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Mar 28, 2024

Zoom Rooms joins the 21:9 screen aspect ratio revolution

By Guy Campos in Collaboration and videoconferencing August 30, 2023 0 The latest version of the Zoom Rooms app now offers support for the native 5K60, 21:9 displays seen with MTR Front Row, according

By Guy Campos in Collaboration and videoconferencing August 30, 2023 0

The latest version of the Zoom Rooms app now offers support for the native 5K60, 21:9 displays seen with MTR Front Row, according to 21:9 pioneer Jupiter Systems.

The latest release of the Zoom Rooms app now offers support for native 5K60, 21:9 ultrawide displays.

The news, about Zoom Rooms app version 5.15.7, was announced yesterday by 21:9 display pioneer Jupiter Systems.

In a LinkedIn post, the company said: “This is a brilliant complement to what our Pana display range can offer for UC and collaborative spaces.”

The 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio was popularised as an option for meeting rooms by the introduction of the Front Row layout in Microsoft Teams Rooms. Front Row makes use of loop components such as raise hands and chat on each side of the main content window and allows for an extended gallery of remote attendees along the bottom of the screen.

Jupiter’s initial inspiration for 21:9 screens was a desire to replicate the ultrawide experience of cinema, but the company’s launch of 21:9 screens came at a time when Microsoft was experimenting with 21:9 and even briefly with 32:9 screens for Teams Rooms. The company’s 105″ Pana LCD 21:9 displays were adopted as demonstration models for Teams Rooms by Microsoft, and it was the only supplier to have 21:9 LCD screens in stock as Teams Rooms Front Row caught the industry’s attention.

In addition to its Pana range of 5K, 21:9 LCD screens, Jupiter recently introduced a Zavus XP flip chip COB microLED 21:9 display, starting at 165″. The manufacturer is represented in the UK by Ascentae.

Also pioneering in its championing of the 21:9 aspect ratio is US-based Primeview Global which was showing interactive 105″ LCD displays and 21:9 FusionMAX Pro dvLED displays with pixel pitches as low as 1.2mm, as far back as InfoComm 2022. The 21:9 models were accompanied by a broadcast-grade, horseshoe-shaped Hybrid Round Table, replicating telepresence style seating arrangements, for use with Front Row.

Other manufacturers have since begun offering 21:9 models, among them Avocor which introduced a non-interactive option in one of its displays for the first time with the launch of the L Series range of 105″ displays which became available this summer.

Manufacturers bringing 21:9 display models to the market, in LCD or LED, include Absen, iiyama, Planar, Sharp/NEC and ViewSonic, while Epson demonstrated a 21:9 projection solution, paired with an ALR screen, at ISE 2023 in association with Visual Displays.