Barco’s innovative OBLX free-standing video wall wins highest product design distinction in Red Dot Award 2014
Each year, the Red Dot Award honors new product designs that really stand out from the crowd. In 2011, Barco’s OverView OL-521 LED-lit rear-projection video wall was awarded the ‘Red Dot Award: Product Design 2011’. This year, the 40-member Red Dot jury lauded Barco’s OBLX series free-standing video wall with the ‘Red Dot: Best of the Best’ accolade, the highest in the competition.
This success will be celebrated on 7 July 2014, during the awards ceremony at the Aalto Theater in Essen, Germany. After this Red Dot Gala, the winners exhibition will be opened in the Red Dot Design Museum Essen, where OBLX will be showcased for four weeks before it enters the permanent exhibition.
Interaction between clever design and usability
Barco’s OBLX series free-standing video wall answers the business need for tiled 55” LCD video walls that don’t require wall support. With key design drivers that include maximum stability without compromising user-interaction, sleek appearance, and cost-effectiveness, OBLX is an excellent example of the interaction between clever design and usability. The architecture supports landscape 2x2 or portrait 3x1 configurations that can be expanded with no horizontal limit by modularity. Its iconic column can house all required 19”-based equipment, so there is no need for an extra rack. OBLX’s numerous clever engineering solutions highlight the product’s innovativeness and uniqueness and will take video walls into a new era.
New markets for video walls
“More than a video wall, OBLX is a platform that supports future technologies with user-driven add-ons like touch, camera and product color,” says Lutz Nehrhoff von Holderberg, General Manager Large Video Walls at Barco. “The possibility to have a tiled LCD video wall at any location opens up a range of new possibilities – so, we see OBLX as the product that will introduce the use of video walls in a range of new markets. In addition to control rooms, meeting rooms, lobbies, museums – and even retail stores – will be able to benefit from a video wall without the need for any wall support. We are very pleased that the Red Dot jury has recognized our vision and is now rewarding our design team with this highly prized award.”
Among the best of international product designs
“The Red Dot Design Award is one of the most desired recognitions in the field of product design,” adds Tom Dewaele, Lead Designer for OBLX. “With 4,815 entries from no less than 52 countries, and only 1.5% of the designs actually receiving a prize, the Red Dot Design Award is also one of the toughest competitions in the field. Winning the top award – ‘Red Dot: Best of the Best’ – proves that we are not exaggerating when we say that OBLX ranks among the best of international product designs.”
About Red Dot
The red dot design competition is aimed at businesses that want to distinguish their activities through design. Excellent design is selected by an expert jury in the areas of product design, communication design and design concepts. The red dot label is an internationally recognized quality label and stands for belonging to the best in design and business.
About Barco
Barco, a global technology company, designs and develops visualization products for a variety of selected professional markets. Barco has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco (NYSE Euronext Brussels: BAR) is active in more than 90 countries with 4,000 employees worldwide. Barco posted sales of 1.158 billion euro in 2013.
