It wasn’t long ago when we wondered if the enthusiasm around 4K was limited to the consumer world and less significant in B2B solutions.
Planar Systems quashed that question by announcing 17 percent Q3 2014 growth with much of it stemming from digital signage and 4K related revenue. The commercial market focused manufacturer’s digital signage product revenue grew by 53 percent versus the year-ago quarter.
Related: Planar Doubles Down on 4K
“Over the past year, we have seen growing demand for 4K solutions,” said Planar president and CEO Gerry Perkel during an earnings conference call.
4K adoption has had a big impact on Planar’s sharp growth, said the company in a statement citing demand for Ultra HD with the introduction of four new 4K displays: Planar UltraRes 98-inch, Planar EP-Series 58-inch and 65-inch, and Planar IX-Series 28-inch UHD displays.
Demand for 4K in digital signage applications has greatly exceeded Planar’s predictions, said director of product marketing Steve Seminario prior to InfoComm 2014 in June, citing “more broad commercial demand” than he expected. “We ended up doing about 2.5 times what I forecast for the [UltraRes Series 4K] product.”
Related: Why Crestron Takes 4K Certification Upon Itself
Meanwhile, Planar recognizes that its 4K growth hasn’t occurred in a vacuum and that B2B 4K solutions are reliant on an ecosystem of products. During InfoComm 2014 Seminario credited partners Crestron, BrightSign and others for developing products that make deployment of quality 4K systems more attainable for commercial customers.
“The ecosystem that allows customers to deliver 4K content to 4K displays has really developed tremendously over the last year, year and a half,” he said. “We’ve partnered with Crestron on their 4K initiative incorporating their control software as well as their certification program around 4K.”
Watch Seminario describe the emerging 4K ecosystem:
