Datapath Fx4 controllers enhance Toyota's flagship Champs-Elysees showroom experience

Background 

Residing on one of the world's most famous avenues, Le Rendez-Vous Toyota presents over 1 million visitors a year with unique opportunity to discover the Japanese car marker's extensive range of brands for the European market. Those calling by the showroom are immersed in a wealth of interactive Toyota experiences built around the company's core values of design, quality and innovation.

Offering 4k resolution at 60 fps, the Datapath FX4 controllers were chosen in order to optimise the solution and attain the best possible image quality.

The Challenge 

Le Rendez-Vous Toyota is the car giant's European brand flagship showroom on the illustrious Champs-Élysées in Paris. They were looking for to enhance their visitor experience by the introduction of two new video walls. The company appointed Philbox, a specialist in LED walls, video walls and digital signage since 1999, to project manage the installation. The wall displays needed an optimised solution and have the best quality image.

The Solution 

Philbox opted to use Fx4 controllers due to the image quality that could be achieved. Toyota's four-screen video wall comprises DynaScan DS55LX4 55-inch narrow bezel monitors, which is being driven by a single Fx4 on the ground floor, while a nine-screen video wall featuring the same type of monitor is being driven by three Datapath Fx4 controllers on the first floor. Content for each wall is provided by a Philbox video player, developed in collaboration with the Visiosense Company.

The latest-generation Datapath Fx4 multi-display controller offers four outputs from a single box, leading to a myriad of possibilities for end users. It is capable of source capture at up to 4K at 60 fps with DisplayPort inputs or UHD 2160p at 30 fps using HDMI 1.4. Furthermore, the device provides flexible connectivity through a choice of DisplayPort or HDMI inputs, supports HDCP content on all inputs and outputs, and can be programmed and controlled independently of the platform through its network interface options.

Developed for true stand-alone operation, the Fx4 can adapt to input changes by automatically adjusting all scale factors. Importantly, with its high bandwidth DisplayPort 1.2 loop-through, the device can be daisy-chained to build large scale video walls if required. With dual Ethernet port capability, only one Fx4 in the chain requires connection to the physical LAN as Ethernet loop-through is supported on the second port, meaning multiple devices can be connected.

The new video walls serve many purposes. Primarily, the walls play exclusive previews of newly released or forthcoming models, as well as future concept cars or iconic motorsport models. However, it is also possible to control a cable TV tuner that remotely switches the input of the Fx4 units to the TV box input. This allows the showroom to stream any live motorsport events that involve Toyota. There is also a third HMDI input by the main screen so that guest speakers can connect their content directly to the main wall's Fx4 controllers, which automatically switch to this source.