There are two mistakes that one might make about the difference in consumer and commercial displays.

Mistake 1: Commercial Display are just Consumer Displays that cost More

This is an easy mistake to make because at first glance the displays may look alike. But commercial displays are made to withstand a wider range of conditions than their consumer counterparts. An illustration of this that comes to my mine is a display I worked on that was installed in an airport. When the display opened to the public we saw some abuses that we didn’t quite imagine. The installation included touch screens. We expected people to touch the screens. We didn’t expect people to set their children on top of the displays. Yes, this really happened. The displays survived the years that they were at the installation without problems, but I still consider some of what they endured to be borderline abusive. If a small child were set on a consumer display (do not do this) I’m pretty sure that it wouldn’t last long.

That is just one of the tolerances that a commercial display may have that it’s consumer counter part does not. The commercial displays may also have higher tolerance for moisture (perhaps even outdoor use), temperature, potentially higher potentially a brighter screen (as might be needed for outdoor use).

Commercial displays may have a number of features that the consumer counter parts do not.  These may be additional connections (such as RS232), the ability to control several displays at once (as one might want to do in a video array configuration) and even internal media players or security features.

Mistake 2: A Commercial Display would make a good Home Display

This misconception comes from the idea that a commercial display is a consumer display with features added. The reality is that while the commercial displays may have additional features they might also be missing features that the consumer displays have. If you buy a typical consumer display above a certain size it will have the ability to run several consumer oriented applications such as a Netflix and Hulu player and a few others. The commercial displays don’t have this; and that is understandable since they are not for engaging in these consumer activities. A person that pays the extra money to get a commercial display may leave one feeling quite disappointed after realizing the features that are not available.

Samsung Consumer Displays v Samsung Commercial Displays

I’m looking at to displays that were made at about the same time. Both are made by Samsung; one is a consumer display and the other is a commercial display. Getting the differences between them has required my own exploration and experimentation. Samsung has a site at https://samsungDforum.com that contains information about the consumer displays. Unfortunately this information is only available to those that sign up for the Samsung Partner program. From what I’ve read about this program an NDA is required to enroll within it. I have not signed up for this program; if I did then I wouldn’t be able to talk about the information gained within it. As part of my interest in the displays is to talk about them (on this blog) I’m instead am gathering information both from experimenting with the display and through scraps of information available on the Internet.

The process of experimentation has had it’s moments of frustration, and I’ve already written some material on my experiences that are to be posted in the future.  In my next post on this topic I’ll talk about the differences in the Samsung Consumer and Commercial displays.