Meeting room signage display

Supported hardware for meeting room digital signage

Supported Device(s)

Flexopus is a software development company focusing on the workplace management software. The digital signage display for the meeting rooms is a software module, that requires a special hardware. Based on the requirements defined below, we decided to partner up with ProDVX to integrate our software with their hardware.

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Note! For new hardware purchases, we only support the devices listed here. Other displays may meet our requirements as well, however the LED controlling is producer specific and will not be automatically supported on other devices, and we can not support all 100+ devices time floating around on the market currently.

ProDVX APPC-10SLBe (recommended)

The ProDVX APPC-10SLBe display is specialized hardware for digital signage. This hardware is actively used in the Flexopus office as well.

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Note! Do not confuse the APPC10SLBe displays with the APPC10SLB displays! The APPC10SLBe displays are GMS supported. The APPC10SLB is not GMS supported. We need the AC10SLBe display.

Datasheet

Datasheet APPC-10SLBe

Datasheet APPC-10SLBe.pdf

1 MB

The following features distinguish it from a normal tablet:

GMS supported Android 11
360 degree RGB LEDs on tablet edge
No built-in battery
WiFi and PoE
Modern design

Mounting options

The following mounting option are recommended, however you can order any other compatible mounting from another provider as well. Wall mounts, glass mounts and desk mounts are supported.

Mounting options:

WM-25 - Wall Mount

9010400_Datasheet_WM-25

9010400_Datasheet_WM-25.pdf

278 KB

GM-75 - Glass mount

8080850_Datasheet_GM-75

8080850_Datasheet_GM-75.pdf

2 MB

FM-10 - Flush mount

8080950_FM-10_Datasheet

8080950_FM-10_Datasheet.pdf

285 KB

WM-35 - Wall Mount

8050350_Datasheet_WM-35-1

8050350_Datasheet_WM-35-1.pdf

584 KB

DS-25 - Desk Stand

8010225_Datasheet_DS-25

8010225_Datasheet_DS-25.pdf

295 KB

How to get a quote?

You can order the device from our hardware supplier (Konferenztraum GmbH) using this form: Order Form
Or by contacting our support team:

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Note! For existing customers, we offer a test display for 30 days to test the hardware and the integration. To order a test display, please fill out the order form.

INNES Tab10S (no longer recommended)

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NOTE! The INNES TAB10S display is no longer recommended for purchase!

For existing customers, we still keep the compatibility with the digital signage software, however for newer customer we recommend using the ProDVX APPC-10SLBe displays. The main reasons are:

The TAB10S has Android 9 compared to the APPC-10SLBe with Android 11
Long delivery times at INNES (due to INNES)
Missing Google GMS support

Other room tablets

Other room tablets could be used in theory as well, however the LED control for the other tablets is not supported.

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Note! The LED controlling is a device specific functionality that need to be included in the APK additionally. Due to our limited time we can not add and support each display with each custom interface, still in theory it could be added.

So you can use another meeting room device and install Flexopus on it. The application shall work as intended. Only the LEDs will not be controlled, if there are any.

Apple / Samsung tablets

In theory, you can use any other tablets as well to use the digital signage software for meeting room digital signage, however they do not fulfill all the requirements that are listed below. Which can be acceptable, however not ideal. Such as:

Built-in battery
The built-in battery gets dead after some time. To avoid charging the power will be connected all the time.
Missing RGB LEDs
No indication of reservation status via LEDs.
“Wrong” display technology
The displays may burn in faster.

Still, these facts may be acceptable, however the lifetime of the display may be shorter than with another more specialized display.

Hardware requirements

In this section we want to explain, how we came to the conclusion to recommend a display over another and what are the main requirements that needs to be considered when selecting a digital signage display.

A digital signage display has some special requirements that need to be fulfilled in order to be a good fit, such as:

GMS support / auto update
“Newer” Android version
No built-in battery
RGB LEDs
Display technology
Hardware specifications
Reliability of supplier
Price
Vendor lock

In our point of view, the listed displays above fulfilled the requirements written below.

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Note! These are not must have requirements, since the Flexopus APK can be installed on any Android device, however in order to say that a display is officially supported by Flexopus, we take these requirements in consideration.

GMS support / auto update

The device need to be Google GMS certified. Only the GMS certified devices are able to install an application directly from Google Play Store. Which has two main advantages:

Auto Update
Google Play Store ensures that the installed application gets updated over time. The newest APK gets installed on the device. In theory, you can install the Flexopus APK also manually on a not GMS supported device, however in this case you will need to update the APK manually, which can be avoided with a GMS supported devices.

Andoid Managament API for KIOSK mode
Using a GMS supported device, you can provision the devices via the Android Management API and use the OS features via the Management API to control the Kiosk mode of the device.

“Newer” Android version

Having a Google GMS certified device is not enough, however it's a good quality indicator for an Android based device. A device without a GMS support is most probably can not fulfill minimum standard or the OS is not compatible with the GMS certification. This is mostly the case with many digital signage displays on the market. Many displays are still on Android 8 or Android 9. Purchasing a hardware may is risky since they can lose compatibility with software programs like an internet browser. For example, Google Chrome is supporting devices with at least Android 8. If they increase the compatibility level to Android 9 or 10, then the supported browser in the device will be outdated. The old browser will lose compatibility with newer internet standards and newer web development packages. This will lead us to drop supporting these devices.

To avoid this to happen as long as possible, we require a minimum Android 11 compatibility with GMS support and an option to update the OS to newer versions, for the displays that we recommend here.

No built-in battery

The digital signage displays are in use on a daily basis in the working hours. They need a direct power source and not an accumulator. In fact, a device without an accumulator is even better for safety reasons. The accumulator will not blow up after a few years.

RGB LEDs

For the meeting room signage, the RGB LEDs are in fact the most import feature of a display. The color indicates the reservation status of the room from a bigger distance. You don't need to walk directly to the display to see the reservation status. The RGB LEDs should support 3 colors at least: red, green, yellow

Display technology

The display technology need to support the always on mode, which shows the same content over weeks and months. Therefore, a super nice QLED display technology with a 100+ frame per second is may be cool for gaming or watching movies on 4k, but it's not good for a digital signage display. A QLED display will burn in overtime. A display technology is required that supports showing the same content over a long time frame. The high-end consumer tablets are for this reason not the best choice.

Hardware specification

Hardware peripherals such as WiFi and Power over Ethernet (PoE) need to be in place to provide multiple option for internet connection and mounting.

Also, other peripherals such as an NFC reader need to be integrated to be able to cover new use cases with the displays.

At least 1280 x 800 pixel resolution and at least 4 GB RAM with an acceptable CPU computation power.

Reliability of supplier

There are many suppliers for digital signage displays on the market, however many suppliers can not sell enough digital signage displays to keep the product updated and to bring out newer hardware versions or to improve the existing products. For this reason, there are initial V1.0 product lines without improvements. The products are not getting improved, and they stop selling the product after a couple of years. It's crucial to select a reliable supplier that will exist also in the future.

Price

The price of the display is a factor. At the end of the day, it's “just a display”. However, it needs to be considered that the displays are not getting purchased a million times per year. There are not so many meeting rooms on the market, and there are many competitors for digital signage hardware. Which makes the displays slightly more expensive than a comparable sized end user tablet device from Samsung or Apple. Still, the price needs to be acceptable in a range of 400-700 EUR per display. Recommending and purchasing displays for over 1000 EUR makes no sense.

Vendor lock

Last but not least, the display needs to be free to use by a software solution like Flexopus as well. Preferably, it would be good to have a hardware solution which is also used by other software providers, so that migrating from one digital signage software provider to another makes it possible to keep the already purchased and mounted displays. So a software provider independent hardware.

Hardware certificates

Using the product within the EU or in other target countries of Flexopus is possible, and the hardware certificates are in place. Such as: UKCA, CE, FCC, RoHS, REACH