Putting an updated spin on a traditional symbol of the holidays, Matrox QuadHead2Go drives a 28-monitor, '80s-themed digital signage tree
Fewer things in today’s world have become more synonymous with the holiday season than the evergreen tree. While many this year will make the choice of bringing a live or artificial tree into their homes, here at Matrox’s Montreal headquarters, we decided to take a different route entirely. Thanks to the ability of the Matrox® QuadHead2Go™ multi-monitor controllers to power any video wall configuration of any possible dimension, Matrox’s annual holiday party proudly showcased a striking 28-monitor, evergreen tree-shaped video wall.
Not-your-average holiday decor
As always, the Matrox event planning team decided to add a bit of excitement to the annual company holiday party by featuring digital signage powered by in-house innovations that celebrates the hard work of employees. The team planned to create a display that married the traditional holiday motif with this year’s vibrant 80s-inspired theme. “I really wanted to take our usual digital signage to the next level this year,” said Paolo Sangiovanni, event planning technician at Matrox. “The QuadHead2Go allowed us to do just that. Not only were we able to use it to build this fantastic video wall that wowed everyone, but setup was also seamless.”
Making a list, checking it twice
With the holiday party being held at Matrox’s headquarters, sourcing all necessary equipment on the event planning team’s checklist was simple. The complete in-house installation comprises twenty-one 23-inch 1080p monitors and four 55-inch 1080p monitors within the main tree shape, and three 43-inch 1080p monitors lining the base of the tree. Of the three different monitor sizes, each has its own unique DPI value. The entire installation is being sourced by a video wall system – featuring two quad 4Kp60 graphics cards – which feeds an enclosure that exclusively provides power to a total of seven QuadHead2Go cards. Each QuadHead2Go card connects to a DisplayPort output on the graphics card to drive four displays for a total of 28 synchronized displays.
Matrox’s in-house creative design team designed custom video content – featuring dynamic, multicolored ‘80s-inspired patterns framing the Matrox logo – that lit up the night as it played on the colossal video wall tree;
Trimming the tree
Thanks to the simple and intuitive Matrox PowerWall™ software that comes included with QuadHead2Go, managing the large-scale video installation could not have been easier. The PowerWall software used on the laptop allows operators to cut a single, rectangular video rendered by the graphics cards into different segments in order to get the right content to appear correctly on its respective monitor. “With really elaborate installations like this one, PowerWall’s advanced-yet-intuitive capabilities are truly incomparable,” said Fadhl Al-Bayaty, business development manager for QuadHead2Go. “The software takes care of everything: placement, orientation, cropping, scaling, bezel management, and more making project deployment simple.”
Rocking around the video wall
Between the vintage arcade games, nostalgic 80s-inspired décor, and the QuadHead2Go-powered video wall displaying wild, colorful patterns and beloved after-school TV re-runs on the dance floor, Matrox employees felt like they had gone “back to the future.”
“We’re really happy with how the digital signage turned out this year,” said Sangiovanni. “Between the easy deployment of the QuadHead2Go cards and the quick customization I was able to do with the PowerWall software, QuadHead2Go made my job of bringing the best of Matrox to our biggest event of the year a whole lot easier. I think I speak for everyone involved when I say that QuadHead2Go is definitely invited to next year’s holiday party.”
