CONRAC - Professional Displays and Passenger Information Systems

DATA MODUL has launched a variety of new products at Munich’s inter airport Europe held in October 2015. On the booth the entire range of CONRAC professional displays for all kinds of applications in public areas was showcased.

The most noticeable innovation was the prominently placed 55” real outdoor display. The new series of real outdoor displays comes with a lot of technical ingenuities. Even in Munich Expo’s modern bright halls, the display mounted in portrait format stood out from the crowd due to its truly impressive brightness. The difference between the already very crisp and clear image of the “standard” E-LED screens shown on the booth in direct comparison with the real outdoor display’s ultra-high brightness panel was quite astonishing.

This effect was not reached with just the 2.500 cd/m² TFT panel. A unique combination of a front glass with special features and optical bonding technology, plus the core know-how and competence of DATA MODUL, have enabled the development of a high brightness display solution that can be easily mounted in locations with direct sunlight without compromising the readability. The front glass has been designed to enhance transmission of visible light with minimum reflection losses, as well as to provide protection against infrared and ultraviolet radiation.  The TFT panel is directly bonded to the front glass using a high-quality optically matched adhesive. The direct optical bonding eliminates the air gap between front glass and panel, eliminating any internal reflection losses and achieving a significant increase in contrast and brightness. As well as enhanced optical performance, the optical bonding brings additional benefits including increased ruggedness, reduced sensitivity to humidity, dust and temperature fluctuations as well as high durability.

The greatest challenge in the development of real outdoor displays is the operating temperature of such devices, especially in combination with high brightness displays driven under full load. At present, most currently available devices have to dim the backlight to a certain level to reduce the inner temperature and keep the device in operation as soon as the sun shines directly on the device.

DATA MODUL announced that they solved this problem with their innovative integrated cooling technology, so that the real outdoor displays can be operated at environmental conditions of +50°C and direct sunlight without even dimming the backlight. This provides customers with completely new usage of display systems under extreme ambient conditions such as visual docking guidance displays or at rail, tram and bus stops. Additionally, the existing intelligent heating system of the Advanced Protected series was further developed and enables operating temperatures down to -30°C.

The entire unit is IP65 protected, thanks to watertight and fine dust resistant sealing. Avoidance of external elements like fans or filters makes the device maintenance free.

The device is equipped with the well-established CONRAC display functions such as automatic brightness adjustment.

The real outdoor displays are scheduled to be ready for series production by the beginning of the third quarter of 2016. Later in the year a 46” inch version of the real outdoor display will be launched, just in time for Innotrans 2016 in Berlin in September.

Engineering samples are available for demonstration purposes at Munich (headquarters) or Weikersheim (factory).