How INFiLED and CTI Helped the Next Gen of Journalists at Iowa State University

Overview

In January 2026, CTI teamed up with INFiLED to build a new LED screen for the students at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University’s Ames campus. More customizable and flexible than a traditional green screen setup, the screen was engineered from panels from INFiLED’s WP Series to form a fine-pitch 3m x 3m direct view LED wall.  The students now have a multi-purpose dynamic digital backdrop to support their studies, and the School a reliable, cost-effective teaching resource that’s built for the future.

About CTI

Founded in 1988 and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, award-winning CTI is one of the US’ leading AV integration businesses. Its dependable expertise in providing end-to-end AV and event services has led to thousands of happy customers worldwide across every sector — corporate, education, healthcare, government, sports, and broadcast.

The Vision: Reimagining Journalism Education

The teaching philosophy behind the success of Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication is very much “learn by doing”, and it takes seriously its responsibility to prepare students for stellar careers in modern media and journalism. Students learn the latest communications trends and techniques to be able to create content for audiences now and in the future.

The traditional green screen, a staple of journalism schools, would no longer be fit for purpose, so ISU set about looking for a high-quality, future-ready screen that could adapt to its evolving broadcast and media curricula requirements, as well as be reliable and durable enough to cope with heavy everyday use.

The School’s goals for its journalism studio included:

• Creating a more immersive production environment.
• Giving students real-time visual backgrounds, replacing hours of post-production chroma keying that would need to be done with a green screen.
• Improving on-camera realism and workflow efficiency.
• Providing professional-grade broadcast capabilities.
• Keeping maintenance and operational costs as low as possible

The Challenges: High Performance, High Reliability, Low Cost

The vision was clear, but the project presented some sticky challenges. Apart from a fairly tight dimensional spec, the screen had to be:

• Multi-modal: The new screen needed to be flexible enough for a wide range of creative purposes.
• High-quality: The screen would not just be used as a learning resource, but as a tool to help students build their portfolios. Flicker, scan lines or other visual artifacts would not be on anyone’s wishlist.
• Reliable and cost-effective: Lengthy downtime for maintenance or repair was out of the question. And, like every institute of higher education, ISU was looking to keep service and maintenance costs way down.

The Solution: INFiLED’s Future-Ready WP Series

After assessing multiple options, the CTI team felt that INFiLED’s WP Series offered the right blend of flexibility, performance and reliability that ISU was looking for. INFiLED worked closely with CTI and the School throughout the planning process, producing detailed dimensional drawings to make the best use of the ultra-tight installation tolerance.

The finished LED screen measured an impressive 3m x 3m, but, with an 29.5mm panel edge profile and slimline mounting system, the display wasn’t bulky. It fits neatly into the studio space.

CTI also selected the WP Series for its:

• Image performance: The display’s fine-pitch 1.56mm LED technology, high contrast ratio and camera-friendly refresh rates made sure that visuals stayed sharp and high-res, and could support whatever HDR content the students wanted to make.
• Heat dissipation and reliability: The panels’ flip-chip technology minimized resistance and improved heat dissipation. This kept operations cool, quiet and reduced power consumption, as well as cost.
• Easy maintenance: Front-access panels and a ‘magic’ magnetic tool for damage-free maintenance kept downtime to a minimum during servicing.

The Result: Empowering Learning, One LED at a Time

ISU’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication now has a highly functional studio environment that gives students the opportunity to maximise their creativity, as well as learn the hands-on skills and technologies used in professional media and broadcast environments.

“We chose INFiLED because of our long-standing relationship with them, and our trust in their products. We’re using more of INFiLED’s products for further projects with ISU.” said Tom Chandler,   Project Manager at CTI.

INFiLED’s WP Series is becoming a favorite for the education sector because of its high performance and reliability: check out the University of Bremen’s events room and Georgia State University’s flexi-space. Want to give your students (or your clients’ students) a digital broadcasting environment to supercharge their skills? Talk with one of the INFiLED team now.