70" Flat Panels Needed

[dmot]

Originally Posted by Ace in the hole

Sharp has a 70" for around $2k or just over. It's one that we have been looking at. Their 80" is more like $5k.

Are these the LEDs?

[prochlea]

Are these the LEDs?

Yep. Sharp has transitioned almost all of their consumer grade LCD's to LED.

[bpalermini]

So, you could buy 14 consumer grade 70" screens for the price of one commercial grade unit. even if you had to buy 13 of them to get the same life you'd still be ahead. Wouldn't take me more than a second to know the $2k unit is what I'd get.

[Brad Weber]

Originally Posted by bpalermini

So, you could buy 14 consumer grade 70" screens for the price of one commercial grade unit. even if you had to buy 13 of them to get the same life you'd still be ahead. Wouldn't take me more than a second to know the $2k unit is what I'd get.

However you'd be making a decision based on inaccurate or incomplete information since I'm finding consumer 70" LCDs for $2,500 and up at typical retailers while the 70" NEC commercial displays are under $12k list/MAP price and the 70" Samsungs appear to be selling for around $11k to $12k. Still a significant difference but closer to 4:1 than 14:1.

When the Olympics were awarded to Atlanta they opened a visitor center that had a huge map of the city and another of the surrounding area with video displays where each Olympic venue was located that displayed clips of the events to be held at that location. They bid the AV and control portion of the work and decided that they could go through several iterations of consumer gear for the same price. A year later they were back to get the commercial products as they not only had already spent a bunch on replacement products and the time and effort to replace them, but they almost constantly had one or more failed displays and/or video players, players not playing, etc. That was a good example of the fact that in some cases the value being considered is not just the hardware cost but the potential overall financial and other costs associated with an equipment failure.

[bpalermini]

I'm just using the numbers others with knowledge of the market have shared above.

My Sony 52" lcd has been running in my home for almost three years. My guess is that it is on more in any week than it would be in a typical church setting. There is no way I would pay more for a commercial monitor unless I was going to run it most of every day like they do in an airport, etc.

[hoosierdraft]

Originally Posted by bpalermini

I'm just using the numbers others with knowledge of the market have shared above.

My Sony 52" lcd has been running in my home for almost three years. My guess is that it is on more in any week than it would be in a typical church setting. There is no way I would pay more for a commercial monitor unless I was going to run it most of every day like they do in an airport, etc.

+1. Some people call me cheap. I prefer frugal.

[Ace in the hole]

I have to agree, I can replace a consumer unit 4 times and still not spend as much as a commercial unit. Commercial units have their place for sure, but in a church setting as a confidence monitor I would say it's overkill. Even if the monitor goes out and you have to live without a week or two it's not the end of the world.

[Esoteric]

Sony's warranty is a rare exception.

And you must factor in labor. It takes us two technicians 2 billable hours to swap out a hung LCD display assuming it can be reached with relative ease.

So that is $200 minimum in labor to change it each time in addition to the cost of the display.

Keep in mind also that if something happens with liability issues, there will be legal wrangling over if the correct equipment was used.

We have installed consumer equipment in the past but we recommend against it.

[bpalermini]

We had 10 Sharp and Vizio LCD TV's installed as part of our sanctuary remodel/upgrade about two years ago. So far we have had zero problems with any of them. If we have a problem with one of them now we will just replace it ourselves. It's not a big deal. In my opinion there are very few churches and extremely rare church uses where opting for commercial screens would be spending tithes wisely.

[Esoteric]

Keep in mind cheapest does not always mean best.

[Brad Weber]

Originally Posted by Ace in the hole

I have to agree, I can replace a consumer unit 4 times and still not spend as much as a commercial unit. Commercial units have their place for sure, but in a church setting as a confidence monitor I would say it's overkill. Even if the monitor goes out and you have to live without a week or two it's not the end of the world.

Originally Posted by bpalermini

We had 10 Sharp and Vizio LCD TV's installed as part of our sanctuary remodel/upgrade about two years ago. So far we have had zero problems with any of them. If we have a problem with one of them now we will just replace it ourselves. It's not a big deal. In my opinion there are very few churches and extremely rare church uses where opting for commercial screens would be spending tithes wisely.

I did got the impression these would be the primary displays in the Sanctuary, not confidence monitors or Lobby monitors, and I don't believe that we know just how much they might be used. And while it's great that you've had no failures and I've seen others with similar results I can also tell you from experience with hundreds of installs that it is not always the way it works out.

It should also noted that the number of hours of intended use is not the only common difference between consumer and commercial displays. You might want to look at:

http://www.compview.com/assets/pdf/l...r-Displays.pdf

http://www.ezdigisign.com/commercialvsconsumer.html

http://www.deploid.com/blog/commerci...-consumer-lcd/

http://jscsdigitalsignage.com/conten...nitors-and-tvs

http://www.dseg.org/page/article-com...-untrained-eye

http://www.vnetplayer.com/displays/c...s-consumer-lcd

Something as simple as wanting to control power for all of the displays remotely, being able to switch a display directly between two inputs or wanting to use displays in portrait mode may eliminate many, if not most, consumer displays. There are times commercial displays may be the only practical option and times consumer displays may be perfectly acceptable, you really have to look at all the issues involved along with the potential costs and risks and determine the value for any specific application.