German Firm Longshine To Demo Color E-Paper Menu Boards At ISE

January 23, 2025 by Dave Haynes

In my meeting with E Ink last fall in Hsinchu, Taiwan, the company clearly indicated that digital signage was seen as a next big growth area for its color e-paper products. A series of announcements recently seem to back that up.

At least a couple of companies will be at ISE showing large format “Kaleido” E Ink displays with the idea that they could replace printed material for things like ad displays on sidewalk totems and attached to transit shelters.

Now there is word that a company called Longshine will be at ISE showing showing color e-paper displays being used as digital menu boards. I assumed with that handle the company was Chinese, but it is in northern Germany, near Hamburg. Manufacturing, though, is in Taiwan.

Menu boards is an interesting use-case, because menus don’t need to change often, and they really don’t need video support – though many designs build food porn video in to layouts.

The business challenge will be that quick service restaurant owner-operators are not exactly known as wild spenders, so if they see how e-paper displays are several multiples in cost of a similarly-sized LCD, that might be the end of the discussion. But in central Europe, where power costs and green signage are looked at much more seriously, energy-sipping displays might get a serious look.

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