Article

Why you should go commercial when you go Android

Anyone who has made technology decisions on digital signage projects has heard, for many years, the argument for choosing commercial display monitors as opposed to consumer TVs. Not surprisingly, that same argument applies when it comes to digital signage players that run the Android operating system.

November 11, 2015

By Charles Regula, Product Manager for Digital Signage, VIA Technologies Inc.

Anyone who has made technology decisions on digital signage projects has heard, for many years, the argument for choosing commercial display monitors as opposed to consumer TVs.

The argument has always been simple: These different displays are built for different purposes, notably how long they'll be running everyday.

Not surprisingly, that same argument applies when it comes to digital signage players that run the Android operating system.

There are hundreds and possibly thousands of different consumer-grade set-top boxes and HDMI media sticks manufactured in China that have identified digital signage as a possible use, among many. There are however only a few commercial-grade players that were actually designed for the specific use and task of digital signage networks.

Those consumer-grade devices can cost as little as $40 a unit — genuinely just a fraction of the cost of PC-based digital signage players. That's been the big reason dozens of digital signage content management system companies started developing Android-based solutions — the quest to lower hardware costs and therefore the barrier to entry for end-users.

My job as a product manager puts me in touch with all of those companies, and their message has been consistent when it comes to using consumer devices for commercial purposes: "Don't do it."

I've been told by numerous companies how they went through dozens of different low-cost devices on test benches, trying to find one that would run reliably and withstand testing abuse. They often referenced or even showed me their Android device graveyards — stacks of abandoned boxes and sticks.

One company showed me a sleek, elegant box it put out in the field, in the hundreds, for a client. A few months later they pulled them all out, because the failure rate was so high. It was embarrassing and deeply hurt a business relationship.

That's why just about any company that offers an Android solution either uses only commercial devices, or has commercial as the recommended option when cost is not the only deciding factor.

Here are the key ways in which consumer and commercial-grade Android devices differ:

• Consumer devices are designed for home use — intended as alternatives to Apple TVs and Roku boxes that get plugged into TVs and used for a few hours at night. Their electronics and their housings were not designed with any consideration that they'd run and need to shed heat on a 24/7 basis. Meanwhile, commercial devices are designed with 24/7 usage in mind.
• Consumer devices are designed to be pulled out of boxes and plugged into TVs, and left alone. To do the software customization needed to turn a streaming media player into a digital signage player requires something called rooting — the device version of jailbreaking a phone — to get at the operating system and file structure. Meanwhile, a commercial device will tend to have access and tools available to make customization easy and risk-free.
• Consumer devices are built and sold in high volumes based on shifting market needs and supplies. They can come and go off the market in a matter of months, and their components change subtly with each manufacturing run. Proper commercial devices have product life-cycles measured in years, so software companies know that what they worked on and released won't need to change because the hardware changed with little or no notice.
• Finally, consumer devices are generally made overseas mostly in China. Time zone and language differences will be huge when it comes to getting support from these companies, never mind that digital signage is not the intended purpose of their devices. Meanwhile, commercial-grade devices tend to have readily available support, and a specific understanding of signage applications and demands.

Software companies that have put part, or all, of their focus on Android will tell you they now have a powerful, feature-rich platform that can do just about anything a PC-based system can do.

But they'll also tend to insist customers use a specific player device that they've tested and certified. That device will almost always cost a relatively small percentage more than a set-top box designed for home use, but it will be designed to work flawlessly for months and years.

Quality and peace of mind tend to be worth a few extra dollars.

Charles Regula is Product Manager for digital signage at VIA Technologies Inc. in Fremont, California. With headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan, VIA is a global developer of highly integrated embedded platform and system solutions for M2M, IoT and Smart City applications, ranging from video walls and digital signage to health care and industrial automation.

(Photo courtesy of Jake Maymar.)