A View From the Top

On this episode of A View From The Top by Nanolumens, Host Brandy Alvarado-Miranda talked with Mark Delguidice, Western Business Development Director at Atlantis Partners, which delivers expert AV, video conferencing, and structured cabling manpower to the nation's leading system integrators and IT providers. They discussed the proper ways to install an LED display. Nanolumens is known for simplified, direct view LED displays, and Atlantis Partners helps with the installations. But, there is important information to learn and pitfalls to avoid. Delguidice often turns to his friends in the industry who have completed extensive installations. "One of the main things that have to be taken into consideration with a proper LED install is structure," Delguidice explained, who has worked in the AV industry for over 32 years, holding positions from a technician to a current executive, "and if the structures are proper and going to be able to hold the weight safely and according to local codes." According to Delguidice, people often underestimate if a structure can hold the weight. High-quality LED walls are built much more durable and solid than an average T.V. from a box store. While the weight-holding capabilities of the structure are important, it's essential to take a look under the surface."Then you get into the installation of the wall itself and how it aligns," Delguidice said. "Technicians have many tricks up their sleeve to make sure the walls are aligned properly and balanced out correctly." Listen to hear more "tricks" on how to install a LED Display properly.

Brice McPheeters, Vice President of Product & Planning, talks about Nanolumens' approach to working with ecosystem partner and how you need these collaborations to create a total solution.

Kurt Deyoung, Chief Revenue Officer at Nanolumens, explains the Totem display showcasing Nixle platform's curved screens with different pixel pitches and bend radiuses. The 1.2mm, 1.5mm, 1.8mm, and 2.5mm pixel pitches demonstrate varying curve capabilities based on LED diode density. The Clear Vision series, presented by Kurt, offers transparent LED screens suitable for retail, corporate lobbies, and elevator bays, allowing visibility while displaying creative content. Kurt emphasizes the suitability of wider pixel pitches for graphic-rich displays rather than fine text. He discusses spatial resolutions and pixel pitches, such as the 1.2mm pitch for close-up viewing and the 2.5mm pitch for larger spaces or outdoor settings. Kurt highlights the 0.9mm pixel pitch for premium applications like control rooms, providing fine resolution for complex data visualization. He emphasizes the importance of considering viewing distance, resolution requirements, and budget when selecting a pixel pitch. The Totem display allows clients to assess content at various distances, empowering them to make informed decisions aligned with their project needs

Nanolumens, led by Chief Revenue Officer Kurt DeYoung, has undergone significant transformations to enhance its project execution capabilities. By expanding their team responsible for project management, engineering, and production, Nanolumens has surpassed customer expectations, ensuring timely delivery and alignment with project schedules. In the competitive LED market, clients must carefully evaluate their project needs and the capabilities of potential suppliers. Nanolumens, an LED company, offers both custom and standard LED screens for various applications, such as wayfinding and corporate campuses. Understanding the intricate ecosystem of stakeholders involved in LED projects, including building owners, architects, content creators, and integrators, is crucial for success. Nanolumens prioritizes partnerships and provides resources like pre-sales consulting and on-site assessments to deliver value and expertise to integration partners. Furthermore, as LED technology becomes more affordable and offers advantages like power efficiency and flexible screen configurations, Nanolumens highlights these benefits compared to LCD options. Lastly, Nanolumens distinguishes itself by complying with the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), making it an appealing choice for buyers engaged in secure applications.

The digital signage industry saw significant growth in 2021, and the market is expected to see a 16 percent growth increase between now and 2030, according to Market Watch. Much of that growth can be credited to new measures that were innovated and utilized due to the COVID-19 pandemic.How did the pandemic help accelerate the growth of the digital signage industry?On an episode of “A View From the Top,” host Savannah Jones interviews Frank Pisano, VP of Sales, Americas for BrightSign, and Espen Jensen, Channel Solution Specialist at Nanolumens, on the evolution of digital signage, the latest trends, and adapting the industry to a hybrid workplace.Jones, Espen, and Pisano discussed …How remote work functions in updating digital display contentHow a hybrid workplace can function in the industryWhy many businesses are moving to incorporate digital signage"People are looking for digital screens to tell them what to do when they're entering buildings, but the world is static — also requires a lot of folks to change out static signs. So, there is especially … a lot of talk around the ability to change signs remotely and not have to be on-site to do that or require a bunch of staff to go in," said Pisano.And compared to static signage, digital offers something much more rewarding, added Jensen. "There's a big ticket item as far as going with live instead of static, but there's a lot more return to it, and that's going to be a lot more captivating just because of the image quality we can get on large displays now, versus what we had before,'' said Jensen.Frank Pisano has been the VP of Sales at Americas for BrightSign for four years. He was a board member and executive director of the Digital Signage Federation and worked in sales for Milestone AV Technologies for over a decade. He is also a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.Espen Jensen is the Channel Solutions Specialist at Nanolumens. He has a wealth of experience in sales management and has worked for companies like Hitachi America, Newline Interactive, and Panasonic.

On this episode of A View From The Top by NanoLumens, Host Brandy Alvarado-Miranda talked with Mark Delguidice, Western Business Development Director at Atlantis Partners, which delivers expert AV, video conferencing, and structured cabling manpower to the nation's leading system integrators and IT providers. They discussed the proper ways to install an LED display. NanoLumens is known for simplified, direct view LED displays, and Atlantis Partners helps with the installations. But, there is important information to learn and pitfalls to avoid. Delguidice often turns to his friends in the industry who have completed extensive installations. "One of the main things that have to be taken into consideration with a proper LED install is structure," Delguidice explained, who has worked in the AV industry for over 32 years, holding positions from a technician to a current executive, "and if the structures are proper and going to be able to hold the weight safely and according to local codes." According to Delguidice, People often underestimate if a structure can hold the weight. High-quality LED walls are built much more durable and solid than an average T.V. from a box store. While the weight-holding capabilities of the structure are important, it's essential to take a look under the surface."Then you get into the installation of the wall itself and how it aligns," Delguidice said. "Technicians have many tricks up their sleeve to make sure the walls are aligned properly and balanced out correctly." Listen to hear more "tricks" on how to install a LED Display properly.

Storytelling connects the parts of people that other communications don’t typically reach. The way we engage, excite, and educate people about technology is to make it meaningful for them. People can see the impact of your technology and make a decision or take an action in response to the story. In this episode of A View From The Top by NanoLumens, Host Brandy Alvarado-Miranda talked with Yiannis Cabolis, Director of Technology Innovation at Electrosonic, about the intersection of storytelling and technology. With over 15 years under his belt, Cabolis has filled many different roles at Electrosonic. In his current role, he connects the dots between various aspects of technology the company uses from their vendors. He also focuses on things they can produce as part of their innovation initiatives. When it comes to innovative and disruptive technology trends, Electrosonic keeps its ear to the ground, particularly in the immersive and experiential spaces. There is quite a bit going on in the space, according to Cabolis. “Ideally, what we’re trying to do, in terms of disruptive technologies, is to look at ways where the environment can be as aware as possible, of itself and the viewer,” Cabolis explained, “a person we’re trying to connect, provide that storytelling and entertain.”

Storytelling connects the parts of people that other communications don’t typically reach. The way we engage, excite, and educate people about technology is to make it meaningful for them. People can see the impact of your technology and make a decision or take an action in response to the story. In this episode of A View From The Top by NanoLumens, Host Brandy Alvarado-Miranda talked with Yiannis Cabolis, Director of Technology Innovation at Electrosonic, about the intersection of storytelling and technology. With over 15 years under his belt, Cabolis has filled many different roles at Electrosonic. In his current role, he connects the dots between various aspects of technology the company uses from their vendors. He also focuses on things they can produce as part of their innovation initiatives. When it comes to innovative and disruptive technology trends, Electrosonic keeps its ear to the ground, particularly in the immersive and experiential spaces. There is quite a bit going on in the space, according to Cabolis. “Ideally, what we’re trying to do, in terms of disruptive technologies, is to look at ways where the environment can be as aware as possible, of itself and the viewer,” Cabolis explained, “a person we’re trying to connect, provide that storytelling and entertain.”

The concept of security is a well-worn trope in all industries. However, the weakest link of any system is fairly easy to determine. On this episode of the NanoSessions podcast, NanoLumens IT Director Tony Tran sat down with Sean Heath to discuss surprising facts regarding most security vulnerabilities. Quite often, the simplest explanation is the most accurate, according to Tran. “Your weakest link is always going to be the end user and awareness," he said. "An untrained user is always the weakest link to any security system.” Another challenge that content managers face is the somewhat unavoidable vulnerability inherent with cloud-based access, Tran explained. “Basically, you have to operate under these pretenses that it’s not a matter of if it happens, but rather when,” he said. Taking time to plan for those possibilities during the development stage definitely makes for a better end product, detailed Tran. “We typically take a little bit longer to deploy our products, because we have to think about all of these scenarios,” he said.

Founded with a mission to create a digital wallpaper that would transform the way audiences engaged with their surroundings, NanoLumens pushes the limits of media architecture further and further each year. We’ve found that as digital display technologies grow more prevalent in all facets of daily life, audiences not only expect to see screens in just about every room they enter but also to see these screens integrated into the very fabric of a building’s architecture. Working with renowned content creators like the digital sculptor Refik Anadol and the experts from Second Story and Moment Factory, NanoLumens has helped some of the world’s most sophisticated clients in transportation, communications, and commercial real estate evolve their space from simply a building into an immersive, future-proofed digital environment. We’ve written in this space before about the degrees of freedom in design NanoLumens grants each of our clients but its worth briefly touching on the media architecture successes of a few installations because each represents a remarkable achievement in thinking outside the box.To read the full blog post, click here. 

A common refrain heard in the Pro AV space is the admiration for all of the newest technological advances. On this episode of NanoLumens' NanoSessions, Joel Krieger, Chief Creative Officer for Second Story, sat down with host Sean Heath and they discussed how the newest disruptive technologies are being used in more subtle ways. Generally speaking, digital displays have followed a path similar to that of the internet, according to Krieger. “In the beginning, the internet was pretty interesting and it was like the Wild West. Eventually, it got commercialized and advertising began to really take over," he said. The digital display industry initially fell into the same pattern of prioritizing the advertising disruption, however, Krieger feels that is changing rapidly. “We once again have a moment to kind of think about how we treat the ‘built environment’ and how we activate these canvases in a way that’s in service of the people and the business,” he explained. The recent unveiling of a massive lobby installation, titled “Unify”, reinforces Krieger’s feeling that the next evolution of display technology application will be markedly different that the current digital modality. “With Unify, we’re not trying to communicate a message; we’re trying to create a feeling for a space,” said Krieger. “There are other ways to calculate value or return on investment from a media piece and it’s not always ‘how many impressions of your advertising message can you get across?’.” Redefining the purpose of the display is a way of acknowledging the impact of the message displayed on it, as well, according to Krieger. “What’s the value of how your employees feel in your building? How do you put a value on that," he asked.

Not everything is in the cloud. In fact, businesses that handle sensitive data such as financial records, medical records, and travel documents must maintain higher network security than ever before. That's sent these businesses off the cloud and back to on-site hosting for their digital display management systems. Until now. NanoLumens just launched a locally-hosted version of its AWARE digital display management system. Its development was inspired by NanoLumens customers who'd asked for a one-to-one version for local hosting. "We've been asked a few times from clients 'hey is there a locally hosted version of this?'," said Brice McPheeters, Director of Product Line Management and Customer Service, our guest on this new episode of NanoSessions, a NanoLumens podcast. "We made sure we created a true one to one interface. The exact way you interact with the cloud version was one to one with what we reproduced in the locally hosted version." McPheeters says ease of use is important because digital is everywhere and used by everybody. It's not just integrators or AV professionals using display management systems. "Everyone throws that term around but we've actually gone head to head with our competitors," he said. "We're just extremely easy to use as an operator, IT manager, or anyone who's having to educate new users."

Without a background or steady base of knowledge of Pro AV, it's honestly hard to keep up with all the advanced digital display technology that NanoLumens puts to work in its state-of-the-art displays. Micro LED versus LCD, pixels, pitch, curved display... for a new customer or someone new to the industry, learning and understanding all the terminology is no doubt a challenge. On this new episode of NanoSessions, a NanoLumens podcast, host Sean Heath welcomed senior copywriter Robert Simms to discuss the learning curve and how he goes about writing copy that'll get read. "When you're learning how to learn something, first you have to accept the fact you probably don't know anything about the space you're getting into," Simms said. "That was certainly the case with me. When I came to the industry, I had almost zero understanding of how the technology and the industry worked and how people in the industry communicated with each other." But lacking a background in engineering helped Simms approach learning complex technology with an outsider's or layman's viewpoint. "My background in communications helped me take a complex subject in engineering and translate it into more simplistic ideas that people without an engineering background will understand," Simms said. "If I had my druthers, I'd write as informally as possible because I've found the most natural way to communicate is to write as you speak."

By their very nature, inventions are the first of their kind. That's exciting for someone like Ted Heske, Director of Intellectual Property for NanoLumens who has devoted his life to emerging solutions. On this new episode of NanoSessions, a NanoLumens podcast, host Maggie Shein welcomed Heske to discuss patents and the intellectual property they work with when creating state-of-the-art display technology. "When you buy a NanoLumens display, that's a significant bundle of unique intellectual property that collectively provides a lot of advantages to our customers," Heske said. The Georgia-based company is known for creating large-format LED displays such as JFK International Airport’s Terminal 4 digital display that measures 30-foot wide by 10-foot high as well as other first-of-its-kind creative technology displays. As a former inventor of consumer products himself, Heske said patents and intellectual property are interesting because it's uncharted territory. "If an idea is worthy of a patent, that means no one has done it before," Heske said. "That's a constant source of novelty and a problem solver myself, I'm always interested in understanding how new things work." Heske also discussed the most significant patents in NanoLumens' arsenal of intellectual property and what makes those pieces of display technology so important.

When an outdoor LED board caught fire in New York's Time Square earlier this summer, experts turned new attention to fire safety and flame resistance of LED screens. On this episode of NanoSessions, a NanoLumens podcast, host Daniel Litwin welcomed Adam Dixon, operations director of electrical engineering for NanoLumens, to give his perspective on designing fire retardant LED displays. That fire "raised some eyebrows" among experts like Dixon because health and safety in public spaces where LEDs are often displayed are of utmost importance. "For any environment where the LED display is considered the building material, such as equipment in a transportation space where large crowds of people in small spaces, health and safety is a concern," Dixon said. NanoLumens has been well ahead of the curve in flame retardant LEDs. For about three years now, Dixon has been helping design and test fire retardant LED displays in collaboration with fire research companies and institutions. "Fire dynamics are incredibly complex," Dixon said. "We explored some uncommon or never previously used material combinations for the LED package itself as well as the air board construction." By looking at published research data about how homogenous materials hold up against fire and conversely how different combinations of materials react to fire, heat and smoke density, NanoLumens developed a well-researched and tested solution that could become a standard. Dixon explained, "We felt the best approach was to minimize combustible mass, so if you have less material to burn theoretically you're going to generate less radiant heat."