Marcel DeKeyzer, President of XL Video, announced earlier this year that XL Video had made a large capital investment in new technology to benefit its customers. This new equipment was used extensively at this year’s International Auto Shows and will be used for many of the upcoming projects now in design.
DeKeyzer points out, “When it comes to new technology, we put our money where our mouth is. We made an investment of over $17 million in new equipment; certainly the largest capital investment in our history, but it may well be the largest capital investment every done in our industry.”
This includes 450 modules of ChromaLED 6B 6mm from Chromatek, a new generation of high resolution, high contrast black LED screens. DeKeyzer explains, “The main improvement over existing technology is that it is high contrast. A lot of LED screens in the past were very light; these are much blacker, which means that the screens have a much higher contrast.”
DeKeyzer continues, “The second product that we bought is also an LED screen. We now have a very large inventory—120 square meters—of Chromatek’s ChromaLED 4 with 4mm pixel pitch SMDs. This is the first investment by any company in a higher resolution than 6mm. This is also a high contrast black screen. We are seeing a push from our customers to go to real high-definition screens,” says DeKeyzer. “The 4mm ChromaLED 4, will enable our customers to actually build true high-definition video screens.” This product was used by XL Video this past August in St. Paul, MN at the Republican National Convention to create the largest temporary event screen to date.
A third investment is in Media Mesh, which is a co-development of GKD and AG4 Media Texture Company. “This is the new metal mesh product that we had on Honda at the LA Auto Show,” says DeKeyzer. “It is a metal mesh with LED products from AG4 from Germany inside it.”
The obvious optical advantage is not the only benefit from these new LED screens. XL Video also added new processors that maximize the LED screens performance. “In addition the processing has been greatly improved,” says DeKeyzer. “Most of the processors for screens were all based on five-year old technology and now this is a serious upgrade in processing.” The new processing from Chromatek is capable of creating the highest possible resolution in one screen, and capable of driving different types of screens with different pitches simultaneously.
Besides new technology, XL Video leads the pack with regard to creative uses of technology. Rather than limiting designers to the use of LED screens as “big TVs” XL brings new ideas to designers so that they can make the most creative designs anywhere. “It is our goal as an LED technology provider to keep the designers informed of the possibilities,” comments DeKeyzer. “We want to showcase technology being used in fresh and unique ways.”