In fall 2022, installation of Samsung’s large-scale immersive display technology, dubbed The Wall, helped update the lobby in Newhouse 1, the I.M. Pei-designed building that Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications added in 1964. The video wall gives the university’s communications school a dynamic way to depict students’ experiences.
Five MicroLED video panels separated by a 3-inch gap are used to highlight program initiatives, such as film projects and student profiles, according to IT Director Brian Tibbens.
“We wanted to tell our story as a school,” Tibbens says. “We have really great facilities, but they don’t always showcase for students how they fit within that story. Newhouse 1 is where every single visitor and potential student comes in. This was a great opportunity to give it a look and feel that met our aesthetic design criteria.”
The school typically selects five or six students per semester to feature in videos that touch on their achievements and goals.
“Our communications team tries to look at the broad student population — students who have interesting stories, from different programs,” Tibbens says. “For potential students who are interested in coming into the school, instead of staring at a big poster board, it’s a board that’s constantly changing and rotating, showcasing what we’re doing.”
The video wall is powered by an HP Z8 G4 desktop workstation located behind the display and a NVIDIA Quadro RTX video card, hardwired to the screens to provide consistent video sequencing with little frame loss.
Content is pushed via a local network from a shared text, image and video sequence database housed on an Intel NUC 11 Enthusiast computer, which also supports an alumni gallery wall composed of four 65-inch NEC touch panels located on the second floor.
The Newhouse 1 lobby display, according to Tibbens, has added “a new form of life to the building.”
“Even on the brightest day, it’s absolutely illuminated with this interactive colorful wall,” he says. “But at night it really shines. It literally illuminates the entire atrium of the building in bold colors and stories that just really pop. We have a lot of visitors come through our building, and you always see them hanging around watching the storylines and asking follow-up questions.”
