11/30/09
Blog: Commercial vs. Consumer Displays
One of the issues we face on a regular basis is the difference between commercial and consumer grade displays. Both look more or less the same, are available in the same sizes, and perform the same basic function, yet there are significant differences between the two families of product. The first and most obvious is price. There is no doubt about it, the consumer displays are a lot less expensive. And often they are advertised with compelling feature sets, not to mention they typically look sleeker than their commercial cousins. So with so much going for the consumer displays, why do we always strongly recommend using a commercial product in our installed systems? If we examine the differences between the two product types, the answer will be evident.
The biggest difference is the application. Commercial displays are meant to be used in commercial environments. They are sealed to prevent dust from getting inside and messing things up. They are designed to operate continuously 24/7 without failure for several years, whereas a consumer display is only intended to be watched a few hours a day, and never for days at a time. In order to withstand the abuse, the case is beefed up, durable metal parts are used in place of flimsy plastic, and active cooling systems to remove the excess heat are employed.
Other key differences also reveal the different applications that displays find themselves in integrated systems. One of the most important ones is control. Consumer displays often sport the EPA’s EnergyStar logo. Unfortunately, this standard does not yet apply to commercial products, in large part due to the requirements of two-way communication. In order to provide feedback to a third-party control system (such as AMX or Crestron), all connected devices are in constant contact with the controller. This requires a constant flow of power, but also allows the control system to always know the status of the devices it is controlling.
Another difference is connectivity. The consumer displays typically have HDMI connections, the commercial ones can handle the professional connectors such as BNCs, along with a much wider variety of computer input formats (frequencies and resolutions). There is also usually a lot more flexibility in setup, calibration, and configuration of the commercial displays.
So what does all this mean in practice? The commercial displays come with a 2-3 year warranty, the consumer displays between 30 days and 1 year. Aside from being an indication of a higher quality, more durable product, the extended warranty can easily save the difference in price over a consumer device over the lifetime of the display. So we see that in the end, just as with most things in life, you tend to get what you pay for.
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