Digital Signage: Preparing to deploy 4K technology

by all | 3 December 2014 9:32 am

By Keith Yanke
Both ultra-high-definition (UHD) digital displays and cinema-grade ‘4K’ projectors were all the rage at the 2014 InfoComm audiovisual (AV) industry show, which took place in June in Las Vegas, Nev. On the display front, in particular, manufacturers were clearly racing to deliver higher resolutions to eager customers.

Several manufacturers are already shipping UHD displays in a range of sizes, from desktop monitors to large screens, while excitement has grown for 4K projector applications in the digital cinema market. The most hype has focused on pushing UHD/4K technology into consumers’ homes, but there are many applications in the commercial market, including the digital signage sector.

Phases of adoption
Early adopters of UHD display technology have included animation studios, broadcasters, computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM), control rooms, engineering departments, governments, health-care facilities, military organizations and photography studios. On the projector side, flight simulators, large auditoriums and corporate event rental and staging companies have appeared to hold the ‘first mover’ advantage. For most of these applications, users can turn to multiple existing display options to accomplish UHD/4K results.

Moving beyond these markets, retailers are likely to be among the next set of adopters, along with corporate video conferencing applications. Brand marketers in the retail space, especially, are always looking for the latest, greatest technologies to help them stand out from their competitors. Fashion designers, for example, can use 4K resolution to showcase their latest collections with greater detail and clarity than ever before. To captivate retail audiences, they tend to use screens around 2.5 m (100 in.) in size to provide lifelike, full-size images.

In video conferencing, meanwhile, two earlier, lower-resolution displays can now be replaced by one, such that live video and data sources can share space on a single screen. These configurations will help make AV installation and integration simpler by reducing the number of components needed for a given video conferencing system.

Factors to consider
For these and other digital signage and AV applications, it is important to consider several key factors before jumping into a UHD/4K display deployment:

• 
What is the customer trying 
to achieve?
• 
Will 4K content provide a real advantage in the marketplace?
• 
Does the customer absolutely need UHD resolution today?
• 
Is the goal to ‘future-proof’ the business, so there will be no need to replace systems in a few years’ time?

These are all important questions to ponder before taking any action. The key is to start out with a plan that outlines specific, measurable goals. Content, bandwidth, cost and compatibility will all come into play when preparing an effective transition to 4K technology.

Content
Both 4K content and, for that matter, the corresponding media player hardware are currently in their infancy, but as time goes on, this will change. More digital signage hardware manufacturers will begin to offer UHD/4K players 
and more 4K content will become broadly available.

That said, it is worth keeping in mind 4K-resolution displays also offer the capability to feature multiple high-definition (HD) images, graphics and video feeds on-screen at the same time. With a standard ‘full-HD’ screen, the user is limited to 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, but by moving to a 4K screen, he/she essentially achieves four times the resolution; so if he/she wants to display smaller, existing images and fonts, they will remain highly visible on the newer screen.

In other words, 4K screens excel not only at displaying content from 
a single UHD source, but at offering almost limitless flexibility in content configurations without image degradation.

Bandwidth
Of course, any discussion of sourcing content at higher resolutions and carrying it across a network must not neglect sufficient available bandwidth as part of the overall assessment.

The need for additional bandwidth is a major consideration when planning to implement 4K digital signage, given the sheer amount of data involved. Essentially, the network will be raising its previous HD resolution capacity by a factor of four, with bandwidth requirements growing accordingly. And no matter where and how the 4K displays will be used, e.g. connected to a hardwired network or to the ‘cloud,’ they will need the same bandwidth available to pull data and stream content.

Cost
Currently, UHD displays carry a cost premium of 25 per cent on smaller screen sizes, easily reaching more than 50 per cent for larger screen sizes, relative to standard HD units. As time goes by and manufacturers’ panel yields improve, however, this pricing gap should shrink. In turn, the narrower pricing gap will allow vendors to sell more UHD panels to more customers, allowing them to make up 
a higher percentage of the overall market.

With projectors, on the other hand, 4K resolution is expected to remain a niche feature and target only specific types of customers, like cinemas, for many years to come.

As mentioned, one of the key considerations relating to cost is whether a 4K technology is required now to meet business objectives or, instead, full HD resolution is good enough for the next few years.

Compatibility
For UHD/4K resolution to really take off in mainstream markets, it will be crucial to establish compatibility and interoperability between components. There are quite a few pieces of hardware that reside between a 4K display and its data source, all of which must be able to accept and handle 4K-resolution content and its bandwidth demands.

Within the UHD/4K technology marketplace, however, there are still a number of different formats and refresh rates (e.g. 30-Hz, 60-Hz, 24 frames per second) and different ways 
of achieving the same resolution. So, it is important to know which formats/methods each component supports.

Given how many variables exist in the market and the need for components to be interoperable, some manufacturers are working to address compatibility issues by testing and certifying third-party products for use with their own.

Avoiding regrets
Some users want to deploy the latest, greatest technologies no matter what, perhaps out 
of pure hubris, but for the aforementioned reasons, it is important to plan carefully now to avoid regrets later. Digital signage integrators and installers should look not just for products, but for the best ways to address and solve their customers’ business challenges.

Certainly, UHD/4K resolution can offer real benefits, but customers should first consider their key business, content and technology issues before taking the plunge.

Keith Yanke is senior director of product marketing for NEC Display Solutions. For more information, contact him via e-mail at keithyanke@necdisplay.com.

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/digital-signage-preparing-to-deploy-4k-technology/

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