If you are a fan of technology and gadgets, and I imagine most of us in this industry are, then you have probably “overbought” your needs or specs at some point. Maybe you went with the step-up model cell phone; or bought a bigger, more expensive TV than you need; or splurged on extra wattage for your stereo. I know I have and will again in the future. It is fun to dive into the settings and check out all the features on a new “toy.” While this may be great for techies and personal use, it is not a solid approach in the Pro A/V world. The current industry climate has customers being cost conscious due to tighter budgets and credit lines, so any savings or value you provide can swing a project or deal in your favor.
So, what better time to take an updated look at using consumer TVs in a commercial setting, than now? There has been a historical reluctance to use consumer TVs in commercial spaces due to many factors and rightly so in some applications. Displays that require long run times, will be used in harsh environments, or for digital signage projects are best suited for commercial displays designed for those use cases. However, there are applications and situations where you would be doing your customers and end-users a disservice by not considering consumer TVs for your projects. The cost and ease of use can save significant money and time. Odds are that the users will have some level of familiarity with the remote and user interface, especially when compared to a commercial display.
The Education market has been one of the strongest verticals for consumer TV sales the past few years. Not all schools are looking for auto tracking PTZs or elaborate projection and audio systems. The lower cost and built-in streaming apps on Samsung TVs make them a natural fit in schools and classrooms. Work within your client’s budget and provide value beyond the price. Samsung consumer TVs come packed with features and extras. Samsung TV Plus provides free TV channels with no sign-up, fees, or cables. Choose from 350+ live TV channels and 1000s of movies and shows on demand, all for free. Streaming apps such as Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video can be downloaded to the user interface and utilized for streaming in the classroom. You will not find these in commercial displays. Samsung Gaming Hub features cloud gaming with Xbox Online Game Pass as well as other big names in game streaming. You can play many of your favorite titles from Xbox and others without having to purchase a console. Simply connect a Bluetooth game controller to your TV and you are in the game. While educators may not be thrilled about gaming in the classroom, the rise of esports and gaming in general make this a valuable addition and can provide entertainment beyond the usual. With all these features coming stock in Samsung consumer TVs, customers are getting more than “just a TV.”
Corporate and Hotel Lobbies – Focus models: Samsung The Frame
Another area of focus and success has been corporate and hotel lobbies, specifically with Samsung’s The Frame series. This line of TVs was introduced in 2017 and has been wildly popular in both residential and commercial applications. During regular usage, The Frame is a 4K QLED TV with all the same features as Samsung’s other QLED models. In Art Mode, the set transforms into a showcase for pre-loaded or purchased works of art, or you can display your personal art or pictures. The matte display film on the screen adds texture and life to the screen while the customizable bezels help blend the TV in with the décor of its domain. The adaptability to toggle from a standard TV to a gallery for art, makes The Frame ideal for settings where a TV or shiny black rectangle may not be what is wanted all the time. The included slim fit wall mount positions the display practically flush against the wall, furthering the illusion of it being an art piece, and providing an added value. The Frame TVs have also been popular with doctor’s and dentist’s offices. We have seen several projects where the TVs were mounted on the wall or ceiling for dental patients to watch as they receive services and can then be disguised as art when not being watched.
Sell them only what they need.
If the RFQ calls for a TV rated for 8 hours and 7 days a week, there is no need to sell a display that is rated to run all day or even 16/7. If the end-user is only open 8 hours per day or closed on weekends, a consumer panel rated at 8/7 will suit them quite well. Speaking of needs, you will want to offer an extended warranty with the TV. The manufacturer’s warranty is reduced to 90 days when used in a commercial space. This provides a nice segue to talking about accessories and your customer’s other potential needs for their project.
How to recognize a consumer TV opportunity.
One easy way to identify an opportunity to use consumer TVs is to look for the buzzwords and phrases below:
For Crystal UHD
“Low cost”
“Cheapest you have.”
“Doesn’t have to run all day.”
“Won’t be used all the time.”
“Doesn’t need to be fancy.”
“Most bang for their buck.”
“Limited run time”
“Smart TV”
For The Frame
“Looking for something different.”
“Comes in different colors.”
“Want something to match the room.”
“They want the TV to blend in or hide.”
While consumer TVs may not be the right tool for every job, they certainly have their place in the commercial audio-visual industry and should be considered when applicable.
In the fast-paced and ever-evolving hospitality industry, providing an exceptional guest experience is paramount. Every element of a guest’s stay contributes to their overall satisfaction, and one crucial aspect is the in-room entertainment. Samsung, a global leader in consumer electronics, recognizes the importance of this and offers a range of cutting-edge hospitality televisions designed to elevate the guest experience to new heights.
Samsung’s hospitality televisions combine advanced technology, stunning visual displays, and smart features to deliver an immersive and personalized in-room entertainment experience. Let’s delve into some key features that make Samsung Hospitality Televisions stand out:
Superior Visual Quality: Samsung’s hospitality televisions feature state-of-the-art display technologies, including 4K UHD resolution and HDR (High Dynamic Range). These features ensure vivid colors, sharp details, and enhanced contrast, providing guests with a cinematic viewing experience in the comfort of their rooms. Whether guests are enjoying their favorite shows, movies, or gaming, the exceptional visual quality enhances their overall enjoyment.
Smart TV Capabilities: Samsung Hospitality Televisions are equipped with smart TV functionality, allowing guests to access a wide range of content and services. Built-in Wi-Fi and easy-to-navigate interfaces enable guests to stream their favorite online platforms, such as Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube, directly on the television. Additionally, guests can explore personalized recommendations, browse the internet, or access hotel services, creating a seamless and interactive in-room experience.
Customizable User Interface: Hotels have the flexibility to customize the user interface of Samsung Hospitality Televisions, enabling them to showcase their branding and tailor the in-room experience to their specific requirements. Customizable welcome messages, hotel information, and branded backgrounds create a cohesive and immersive environment, reinforcing the hotel’s identity and enhancing the guest’s connection with the property.
Interactive Guest Services: Samsung’s hospitality televisions integrate with hotel guest service platforms, enabling guests to access a range of hotel services directly from their room. Whether it’s ordering room service, requesting housekeeping, or exploring local attractions, guests can easily navigate and interact with hotel services through the television. This streamlined approach not only enhances convenience but also improves operational efficiency for hotel staff.
Energy Efficiency and Durability: Samsung is committed to sustainability, and their hospitality televisions are designed with energy efficiency in mind. With features like automatic power-off and energy-saving modes, these televisions help hotels reduce their carbon footprint without compromising on guest satisfaction. Additionally, Samsung’s televisions undergo rigorous testing to ensure durability, reliability, and a longer lifespan, providing hotels with a cost-effective and sustainable solution.
Seamless Integration: Samsung Hospitality Televisions seamlessly integrate with existing hotel systems, making installation and management hassle-free. The televisions can be easily integrated with property management systems, content management systems, and other in-room control systems, allowing hotels to streamline operations and enhance the guest experience.
Samsung’s commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction has made them a trusted provider of hospitality televisions worldwide. Their extensive product lineup caters to a range of hotel sizes and requirements, ensuring that each property can find a tailored solution to meet their unique needs.
Samsung Hospitality Televisions offer a compelling combination of cutting-edge technology, superior visual quality, smart features, and seamless integration, all designed to enhance the guest experience. By providing a personalized and immersive in-room entertainment experience, hotels can delight their guests, differentiate themselves from the competition, and build long-lasting customer loyalty. With Samsung Hospitality Televisions, hotels can truly take their guest experience to the next level.
All parts of the country are seeing warm weather now, which means no matter where you are, it could be time to upgrade your outdoor spaces. We are currently stocked up on many items to bring new life to your outdoor spaces for your guests. We have great selections on commercial outdoor furniture and accessories, along with pro audio and displays.
Our Cape Soleil commercial outdoor furniture has been very popular with many hotels around the country and continues to grow. When we first launched the furniture line, one of our first big installations was a Courtyard Marriott in South Padre, TX. Featuring a custom color and being placed on many levels and areas of the property, we have yet to see a single issue after many years of use. Cape Soleil was designed to withstand any outdoor environment, and accompanied with a great warranty, it will allow you to enjoy outdoor spaces for many years, worry-free.
We currently have special pricing on bar height table and chairs and plenty of stock to ship out immediately. Along with the classic items found in the catalog, we have recently added some Adirondack-style chairs and tables to our offerings. These are currently in stock with a variety of colors and styles. These eco-friendly products are also produced in the USA which allows for reduced lead times on large quantities! Our outdoor selection isn’t just limited to seating and tables. For those of you in the cooler areas, we have a variety patio heaters and fire pits stocked up as well.
While some guests may just like the quiet outside experience and reading the by pool, you might have some guests who want to catch the game, or maybe you have an outdoor bar that needs a TV and audio. If so, we’ve got you covered with products from Samsung and JBL by Harman. We have Samsung outdoor displays with options for all spaces, whether shady or bright. For sound, we have soundbars from Samsung, or more traditional style speakers from JBL by Harman. These can upgrade a marine-kit grille for salt-air environments. Another interesting audio item we have is the Atlas GSS-G garden speaker, designed for theme parks, hotels, or any architecturally landscaped area, with a sleek design that blends into any environment.
While the furniture and audio/video are our biggest categories, we can assist with other needs as well. For appliances, we have small outdoor refrigerators from Danby and a few premium brands, like U-Line, with outdoor icemakers and built-in refrigeration and freezers. With many products available, don’t hesitate to reach out to your Exertis Almo Hospitality rep today to see what we can assist you with!
When you hear the letters “IP“, most people probably think of Internet Protocol, Intellectual Property, or maybe even Innings Pitched. Here, we are going to be referring to Ingress Protection, or how well an electrical enclosure can protect from the penetration of dust and moisture. Even if you have never heard the term before, you have most certainly thought about ingress protection at some time. Have you ever spilled water on your phone, tablet, or laptop? That instant panic (and possible profanities) is caused by your lack of trust in the ability of your device to keep out moisture.
Most new cellphones are marketed as waterproof or water-resistant. What do those terms mean? Are they marketing buzzwords, or are they meant to be taken at face value? This video by CNBC does a good job explaining them. I have personally taken the term waterproof too literally myself. On my oldest daughter’s 1st birthday, we took her swimming and I wanted to document as much as I could with my “waterproof” phone. We had a great time, but the documentation did not go as planned. In fact, I learned a new notification that day. A water droplet icon meant that moisture had made its way into my phone, and it was no longer functioning properly.
How did these standards come to be? In 1976, the International Electrotechnical Commission, or IEC, published IEC 60529, with the goal of standardizing the requirements regarding protection by enclosures. Prior to that time, there were separate standards for motors and low-voltage switchgear and controlgear.
The IP rating consists of two digits:
The first rates protection against solid objects and works on a scale of 0-6.
The second rates protection against liquids and works on a scale of 0-9.
The guide below lists details of what level of protection each number represents.
Outdoor displays should have a rating of no less than IP55, to be reasonably safe from both dust and water. Using the above guide tells us that the first numeral of 5 means that the enclosure is considered “dust-protected”. Since we are fully in pollen season in much of the country, strong protection against solid foreign objects is necessary. A first numeral rating of 4 would not supply the necessary protection against pollen grains as they are smaller than the 1.0mm size listed in the description. The second numeral of 5 means that the device is “protected against water jets”. Who is going to be blasting an outdoor display with water jets? Well, a landscaping sprinkler system or someone using a hose are both water jets you would want to be safe from.
Outdoor installations have progressed from your run-of-the-mill bank clocks with time and temperature to complex direct view LED displays that are truly immersive. Keeping the viewer immersed, and not the hardware, is a key to the success and longevity of any outdoor AV project. When your electronics are exposed to the elements, you will always have some degree of risk involved. Using the IP ratings, along with the manufacturer’s suggested usage and accessories, will allow you to minimize risk for your projects and customers. Be certain to read the warranty as well to ensure you are not doing anything that might void or shorten your warranty period.
Outdoor displays can range from a standard TV in an enclosure designed to be outdoors, all the way up to massive dvLEDs that you might see in Las Vegas or Times Square. Whatever your needs, Exertis Almo can provide solutions that run the gamut, including multiple dvLED vendors. The Samsung Terrace Series (consumer) provides options for outdoor displays, a soundbar offering, as well as accessories that can help protect and prolong the life of the hardware. These have become quite popular in commercial settings such as bars, restaurants, hotels, and even corporate patio areas.
Visit ExertisAlmo.com today to learn more about our outdoor displays and other products.
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Did you know Samsung’s The WALL comes in a 2K or 4K Display?
Check out this interview by Gary Kayye, Director of THE rAVe Agency, featuring Samsung’s Senior Manager, Shari Sentolowitz discussing The WALL All-In-One Display.
Power on an awe-inspiring viewing experience with The WALL All-in-One! Simply choose your size and resolution, and you’re assured of a complete, easy-to-install, brilliant solution.
The Wall from Samsung is the epitome of innovation. It constantly delivers new avenues to create unparalleled visual statements. Redefining the LED paradigm once again, The Wall now solves the biggest challenge of industry, drastically improving installation. The Wall, let it transform your business. A deep black background blankets the screen with perfect uniformity, creating a seamless canvas for purer black levels with enhanced depth that delivers unparalleled contrast and immaculate detail. Colors leap to life with spectacular vibrancy to recreate scenes as if you were there in real life. Narrower wavelengths produce RGB colors two times purer and more accurate than conventional LEDs. Available in 3 sizes.
When we typically consider pro AV systems design and integration, we immediately think indoors. Truth is, most of us do nearly all our projects inside the confines of buildings, with walls and ceilings. Boardrooms, conference rooms, huddle spaces, and auditoriums are just a few of the things we all do so well… but wouldn’t it be great if we could expand our horizons (and those of our customers)? Well now we can, and it’s time to start thinking outdoors!
There are a ton of available spaces, that today are more important than ever. Let’s say there is a patio or deck area that literally begs for a display. How about along the path beside a building? Outside the entranceway? Considering the unfortunate situation we find ourselves in thanks to COVID, our industry is now tasked with creating new outdoor areas… that not only had not been previously thought of, but now must be. This will be part of our “new normal”. Keep in mind that today outdoor spaces are more universally preferred in many areas around the country due to restrictions, comfort of guests, etc. Lump this under addressing health and safety concerns while delivering an outdoor visual experience that keeps people safe. Think opportunities!
Those of you who design projects will probably think about the obstacles before anything else. There is heat and moisture. There is bright sunlight, reflections on the screen, and the resulting poor image quality. Therefore, you think it just won’t work and can’t give the end results you get inside. Worry not because Samsung and their new Terrace Pro TV comes to the rescue.
This is one of those cases where we examine the Terrace Pro TV and see how the features really do become tangible benefits. Nothing matters if the display will not withstand the environment. Rain or shine, you can enjoy year-round outdoor entertainment with an IP55 rating that assures protection from water and dust. Check the first requirements box.
The next concern should be image quality. If the image is inadequate or inferior, then the dollars spent are wasted. Nobody will even look at the display let alone enjoy it. This issue is addressed via the QLED 4K panel and over 2,000 nits of brightness. For the techies among you the QLED is a Samsung adaptation of Quantum Dot backlight technology but optimized to deliver what Samsung states as 100% Color Volume for a billion shades of brilliant color, without washing out in extreme brightness. By the way contrast is enhanced via direct full array backlighting system providing fine control of the lighting zones behind the screen. HDR10+ adjusts color and contrast scene-by-scene for a dynamic and immersive viewing experience. This ultimately means that Samsung has brought their top-notch home theater display technology into a commercial model, and an outdoor one at that. Will the display be noticed and appreciated? You bet and the adaptive picture capability optimizes picture settings based on surrounding lighting conditions. Check the second requirements box.
It doesn’t stop at IP ratings for outdoor use and stellar picture quality. This is also a Business TV, like Samsung’s previously launched BET-H series. These were intended to offer carefully vetted apps like Youtube, and integrate digital signage through the included Business TV App. It will hold the customer’s hand through choosing a pre-built template, entering their own content, and publishing them for an easy signage experience. Other features are turned into benefits that integrators can provide for their clients. The multi view feature lets them watch TV while displaying signage content from the App.
Remote control and connectivity are not an afterthought. There is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The wireless remote control is even IP56 rated to stands up to water and dust. Thinking about the ease of installation, the Terrace has HD Base-T already built-in, for one cable, clutter free connectivity to external devices. Simply plug in the included cable and you are good to go! Its built-in media bay provides additional support for media sticks and protection from water and dust. Samsung is also offering a (consumer) outdoor soundbar matched to the Terrace and Terrace Pro TV models to provide local audio.
What the Terrace Pro TV allows the user is an indoor viewing experience outdoors without a lot of cost and complexity. This gives the integrator the opportunity to tell clients a new story and one that they have not heard. You can extol the lengthy list of features but punctuate those with tangible benefits. If the objective is a project that visually stands out and becomes an experience, the Terrace Pro TV should be at the top of your considerations.