The Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) aims to enable easier installation, use and maintenance of digital signage through standardized compact dimension, pluggable interface and signal transmission. To date, over 40 manufacturers provide OPS compliant products. Quanmax introduced the spec to panel PCs, thereby broadening OPS applications.
Intel officially announced OPS in the fourth quarter of 2010 to resolve connection incompatibility between devices and establish a common standard for digital signage through organizational standardization and signal integration. The introduction of OPS has attracted many industrial PC manufacturers to devote themselves to developing OPS compliant media players.
Although OPS has been used mainly for digital signage since its establishment, Quanmax thinks the concept of OPS standard modularization has more applications beyond digital signage.
OPS applications can extend to industrial panel PC
Quanmax further pointed out by applying the OPS concept to different application scenarios, OPS compliant displays can integrate with OPS compliant player modules to make industrial panel PC for use in public areas such as airports, stations, department stores and banks to provide infotainment services. This way, OPS applications can expand beyond the originally intended digital signage scenario.
Based on the aforementioned idea, Quanmax leveraged its R&D capability in embedded industrial PCs and launched OPS compliant players in a development model similar to its partners. Available products include the OPS-100 series, OPS-1000 series as well as OPS-2002 and OPS-2050 based on Intel sixth-generation core Skylake. Quanmax has also introduced the MoniQ OPS compliant display, including MoniQ-1500/1700/1900/2150 models, with the numbers indicating the display size. These displays can be combined with OPS compliant players to become panel PCs.
Quanmax indicated that introducing OPS to industrial panel PCs brings the benefits of easier maintenance and upgrade as regular panel PCs are not usually placed on desks but are embedded into walls or mounted at special locations. Users are less willing to dismount the panel PC for maintenance or upgrade purposes because this may cause damage to the decoration and wiring. OPS enables the possibility of pluggable/replaceable display so the screen can easily be detached from the computer to lower the complexity of maintenance and upgrade work. System integrators (SI) responsible for providing warranty services can also reduce operation costs.
OPS compliant products support 4K display, the highest resolution in the industry
Regardless of the brands, it is not easy for products compliant with the industry-wide OPS standard to have differentiating spec but they commonly have certain good quality features to provide positive user experiences. For example, all OPS compliant products support the highest 4K resolution currently available (4000 horizontal pixels; commonly 3840x2160 and 4096×2160 pixels). It is human nature to constantly demand higher quality visual enjoyment. When the mainstream spec progresses to 4K, people will no longer accept Full HD quality. Particularly as screen size gets larger, resolution becomes more important. For example, when banks or department stores use panel PCs to display commercials and provide information search or other interactive services, they will not be happy to see coarse and blurred images on low-resolution displays. Therefore, businesses that run commercials demand 4K quality and all aspects including content, software, display and player have to support 4K display.
Quanmax designs its product size with considerations for most infotainment application scenarios where the distance between the user and the screen falls in the range from 20 cm to 30 cm. For this distance, 16:9 wide screens will provide more visual comfort. For other common applications, standard 4:3 or 5:4 screens are more suitable. Quanmax has made available MoniQ-1500/1700/1900 with standard 4:3 or 5:4 screens and MoniQ-2150 with 16:9 wide screens, all of which support 10-point touch control, regardless of size. For customers with special needs for screen sizes other than those provided or even special considerations for frame material, color and water-proof characteristics, Quanmax provides utmost flexibility in custom designs based on individual customer requirement.
With the introduction of the MoniQ series, Quanmax is able to penetrate into diverse application markets beyond industrial automation, including airports, stations, hospitals, banks, hotels, department stores, shopping malls, exhibition venues and even outdoor locations. Opportunities are widespread, opening up a new "Blue Ocean" market for Quanmax.
Quanmax has also introduced the MoniQ OPS compliant display, including MoniQ-1500/1700/1900/2150 models, with the numbers indicating the display size.
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