Philips Professional Digital Signage

Dutch electronics company Philips markets monitors with integrated media players under the Philips Professional Digital Signage (PPDS) label, explicitly for Digital Signage.

Unlike other manufacturers, Philips does not equip its “smart” devices with niche operating systems, instead it opts for the widely used Android. This means that a massive software pool is available and digital signage developers do not need to port their existing software.

Products

Philips offers a diverse range of displays suitable for digital signage within their “Lines”. These are the following:

B-Line
Q-Line
D-Line
P-Line
H-Line

The lines differ in the Android version as well as operating conditions through defined specifications for temperature, brightness, humidity range, approvals for 24/7 operation and of course in price. The variety of sizes, specifications, and functionalities seems overwhelming. There is something for every budget and requirement profile.

For us, the D-Line is interesting, especially since one of our customers uses about 300 devices of it in heavy practical operation since February 2022, and we made good experiences with the devices and the support.

Philips Digital Signage Display back — Philips Professional Display back 32 inch (ca. 81 cm) D-Line

D-Line

The D-Line is available in screen sizes from 32 inches (ca. 81 cm) to 98 inches (ca. 249 cm), with and without Android media player. Screen resolutions start at Full HD, 1920 × 1080px up to Ultra HD (3840 × 2160px). Android version 8.0 is currently supported.

The devices are robust and offer a favorable price-performance ratio.

Philips offers its Digital Signage Software, including management. However, you can also easily install your digital signage player. This gives us some freedom, as you will read.

What are the Advantages of Philips Professional DS Displays?

Open interfaces, long-term availability, runtime specifications and long-term support are important criteria for secure use in long-term projects. For us, this comes before features and specifications.

Open Interfaces

Digital signage is more than just displaying images or videos on a screen. With many distributed sites, remote maintenance takes on an essential role. You need the ability to remotely update not only content, but software and possibly the operating system. Furthermore, you also require remote access to functions such as volume, stand-by, reboot, etc.

Phillips provides interfaces, a so-called API, for third-party manufacturers. We have implemented this in our SMIL player. When you install the media player software on a D-Line PPDS device, this functionality is available to you.

Long-term Availability and Long-term Support

The most basic disadvantages of cheap devices from Far East marketplaces are availability and support. Models and components change after a few months. Regular support is out of the question. If bugs and errors occur, you are out of luck. You do not even get the chance to buy regular support.

Something like that would be unthinkable at a brand-name company like Philips, which has been around for more than 130 years. Sure, things don't always run perfectly even at corporations, but here you have the chance to purchase a premium product, with a firmly defined availability and support period.

Watch your step when buying Hardware

The article about cheap digital signage takes a closer look at this topic. It also shows the drawbacks of cheap hardware and assists you in making the right decision.

Local Contact Persons

For complex digital signage installations, having local contacts for both sales and support is an enormous advantage. No one wants to negotiate with a catastrophically English-speaking sales department or communicate complex bugs to support. From our perspective, Philips' support has proven to be highly competent so far.

Device Quality

Screens for use as so-called public displays are, as already mentioned above, not comparable with conventional TV sets or computer monitors. The PPDS screens are designed for digital signage and are still reasonably priced.

Philips and SmilControl Software

Once you configure the network on a PPDS display and install the latest Android variant of our SMIL-Players, you get a ready-to-use device that immediately logs into the SmilControl CMS. Thus, you can get started right away.

Summary of Philips Digital Signage

Philips Professional Digital Signage Displays with integrated Android media player are an elegant way to build your own SMIL compatible digital signage player with minimal effort. The devices are solid and reasonably priced. Our good personal experience with the D-Line in practical use, show great potential.