Sharp Broadens Options For Smart Signage With Two New 24/7 Android-based Displays

May 2, 2018 by Dave Haynes

Sharp has expanded the range of 24/7 commercial displays shipping with built-in system on chip media players and Android.

The company has added 39.5-inch and 49.5-inch PN-M series displays that ship with built-in SoCs driven by Arm Cortex-A17 quad core processors, with 2 GB memory and 8 GB storage. The monitors are 50% brighter than the company’s PN-B series, are 24/7-rated.

Like other “smart” displays, content can be done as simply as entering a URL in the embedded HTML5 browser, or end-users can work with third-party CMS software platforms that support Android. The SHARP Open Architecture Platform  for digital signage 17 third-party CMS partners, including Capital Networks, Navori, Omnivex and Enplug.

Interestingly, the displays also have Intel Mini Open Pluggable Specification (Mini OPS) ports in them that allow for things like an HDBaseT receiver board or a wireless board (PN-ZB03W) for easy wireless connection with multiple devices. There is also an optional wireless adaptor available from Sharp.

The displays are light enough that they don’t necessarily need conventional mounting systems, and are designed such that they can be suspended with wires from the four corners of the rear housing.

The smaller version is now available for shipping, and the bigger one by the time InfoComm is running in June.