Crystal Display Real Estate Window List

Comparing Apples to Lemons

• Sydney 18th November 2009

There are many different technologies that exist in the Digital Sign realm and not all are suited for Real Estate use. Crystal Display explains this in easy terms.

Black spots

When a screen receives too much heat, the picture generating crystals go into what's called the "isotropic stage". Put simply, you will have large black "burn" spots on your screen.

Below is a photo showing the black burn spot on a britelite LCD screen (right). Compare this to the "transflective" screen of the kind used by Crystal Display on the left. Both have been placed in direct sunlight for the same amount of time.

What is "sun readable"?

There are two main ways a screen manufacture can achieve what the industry has coined "sun readable", and only one of these ways is suited to the harsh Australian sun light.

A screen incorporating a "transflective layer" is the best as it uses the sunlight on the screen to brighten the image via a mirror positioned behind the picture generating layer. These screens are designed to be placed in direct sunlight, and with the proper heat management techniques in place, they will not fade or develop black spots. This is the type we exclusively use at Crystal Display.

The second method is to use a super bright back light or "britelite" to boost the image brightness and overcome the sunlight hitting the screen. Whilst this may work in the country of manufacture (Asia) the simple fact is Australian summer sunlight is too bright for these to work well here. Further, a brighter backlight burns at a higher temperature - in an application where you want to reduce heat to avoid burnouts!

As they burn brighter and faster, Britelite screens also have a much shorter life span. According to one manufacturer who supplies real estate agents, a Britelite screen will lose up to 50% of it's effective brightness in just six months. So while it may look good in the showroom today, after just six months in your agency your investment will be a dud.

Transflective screens are more expensive than britelite, but they are the only true screens designed and built for direct sunlight use. Over the lifetime of your investment, the costs will be significantly less as you won't need to replace back lights and panels every six months.

Warranty

We urge all Agencies who are considering a digital display system to consider the warranty of the screen technology. Some britelite products are not covered when placed in direct sunlight - which will happen every day in your Agency window.

Crystal Display screens are warranted to us for 3 years, and on our Partner Program we have extended this guarantee for life.

Heat Management

Burn spots can still happen with "transflective" screens when proper heat management techniques have not been designed into the screens.

At Crystal Display, we have incorporated an intelligent heat management system in to every screen which lets us run the screens cooler and avoid these damaging black spots. We even remotely monitor the temperature and amount of sunlight each screen is receiving from our head office!


Don't be caught with a Lemon

Don't be caught out buying an inferior (and overpriced) system. Insist in the quality only a genuine Crystal Display system offers and you will continue to enjoy the many benefits of a Display system in your agency for many years to come.

Ensure you do your due diligence - ask everyone about their sun readable technology, do they have a specific heat management system (such as remote temperature monitoring) and does displaying a screen in full sunlight void the manufacturer's warranty. Ask these questions and you'll find the choice is Crystal clear.

Still unsure? Then contact us today to try out our system for one month for free.




Article by: Sebastien Maslin
UNSW 2008 top post graduate researcher of the year, Sebastien Maslin has worked in complex embedded electronic, display, network and software systems for over ten years, with Military, Commercial, Domestic and Industrial organisations. Maslin is now in charge of Product Research and Development at Crystal Display.

Crystal News Feeder

Subscribe to RSS