The question of flat displays and what to expect came up on another mailing list we subscribe to which is specifically 24-7-365 emergency agency participants and vendors.
John Oram ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 16:01:54 -0500 From: Chief Willis Carter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Flat Screen Monitors Can anyone on the list offer information concerning the use of flat screen monitors (any size) in a dispatch center environment? Are they more prone to damage than regular monitors? Any downside? I would be very interested to hear from anyone using larger (30"- 40") models as well. Thanks in advance.... Willis Carter Chief of Communications Shreveport Fire Department Voice: 318.675.2200 Fax: 318.675.2206 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 15:56:01 -0800 From: Bob Amick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Flat Screen Monitors The four PSAP's operating in the jurisdiction of the Boulder (Colorado) Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority Board converted to 17" flat screen LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors about 3 years ago, and have had very good reliability and virtually service-free life with them compared to the previous CRT (cathode ray tube) conventional monitors that often failed or became inoperable due to 24-7-365 continuous duty cycling. While the initial investment for converting to flat-screen LCD monitors was at that time considerably higher than remaining with CRT technology, the improved performance, component life and reliability have long-since overcome any initial high investment costs. Moreover, the considerable saving of space on the consoles, as well as better visual appearance, clarity, high character resolution, color rendition, far less weight, less heat production, lack of "flicker" effect (characteristic of CRT technology) resulting in less eyestrain, and lower power consumption (and resulting reduced impact on UPS/battery capacity) has been substantially beneficial for telecommunicators and center operation. In short, we would never consider reverting to CRT technology and we have not experienced any notable "downsides" to using flatscreen at all. Other health benefits include elimination of possible low level harmful electromagnetic radiation (x-ray, rf) characteristic of high voltage CRT technology where operators are exposed continuously to CRT displays at close range. When we first acquired the 17" technology, the costs were substantially higher than current flatscreen market pricing, which has more recently become quite reasonable (but still higher than CRT) due to the drop overall in pricing for flatscreen technology now that it has become more widely accepted and used. We have also found that the 17" flatscreen affords a bit more "real estate" for display information than comparable 17" CRT models. Before converting to flat-screen we did some "trial" tests with just a few LCD flat-screens and compared several different flat screen product offerings with the conventional CRT technology before settling on one vendor/model which was then acquired for all the centers. We have not used any flatscreen LCD monitors larger than 17" at this point, although there is currently some consideratio being given to acquiring larger flatscreen monitors when wireless phase 2 becomes more fully implemented in our area with associated map displays. Bob Amick, ENP, Communications Director Department of Public Safety University of Colorado at Boulder Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 19:39:19 -0700 From: Vidas Germanas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Flat Screen Monitors We've had very good experience with 15, 18 and 20 inch flat panel displays in various applications. The fact that they produce almost no btu output has been especially welcome at some of our smaller, tightly spaced psap's. I'm very glad we transitioned away from crt's. We've done some preliminary testing with 40 inch wide plasma screens. Reliability seems good, although plasma screens have an issue with static images burning in fairly rapidly. We're going to stick with individual flat panel displays until the wider display technology shows some significant improvement there. Vidas Germanas DuPage County IL Sheriffs Dept ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/leave the NENA 911Talk List Server, paste or type this text: SIGNOFF 911TALK in the BODY of an email message and email it to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
