I-TECH LAUNCHES ALL WEATHER OUTDOOR AND IP65 LCD, DIGITAL SIGNAGE MONITORS

SunlightLCD.com has revealed its All Weather Outdoor & IP65 LCD series of Digital Signage Monitors - Sunlight LCD. It is a Free Standing Pedestal and does not require a wall or overhead structure to mount into. It can also be used as a Digital Sign, Public Information Portal or Entertainment Center for indoor application.

It can be used as an outdoor panel at the hotel pool side, at football or baseball stadium for added information portals, at a theme park for interactive portals, at the entrance to movie theaters for trailers as interactive surveys, at your restaurant to excite customers about the menu and much more.

Its key technical specifications include 1366x768 Max Resolution, 600 Nits Brightness, 6mm Anti Glare Protective Lens, Multiple Input Options, Nema 4 Electronics Storage Base for Player and Audio Amplifier, Optional Full HD Panel/Controller 1920x1080, Standard DVI Connection (Optional VGA and SDI Inputs) and Optional Integrated Speaker System

Other important features include water tight enclosure, free standing pedestal design, all aluminium welded construction, sleek ergonomic design, can be bolted into place or mounted to a base plate

I-TECH INTRODUCES 9U SUNLIGHT READABLE TRANSFLECTIVE RACKMOUNT 20" LCD FLAT PANEL MONITOR

SunlightLCD.com has launched its 9U Sunlight Readable Transflective Rackmount 20" LCD Flat Panel Monitor (Model: WHRP920A1) with superior characteristics as compared to regular LCD PC and Monitor. It can be employed for special mounting applications in POS, KIOSK, CAR TV & Navigation System, Gaming/Casino Machine, Factory Automation, Information Terminal and Panel Wall.

9U Sunlight Readable Transflective Rackmount 20" LCD Flat Panel Monitor constantly supervises ambient light and accordingly adjusts display brightness and enhances display application.

Its key technical specifications include 20.1" screen size, Active Display Area of 408.0(H) x 306.0 (V), 0.51(H) x 0.51(V) Pixel Pitch (mm), Display Resolution of 800x600 pixel, Contrast Ratio of 500:1, Display Colour of 16.7M (8 bits/colours), Synchronization Range of 35.1~46.9KHz / 56~75Hz (Horizontal / Vertical), Power Consumption of 43 W, S-Video and Composite Video Input and UV glass/clear type protection glass.

Disadvantages of Flat Panel Monitors

Even as LCD or flat panel monitors may cause a stir as the latest display technology in the market, they still have disadvantages that may turn off potential buyers. Listed below are few disadvantages of flat panel monitors:

Lack of Native resolution: LCD may have an attractive display but larger the screen resolution then the native resolution, this may cause a motion blur resulting to unbalanced and darker images. LCD monitors can only show information well at the specific resolution they were designed for.

Dead Pixels: At times, Flat monitors also display dead pixels when the electrical current to one or more pixels does not operate properly, or if one or more cells are permanently aligned.

Pixel Response time: When compared with cathode ray tubes displays, LCD monitors generally do not have the required response rates in terms of pixel response times. In videos and fast-paced video games, LCDs suffer from the ghosting effect.

Viewing angles: LCDs have flat panel monitor screen which eventually causes the image to look dimmer or even die out completely.

Screen care and fragility. LCD monitors may be slim and attractive but they are also more prone to damage and screen breakage.

Durability: Many of us prefer keeping our LCD monitor on even when not using them. Flat panel monitor have less durability if kept on for long time slowly losing their brightness and eventually will need to be replaced in two years.

To sum up LCD monitors may have its drawbacks but to most of its plus points Flat panels will continue to replace CRTs as they become less expensive as the many benefits are realized by users. However, CRTs won’t disappear as easily as many circumstances need the performance that LCDs currently can’t provide.

Industrial LCD Monitors

The LCD technology has almost completely replaced the older cathode ray tube (CRT) technology used for industrial monitors for many years. An industrial LCD monitor consists of five layers: a backlight, a sheet of polarized glass, a "mask" of colored pixels, a layer of liquid crystal solution responsive to a wired grid of x, y coordinates, and a second polarized sheet of glass. Let us understand how the LCD technology actually works. It begins with manipulating the course of crystals by precise electrical charges of varying degrees and voltages. The crystals further act like tiny shutters, opening or closing in response to the stimulus, thus allowing degrees of light that have passed through specific colored pixels to illuminate the screen, finally creating an image.

The most important feature of the LCD technology is that with a few clicks you have a brighter, clearer, and sharper image. Known for its wide screen and light weight, now technology has advanced and you will be amazed to find 50 inch display. As LCDs have a long and durable life of about two decades allowing a person to use it daily for 8 to 10 hours.

Industrial LCD monitors have some of the distinct features that are more useful as compared to the CRT monitors. Originally, projected for laptops, Industrial LCD monitors are now widely used in digital clocks, microwave ovens, CD players and other electronic devices. LCD monitors are also used to in hospitals, restaurants, banks, ATMs, and gaming.

As a result, industrial LCD monitors are slowly and steadily replacing the conventional computer systems using the CRT technology.

Passive and Active Matrix

LCDs are a familiar name to everyone household as they offer some real advantages over other display technologies. They are thinner, lighter and draw less power in comparison to cathode ray tubes.

Passive and Active Matrix

Passive matrix LCDs utilizes a grid to supply the charge to a specific pixel on the display. The grid comprises of two glass layers called substrates. A substrate is given column while the other one is given rows built from a transparent conductive material known as indium-tin-oxide. Both the substrates are attached to integrated circuits that control when a charge is sent down a specific column or row.

The liquid crystal material is inserted in between the two glass substrates, and a polarizing film is added to the external side of every substrate. To start a pixel, the integrated circuit sends a charge down the proper column of one substrate and a ground activated on the exact row of the other. When the row and column intersect at the selected pixel, it results in the delivery of desired voltage to untwist the liquid crystal at that pixel.

Active matrix LCDs rely on thin film transistors (TFT) that are mainly tiny switching transistors and capacitors arranged in a matrix on a glass substrate. To deal with a specific pixel, the appropriate row is turn on and a charge is sent down to proper column. Since only the capacitor at the chosen pixel receives a charge it can hold the charge until the subsequent refresh cycle.

Color LCD

LCD that displays color should posses’ three sub-pixels with red, green and blue color filters to create each color pixel. With judicious control and difference of the voltage applied, the strength of each sub-pixel can range more than 256 shades. An amalgamation of sub-pixels generates an approximate palette of 16.8 million colors.

With persistently developing technology LCD utilizes numerous variants of liquid crystal technology that includes super twisted nematics (STN), dual scan twisted nematics (DSTN), ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) and surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC).

Flat panel display

Today Flat panel displays are widely used. They cover a growing number of technologies that enable video displays that are lighter and much thinner compared to the traditional television and video displays which mostly use cathode ray tubes. They are usually less than 4 inches (100 mm) thick. And are divided into two general categories, viz. Volatile or Static.

Volatile

Volatile displays require constant power output to refresh the image on screen many times a second. The image appears steady because the images are refreshed more often than the human eye can perceive.

Examples of Volatile Displays:

• DLP (Digital Light Processing)
• Plasma displays
• Liquid crystal displays (LCDs)
• Organic light-emitting diode displays (OLEDs)
• Light-emitting diode display (LED)
• Electroluminescent displays (ELDs)
• Surface-conduction electron-emitter displays (SEDs)
• Field emission displays (FEDs)
• Nano-emissive display (NEDs)

Only the first five of these displays are commercially available today, though OLED displays are beginning deployment only in small sizes (mainly in cellular telephones).

Static

Static flat panel displays rely on materials whose color states are bistable. This means that the image they hold requires no energy to maintain, but instead requires energy to change. This results in a much more energy efficient display, but with a tendency towards slow refresh rates which are undesirable in an interactive display.

Examples of Static displays are:

• electrophoretic displays (e.g. E Ink's electrophoretic imaging film)
• bichromal ball displays (e.g. Xerox's Gyricon)
• Interferometric Modulator displays (e.g. Qualcomm's iMod, a MEMS display.)
• Cholesteric displays (e.g. MagInk, Kent Displays)
• Bistable nematic liquid crystal displays (e.g. ZBD).

Bistable flat panel displays are beginning deployment in limited applications (Cholesteric displays, manufactured by Magink, in outdoor advertising; electrophoretic displays in e-book products from Sony and iRex; and bistable liquid crystal displays from ZBD in store shelf labels).

Flat panel displays balance their smaller footprint and trendy modern look with high production costs and in many cases inferior images compared with traditional CRTs. In many applications, specifically modern portable devices such as laptops, cellular phones, and digital cameras, whatever disadvantages are overcome by the portability requirements.

Digital Signage: Issues

Though Digital Signage (through LED ticker signs and LED video walls) has been in vogue for decades in the past it has however, not yet become a major public medium. The following are the likely reasons:

** Uncertain ROI: The cost of deploying digital signage currently stands prohibitive. Not only are large outdoor screens expensive (the LED signs in front of the Las Vegas Wynn Resort cost $15 million, for example) but much more common & cheaper form of digital signs based on LCD and plasma screens still represents a significant chunk of investment when a large network is planned.

For example, the cost of installing one screen in a single restaurant in a large fast-food chain runs to millions of dollars. Any such investment has to be justified by a clear ROI plan before receiving approval;

** Unproven advertising effectiveness: Like the Internet in the early 1990s, the digital signage medium has not yet been widely accepted as a cost-effective advertising medium compared to the traditional means (TV, radio, flyers, etc.);

** Lack of proven technology –The technology used today has largely been originated from consumer-grade personal computer and DVD technology, which has not been designed to stand up to 24x7x365 pattern. Today, the demand by professional digital signage is 24x7x365 usage. Often under stress these systems can break, resulting in damage to brand image and liability disputes between advertisers and network operators.

The above issues are being addressed in the following ways:

** ROI: Studies have shown digital signage to be effective in aiding customer recall and retention of displayed information in large-scale merchandising applications, especially taking into account the downward trend in LCD panel and playback device prices. Today a small-scale retail or restaurant digital signage installation can be implemented for just $4-6,000, whose ROI may be realized immediately.

** Outdoor advertising picking up momentum – advertising dollars have been consistently shifting from traditional media such as TV and radio into outdoor advertising, creating a double-digit-growth new advertising segment which includes digital signage. However, ad agencies are still slow to explore the potential of out-of-home TV.

** Development of dedicated platform solutions – new technology has been developed that features reliability magnitudes greater than consumer-grade technology. Like professional TV broadcasting systems, the new technology enables worldwide content distribution and playback to stand up to the test of time.