Displaying in new dimensions

• Features

• 26/11/2015

Immersive displays are indispensable tools for multiple different industries. Hurrairah bin Sohail takes a look at where and how they are deployed across Asia Pacific.

Sight is the primary way humans process and digest information. We have to see things with our own eyes to believe them. When it comes to visualization for commercial purposes, the best solution money can buy is in the form of immersive displays.

The term immersive display is a catchall for a number of different display solutions that go beyond just simply showing data on screen like a standard consumer monitor or projector. To be considered an immersive display, a solution needs to meet higher standards.

Lin Yu, vice president for Christie Asia Pacific, provides a definition for immersive displays: “Immersive display is a multi-channel display system that has a horizontal field of view with a minimum 150 degrees and a vertical field of view of a minimum 35 degrees. Most of Christie’s installed immersive displays have 160 degrees by 40 degrees field of view characteristics.”

In Asia, immersive displays have not always been the most popular solution. Yu says: “Immersive displays were not always the most popular choice due to price point, fragility, space and limited number of user possibilities.” However, at present this situation has changed. He adds: “Today, there are many different types of immersive displays and some of the largest and most demanding customers are found in Asia.”

Mike Hancock who is the vice president at Mechdyne Corporation, a provider specializing in visualization technologies and solutions, notes: “Immersive displays are relatively popular in Asia particularly for the automotive design and engineering, university, government and research sectors.”

Hancock also goes on the offer more insight into the preferences of the Asian end user. For large scale displays four to six pixels per centimeter specifications are requested while higher resolution displays can go in the range of 10 to 14 pixels per centimeter. Even higher resolutions are possible but it appears that they are typically not selected. For small scale displays such as flatpanels full HD 1920 by 1080 resolution is the norm with ultra HD 4K displays being quickly adopted at present.

For the sectors highlighted by Hancock, immersive displays can be considered to be indispensable tools. They are essential if the end-users wish to remain competitive in their respective fields on a global setting. Players in Asia have realized this and immersive displays have gained traction in multiple Asian regions.

As with many other industries and businesses, immersive displays have experienced significant growth in China. Yoav Nir, the strategic marketing director at Barco, says: “Immersive displays are very popular in China. China is the world leader when it comes to open planning and because of the growth that has happened and is still happening, the Chinese were quite quick to integrate immersive visualization. They make good use of augmented reality.”

System integrators too have moved to capitalize on the opportunities available in China. Stuart Hetherington who is the CEO for Holovis, another immersive displau solutions provider, lists the number of projects his company has been working on in the country: “China is a huge market for us at the moment. We have staff on the ground in Shanghai and we are working all over China. We have projects down in Hainan, we have projects up in Mohei far north along the Mongolian border and we have projects in Shanghai and Beijing as well.”

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