MicroTiles

The MicroTiles video display system from Christie Digital is composed of modular 16" × 12" (408 mm × 306 mm) rear projection cube units that can be built together into a large video wall-style display. Each MicroTile unit contains a short-throw projector based on an LED light source and DLP optical imaging. The picture is formed onto the detachable front screen surface.

Because of the building-block nature of the system, the configuration of the overall screen area and shape is flexible, leading to simple traditional rectangular displays, and more complex non-standard shapes.

Every MicroTile unit has sensors in each side that detect whether there is another unit next to it, allowing the display controller to automatically determine the tile layout and the size and magnification of the video picture to be displayed across the screen area.

The MicroTiles system has design features for simple installation and setup that minimise the need for detailed configuration of the screens and display controller.

The system was in development for two years before being launched. It was first publicly announced during an SEGD conference in New York on 11 November 2009. The official launch event was at the Touch nightclub in Manhattan, New York, on 9 December 2009.

The launch in Europe was at the ISE trade show in Amsterdam, 2–4 February 2010.

Following North America and Europe, the system was launched in Japan on 22 April 2010, and then throughout the rest of Asia in the months following.

The system was invented in 2005 by Christie Digital's Bob Rushby, chief technology officer, and Mike Perkins, senior product developer, while in a Tokyo hotel bar during a business trip.

The system is capable of exceeding the NTSC specification for colour gamut by 115%. Because the LED light engine has a saturated color output, the image appears to be about 25% brighter than a similar lamp-based projector with the same lumen output. This is due to the Helmholtz Kohlrausch Effect. According to Mike Perkins, the subjective effect of this is that the purer colors from MicroTiles are punchier, more vivid, and more engaging.

Each tile has a native resolution of 720x540 with a pixel pitch of 0.57 mm. The total resolution of the display can be a maximum of the sum of the native resolutions of each tile. Lower input resolutions are automatically up-scaled to fill the display area, which effectively increases the pixel pitch of the image displayed.

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