|
Audio
|
Visual
|
|
[intro music]
|
|
|
Dan Ferrisi (Editor-in-Chief at Commercial Integrator/Host of AV+):
0:06
Hello, this is Dan Ferrisi, Editor in Chief with Commercial Integrator and host of AV+.
0:12
Welcoming you to the AV+ podcast, the podcast for the commercial AV integration industry.
0:18
We have a very special edition this week for you.
0:21
I think you're really going to enjoy it.
0:23
We're joined by two subject matter experts from Sharp NEC Display Solutions.
0:28
We're going to be talking about various grades of display, everything from consumer TV's to professional displays and and all the categories in between.
0:37
And we're also going to be spotlighting a really revolutionary commercial TV product line, the 4P-B AQUOS commercial TV series.
0:47
It's all coming to you today on AV+.
0:50
As always, please like and subscribe to our YouTube page and please subscribe to the AV+ podcast on Apple and on Spotify.
1:06
We're really delighted to be joined by Gary Bailer, who is Director of Product Management, Display Products, Sharp NEC Display Solutions, as well as Ben Hardy, who is Senior Product Manager, Large Format displays with Sharp NEC Display Solutions.
1:20
Thanks so much, Gary,
1:21
Ben for being here today.
1:23
Really appreciate your time.
|
|
|
Gary Bailer (Director of Product Management, Display Products, Sharp NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc.):
1:25
Thanks for having us.
|
|
|
Ben Hardy (Senior Product Manager, Large Format displays with Sharp NEC Display Solutions):
1:26
Yeah.
1:26
Thanks, Dan.
|
|
|
Ferrisi:
1:29
So let's get right into it.
1:30
And I kind of teased it at the outset that there was a time, I guess, when people kind of divided display technologies into more or less 2 categories, consumer versus professional these days, I think.
1:42
And let me know if you disagree.
1:44
AV professionals have or should have a more nuanced and a more multi level view of display technology.
1:50
Are we seeing a lot of instances where kind of the wrong kind of display so to speak is being specked into a commercial environment perhaps because categories are being smooshed together for lack of a better way of saying it?
|
|
|
Bailer:
2:03
So great observation, Dan.
2:07
Yeah, I think we all see it.
2:09
Kind of think about it.
2:10
You walk into your sports bar in the weekend, go over to your, you know, medical care providers, sit in the waiting room, go into restaurants in the evening.
2:24
And we see in many of these cases whether where it is out of home environments using actually consumer TV's.
2:34
And those TV's, while great products, they produce wonderful pictures.
2:39
Picture quality is absolutely fabulous, but the reality is they are designed for in home usage and there's a big difference between in home usage and commercial usage.
2:52
And for that matter, we'll talk maybe a little bit further.
2:56
There's other categories even beyond that that we can talk about.
3:00
So as the industry has matured, it kind of started off with consumer TV's and then professional displays that were really engineered and designed for mission critical environments.
3:13
You see them in airports, you see them in control rooms, you see them on a TV production set.
3:21
There's many different applications.
3:23
So we see transportation, all of these different industries require mission critical technologies.
3:30
And as a result of that price gap between the consumer TV's and these professional TV's was extremely wide.
3:39
And some would argue and there's a valid case for the argument that well, if the price gap is so big, if a consumer TV dies two times during the life that I was planning on using it for over the next five to seven years and so be it, I'm still ahead of the game financially.
3:56
So as a result, you know what's developed is the manufacturers recognize there is a price gap and it's a large market opportunity.
4:05
So when you have large market opportunities and unfulfilled needs, manufacturers step in and produce products.
4:11
And as a matter of fact, Sharp was one of the first to introduce the commercial TV segment all the way back in 2017.
4:21
So we've been doing it for quite a while, but it's now got even more nuanced.
4:27
So depending upon the manufacturer where their strength was and then they were taking that strength and applying it to where the gap is.
4:34
We're very unique in the situation that with the both Sharp brand and the NEC brand being brought together, we each brought different strengths to the joint venture.
4:46
And now with Sharp NEC, we could take Sharp strengths in that consumer TV side of the marketplace as well as a collaboration side and bring those together and join forces with the NEC side with very strong market share, leadership positions in the professional display categories, projectors, DVDLED walls, etcetera.
5:12
So we have a very nice portfolio now where we can hit different price positions depending upon what the customer need is.
|
|
|
Ferrisi:
5:23
I appreciate that nuance that you've given us here.
5:25
As you say it, it's far beyond simply consumer TV's versus professional displays.
5:31
And you mentioned, Gary, the idea of commercial TV's, which I know is something that that Sharp is particularly strong in.
5:38
Are there even divisions within that though?
5:40
I mean, we've talked about 3 now.
5:41
We talked about consumer TV's, we talked about commercial TV's and professional displays.
5:45
Are there additional categories or divisions even beyond that?
|
|
|
Hardy:
5:51
Yeah, so I'll I'll jump in here.
5:52
I mean so as you said before Dan, you know there really was consumer professional, but if you really dig a a bit deeper into that non consumer market, there are really three main groups.
6:03
Gary mentioned the commercial TV's which is you know part of the the the topics that we're going to, we're going to get to here today.
6:09
But really a step above that would be kind of what we consider the the more like mainstream type of commercial display.
6:16
And then one more step above that would be really the, the professional displays we're kind of which are kind of the the stay on all day everyday type of screen that are built for kind of those 24/7 type of run times.
6:27
But, yeah, there are some really sort of big factors that kind of change and and kind of break up sort of the the silos that we're creating with that.
6:38
If you want, we could dig a little bit more into that now.
|
Image:
Title: Which Type of Display Will Give You the Biggest ROI?
Content:
Consumer TV:
- No stated runtimes
- Reflective Panel
- Low Brightness (not stated)
- Tuner
- No Commercial Features
- 1-year residential warranty - Typically voided if used out of home
- All television models
Commercial TV:
- 16 hours runtime
- Reflective Panel
- 300-399 brightness
- Tuner
- Scheduler (Limited)
- External Control (Limited)
- Plastic Chassis
- 3-year commercial warranty
- Applicable Sharp/NEC models
Commercial Display:
- 16-18 hours runtime
- Reflective or Anti-Glare Panel’
- 400-500 brightness
- Slot Modularity
- Scheduler (Advanced)
- External Control (Extensive)
- Metal Chassis
- Fans/Sensors
- Quick Start
- Landscape/Portrait Orientation
- 3-year commercial warranty
- Applicable Sharp/NEC models
Professional Display:
- 24 hour runtime
- Anti-Glare Panel
- 500-700 brightness
- Slot Modularity
- Schedule (Advanced)
- External Control (Extensive)
- Metal Chassis
- Fans/Sensors
- Quick Start
- Landscape/Portrait Orientation
- Complete Color Control
- Daisy Chain Capabilities
- Multi Picture Mode
- Low Latency Mode
- G Sensor
- 3-5 year commercial warranty
- Applicable Sharp/NEC models
- MA Series, P Series
|
|
Ferrisi:
6:42
Yeah, I I think that that would be a good idea.
6:44
And I'm certainly curious now that we've delineated kind of four different categories, consumer TV's, commercial TV's, commercial displays, professional displays, how we would understand those in terms of performance and specifications, benchmarks, how we would understand how each division kind of lives and dies, what separates them?
|
|
|
Hardy:
7:05
Yeah, sure.
7:06
So I mean, Gary, do you want to start with consumer TV, commercial TV?
7:10
And I'll kind of go up from there.
|
|
|
Bailer:
7:11
Sure, I'd be happy to.
7:13
So if we kind of look at the commercial TV side of things, as I mentioned before, if we look at the data, roughly 60% of the unit placements that are going into out of home professional environments last year were actually consumer TV's.
7:30
And why were they picked?
7:32
They were picked because the application didn't require a whole heck of a lot more than what you can get out of consumer TV.
7:39
Perhaps I was basically running the display off of a single connection, perhaps HDMI which now on a single cable can do a lot of things and USB-C takes it even a step further nowadays.
7:53
So you can look at the consumer TV side as having the basic needs that people have, but when they use it in and out of home environment and commercial environments, they need a little bit more durability and rug ability, rugged ability built into that product.
8:12
You know when our professional, our commercial TV's are tested to 16-7 hours, that's different than what you test a consumer TV for.
8:23
They the components that are being selected on it have to produce that level of durability over a five year period
8:30
at a minimum to just get through the gate and it's that type of durability in, in and out of home market which makes, which is the big difference.
8:42
Second huge difference is in how the manufacturer backs that product.
8:48
And if you get into the legalese and you look at consumer TV's, you might notice that it mentions it's for residential use.
8:56
When you look at commercial TV's and the Sharp models specifically OK, you'll notice the warranty you can states it's for commercial use and for out of home and that's its intended uses.
9:09
As a result you're not violating the details of the product warranty.
|
Image:
A donut chart showing that 56% (773,665) of displays sold through U.S ProAV sales channels into out-of-home commercial environments are actually consumer grade TVs, while the other 44% (599,094) are commercial TVs and pro displays. (Source: PMA Research’s U.S. Distributor Flat Panel Display Tracking Service for Oct. 2021 through Sep. 2022)
|
|
Ferrisi:
9:14
So that's certainly illuminating in terms of dividing up and understanding why you would want to use a commercial TV or a commercial display or depending upon the the needs of professional display in and out of home environment because it's going to suit that you know 16 or 17 hours of of continuous usage.
9:32
It's going to have that warranty protection that you alluded to.
9:36
So I think it when we did our initial call, I was surprised that, I think we were all kind of dispirited when we heard about exactly how many consumer level TVs are being used in these commercial applications because they are not well suited and and a lot of these clients are not going to be protected in terms of warranties and whatnot.
9:54
So thank you for kind of clarifying these four divisions that we're talking about here and why both integrators and end users should be cognizant of the need to get at least a commercial TV up to depending on your needs of professional display for these out of home applications.
|
|
|
Bailer:
10:12
We certainly appreciate you giving us the platform to better educate the integrator audience on this.
10:19
Cause, ultimately it's them who needs to educate their customers as to why a commercial TV now makes more sense because the price gap is not as great as it used to be.
10:32
It's now you're talking about you know hundreds of dollars instead of thousands of dollars difference and the the the quality now of consumer TV's with 4K, HDR even 8K coming out that carries forth in the commercial category too.
10:51
So you get the brilliant picture quality, phenomenal audio capabilities, OK, but also know that the components are made to use out of home and the, you're warranted for that type of usage.
|
|
|
Ferrisi:
11:09
I also just want to underscore something that already has been mentioned in the course of the podcast which is that the Sharp NEC marriage to create Sharp NEC displays is so highly complementary in terms of your your core foundational strengths.
11:23
As you mentioned Gary, Sharp strength with commercial TVs with collaboration focus solutions, very well known NEC’s complementary strength with commercial displays and professional displays as well as projectors for that matter.
11:37
It it just seemed like that it kind of fit like a glove and with these two organizations coming together as Sharp NEC display solutions, the the channel benefits from having that full range of solutions to cater to whatever the application is.
11:52
Is that, is that kind of the vision, the idea that you have that full panoply of solutions that no matter how rugged or non-rugged an application might call for, you have a solution for it.
|
|
|
Bailer:
12:05
Completely. You know, I like to use the word synergy.
12:09
I remember my grad school, one of my grad school teachers who talked about, you know, the the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.
12:17
And I think this example of sharp NEC is exactly that example.
12:21
You don't see it that often.
12:23
I've been involved in other joint ventures and mergers throughout my career and you know I can certainly say this one really the pieces fall in place extremely well.
12:33
Both organizations have strong management teams.
12:38
Both organizations had wonderful technology and legacy and history and also branding.
|
|
|
Hardy:
12:46
Yeah, I I couldn't agree more, Gary.
12:48
And you know I think that that's coming from the NEC side of things here.
12:53
Gary knocked it right in the head at the beginning when he said that you know we we really have come together and sort of made a a better whole.
12:59
I think you know if we we kind of backtracking a little bit but we talked a little bit but about consumer TV's versus commercial TV's.
13:10
But kind of taking a step up from there into the commercial display segment which is kind of you know the side that that I come into.
13:17
That's where you start to see a lot more sort of differences dependent on application and needs of the customer.
13:23
And you know where we sort of lacked from the NEC side was in that commercial TV space where we know that Sharp, as Gary said before they kind of defined that market back in 2017.
13:34
I remember being on the NEC, NEC side and and having these commercial TV's come out on the sharp side mean like well now, now now this changes the game right here and now it's kind of cool being able to to sort of team up and also have the benefits of commercial TV's to go along with the commercial displays.
13:51
But you know, like I said, backtracking a little bit, kind of digging into the sort of differences.
13:56
Then when you take that step up to from commercial TV to commercial display, that's where you start to see a bit more of the advanced feature feature sets.
14:04
First of all, extended run times really up to 18 by 7 as opposed to 16 by 7 is where you start to see portrait capabilities if necessary.
14:12
So you can imagine digital signage applications, you know, whether it's windows signage or a retail store or in a in in a restaurant or anything like that.
14:21
You know when a a display should be used in portrait orientation.
14:24
Now that's where the commercial display really sort of shines because those products are designed to be used up to those more extended run times in either landscape or portrait due to the way that they're designed for, for getting heat out of the system and everything like that.
14:39
Because heat regardless is still the number one killer of electronics regardless of how much you know things get better as as technology moves on.
14:47
Also things like anti-glare panels are sometimes found in here advanced schedulers, so you can really program a lot of things that it's kind of a set them and forget them.
14:56
When it comes to more commercial types of displays also brightness is a factor here.
15:01
I know that we've, we haven't talked too much, but for consumer TV's, there's really no stated really brightnesses.
15:07
For the most part, commercial TV's are typically between 300 and 399 and the commercial displays are really 400 to 500.
15:13
So, so for a majority of I like to think about like sort of your mainstream types of applications, that's where sort of commercial displays fall into, if you're talking just sort of sheer volume in the market right now, at least coming from the NEC side, I could tell you that we were missing out on a lot of opportunity where a commercial TV would have been the perfect type of product for a certain project that we were you know bidding into specking into or so forth.
15:38
But we couldn't really do that because we were maybe a little bit overspecked and then therefore overpriced for what the application needed.
15:45
So now with the you know commercial TV's as as Gary's going to talk a little bit more in detail about later that we have coming out.
15:53
It really has sitting in a in a really good position to kind of give a a good better type of best situation dependent on the customer and the needs.
|
Image:
Title: Which Type of Display Will Give You the Biggest ROI? (same image as shown earlier)
|
|
Hardy:
16:02
Also in commercial displays where you start to see a little bit more like modularity functionality, either slot modularity like OPS or SDM standards or built in higher SEC functionality.
16:15
You know a lot of that's not necessarily needed or not in consumer TV's, not necessarily needed in commercial TV's.
16:21
But when you get up to that commercial display category that's where you might to see that.
16:24
And then you know sort of the, the top level there is is really professional displays where we kind of started this conversation.
16:32
You know I think all of us have been in this industry for for long enough to to remember a time when it was just sort of consumer and professional.
16:39
I certainly remember when I started professional displays meaning the the 24/7 screens with all the built, all the bells and whistles that are built in.
16:46
That was really a a majority.
16:48
Now I think that customers have really dictated that's not necessary for all types of applications.
16:55
You don't need you know a wide color gamut 24/7, 700, it's brightness complete color control and so forth for you know applications where maybe you just need some hallway signage and a higher education institution to be you know showing scheduling events or something like that.
|
|
|
Hardy:
17:10
And so there still is obviously a professional display market, Gary mentioned it earlier, airports, the transportation industry, they really use those professional displays because airports never closed.
17:21
You know they got to be running 24/7 and and and they have to have the sort of higher brightness than than would be for the other categories below that.
17:29
But again as we jump up also there there comes a a jump in price as well.
17:34
And so we, you know we we now have the ability to to really not only attack the the sort of higher end applications that that need those, those all those on all day everyday types of situations and projects, but we also have the the ones that'll that'll really be needed for the commercial TV types of applications as well.
|
|
|
Hardy:
17:54
So yeah, I mean there's you know I I know that it's a little bit confusing in the market right now.
18:00
But the way that the we see it and especially how our our companies come together, you know we really sort of the the best parts of of both of our companies coming into this joint venture really makes us stronger as a whole.
18:12
And sorry kind of a a long winded type of response there, but I figured I wanted to to kind of take a step back and talk about this other sort of steps up and steps down that we didn't get to before.
|
Image:
Title: Which Type of Display Will Give You the Biggest ROI? (same image as shown earlier)
|
|
Ferrisi:
18:23
I appreciate that Ben, because it it can be confusing.
18:26
But I think Gary and you have done a really good job disambiguating it for us and helping us understand these different categories and how integrators and end users alike should be thinking about everything from as you say consumer TV's to commercial TV's to commercial displays to professional displays.
18:43
For the next 10 minutes or so though, I would like to talk about a particular series that is very much of note, that being the 4P-B AQUOS commercial TV series, it's been getting a lot of attention lately.
18:55
I think that's certainly fair to say.
18:57
These are true commercial grade TV's to my understanding built to run 16 hours a day commercial warranty, everything like you had mentioned.
19:04
Gary, do you want to talk a little bit about on the top line level what the 4P-B AQUOS commercial TV series is all about?
|
|
|
Bailer:
19:12
Sure.
19:12
So many of us have seen the how consumer TV's have migrated over the fast past few years with SOCs themselves built into it with giving additional capability, putting 4K resolution into basically all class sizes, adding HDR capability.
19:36
We're carrying that forward in a the broadest size range we've ever introduced in our history.
19:45
So from 43 through 86 and everything in between, there's a size platform to fit environment that the customer may need.
19:55
We stepped it up a little bit more because the new series, unlike our predecessor series, we could leverage kind of wanted to reimagine the SOC commercial environment.
20:04
I don't need Netflix, I don't need YouTube, OK.
20:09
I really don't want people
20:11
to go in and you know start just to show their own videos from their from their phone.
20:18
So what we can do though is reprogram that for the commercial applications and we picked 2 applications that we've heard from our customers that are very valid as we move forward.
20:33
One is an embedded web browser that works similar to Chromium and what that helps enable is cloud-based applications.
20:42
As we're seeing more and more customers who are, let's say I'll use digital signage.
20:48
Here's one example.
20:50
Let's say an application where like Ben mentioned a hallway digital signage in a corporate office, OK? like you know, don't need our buildings open from, you know eight to six.
21:03
You know some folks, they know seven.
21:04
We don't, you know, we can serve those guys too.
21:08
We there where I don't need a lot of capability, but what I can do is take my digital signage data and just use a Chrome browser.
21:19
And now all of a sudden I'm communicating basically with my signage system through the cloud, not adding any additional electronics that have to be supported in the organization and simplifying the entire installation process.
21:36
So that's one example.
21:37
I can take that same example and use it in a different environment for a moment, let's say education.
21:42
Similarly, we are seeing more and more classrooms tying into something like Google Ed using their cloud platform.
21:52
This provides a nice simple approach where people don't have to learn how to do things a new way in a different way, use the application the same way you would normally use it.
22:02
Now all of a sudden, OK, I can do it in a much more affordable point, OK.
22:08
And one that's suitable for the environment that's actually in versus the consumer TV they may have put in otherwise.
22:13
They mentioned the size and the resolution and the HDR capabilities go further with the product.
22:22
It does have a number of commercial features built into it, for example, public mode.
22:29
So what's public mode?
22:30
It basically allows you to lock out that IR receiver for a TV because you wouldn't want, let's say we're in a doctor's office and more a sports bar.
22:40
Let’s use a sports bar as an example, OK?
22:43
And a bunch of kids decide to change the channel using their smartphone.
22:50
So we can block those kinds of things out.
22:52
And we also wanted to make sure that we did put into the system the ability to have basic command and control functionality because there are different organizations and meeting room environments that use systems in place, many of them legacy and just want to control the some to this day, believe it or not, some are still using RS232 command sets, but you know, hey, if it works for them, why not.
23:17
I mean we'll support, we'll continue to support that, but we'll also support LAN command sets as well.
23:22
So it can be customized in need of direction.
23:25
And then of course there is the other application built into besides the web browser is casting capability.
23:34
And here's think of a meeting room environment.
23:37
It could be any kind of small size, mid-size type room.
23:40
OK, with the ability to take your Windows laptop, your Android smartphone, and cast your content up to the front of the room in a simple, easy to use manner using the same exact tools that are built into Windows 10 and 11 as well as any casting capability on the phone.
24:01
So again, no additional apps, nothing new to learn, nothing new to try to figure it out.
24:05
You're doing it the same way you have been.
24:10
All the 43, 55, 65 and 75 model Itch models are currently available in the marketplace and later this spring we'll have the 86 added to the line up as well.
|
|
|
Ferrisi:
24:26
So there's clearly a lot to be excited about.
24:28
You know multiple new class sizes, the system on chip capability, the HDR capability etcetera.
24:34
What it all adds up to from my point of view at least is the 4P-B AQUOSseries seems to have the best price to performance ratio on the market in the category.
24:43
Is that how you feel and do you feel like it's essentially a a really value packed kind of an offering given the price point.
|
|
|
Bailer:
24:51
We do. I mean certainly I I won't say we are the least expensive in the market, We're not, we're pushing for price performance and value, but we are certainly a very high valued product if not the the best price performance value that's currently out in the market.
25:08
Our products tend to be brighter than our competitors products.
25:14
They also have these advanced features I talked about like the embedded web browser, the public mode, the casting capability and those are features that we haven't found in most of the competitors’ products at this point.
|
|
|
Ferrisi:
25:27
And in terms of the places where the 4P-B AQUOS series could find its home, I get the sense that these commercial TVs are are really pretty broadly applicable.
25:36
I'm thinking mom and pop retail shops, restaurants and bars, education settings, corporate environments and and not just in the offices themselves, but also maybe in break rooms and in lobbies, other areas like that.
25:49
Do you feel like this is a pretty broadly applicable series in terms of verticals in which you could find a home?
|
|
|
Bailer:
25:55
Yeah, I kind of look at it.
25:56
I, I, I really do.
25:58
I mean it's interesting we can, sometimes we look at verticals and we get so hung up on the application, the verticals versus looking at the horizontals and here in this case, in the case of consumer TVs it's really about a horizontal kind of application.
26:14
It it is what's my usage, what am I, how am I trying to connect it, what am I trying to do with it, how am I trying to manage it?
26:20
And depending upon those answers, one of those four different category products is going to fit and it's not you know certainly the the first place to cast out.
26:31
If you have a mission critical 24/7 environment, these products are not for you.
26:36
You know if you're trying to do advanced Crestron connectivity through XIO in the cloud and all that type of thing, again not for you.
26:45
That's why we have our high, our higher end commercial and our professional series products that Ben manages.
26:55
So here I think this is a product category that fits so many different industries across a wide variety.
27:06
And when you look at the math in terms of where placements are going and what products are being fulfilled there, if it's not the largest market, it's right up there with it in terms of unit placements.
|
|
|
Ferrisi:
27:21
So now that we've learned quite a bit about the 4P-B AQUOS commercial TV series, I I would assume that a lot of our listeners and our viewers have that their interest piqued.
27:32
They want to know more.
27:33
What would be a good resource for people to go to if they wanted to learn more about this commercial TV series?
|
|
|
Bailer:
27:39
Well, they can go to either one of our websites, SharpNECdisplays.us or sharpusa.com/displays.
|
|
|
Ferrisi:
27:52
Well, I really want to thank you Gary and thank you Ben for a really informative conversation today.
27:57
As I say, I think we've kind of disambiguated some of the the mushed up categories so to speak in the display world,
28:04
so people really understand what category or class of display is best suited for a particular environment, while at the same time talking about this new commercial TV series that is very exciting and as I mentioned, has applicability for so many different verticals.
28:19
To your point, Gary, it's really kind of a horizontal as opposed to a vertical kind of a solution.
28:23
So thank you, Gary.
28:25
Thank you, Ben, for giving us a really informative half hour dialogue.
28:28
I appreciate it.
|
|
|
Bailer:
28:30
Certainly appreciate your time and thank you for inviting us.
|
|
|
Hardy:
28:33
Yeah, thank you very much, Dan.
28:34
Good to talk to you again
|
|
|
Ferrisi:
28:36
Likewise, so happy to have been joined by Gary Bailer, who is Director of Product Management, Display Products with Sharp NEC Display Solutions and of course Ben Hardy who is Senior Product Manager, Large format displays with Sharp NEC Display Solutions.
28:49
My name is Dan Ferrisi, Editor in Chief with Commercial Integrator and host of AV+.
28:54
Thanking you so much as always for tuning into AV+the podcast for the commercial AV integration industry.
29:00
Please check back on commercialintegrator.com regularly for more great thought leadership and multimedia content just like this.
29:07
In the meantime, have a great day.
|
|
|
[outro music plays]
|
|