Not Far From It Now

A strong majority of people have seen a video wall or know what a video wall is, but just might not know how to describe it. Some of the other terms you might be more familiar with are seamless video walls, frameless video walls, video grids, plasma walls, etc. For the purpose of this article I will refer to them as plasma video walls as that is the most common industry term and the one most people will recognize.

What is a video wall?
A plasma video wall is a series of plasma screen monitors that arranged together to form one large screen. It might be easier to think of it as putting a bunch of TV's together to form one giant TV. The plasma monitors used to create a video wall however have very small borders or edges (often referred to as frameless). This allows each individual monitor that makes up a video wall to get very close to the other monitors and creates a more seamless picture. Typically when looking at a video wall you can notice where the individual plasma screens come together, although the overall impact on the video or picture being displayed is minor.

Video walls are a popular rental at trade shows, exhibitions and other business type conventions for drawing a crowd and presenting a 'larger than life' video experience. The individual plasmas can be configured in a variety of ways to create a horizontal, vertical, or grid like pattern depending on the intention. Since a video wall is made up of individual plasma monitors there really is no limit on the size of a video wall, although the most common seem to be 3x3 grids comprised of nine 42" plasma monitors. These monitors can display video independently or act as one giant monitor and display video across all the screens as if it were one monitor. Most of the time you will see a combination of different ways video is presented on them.

Travis M. blogs about technology. Most companies choose to rent video walls or plasma monitors for conventions, expos and trade shows.

Reuters - Dismal economic data from the United States and Europe pointed to further pain for the world's two largest economies, while aluminum maker Alcoa Inc plans to slash thousands of jobs and curtail operations to conserve cash in a deepening recession.

The current generation of console wars would have to be one of the most interesting in wars the history of the industry. Gone are the days of the original Playstation dominating the industry with 80 million consoles sold and gone are the days of the 1 vs 1 nature of the 16 bit era. There are three major players in this generation and perhaps most interestingly, the power house corporations throwing hundreds of millions into advertising are behind.

The PS3 is in serious trouble a year into it's life. While many argue it is the most impressive of the three when you take into account it's amazing power, it still finds itself 10 million consoles behind the Wii worldwide, while still trailing the xbox 360 by about 7 million units. Even though Sony boasts that the PS3 is the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market, sales have indicated that the average consumer wasn't willing to pay the huge asking price upon release and elected to purchase the pure gaming machines in the Wii and 360 instead. Magazines such as PC World and GamesRadar have both slammed the machine for being "late, expensive and imcomplete" and the biggest game related PR disaster respectively.

The Xbox 360 was the first to launch late 2006. Many would argue the xbox 360 is the furthest behind when you take into account the fact that it launched a year before the other two consoles... and if you compare PS3 sales to the sales of the 360 at the same age, this is true. The question becomes can the PS3 sustain it and catch the 360? The Xbox 360 has accumulated a loyal fan base and for this reason developers are producing games for both the 360 and PS3 that would have been an exclusive for the PS2 in the previous generation. This alone, in the end could be a killer blow for the PS3.

The Wii was without a doubt the underdog before it's release. Not many would have predicted the huge success the Wii would be when you looked at the two gaming giants it was up against: Microsoft and Sony. However, a year into it's release, the Wii find's itself way ahead of the pack, taping into the apparent unbelievable potential of the casual gamer. The Wii's appeal is it's ability to get people who have never touched a video game in their life to have a go. This has seen housewives, and even grandparents purchase a Wii for their very own... and may be the reason why the Wii has sold 50% more consoles than the PS3 in the same period of time.

The new generation has also seen the creation of many online download sites out there. This is becoming more of a reality as technology gets better due to the super fast internet connections most have today. Some are legal and decent services, but others can just be in it to take your money. Check out my review (link below) of one of them I recommend if you want to download games for your next gen console.

Brett Ranton is an obsessive gamer and owner of all consoles. He's also creator and owner of the blog "Wii Want to Blog." This blog aims to supply consumers with reviews, news and opinion pieces on the Wii or software/hardware available for it.

Wii Want to Blog

The Christian Science Monitor - The waistlines of America's youth are expanding, shrinking the pool of those eligible to join the US military. But an Army program is giving overweight enlistees a second chance – and helping the military with its own expansion.