That’s A Big Touchscreen
Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
We are still not exactly sure how practical all in one-piece screens above 100 inches are? Surely the weight and manoeuvrability are an issue?
Anyway it’s interesting to see here that PSCo has partnered with U-Touch to create an interactive 103” Plasma!
The touch-screen matches exactly the look and feel of the original display and sits flush to the Panasonic glass panel.
Liam Slattery, Managing Director of U-Touch told us “We are delighted about the partnership; we chose to collaborate with PSCo because they are focussed on a niche market. They are experts in the distribution of the 103” plasma screen and they specialise in a concentrated amount of high quality products, which means they fully understand touch screen technology and its place in the market.”
June 3rd, 2008 at 15:43 @697
Personally I love U-touch’s work, but this may be a step too far in size! I’ve seen plenty of large touchscreens in my 10 years of signage, but I’ve never found them very practical above 40″. This is not due to weight and manouverability, but simple ergonomics.
The ideal viewing distance for a screen (as drilled into me in the broadcast industry) is 1-2x the diagonal, simply due to the human eye’s comfortable field of colour view. Even at the minimum recommended distance, that’s 8.5 feet for this screen… Speaking for myself, I have 38″ long arms. How many people do you know with 103″ long arms? Conversely, how many orangutangs have been educated in the latest technology? Does Mr Tickle have a new job lined up?!
I know, a little facetious, but this is a serious ergonomic issue. It’s similar to the 8 years we as an industry (in the main, with a few exceptions) kept putting screens on ceiling mounts a metre or more above the audience’s eyeline. And as if by magic, when we learnt to place the screens at eye level, audience retention leapt, upsell leapt, and within a couple of years we now have major brands using signage for own brand and 3rd party advertising, triggering a new dawn for the signage industry.
So maybe, rather than focusing on “big is better” which the screen industry as a whole tends to do, we need to focus on ergonomics and user experience. It’s that old standard once again, “content is king”. It can look as beautiful and large and shiny as it can, but if I can’t reach that button in the corner, will I come back and use it?
A 100″ screen with multi-touch, so I can use both arms, or three people can use together, now that’s more interesting. And expensive. Doh. Well we can’t have everything, now can we?!
January 16th, 2011 at 08:12 @383
Hello
Where can I find the screens Panasonic 103″ Plasma in KSA Riyadh
Best regards