Sharp had the same size booth that it has had for the last several years, and in the same place, next to Barco. The company started by highlighting the message from IFA, that Sharp is ‘all in’ on 8K and had a camera and monitor on the front of the booth to emphasise that it is able to support a ‘complete ecosystem’ of 8K and the company told us that it would have 8K panels from ‘Spring 2018’. The LV-70X500E is a 70″ with 7,680 x 4,320 and 1,000 cd/m² and support for HDR with 10 bit colour. Input is via four HDMI connectors, each with UltraHD.
Sharp had a demo of its PN-R496 which has FullHD resolution and 700 cd/m². The company wanted to emphasise the different ways that it can be operated and mounted.
Sharp showed the PN R496 in these configurations to highlight the wide operating conditions, but to me it just highlights the viewing angle variations in VA panels! Image:Meko
Huddle rooms are a topic that is interesting Sharp, and we reported that the company has bought a furniture company to develop this market. At the show it had a new 50″ touch monitor that is intended for huddle rooms.
The PN-40TC1 is a 40″ ‘BigPad’ with FullHD resolution and PCap 10 point touch. It uses Sharp’s Display Connect software to allow BYOD device display and includes a mini-OPS slot. The product was developed by Sharp in Scandinavia which is promoting it as ‘Plug & Meet’ and the product will roll out around Europe over coming months.
The company was also showing a new UltraHD BigPad which the company expects to be popular in medical and architectural applications, where small detail may be important. The PCap touch supports palm rejection and the pen is very close to the image as the panel is optically bonded for optimum performance. Sharp is also very proud of its ‘Pen on Paper’ feel with the pen.
Sharp has been slow to fully adopt Smart Signage, but is now introducing systems with Android support. There are PN-M and PN-B ranges that have the SoCs and the company also launched its ‘Open Architecture’ platform to allow support by third party digital signage software companies.
Analyst Comment
I’m really no convinced by the idea of touch-enabled LFDs for huddle spaces. I think the idea of a smaller controlling touch screen like the Lenovo ThinkSmart Hub 500 (Lenovo SmartHub is First Step in Collaboration) are much more practical. If you have a big display with touch, you have to allow space between the table and the display so that users can move around. Once you do that, you start to turn the huddle space into a meeting room.
Sharp, which developed the concept, is still the only supporter of Mini-OPS that we saw at the show. There is more support for the Intel Compute Module, I think. (BR)
