The Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University

Planar Display Technology Heightens Atmosphere at Spears School of Business

A new $72 million building for the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University opened in January 2018, introducing 147,450 square feet of new classrooms, offices, team rooms, labs and conference rooms, including a graduate student lounge. The state-of-the-art structure was designed and furnished with the student experience in mind and features enhanced technology throughout the interior. As a component to this design strategy, video display technology from Planar was incorporated to help elevate the relevance of the school and captivate students and visitors.

LED Video Wall Serves as Entrance Showpiece

In the lobby, a Planar TWA Series LED video wall with a 2.5mm pixel pitch (TWA2.5) in a 3x3 configuration was installed as a feature attraction at the entrance of the new building.

Architected to support the highest pixel density and providing benefits unique to its "flat panel" design, the Planar TWA Series offers a vivid, seamless video wall solution for the new lobby space. The Planar TWA Series is engineered for 24x7 operation and delivers excellent off-axis uniformity, maximum full color and brightness, and a crisp, high contrast image from the highest quality black LEDs.

"The Planar video wall is stunning, visually eye-catching and people are drawn to it," said Rockford Todd, engineering manager with Oklahoma State University. "We had the video wall mounted in a custom wood frame and it looks like it was conceptually planned as part of the building design."

On a day-to-day basis, the video wall is used for digital signage, allowing the business school to display and promote information to students. But as a flexible solution, the video wall can also support further applications.
"If there is a special live event at the Spears school, we can take our production cameras over to the building and use the video wall as a focal point of that event," Todd said. "Or, if there is a guest speaker in the basement hall, we can send a live feed to the video wall so that the lobby can support overflow."

LED Stock Ticker

Planar video display technology is also used in a classroom at the school where a Planar CarbonLight™ CLA Series video wall with a 1.9mm pixel pitch (CLA1.9) is custom designed in a ribbon configuration as a stock ticker—adding a Wall Street aesthetic that is fitting with the school's business environment.

The Planar CarbonLight CLA Series includes a line of fine pitch LED video wall displays featuring Planar PrecisionArc™ alignment technology to create stunningly seamless installations with concave, convex or wave formations. Engineered with a carbon fiber structure, the CarbonLight CLA Series incorporates a thin, lightweight, high-strength carbon fiber casing in a modular design to fit a wide range of simple or complex applications.

When Todd and his team were first evaluating options for the stock ticker, they found that the CarbonLight CLA display was not only considerably more affordable as compared to other stock ticker options but that it also provided the added benefit of greater functionality.

"We were just blown away by the price of the CarbonLight CLA to begin with, but then the ability to also display other content and messages—which other options couldn't provide—really delivered to us a better return on investment," Todd said.