Getting Into ‘Advanced Display Technologies’ at DSE 2015

DSE speaker outlines his upcoming education session, providing the industry with a deep understanding of how digital signage displays truly work.

Jonathan Brawn

To understand Advanced Display Technologies, you first need to understand how various displays work in order to specify them properly. It’s worth noting that identifying which displays are used in a system is a critical point, and will definitely impact how the system performs.

Consider it. You may have an amazing content strategy, but if the image is too dim, or the colors and contrast are wrong, or the size is off, then no one will receive that message, and your impact will be lost.

That’s why a deep understanding of how displays work will help you select the right type of display, and once the specifications are well understood, the displays you choose will meet the requirements of the system.

The seminar I will lead at DSE 2015 will start by reviewing LCD or liquid crystal display technology. The vast majority of displays sold into digital signage are LCD flat panels. We will discuss their history and then a detailed operational principle, starting with polarized light.

We can then delve into construction, function and then backlights. An exploration of the various specifications, such as backlight intensity, will allow us to make sure the right display gets into the right application. I will also discuss screen image retention (sometimes called burn-in, although not correctly so) and duty cycle, both of which are critical topics if a display is to be of long term use in the field.

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From LCD, we can turn our attention to OLED displays even though many find them too expensive and exotic to be commonly used. While that’s the case now, it is slowly going to change, and you should be prepared. After we understand OLED, how it works, and the different types of OLED technology out there, we can turn our attention to the forgotten display type, projectors!

Believe it or not, as much as 30% of digital signage still uses projection based displays in one form or another, and for good reason. As wonderful as large flat panels are, and as amazing as video walls can be, we still can do things with projectors that flat panels can only dream of… we are going to explore that topic in detail.

We will look at LCD projectors, DLP projectors, and LCoS projectors. They are all distinct types of technology, and each operates in its own way. I also will lead the group through a discussion on lenses and lamps, how they may impact projector life and brightness. One of the beautiful things today is that we have hybrid and laser projectors, that remove the need to change lamps… making projectors much more economical to own and operate.

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After we have completely filled everyone in attendance heads with as much technical knowledge someone should be willing to soak up in a single seminar, the hope is that everyone will be able to go forth into the wide world of digital signage, and make sure they have selected the right display for the job.

You’ll also be armed with all the right questions: If using a flat panel, is it the right size, does it have enough brightness? If using a projector, is it the right type, right lens, and will it output enough light? If constructing a video wall, do you have the right displays? What about edge blending of projectors?

Author Jonathan Brawn will be presenting Seminar 7 entitled, “Advanced Display Technologies,” at Digital Signage Expo 2015 on Wednesday, March 11 from 9:00-10:00am at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Go to dse2015.com for more information about the March 10-13 Digital Signage Expo and to register for “Advanced Display Technologies” or any other courses.

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