What do you get when you blend Red and Blue together?
We all know from our primary education that when you mix red and blue together you get purple, right?
Purple is known to represent sovereignty, and many perceive it as symbolising wisdom and courage.
At ISE 2022, we brought together the Red of Sharp and the Blue of NEC. We didn’t get purple, but what we did get is a class-leading line up of products, taking our visitors ‘Beyond Expectation’.
A courageous statement: we demonstrated our bold intentions. Perhaps the colour purple does in fact convey so many of our qualities!
ISE gave us the ideal opportunity to show the industry how we have aligned our two brands, under one company. The Red and the Blue perfectly complementing each other to bring our customers the widest range of visual solutions across multiple technologies, all engineered for trusted long-life reliability
Heritage of Japanese quality
From matching cultural heritage to complementary competences, the combination of Sharp and NEC is a perfect blend. In a recent announcement, Bernd Eberhardt, President and CEO of the Sharp NEC Displays Solutions Europe said:
“The company may have changed, but our mission – which is deeply rooted in our business – remains the same. Both teams share a longstanding experience and deep knowledge of the market. Our commitment to sustainability and quality – both in terms of our products and the world-class service and support of our teams – are a perfect match,”
Sharp’s innovative business products include professional and commercial displays, as well as the development of advanced technologies in interactive and 8K. NEC’s broad range of high-quality visual technology and digital signage solutions for a wide variety of industries are recognised by customers worldwide.
Our first opportunity to publicly display the joint strength of the new company was at ISE 2022, where sharing our vision for the future, face-to-face with our valued partners and customers was a joy!
Watch the video to get a sense of our debut at ISE 2022 where we presented the power and unity behind our two brands, as one company.
‘The networking was intense’
Unanimously, it was the face-to-face element of the show which was the overwhelming highlight of ISE 2022.
Graham Kirkpatrick, head of the solutions team at Sharp/NEC commented: ‘The networking was intense, being able to shake someone’s hand was more important than ever.’ The newly designed stand was spacious and airy, ideal for welcoming and mingling with visitors whilst following Covid precautions.
During the show, Graham coined the phrase ‘better together, stronger as one’, his personal take on the joint venture and how it helps our customers move forward, about which he had many conversations over the course of the event.
Interestingly, Graham considered that ‘visitor expectations around new and exciting products were low, especially since we’ve literally had two-years stood still.’ Despite this, Sharp/NEC, across both brands, had an array of new product announcements and a raft of innovation to show.
Watch Graham as he takes rAVe Publications on a tour of the stand
Take a tour of the stand
The Sharp/NEC stand focused on five key application areas, exhibiting a comprehensive representation of its technologies from both brands.
Meeting & Collaboration
In the Meeting & Collaboration area conversations centred around solutions for hybrid teams with USB-C connectivity offering frictionless meeting experiences. Both the Microsoft certified NEC WD551 and the Sharp PN-CD701 Windows Collaboration Displays demonstrate the benefits of Bring Your Own Meeting scenarios allowing users to interact using their already familiar tools and apps via the big screen.
Integrated into Vitra’s ‘Dancing Wall’, the WD551 solution offers even more flexibility allowing workspaces to be easily reconfigured. Aesthetics are important in high spec rooms and the focus on hybrid meetings continued with the new NEC Du-Co Room System featuring two visually identical Large Format Displays, one dedicated to touch collaboration and the other for video conferencing.
The Sharp PN-L752B 75” touch display integrated with the SynappxTM meeting platform combines room-scale BIG PAD technology with a suite of apps for smart workplace collaboration. The Cisco certified NEC C860Q 86” Large Format Display guarantees the highest quality conferencing experience, optimised for Cisco Webex solutions. Bringing the simplicity and ease of wireless screen mirroring, the 55” NEC M551 PCAP touch display offers superior touch performance with AirServerTM embedded.
Laser projection continues to offer exceptional versatility for meeting spaces, the NEC PE506UL provides high brightness in compact form with wireless sharing capabilities, whilst the pre-viewed NEC PV801UL offers a cost effective solution with professional features.
Fine pitch dvLED technology makes a big impression in high spec meeting rooms, the NEC LED-FE015i2-137 bundle delivers 137 inches of stunning imagery.
Watch Daniela Dexheimer present the NEC WD551 Windows Collaboration Display in this video from ISE 2022.
Higher Education / Leisure
Well known for its innovation in interactive solutions, Sharp touch displays were prevalent on the stand including the Sharp PN-86HC1 86" IR BIG PAD with integrated SoC PC promoting active learning in the Higher Education / Leisure area.
Big venue projection is vital for this sector with laser technology generating high bright, scalable images at low cost. The NEC PA1004UL 10,000AL Laser Projector is super silent in operation delivering extraordinary colour performance with no distractions.
The new NEC PX2201UL 20,500AL RB Laser Projector provides richly intense colours yet offers an attractive price/ performance ratio and the most compact format of its class. For projection-based signage where space is tight the pre-announced NEC UM504HL 5,000AL Ultra-Short-Throw Laser Projector impresses.
Alistair Round highlights the new UST projector which is impressively compact and lightweight in this video from ISE 2022.
Retail / Transportation
Digital signage was the talking point in the Retail / Transportation area, with a range of Large Format Displays from both NEC and Sharp brands. Integrated computing offers the flexibility to drive content providing robust, professional signage deployments.
dvLED, with its versatile slim and lightweight design featured in this area with the NEC LED-E012i2-108 dvLED bundle offering an eye catching solution for budget-friendly applications, without compromising visual impact.
In this video, Nils Karsten highlights the embedded innovation in Sharp/NEC’s range of Large Format Displays, which, in combination with our CMS Alliance Partnerships, creates the perfect solution for our customers.
Control Room
NEC’s innovation in dvLED technology is perfectly suited to control room applications where reliability and precision are fundamental. A huge NEC LED-FE012i2-E dvLED digital surface dominated this area of the stand demonstrating the FE series’ budget-friendly pixel card, without compromise to functionality or quality.
Watch Massimo Gaetano demonstrate Hiperwall, the most reliable and flexible system for control rooms, shown here at ISE 2022 managing multiple content on the vast dvLED wall.
High-end Innovation
Finally, where extreme detail and exceptional colour grading is demanded, technology at the very leading edge of the pro-display market delivers extraordinary visual experiences, as witnessed in the High-End Innovation area. Sharp’s innovation in 8K is highly prized for professional applications delivering the ultimate in reality-like precision and clarity. The Sharp 8M-B120C 8K 120" Large Format Display stunned visitors with 4m2 of striking 8K imagery. On a smaller, but no less impressive, scale the Sharp 8M-B32C1 8K 32" Colour Management Monitor delivers absolute perfection for professional creatives.
Watch the video of Peter Heins describing the key features and vast size of the impressive 8K Large Format Display.
In an interview with rAVe Productions where Sharp/NEC’s SVP Ian Barnard discusses the joint venture and application-based solutions on show, he ended by summarising the Sharp/NEC presence at ISE and the company’s way forward as a united force:
“It’s one company, it’s one team, it’s one direction, but with two brands underneath - and that really works well.”
Watch the interview with Ian here:
For more videos from ISE 2022, visit our microsite