that the wall helped build the atmosphere of the buildingand was incredibly useful with the information and health tips it provided, especially itsflu prevention tips,due to the fact it is flu season. The qualms, that people generally hadwith the wall were that they were annoyed by its uneven light distribution as well as howit is only on at certain random hours of the day. This was due to the Pharmaceuticalbuilding trying to increase the projector lamp life span. Finally people were disappointedin the variety of content that the wall displayed, where the solution is bottleneck by theproblems that the wall is having with its proprietary software. It seems that having aMedia Wall in itself is providing a useful tool for the Pharmaceutical building and theonly problems that it is having right now are due to its poorly implemented technology,in any case simply turning the wall off is not an option.2.3 Environmental ImpactAs stated earlier the wall consumes 3620 watts per hour, although this is normalfor projector based media walls of this quality, LED based media walls are much moreefficient making this a significant issue. Furthermore UBC is replacing over 24 projectorlamps per year (12k/750 per lamp) (Pureland Supply, 2013) and this is unsustainabledue to all the energy that goes into making the new projector lamps as well as thedisposal/recycling of the old ones. Finally these lamps are not manufactured locallywhich poses the problem of carbon emissions during transportation. Overall the UBCImpact Media wall could improve in many aspects environmentally wise.83 Alternative Systems3.1 Christie MicroTilesChristie Microtiles is an alternative product in which utilizes both DLP (Digital LightProcessing) and LED (Light-Emitting Diode) display technology. Christie Microtilesprovides a long lasting, high resolution product which is the most environmentallyfriendly display that is offered in the industry. The Microtiles have a height of 306mmand width of 408 mm. In order to provide a similiar sized wall we would need 140 D100Microtiles in a 20 wide by 7 high tile formation, which would be 26.7’ x 7.0’(Christie Dig-ital Systems USA, 2013b). There are several examples of where the Microtiles are beingimplemented. A list is provided at their site.(Christie Digital Systems USA, 2013d)3.1.1 Economic ImpactWe found that the total cost of the Christie Microtiles including, hardware cost, labor(both installation and maintence), power cost, and lifetime replacement and mainte-nance would be around $331,440. These are just estimates that we have gathered fromChristie’s online calculator(Christie Digital Systems USA, 2013a). The cost of each Mi-crotile we found to be at $2090.30 from looking at a reseller from avalive.com(Avalive,2013)9Figure 3.1: Christie Microtiles Calculator Output3.1.2 Social ImpactChristie Microtiles would solve all the problems that the current Media Wall is havingas well as improve in certain areas and maintain all the benefits discussed in section 2.2.Since the tiles are a single piece that does not use any lamps or consumable parts thisgets rid of the problem of having to spend money on lamps every year. Also since itis based on DLP and LED technology, it no longer has to deal with the uneven lightdistribution problem. The display is less seamless then the current Media Wall, sinceit has a seam between each display, but would provide an overall better experience.The seam between each display is also only 1mm wide, so at further distances it would10become less noticable. The overall experience of the Media Wall would be improved asthere are less distractions for the users while it is in use. The display also would provide abetter experience as it is at a much higher resolution of 720x540 giving a better defineddisplay.(Christie Digital Systems USA, 2013b) The atmosphere also will be damagedduring the installation process of the new technology as there will a downtime period.3.1.3 Environmental ImpactThe Microtiles are one of the most environmently friendly product that is being offeredon the market currently. The power consumption of each tile is typically 70W per hourwhen in use. Since we have 140 Microtiles the total power consumption per hour would be70W * 140 tiles = 9800W/hour. We also would consider how the products were beinghandled during manufactoring and recycling. Gathering information from Christie’ssite, the Microtiles are made from 90% of recoverable materials and is 80% recyclable.They are also made with non-hazardous materials which allows for an easier recyclingprocess(Christie Digital Systems USA, 2013c). The Microtiles are made to last a longtime, with a lifetime of 65,000 hours and if used 24 hours a day everyday would last for7.4 years(65,000/(24hours*365days)). Considering the hours in which the Media Wall isoperating, which is around 2920 - 5475 hours a year(8 to 15 hours a day), it will have alifetime of 22 to 11 years. (65,000/2920 = 22 years to 65,000/5475 = 11 years)(ChristieDigital Systems USA, 2013b)3.2 Planar Clarity Matrix3.2.1 OverviewThe Planar Clarity Matrix is a system that utilizes an array of LED backlit LCDs.This system has the thinnest available LCD video wall on the market and is designedto have good image quality and simple maintenance. The implementation of the PlanarClarity Matrix that we chose, will have displays that are 47.84 inches by 27.01 inches(Planar Systems, Inc., 2013a). Therefore, in order to replace the current system wewould need 6 screens by 3 screens. The economic, social, and environmental impacts areas follows.3.2.2 Economic ImpactWe estimated that the total cost for the Planar Clarity Matrix would be approximately$130,000. This was based off of hardware costs and estimated software and maintenancecosts. We did not get an official quote on installation and maintenance costs, so forour calculations we assumed that it would cost approximately $20,000 which would besimilar to Christie’s price.We could only find a few re-sellers that would ship to Canada, but contacting Planarwould result in more options.11Re-Seller Price Shipping TotalDirectDial.com(DirectDial, 2013) $121,374.00 $56.00 $121,430.00TouchBoards.com(Touchboards, 2013) $107,892.00 $512.84 $108,404.84Figure 3.2: Planar Re-Seller PricingBased off the retailers of the LX55HD display above, we found that the cost of thesystem with shipping would be $108,404.84. The total cost of the system would be thecost of the displays + maintenance so, it would be approximately $130,000.3.2.3 Social ImpactThe Planar Clarity Matrix would have all the benefits of the current display systemdiscussed in section 2.2. It would also have a more crisp display resolution of 1920 by1080 per display (Planar Systems, Inc., 2013a). This multiplied over 18 displays wouldresult in a total resolution of 34,560 by 3,240. For the users this means a clearer andcleaner image than the current system provides. Planar’s system would also eliminatethe current system’s light distribution problem. The use of LCD technology eliminatesthe uneven brightness that projector based systems can have. The problem with thisimplementation is that there would be small lines dividing the displays every 47.84inches horizontally and 27.01 inches vertically. This is less immersive then a unifieddisplay, however the lines are only 5.5mm thick (Planar Systems, Inc., 2013a) so it isless distracting than the dim spots that the current system has. There would also be asignificant down time while the system is installed. This would damage the atmosphereof the Pharmaceutical building while the system is replaced.3.2.4 Environmental ImpactThe Planar Clarity Matrix has many environmental benefits. Using Planar’s ClarityMatrix Calculator , we found that a system of 18 displays would use 3270W/hr onaverage. If the system was on for 24 hours, 7 days a week, it would be on for 8,760hours per year (24 * 365). This means that the system would use approximately 28.6million watts per year. The lifetime of this display is 50,000 hours at half brightness(Planar Systems, Inc., 2013a). If the display was on 24/7 it would have a lifetime of 5.7years. However, in the Pharmaceutical Sciences building the display would most likelybe on for approximately 15 hours a day, 5 days a week. At this rate, the display wouldlast 12.8 years and use 12.8 million watts per year.3.3 NEC Ultra-Narrow Professional-Grade Large-ScreenDisplayThe NEC Ultra-Narrow Professional-Grade Large-Screen Display (NECD) is a 46 inchLED-Backlit display that offers a full 1080p HD (1920x1080) resolution. The embeddedTileMatrixTM supports a 10 x 10 (100 displays) media wall. This display is currently12implemented in UBCs Journey of a Drug and Role of Pharmacy with a 2x2 configuration.This solution will utilize the same LCD technology but on a larger scale.3.3.1 Economic ImpactThe cost of each NECD is approximately $5,000 per display with a 3 year warranty.The life expectancy of each display is estimated to be around 100,000 hours (NECDisplay Solutions, 2013a) To implement this solution on the IMW, it will require 26displays in total with a 2 x 13 configuration (see device configuration). The total costfor the 26 displays is approximately $130,000 excluding installation and maintenance fee.The maintenance cost will be cheaper since there are fewer components to replace withrespect to the current media wall. The software development cost will be minimizedsince we can modify the same software from the one utilized by Journey of a Drug andRole of Pharmacy by NGX.3.3.2 Social ImpactBy using NECD, it resolves the uneven light distribution in the current IMW. Thesharper display quality and built-in speaker provided by NECD will enhance the userexperience significantly. With respect to the current IMW implementation, the resolu-tion will be enhanced from 4800x1280 (NGX Interactive, 2012) to 14040 x 3840 and thecontrast ratio will be enhanced from 2,000:1 per display (Panasonic, 2009) to 3,500:1 perdisplay (NEC Display Solutions, 2009). With the built in speakers, the display exhibitcan engage the public further by incorporating audio to the exhibit and providing abetter atmosphere to the surroundings. The trade off for using NECD is that for eachdisplay, there is a 5.6x6.1mm (NEC Display Solutions, 2009) frame space on each side.The total frame space between each monitor is 11.2x12.2mm.3.3.3 Environmental ImpactAll NEC products are environmental friendly. Most components are recyclable and allproducts are mercury free (NEC Display Solutions, 2013b). NECD is certified by EnergyStar 5.1. The display contains a built in ambient light sensor, that adjusts its brightnessaccording to the environment,it has a energy saving LED backlight, and a carbon savingmeter to keep track of the carbon emission. The power consumption under normaloperation is 120W, and 0.5W for power saving mode. Based on the power consumption,we calculated that the total power consumption of 26 displays is 5,200W/h. Despitethat the NECD consumes more power than the current IMW, NECD’s implementationreduces the waste produced because of the fewer parts needed to be replace comparedto the current implementation.134 Comparison of Systems4.1 Economic ImpactAll of the previously discussed items have a negative economic impact, but some ofthem have a more significant impact than others. In the following table we will comparethe impact of the different solutions over a 10 year period.UBC Impact Media Wall Christie MicroTiles Planar Clarity Matrix NEC Displays$112,500 $331,440 $130,000 $130,000 + maintenanceFigure 4.1: Comparison of Prices Over 10 YearsAs you can see, sticking with the current implementation would have the greatesteconomic benefit, but the Planar’s and NEC’s products come very close.4.2 Social ImpactAll of the alternate solutions to the current Impact Media Wall have the same socialimpact. All three of them eliminate the current problems with uneven light distributionand all three have thin bezels that could potentially harm user experience. However onall of them the bezel is small enough that we think the benefits outweigh the losses.The biggest social issue for all three alternative displays is that the PharmaceuticalBuilding will have to take out the current implementation, so while an alternate solutionis installed the atmosphere of the room will be damaged. However, we believe thatlong term the temporary damage to the atmosphere will be worth it. All three of thealternative implementations provide a good enough experience that we would recommendthem all for social benefit over the current implementation.4.3 Environmental ImpactThe environmental impact of the above solutions varies quite a bit. For all of them thebiggest concern is power, however there are other aspects such as life span and recyclablematerials as well.UBC Impact Media Wall Christie MicroTiles Planar Clarity Matrix NEC Displays3,260W/hr 9,800W/hr 3,270W/hr 5,200W/hrFigure 4.2: Comparison of Power Consumption14As you can see the power consumption of the different products varies greatly, withChristie’s solution taking approximately three times as much power as Planar’s or thecurrent system’s. However don’t let Christie’s power draw fool you, it has a lot of otherenvironmentally friendly aspects to it such as recyclability.The lifespan of the devices is a little harder to compare. The Impact Media Wall needsbulb replacements every year, but Christie’s, Planar’s, and NEC’s implementations havelifespans of 65,000, 50,000, and 100,000 hours.155 ConclusionBased off of the above comparisons, we would recommend installing Planar’s ClarityMatrix in order to replace the current media wall system. We believe that the longterm benefits in terms of social and environmental impact are worth the relatively smallamount of extra money that would be needed to be spent over a 10 year period. It has anequally low power draw as the current implementation and a much longer lifespan and itfixes the issues that impede social immersion into the wall. The Planar Clarity Matrixis an overall good and relatively cheap solution that would benefit the PharmaceuticalBuilding long term.16BibliographyAvalive. (2013). Christie Microtiles product page. Retrieved November 27, 2013, fromhttp://www.avalive.com/Christie-Digital/123-001102-01/172629/productDetail.phpChristie Digital Systems USA, I. (2013a). Christie Microtiles Calculator. Retrieved Novem-ber 27, 2013, from http : / / www . christiedigital . com / en - us / digital - signage /products/microtiles/tco-calculator/pages/default.aspxChristie Digital Systems USA, I. (2013b). Christie Microtiles Datasheet. 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