Comcast Center's video wall packs 10 million pixels into 27 x 87-foot display
By Joshua Fruhlinger 
posted Jun 19th 2008 5:46AM
posted Jun 19th 2008 5:46AM
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talk about amusingly excessive xD
> talk about amusingly excessive xD
Hmmm... 10 Million pixels = 10 megapixels = resolution of modern compact camera?
Is it 10 million pixels or 10 million pixels across?
One is certainly more impressive than the other.
Yeah. Not to sound like a jack-ass, but can't that be done in like a 6 square-foot area with fairly average LCDs?
I mean, my 17-inch laptop has almost 25% of that.
They don't look like they're on the screen! Cool!
do I see a really bad tilelable texture or what?
Pretty awesome :)
LOL they use garageband's free tracks at one point lol
Anyway, imagine a blue screen on that :P
Gee, thanks a lot Comcast. It's nice to know you hike my cable bill up every 6 months and put it to good use like this. Jerks. >:(
Aye, just like my bus service upping charges and then changing the timetable to get rid of 2/3 of the buses I use with the remaining buses being an extra 20-45 minutes later than they used to be (if they actually turn up).
Apparently the raise in fares is due to increased costs yet other areas are getting buses with new fancy leather seats in...i'd rather have a bus that comes on time and a timetable that gives me more options than a nicer seat. Thanks for the great service.
But yea, this wall is a waste of money.
Careful, they'll have to cap their own bandwidth.
That is a good point. How come they can blow $22 million on this ridiculous video screen that will be old in 2 years, they could have just as easily upgraded their F*ing network and gotten rid of those ridicualous caps!!!!!!
This PROVES beyond a shadow of dought those caps have NO use other than to bring in more $$$$ . Their is no bandwidth crisis!!!!!!!!
ALL A BUNCH OF BULLSHIT!!!!!!!
a major corporation only cares about bringing in money!? say it ain't so!
thats y i stopped paying 60 bux a month for internet! instead i went with verizon for 20 bux per month. sure the speed is slower, but not noticeable when all i do is read emails and minor downloads.
just imagine playing Mario Kart on that, even so any mutiplayer game.
Yeah 480P would look AWESOME on that....
plus whats the heat output on that thing.
Wait, you mean that the two dudes hanging in the picture isn't really there?
Dudes?
Since the read link is down, I'm assuming from the youtube page that you'd need four RED ONE cameras to shoot in this screens native resolution. Kinda awesome.
Naa you just shoot at 4k resolution and them upsample it... Or maybe shoot on 64MM [IMAX] and digitize that...
Both will have similar results.
You or I wont be able to tell the difference between 4k upsampled and native super high res.
Nutsy, you're Nutso.
Do you even remember the jump from 480p to 1080i?
You will definitely notice a difference between 16k and 4k video.
This is absolutely brilliant and highly original. It will not get 'old' over time - they can simply upload more content - perhaps even allow the public to design presentations to upload to their media servers? Now that would be cool. It is sad that the copywriters at Engadget are so down on original ideas (such as the sexy cube shaped Philips MP3 player yesterday that will probably sell in vast quantities due to it's price point) yet write about so many ho hum products, such as the almost daily slew of mediocre laptops that by tomorrow will be forgotten and obsolete. I have followed videowall developments for over 20 years and this is the most original and well integrated system I have ever seen. It will have massive potential in the theatre at a lower price point. A little more positive American spirit please Engadget! (Because that is what will bring an end to the economic downturn.)
Positive American spirit? It's Comcast. Not Nikola Tesla.
nice to know they have enough money for this but not enough to increase their servers so they dont limit bandwidth.
Does it make those irritating sound fx all day long? Must be irritating being the secretary in that lobby.
Yes, it does make those annoying sounds all day long and what's worse, it attracts crowds of people from off the street who clog the lobby. Highly annoying, and yet so stinkin' cool!!!
I can see a dead pixel. . . .
Since someone has to do it...
Will it play doom?
:P
Nah... Will it play crysis?
Slashdot had a story a few weeks ago about two teenagers that hacked comcasts main page without accessing sensitive data. I wonder if I can get those two kids to hack this thing
Yeah i herd there a bit of a scummy company in how they over charge... But that video wall is pretty cool...
But 27 THOUSAND GIGABYTES? You mean 27 Terabytes? Or are you getting really confused?
Im guessing alot of whats going on is flash or similar based GUI with videos running as well... Its ment to be interactive. Even if everything was 1:1 uncompressed i really dont see how they managed to hit 27TB.
So maybe you guys misread the specs or some thing.
In any case its a cool design :) Ill take 2 of them for my bedroom and living room.
glad to see somebody else caught the GB/TB thing. Superfluous zeros, I say!
Now install those miniature cameras like the ones on the New York street ads so the thing can come start calling people individually out of a crowd. "Welcome back to the comcast center" oh man
I guess when your service is so bad that the elderly will come busting up the computers in your lobby, you've gotta have SOMETHING to attract people to actually walk into your doors anymore.
nice, hopefully it wont be long till we all have a wall like that in our living rooms.
...if you have a wall that is 87 feet long in your house, you are the problem with America.
or you need to invite me over to your house
Interesting considering how awful their service is in the Philadelphia area.
But Montag, that's only one TV wall! We need four! Four of them!
A big screen on your HQ Comcast? Whats next your own personal army of Shock Troops? If you going to be an evil corporation try not to be so cliche
Can you just imagine the applications for something like this...
play solitaire (though your boss would probably know)
get payed to advertise a company on it
make it a solid white screen and you could get rid of all the lights in the room
watch porn (again, your boss would likely know)
keep zooming in on a celebrity and see what kind of germs they have on their face
Things you probably couldn't do with it...
fit it through the doorway into your house
view a picture full screen
interface it with a laptop
skydive
gain the respect of your customers
Capping Bittorrent must save them millions. Either that, or their just assh*les.
I wonder why they went to the trouble of using a random actor and removing the Phillies logo from the jersey if they were going to just use a Phillies batting helmet anyway...
Seriously? This is how Comcast decides to spend $22 million? Sure it's cool, but what do they hope to accomplish with it?
How many video switches could be upgraded with that $22 million, so that they would no longer have to compress the crap out of HD channels? Or $22 million in routers? How much faster would their internet connections then be? (Probably none, just more overhead.)
They need to rethink their business practices, a giant video wall is nice and all, but if you really want to affect the customer, give them something better than what you are now.
I'm glad I'm no longer with Comcast (although 10 years of Comcast internet, some of that probably ended up in this video wall.)
Imagine fragging some nubs on that!
Fragging nubs?
that sounds like a euphemism.
Yes it "is the substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener"
$22 Million? Waste of money. It's cool but, not that cool. We all know Comcast has money to burn
My Atari 2600 would look great on that.
This is how that killer smart building in I Robot got started.
Hello, Skynet? It's me, VIKI.
As a Comcast customer who's had to hear about bandwidth caps, I'm pretty POd about this stupid waste of money.
Several high-brightness projectors could have achieved similar results at a much cheaper price point.
I'm just $21,999,900 shy of being able to pick one of these babies up this weekend. Gotta start saving those pennies.
monopoly money well spent.
Yep. Too bad Comcast is evil.
apparently the wall is actually 6 HD screens combined together and working together and it was designed in new york by a certain David Niles.
It's pretty impressive for being public art.
Nice to know they have money to spend on this, but not enough so they can upgrade their servers so they don't limit bandwidth
Neat. But a complete waste of money.
Microsoft has around $100 billion in cash, and they don't even have extravagant displays like this.
Companies like Comcast need to quit showing off with junk like this and invest their money where it matters. This display will serve no one and is no more than a show of their pride, arrogance, and poor stewardship.
Yeah, Microsoft actually wastes their money on crappy products like vista, which isn't half as pretty.