Sometimes, buyers of an LED screen assume in their mind or imagination, that the manufacturer will take care of their customer as themselves and this is not always the case.
By Adrián Morel*
10 years ago, buying an LED screen involved embarking on a little-known technology, but today things have improved since these screens are already living with us with great success.
However, not everything is said and there are still edges of the business that do not close, that is why in this document I want to share with you my experience and purchase philosophy before the choice of LED screens.
First mistake: Thinking that others are like yourself.
We, especially Hispanics, are about simplifying things and not looking for many turns where there is none. There is a saying that says "Do not fix what is not broken", in other words "do not complicate yourself". LED technology providers, I'm talking about technology in terms of research and development, or mass manufacturing on a global scale, are generally of Asian origin and they have a very particular way of thinking or seeing things. This means that we must walk on the rocks, testing the reality of things when buying an LED screen.
Second mistake: We assume or imagine services that are never mentioned.
We as a buyer, assume, in our mind or imagination, that the manufacturer will take care of their customer as themselves. And it's not. For an Asian, especially a Chinese, who is accustomed to living with more than 1,367 million Chinese and a population with an average growth of seven million per year, we are one more of the lot. As a customer, we are no one in particular. And I'm not saying it, all colleagues say it.
Third mistake: Thinking that the price includes everything
When we buy an LED screen, it is easy to differentiate the cost of the product and separately the additional one for freight, transportation, insurance, etc. However and in general, the low price does not mention in detail the after-sales service, how they will solve our problems, because the LED screen like any electronic technology, in the short or in the long run, comes some problem.
That is, when we want to strive for the guarantee or the after-sales service, we realize that we are between a rock and a hard place, without chicha or lemonade, a warm "hello" and a lot of "it is not my business".
Fourth mistake: Assume that all LEDs are similarly good.
Visiting an LED microprocessor factory in Guangdong Province, China, the quality control manager selected and separated the chips into more than 70 different categories, based on their quality, performance, power, etc, etc. Not all have the same NITs, nor the same color temperature, or the same performances.
Some are specially selected for LED screens for their uniformity, others are used for lighting and the price difference can vary several times between a low-performance model compared to a high-performance model. To say the least, a Nichia LED has a lot of peaks and valleys, not all LEDs of the same brand are the same.
Fifth mistake: Thinking that LED factories will be in business for many years.
LED companies in general have a very short life cycle, many companies enter the business and also many leave. According to LED Forum Taipei 2015, given the high supply of LED companies the price has dropped between 30 and 40 percent, consequently the wave of bankruptcies has been very severe.
In the last 10 years, the LED industry has changed owners by mergers and acquisitions by 150%, that is, from 100 LED companies established in 2005, more than 400 companies have joined the business and only less than half of them survive. Many of them outsource the brand, being quite difficult for the buyer to know who is who, that is, what technology we are buying and if it will be to serve us in the next 10 years.
Sixth mistake: Assume that our screen will look like the screens of the exhibitions.
The screens of the exhibitions, although they are of the same hardware technology as the screens sold, many of them have improved processors or retouched images so that the display looks better. Coincidentally, the images that pass on the screens of the exhibitions are pure or neutral colors, but our job as AV professionals, will be to project, many times, real colors, such as the grass of the football fields, and many times, the grass does not have the strident green that we expect, or the tomato is not the expected red, or orange is not so orange.
To do this, enjoy the images prepared for the exhibition, but have a little patience to also see the real images and then compare.
Seventh mistake: Not everyone enjoys traveling like we do.
On several occasions, talking to Chinese from different geographies (Taiwanese, mainland China or Hong Kong) I asked them about their experience (theirs) traveling to Latin American countries. Mostly, and to my surprise, they did not enjoy the trip, among the details mentioned were the cultural difference, the food, the distance between China and any Latin country, etc.
Our technicians and engineers, I'm talking about Latinos and even Americans or Europeans, enjoy traveling to different latitudes, even the most remote. While Asians are reluctant to such trips and that always made me think that for a logical matter, we will have a customer service "on site" or in the workplace or installation of the screen, doing the right thing, of commitment, arriving the night before and returning as soon as I can.
Logically there will be exceptions (and I write this because there may be some Chinese who likes to travel) but in 10 years of experience in the industry and traveling to Asia every six months, the Chinese manage to adapt to Western codes, just look at them at the exhibition stands, eating and behaving as if they were in their own country of origin.
Eighth mistake: Wanting to buy cheap thinking that you do a good deal.
They say, that people who know how to buy, do not prefer to buy cheap at the expense of quality, prefer to buy an excellent product at a discounted price. Something like buying summer clothes when the season is about to end, the clothes, quality and brand are still the same but they are at a discount price for finishing a cycle. Another example would be to travel outside the high season, example in March (for destinations in South America), where air tickets are much cheaper, the hotel offer is wide (getting excellent hotels) and above all that the weather is still spectacular, as good as the last days of February.
Ninth Mistake: Increase the definition or lower the pixelation, because everyone does that or is fashionable.
A short time ago, I heard a colleague tell me that the market became very demanding, now everyone wants three mm. Nowadays, the offer of projection to the outside is more abundant, with different technologies and I am not so sure if a show outside where the public is 50 meters away wants to place three mm screens, given that with 10 or more, the spectator who is at a distance enjoys the show (or the screens) as the best.
Tenth mistake: Thinking that the writer in a magazine knows more than the reader.
Those of us who write or often give talks about LED technology or other technologies, simply convey our point of view, and I have no doubt that the reader's experience (their experience) is surely as good or much better.
However, those of us who are constantly exposed to speak in public or write for hundreds or thousands of readers, have the habit of constantly asking, being interested in the opinion of others, inquiring into all possible aspects because we know, that sooner or later, we will be in front of a demanding audience and with very substantial theoretical and practical knowledge, many times superior to ours. So, the only merit that I see in favor, is the curiosity, the question, the restlessness with its respective communication.
Adrian Morel
Buenos Aires, Argentina
[email protected]
