Swedx UK Shows A 3,000 Nit Portable Outdoor LCD Display That Runs Off Solar

September 2, 2022 by Dave Haynes

Digital sandwich board signs became a bit of thing during the height of pandemic lockdowns, particularly in Europe. The freestanding LCD screens, parked outside store entries, could explain how things were now working when there were capacity limits, staff shortages and supply issues.

Now there’s a version of that sandwich board – also referred to as digital A-frames – that has an attached solar array, self-charges and can run a full day off the battery – even at the high brightness needed to make the screen visible on a sunny day. The specialty display firm Swedx UK has a Linkedin post up about a new product that uses a solar-charged battery and can run 3,000 nits

The unit also has a built-in, Android-based player.

I find this interesting for at least a couple of reasons.

1. Battery-powered displays are not new, but the good ones out there still need to have the batteries either pulled out to take away to recharge, or the whole unit needs to get plugged in. I’ve not seen products other than e-paper transit schedule displays designed for solar;
2. The battery has the power to drive video and motion graphics to a high-brightness screen. The other battery-based units I have seen only run conventional brightness levels – like 300-500 nits. This is as much as 10X brighter, and that extra lighting gobbles power.

The unit shown in the post and video (could not embed) is a first article. The production units have wheels that allow the screens to be easily re-positioned and pulled inside during closing hours.

No price, but this will be a LOT more than the A-frames now in market, because of the high brightness LCD panels, and the solar array. The big question is whether end-users will pay what’s probably a healthy premium for largely hassle-free solar units, or save the money and pull the units in to recharge overnight. Or just run a power card and hide it under a ramp or duct tape.

UPDATE FROM SWEDX

Over the last 5 years Swedx UK has been developing our traditional indoor A Board to satisfy the gap we saw in the outdoor solutions. This has seen many R&D units where we balanced LCD 4K instant definition against LED brightness with power draw, battery life and client budgets demands, finally late in 2021 we launched our IP65 1500 nit brightness battery LCD unit, as attached to great success.

Taking this principle our new Solar powered battery unit is 43” IP65 with Android Rockstar 2+8GB control, both Wi-Fi and 4G connectivity allow dynamic updates through your CMS platform to portray amazing content in 3000 nit bright 4K screen. Being solar powered, even on cloudy days the battery system recharges, balancing the need for great run time without adding bulky weighted batteries.

Initial interest in orders are being taken with worldwide delivery (subject to local port customs) available in 20 days with a Sterling LIST £6,500 on 1-5 units and UK back to base commercial warranty. Trade enquiries will of course discuss discounts appropriate to the volume ordered.