Display Technology
Sharp exec shares importance of reliability in displays
Sharp leader discusses the MultiSync PN-M Series of displays and how they deliver reliable digital signage for busy environments.
December 26, 2025 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator
It can be easy to be dazzled by massive displays that push out 8K content, 3D animations, VR and more.
However, it's equally important for a display to be reliable and sturdy for a variety of environments, such as conference rooms. In addition, displays should be able to last a long time, not something you have to replace next year for the next shiny model.
That's the logic behind some of Sharp's products, such as the MultiSync PN-M Series. Ben Hardy, senior product manager at Sharp Display Solutions, said in an email interview that the series is "engineered to last for years in professional environments."
The company recently unveiled smaller models that are useful for conference rooms and other places and which prioritize reliability so customers don't have to worry about repairs, maintenance or buying an expensive replacement.
To learn more about these models and how they function, Digital Signage Today reached out to Hardy in an email interview.
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about the MultiSync series?
Hardy: MultiSync, in itself, has been a trademark for 40 years that has been synonymous with just that. We have built upon our extremely feature-rich specifications from previous generations to solve customer issues by providing onboard USB-C with power delivery and hub functionality — reducing otherwise additional components to do just that – for conference room types of applications while also pre-calibrating every display from a factory perspective via our proprietary SpectraView Engine technology that allows for out-of-the-box consistency when more than one display is needed for an application. Our goal is to provide a product that the customer can easily install and then no longer worry about once it's up by keeping their message consistently appealing throughout the product life cycle.
Q: What niche does these new models meet?
Hardy:I wouldn't say these are niche products but rather they are products that can support a wide variety of applications and vertical markets when 24/7 is the need. Because of the wide range of sizes available, these products just as fit well in corporate and higher education when used as a presentation type of device as they do for digital signage in an airport or retail type of application. This is all due to its feature-rich design
Q: What are their most impressive specifications?
Hardy: The brightness of this generation increased to 550 cd/m2 which is an increase from previous generation products and sits higher than a majority of the competition for this category.
On top of this, the lower power consumption that goes along with this aligns with the greener initiatives we are actively working towards as we want to build models that are more efficient than those in the past. Then of course, the onboard USB hub is unlike anything else from industry competition. Not only can the USB-C input provide 65W power delivery back to the source — essentially powering a laptop—but it can also allow for video/audio/dta information to process and then communicate with two separate USB connections (a USB-A and separate USB-C) so a customer actually has the ability to control peripherals through the display itself.
So, for example, if a customer was using this display in a conference room type of setup, they could connect into the display to show content via USB-C and simultaneously charge their laptop while also controlling a webcam that's connected and other separate peripheral that is connected into the display via one or both of the downstream connections. We are building what would otherwise be extra components of a system directly into the display, allowing customers the flexibility to allocate otherwise necessary budget and complexity elsewhere.
Q: What would you say their most practical use case be?
Hardy: Typically, these will be used as a presentation device in a corporate environment or as a digital signage device for advertising, transportation, etc. They can also be used in any type of typical 24/7 application where these types of more rugged demands are necessary such as situational awareness.
Q: What kind of security features are offered?
Hardy:New types of administrator passwords, internal data is now encrypted via AES-256, we now have the ability to disable the LAN terminals or the USB service port and there is wired IEEE802.1x. Additionally, SSL/TLS allows for encrypted communication to the web browser and you have the ability to filter by IP or MAC Address dependent on what the customer needs. Finally, we have a secure tunneling capabilities for both remote or local networks via Naviset Secure to ensure that communications to and from the device via the network are secure.
Q: What kind of content does it support in terms of resolution?
Hardy: Native resolution of these models is typical UHD — 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz but these units could support really anything from 640 x 480 up to 4096 x 2160 @60Hz via the DP 1.4 connection if necessary.
Q: Anything else you'd like to add?
Hardy:These displays not only build upon the tradition of high-quality, Japanese engineered products from us but they also contain a full metal chassis and internal cooling fans to pull heat out of the chassis if necessary.
The metal chassis is much more rugged compared to a typical PVC or plastic chassis and then the internal cooling fans associate themselves with three separate temperature sensors and the system as a whole acts as an 'extra step' against the competition that continues to simply push for the thinnest and lightest. Essentially, if the sensors determine that the heat is getting a bit too high for the system, they will trigger the cooling fans to turn on and stay on until the system is deemed regulated. This is in contrast to the competition which would need to turn down their brightness (lower the BTUs of the system) to passively allow their systems to cool but would also be taking away from what the display is used for in the first place — the image quality.
About Bradley Cooper
Related Media
Subscribe
Get the latest news and resources from Digital Signage Today.
