Specialty Display Firm Praevar, Best Known For High-Bright LCDs, Goes Green With E Ink Posters

October 22, 2024 by Dave Haynes

A Toronto company known very much for its high-brightness outdoor LCD displays has taken a distinct pivot into e-paper poster displays that consume a fraction of the power.

The specialty display manufacturer Praevar has started marketing a 32-inch ePoster based around the E Ink Spectra 6 display, aiming the product at indoor advertising and retail environments. The idea here is that the poster is a straight replacement for traditional paper posters, using sunlight or ambient to reflect and illuminate the display. Like other e-paper products, the only time the units use power is when content changes.

“Collaborating with Praevar on their innovative ePoster solution is a significant step forward in sustainable signage,” says Tim O’Malley,  AVP for the US Regional Business Unit at E Ink. “The integration of our Spectra ePaper technology enhances the visual appeal of digital signage while aligning with our commitment to sustainability. By offering a vibrant, full-color display with minimal power consumption, we help businesses reduce their environmental impact while maintaining high-quality, dynamic content.”

Side note: I have a meet with O’Malley next week in Taiwan, to get deeper rundown on color e-paper.

As digital signage becomes increasingly essential for real-time communication, traditional paper posters still hold their ground in places where installing digital displays is challenging due to limited power access or structural constraints. Praevar’s newly developed ePoster displays offer a lightweight, reflective, and non-emissive solution, perfectly aligning with the sustainable design priorities of modern cities and businesses.

The ePoster is set to hit the market in November, says Praevar in PR, providing retailers and brands with a viable, eco-friendly solution to address the growing regulatory demands for sustainability and energy efficiency in digital signage.

“We have a hard-earned global reputation for manufacturing reliable, durable, and beautiful high-brightness displays. We’ve spent a lot of our time listening to our customers about their operating challenges and have seen the trend for more efficient screens,” says Praevar’s CEO Ralph Idems. “Our clients are challenged by the availability of power, the operating costs of energy at sites, and increasingly, by demands from their customers and from regulators to deliver more sustainable, environmentally-friendly solutions. Recognizing both a market need and demand, our 20+ years of experience in specialty displays positioned us perfectly to address it with this new product line.”

Key Features of the Praevar ePoster:

• 32-inch full-colour ePoster display, supporting 65,000 colours for visually dynamic and detailed content.
• Battery-powered, capable of running for up to one year on a single charge, eliminating the need for power cords and reducing installation costs.
• 2,560 x 1,440 high-resolution display, offering crisp, detailed visuals for maximum impact in retail environments.
• Lightweight design (9 lbs/4 kg) for easy installation without the need for specialized mounting hardware.
• Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for seamless integration with third-party content management systems and cloud-based content updates.
• An optional two-inch solar panel that utilizes natural or overhead light to trickle-charge the battery, further reducing operational costs and energy consumption.
• Viewing angle 180⁰

Idems has also hinted that the company is broadening its products to include other products that reflect shifting market demands for displays that are more sustainable but also reducing operating costs. A media company or mall operator with outdoor display totems sees their power bills delivered by forklift.

Idems: “But we’re not stopping there! Coming in Q1 2025, Praevar will introduce its new Sustainable eLuminex series, featuring a large format outdoor ePoster designed as an optional replacement for traditional six-sheet backlit posters. This innovative display aims to reduce energy consumption and operator bills by as much as 50%, paving the way for a more sustainable future in public spaces, transit hubs, and shopping malls.”

Color epaper has been on a long, long development journey but has recently matured to a level that it is acceptable to brands, in terms of color reproduction. While older generations of E Ink color products used color filters that limited the color range and muted colors, the Spectras are not filtered and the colors pop – so they replicate print pretty nicely.

Numerous display companies, including PPDS and Sharp, have also launched color e-paper products this year. The challenge with all of them is price, which is many multiples of what an LCD of the same dimension would cost. That cost delta will close, but for now those companies using these kinds of displays are addressing sustainability initiatives and running calculations that try to bake in the removed or greatly lowered costs of energy, printing, transport and labor of swapping out printed or energy-hungry LCD poster displays.