Rome | Samsung has been the global leader in the LCD signage for 15 years and has boasted the largest installed base of SoC screens for 12 years. With over 1,300 partners in Europe, Samsung’s Tizen is one of the most successful digital signage ecosystems. Last week, more than 180 partners attended the Tizen Partner Conference in Rome.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Samsung’s now very successful SoC platform SSSP/Tizen. Like every early solution, the first Tizen generation in 2013 had its weaknesses, but the latest Tizen 8 version can even smoothly play UHD content—an impressive feat for an integrated player. Today, Tizen is not only available on displays but also on Samsung’s e-paper and LED solutions.
The Tizen B2B API for Samsung Smart Signage and Hospitality displays is developed and supported by a global Samsung team across Korea, Poland, India, and Mexico—all of which were represented at the Rome conference. With the Tizen Enterprise Platform (TEP), this global team has developed a new API framework over the past few years to help partners better manage and connect third-party applications to Tizen. The big news, however, is UWE (Upgradeable Web Engine), which brings a current Chromium player to older Tizen 6.5 and higher screens..
A small revolution in the SoC world: SoC players have traditionally lagged behind the current Chromium web player in terms of security and compatibility by several years. Now, Samsung has addressed this challenge with a permanently integrated Base Web Engine and an upgradable UWE content playout web engine. Samsung plans regular updates to ensure it keeps up with the developments of the Chromium Web Player.
With Tizen, Samsung introduced a new product category to the market, one that has since been imitated by WebOS, Android, and many other operating systems. While exact figures are unavailable, it’s likely that more than half of all professional screens worldwide are powered by SoCs, with an even larger share being shipped with SoCs inside.
This success story aligns with today’s needs, as integrators and end customers seek digital signage solutions that are energy-efficient, easy to install and replace, and operate securely and reliably.
