InfoComm Day Two Impressions: All-In-One LED Displays Are Still A Thing, But Its No Longer Just About Unfamiliarity
June 16, 2023 by Dave Haynes
Day Two at InfoComm in Orlando started slowly Thursday, but picked up and was quite busy by midday and on. That might well have owed to a lot of late night parties, as it certainly seemed like every substantial restaurant and bar on International Drive was booked for a private event.
Normally I walk-walk-walk and try to see as much as I can, but I think of six hours on the floor, four were in meetings. So there are big chunks of the show floor I just flat missed this time. And I am on my way home now, as I didn’t feel like spending half of my weekend traveling.
What I did see was a lot more LED. Someone said there were roughly 75 manufacturers – from global #1 Absen all the way to Goldluck LED. There are lotsa companies on the floor who primarily sell in the domestic China market, which on its own has many 100s of LED manufacturers.
The inexpensive stuff can look good, but can also look cheap. The big challenge for resellers looking for product to sell into small businesses with small budgets is that service and support is 8-12 hours away in time zones, and in Mandarin. So good luck with that.
A few years ago now, the larger manufacturers started marketing All In One LED units that came in predetermined sizes, with stands and all the other stuff that sits in behind. The thinking was that LED was unfamiliar and much of the pro AV community couldn’t wrap their heads around resolutions based on pixel pitches and cabinets that stacked and tiled to make a display.
I asked a few companies why these “AIO” units were still a thing, given many to most integrators MUST be experienced with the gear by now. I was told there’s a demand for easy-in, easy-up, oversized equivalents to flat panels in workspaces. Integrators are also chasing deals with units that carefully mimic the dimensions of things like 3 wide, 2 high LCD video walls – so an LED can fill the same physical space in places like boardrooms and control rooms.
A good indicator that the price gap between LCD and LED is closing is a Planar unit that is 136-inches diagonal, 1.5 mm and had infrared touch. Yes, newer kinds of LED are safe to use as touch surfaces (the older SMD ones were too fragile). The all-in-one is $39,500, which in relative terms is a nice price – particularly when compared to some of the six-figure MicroLED-ish premium product being marketed.
I could swear I took photos, but …
I had a good look at the ClearLED foil product that peels off a film backing and adheres to glass. It’s pretty nice, but CMO Jin Fan conceded it is about 2X the price of other semi-transparent product. As with all this stuff, demand and manufacturing capacity will close that gap. In this case, Fan said her company had to design and build its own machines to produce the a super-thin mesh with integrated circuits and teeny lights.
Other quick chats:
Nanolumens showed me a curved sub 1mm LED that it will start marketing later this year.
Skykit is presenting itself as an Android-centric platform that could be described as headless and tuned to functionality that can plug into it.
SignageOS gave me a rundown on a tweaked business model for the developer/middleware side of its business. In the past, a software firm using SignageOS to get its CMS working with proprietary operating systems like Tizen and LG WebOS had to pay a fee per node. So the more end-points, the higher the monthly fee.
Now it is a defined fee for developers that is not associated with network size. The funny analogy provided was that when you buy a drill for DIY work, you pay for the drill, and not for the number of holes you drill with it.
PrimeView showed me a couple of interesting things – a rollable fine-pitch LED floor mat that is rugged enough to walk on and LED ceiling tiles that match the dimensions of acoustic ceiling tiles, and are light enough to rest in those truss-grid systems.
I saw i5LED’s product for the first time. The US company is still new, and run by the guy who previously started and ran D3.
I got a clear sense in conversations that the busiest vertical market for both the hardware and software folks is workplace, and particularly manufacturing and warehouse environments populated by “deskless” workers.
One guy noted that the opportunity for some of that might be short-term, given how robotics are growing prevalent in those environments. But there are lots of scenarios – like food processing – that will still be staffed by humans.
Industry veteran Ed Crowley had an interesting insight. At other shows he’s been to in recent months, AI is a huge discussion point. At InfoComm, apart from lotsa display manufacturers showing generative AI Refik Anadol knock-offs, there was little evidence of AI … something that will touch a hell of a lot of what digital signage offers and does.
My apologies to all kinds of people and companies I promised to see, or come back to. My days were nutty.
Good show. Glad I went. Very happy to be getting out of Orlando.
Safe travels home!
I have an interview with Tomer at 22Miles I am finishing up. He is heavily into workplace, and he has some interesting insights on AI going forward. Technology is great but application in real-world beats that.
Great insight Dave. thanks
Hi Dave,
It was great meeting you again at Vu Orlando.
FYI, I just uploaded 23 InfoComm 2023 videos and created this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W8aE9HggOc&list=PLdgOr2vStQ-T4pWdx2155SufFN4Xc-CZr
I hope that you find them useful. The playlist contains a video from Vu Orlando as well.
Hao