Judging from the presentation of its new Entero rear-projection videowall product, Christie (booth SL7219) has moved LED techology onto a whole new application field. The company is billing Entero as the world’s first LED-based (SXGA+ and WUXGA resolutions) wall display system, geared toward control rooms, in particular. Christie officials told me their advances in solid state LED technology have allowed, at last, this form of illumination to be bright enough to work nicely for a video wall application. The bright, colorful display at their booth appears to back up the claim.

And because it does work, the company has essentially produced a wall display that does without lamps, filters, or even color wheels, relying only on red/green/blue LED’s firing in sequence, and is extremely low maintenance for up to 50,000 hours of punishing use. The company suggests this could be a big deal for facilities that need to run video and data almost 24-7, like command and control centers, particularly in these difficult economic times.

Product manager Jim Gavloski told me he’s been pushing the concept for a couple years, proudly points out the lack of moving parts (outside of three, redundant cooling fans), and firmly insists the product is a “major step forward.”

Plus, it looks pretty cool …

–MG