Commercial Grade vs Consumer Grade Panels – What should you choose for your classrooms?
Gone are the days when investing in classroom technology meant nothing more exciting than choosing which colour of chalk to buy for the board. With technology really making a phase change in classroom technology and the communicative revolution going forward at a lightning rate, educators have to keep pace not only for their institution to survive but for it to thrive.
Every educator today knows the importance of considering a comprehensive view for their classrooms by choosing the right interactive and cognitive display for the same. Especially with modern students becoming increasingly tech savvy with a flaring attitude for application usage along with modern teachers becoming increasingly curious and hungry for an enhanced engagement and successful group collaboration, a good Interactive Display seems like a one-stop solution for all the classroom problems.
Your display panel has to make up for a captivating display. There are some major differences when it comes to the digital signage, especially in a commercial space vs to that of a personal space.
For that purpose, let us first explore the commercial and consumer grade separately
Commercial Grade | Consumer grade |
Designated for a commercial space use | Designated for private usage |
Maintains the same cosmetic look for years | Changes the look every year pertaining to its private usage |
Toughened display bezels for deployment usage | Lighter display build due to lesser wear and tear |
Commercial designs attain better symmetry with cleaner cuts | Consumer chassis are aligned more towards the Aesthetics |
When you are buying interactive panels for your schools, colleges or for that matter for your commercial setting or business, knowing the difference between consumer and commercial grade panels can save you a lot of money and dissatisfaction in the long run.
Commercial grade panels offer more robust build, and control ability. They also come with extended warranties providing you peace of mind compared to consumer grade panels.
Now that you have understood the difference between a Commercial and Consumer grade panel, the next check would be to look for only an A+ Grade Commercial Panel.
An A+ achromatic panel is renowned to be the best quality standard for panels. An A+ achromatic panel make is achieved by making the base panel out of a transparent material, which does not have a colour of its own. This ensures that these A+ panels have minimum colour deviation and thus the colours on these panels are the most accurate and have realistic colour reproduction.
Manufacturing Achromatic Zero colour panels is extremely difficult and only a very few manufacturers are able to pass through the test. Hence, if you go for A+ Grade panels, you will pay more than going for the lower grade panels.
Grade A+ Panels | Grade B Panels | Grade C Panels |
High-quality screens with least imperfections | Have imperfections, but less prominent than Grade C | Lowest grade panels compared to A+ and B panels |
Do not have scratches, marks, or lines | Have scratches but not in the central viewing area. Have lines but not noticeable on blue and Gray background | Have scratches, marks and lines. |
No spots in the central viewing area. No light leakage. No dead pixels. | No light leakage. Up to 6 spots. Have dead pixels but not in the central viewing area. | Have light leakage, dead pixels, and spots. |
In addition to the above-mentioned contrasts there are several other additions that the commercial displays input value for:
- Control – RS232 or Ethernet (Lan control) are designed for control and monitoring and are usually not found in consumer displays. It is designed for easier integration into a controlled or automated system.
- Orientation and Cooling – Privatised Consumer grade panels and TVs are generally designed in landscape orientation however the commercial grade panels come in with dual settings meaning that they will provide better cooling in either direction.
- Built in scheduling – Besides having more control options than a consumer TV, commercial displays often have built-in or externally managed ways of scheduling them to turn on and off on a schedule. Not only the commercial grade panel has better control options but also have auto scheduled on/off options..
- Connectivity – Oftentimes they will also include video loop-output. Professional and Commercial grade Panels have multiple input including HDMI, VGA, DVI along with the inclusion of component and composite video. However, the options on Consumer grade is generally limited to HDMI.
- PC Sync – Consumer grade has limited PC resolutions making scalability and screen fit difficult, however Commercial Grade is designed to handle a wide range of video formats
- Slot based, or on-board PC or media players – Commercial displays often offer slots for options for PC modules or come with built-in digital signage media players.
- Screen/Glass – Commercial Grade screens have enhanced modules of glass which are toughened for longer operation hours and hence making it less sensitive to image retention.
- Built-in Amplifier/speaker output – Commercial Panels are built-in custom amplifiers which work great in combination with high ceilings. Built-in amplifier further reduces the cost for any additional equipment needed for sound coverage.
Verdict – Commercial Grade Panels are the best fit for the big classrooms with varied range of strength. It also saves costs in the longer run and a higher precision and clarity in terms of output. Hence If you are aiming for buying a multi-purpose display panel for the long run then Commercial Grade fits the best in the brigade.
Senses Interactive Panels use commercial Grade A+ panels from LG and Sharp, and we also provide certificate from LG and Sharp as original LG and Sharp panel purchaser. The other brands that are available in the Indian market today like BenQ, NewLine, Globus, iBoard, typically use Chinese Grade B/C panels.
For more information about Senses Interactive panels write to [email protected] or call +91 70668 40505
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