Munich, June 26, 2023 – The Digital Signage Summit Europe on July 5 and 6, 2023 at the Hilton Munich Airport will show what moves and inspires the digital signage industry. Value Added Distributor Concept International, specialist for LED walls and DS players, has, in line with the top topic “Green Signage”, gone in search of energy-saving LED panels – and got significantly more than actually planned: With FutureLED, a manufacturer is new in the program, which with innovative technology, such as Common Cathode and Flip Chip, not only saves up to 40 percent power, but also serves the most diverse scenarios with a wide range of products. With the renowned micro, mini, booksize and OPS PCs from Giada, the right players for playing video surfaces are also available at Concept at booth 13.
“Actually, we just wanted to become even greener. That is, in addition to packaging, above all to save electricity. But what we found with the manufacturer FutureLED – that’s simply awesome!” This is how Mike Finckh, CEO of Concept, enthuses. “The hammer”, that is, among other things, the structure of the cabinets: the LED tiles are wireless and need neither the usual fuse and power cables nor a signal cable. The advantage, besides the lower material costs: Tiles from FutureLED are simply clicked in or out. One click and it runs – with low susceptibility to errors and great resistance. Above all, this saves time: during assembly and disassembly, of course, but also during troubleshooting. “First, there are simply fewer components that could fail,” says Finckh, “second, a defective tile is literally pinpointed as the culprit or ruled out as a source of error in seconds.” Finckh estimates that the savings on repairs and installation and dismantling are 30 percent, “rather more,” he adds.
It doesn’t get any greener
Concept offers seven different LED series, from outdoor models to 16:9 and 1:1 formats, high-brightness versions and rental versions for rent. Particularly impressive are the flexible flex tiles for freeforms and the Eco series. Here, savings of up to 40 percent are realistic, says Finckh. That’s made possible by two technologies that are well-known and resilient, but not yet widely used:
- “Flip Chip”, in which the diodes are directly supplied with power from below. The previously necessary and visually restrictive wire connection on the top is thus superfluous.
- “Common Cathode” reverses – simply put – the direction of the current: The individual RGB diodes no longer receive power from a single source at the end of the circuit; instead, they are at the beginning of the power supply, each channel has its own regulated access to the current and is only then grounded. This reduces the stray losses and enables the considerable energy saving.
The new billing model is particularly interesting for resellers: Concept is moving away from the price per square meter, which is costly and complicated in calculating the necessary modules and power supplies, to panel standard costs with a three or five-year warranty. It is simply scaled the need for LED tiles, in case of defect, they are replaced by the manufacturer and vandalism insurance is available as an option.
Giada Player: reliable continuous runners with comfortable power reserves
“If you’re honest,” says Mike Finckh, “the performance of a DS player almost doesn’t matter anymore.” That’s because of the high standard that the devices have long met. The last reserves of performance – only a fraction of customers need them, says Finckh. Of course, it’s wonderful when Giada’s performance giants can output 4K content on four monitors simultaneously, he says. The flagships with i7 processor, Giada D612 and D613 manage that, with CPUs of the 12th and from July the 13th generation (Raptor Lake). However, stability, availability, a good price and 24/7 endurance are much more important for the vast majority of customers. Genes that Giada has had for years, for example with RTC (Real-Time Clock), which allows the system to be booted up and shut down according to a schedule, or the “Watchdog”, which automatically restarts the system after an error. “They just run,” is the tenor. An i3 is often enough for many requirements. Even a Celeron does very well, thanks to clever use of the different cores. With the option of being able to work with this CPU even with the inexpensive entry-level Windows licenses, price reductions of several hundred Euros compared to a high-end i5 system can quickly be achieved. Or as Finckh puts it: “When buying, the price-performance ratio is the deciding factor besides the usage scenario!”
Breaking down walls with AirServer
Connecting home offices, online conferences, video meetings, lectures and trainings – digital exchange is booming. AirServer Connect makes this exchange particularly human: presentations, videos, images and much more can be made available to everyone, simply, securely, centrally managed and cross-platform. Whether it’s a business meeting, a Zoom call or a class, every participant can share content from any mobile device, be it a laptop, tablet or smartphone, and show it to everyone else. The mobile version of the new corporate frontend, the video of the service technician, the PowerPoint of the co-speaker, or even the cat video. Screen mirroring with Windows, Android or iOS at its best – only without the hassle and with up to eight transmissions simultaneously at 4K and flicker-free 60 Hz.
Integrating AirServer technology into whiteboards and other digital signage walls is an obvious thought – a thought that Concept International nevertheless implements as the only provider in Germany for slide-in computers in the OPS standard format (Open Pluggable Specification). The OPS slot-in air server can be used to operate LFDs (“Large Format Displays”) and digital conference room displays with up to 4K resolution in particular via an 80-pin JAE connector. Mike Finckh sums it up this way: “The Windows AirServer enables screen sharing via any video conferencing system even beyond the walls of the conference room, classroom or lecture hall. And as a slide-in computer, it disappears into the display in a theft-proof manner.”
Visitors can find Concept International at Digital Signage Summit Europe on July 5 and 6, 2023, at the Hilton Munich Airport, booth 13.