Sharp Windows-Certified Collab Display

It’s being marketed as the world’s first certified Windows collaboration display. The new PN-CD701 is a 4K, 70-inch interactive display from Sharp. It’s certified for Skype for Business and features a number of sensors to get the most out of your space.

Sharp’s offering is larger than the equivalent Microsoft Hub product and is built for mass deployment, although it will slot seamlessly into any meeting room, especially in an organisation already utilising Microsoft 365.

Wirelessly connecting to your interactive display is great and Sharp has you covered here, but even better is the 8m-long USB-C connector for a genuinely ‘plug ’n’ play’, no messing around experience. USB-C, of course, provides all the data bandwidth you need, for lag-free 4K video, networking etc — something wi-fi is yet to provide. It also takes care of power for mobile devices.

SENSORS

The Windows collaboration display from Sharp has integrated sensors that can connect to the Microsoft Azure Digital Twins IoT platform, and other commercially available cloud and subscription services such as Sharp WorkSpaces, as part of a smart building environment.

Occupancy – a motion sensor detects the presence of any people in the room. An additional artificial intelligence (AI) service can analyse this data and count the number of people. AI services could automatically switch on displays and other equipment to enable a faster setup and help improve the scheduling of room bookings. During a meeting, the sensor can also be used by another AI service to detect the location of whoever is speaking and control a three-dimensional microphone array to focus on the relevant person.

Temperature – its intelligent climate measurement can be used by an AI service to automatically regulate the room temperature and relative humidity to make the room feel more comfortable. By intelligently optimising the operation of the air-conditioning it also helps reduce costs.

Light – an ambient light sensor helps with intelligent lighting control, as it automatically measures the level of light. An AI service could then adjust the in-room lighting system with changing day and night conditions, which can reduce eye strain and may save money on wasted energy.

Air quality – the Windows collaboration display continually measures and analyses the ambient air quality in the meeting room and can assist another AI service in automatically adjusting the air-conditioning to provide the best possible working environment.

QUALITY IMAGE

The Sharp 4K panel promises high quality images, with enough detail to show all the small print of a detailed report, CAD diagram or spreadsheet.

The display uses projected 10-point capacitive touch, for a smooth and responsive ‘pen on paper’ feel for your annotations.