Peerless AV once again held an event for AV brands at the Lords cricket ground in London. As I missed ISE this year because of the clash with Display Week, I was happy to catch up with a number of firms.
The first firm that I spoke to was PPDS, the licensee of the Philips brand for professional displays in Europe. The company was highlighting its Wave content management system that has now been updated to allow remote device management and monitoring.
The firm told us that its D Line of professional LCDs from 32″ to 86″ has been developed to become more modular, making installation and maintenance more simple. The firm also emphasised the support for Chromecast in its MediaSuite software which is supported by its commercial hotel TVs. That support makes it much easier for guests to access content on their mobile devices and the firm recently issued a press release to support the feature. (PPDS Confirms Commitment to Chromecast Built in as a Steadfast feature on all Philips MediaSuite TVs and Philips B-Line Displays into the Future)
Also at the show were demonstration units of the C-Line (which is available in models that can support Windows or Android) Touch-enabled LCD displays with 350 cd/m2 of output and covering 55″ to 86″. The Interactive E-Line – aimed at education – was also on show, but none of the firm’s direct view LEDs were shown in working configurations. We wondered why and heard that his was because the event was the day after the National Holiday for the funeral of the Queen and this made set-up tricky and very time-limited.
PPDS, however, did have some cabinets and modules and emphasised the modular nature and ease of maintenance and repair of the cabinets.
Absen likes the event being at Lords as it has a number of displays installed at the ground and tours were being conducted of the installations. Time pressures meant we were unable to join one, sadly. (Cricket fans also got a chance to look around the ground – the centre of global cricket for many years). The firm was concentrating on the ease of installation of its latest 2.5mm rental product, with cabinets designed so that they can be assembled by a single person.
They also highlighted the AX 1.5mm pitch displays which use IMD technology and miniLEDs. The use of miniLEDs gives better black levels and overall image contrast. We took a close up of the display which in the lower brightness pixels (with less lens flare), you can see the small proportion of the pixel that is taken up by the LED itself. That allows more black area.
The darker pixels do not have so much lens flare, so are a better representation of the LED vs background ratio. Image:Meko
There were two 3.5m displays at the event – the same set-up that was used to show virtual production at ISE just a couple of weeks ago. The cabinets are 16:9 aspect ratio to make video formats easier to configure.
Apologies – the LED and our camera sensor resolution caused some moire issues. This is the kind of issue that needs careful management and choice of displays and cameras in virtual production environments! Image:Meko.
Samsung had its 0.8mm The Wall in a driving simulator and told us that the 0.5mm version is nearly here (with 89″ diagonal and UltraHD resolution). The company said that the unit on display had a U-Touch infrared overlay.
However the main topic that the firm wanted to discuss was its range of kiosks. The company has a number of UK-based partners that can support different applications on the hardware and we heard that the recent challenges in staffing, particularly in the hospitality industry, were causing a lot of interest in using kiosks, not just in QSRs and other catering venues but down to coffee shops and small retailers. They can also be used to speed-up “click and collect” processes. The sets cost from around £2,500 so in a high turnover location, the ROI can be just a matter of months. At the moment, all the displays are 24″, but other sizes are under development.
We’ll cover the others we spoke to at the event tomorrow. We’ll count the two articles as one if you are a free subscriber to Display Daily. (BR)
