LFP - Large-Format-Printing
Tred Displays, a Digital Signage Developer, Closes First Round of Investment with Flywheel Ventures and Sojitz Pla-Net Corporation of Japan
Wednesday 12. March 2008 - Tred Displays Corporation, a developer of low-cost, reflective, "green tech" displays designed for use in the signage industry, today announced it has completed its first round of investment led by Flywheel Ventures and Sojitz Pla-Net Corporation of Japan. In addition, Sojitz Pla-Net will support Tred Displays throughout Asia.
Tred Displays has developed a new low-cost reflective, bi-stable signage display that introduces an entirely new type of sign concept, a “hybrid sign” where digital content can be added to conventional printed graphics. Tred’s technology also offers a cleantech operation that allows energy for the signs to be powered by batteries or solar cells, cutting the energy use of each sign by >95% compared to traditional digital LED displays. These displays are uniquely rugged and robust, made mainly from advanced plastic composites and proprietary printed circuit boards, making them suitable for indoor as well as harsh outdoor environments.
In addition, Tred offers a pricing alternative to printed and digital signs; printed signs cost approximately $50 per square meter but digital LED displays cost $2000 per square meter. Tred plans to offer its products at a price point much closer to printed graphics than digital displays such as LED displays. Tred’s first products will be aimed at large-format information applications and have a target price 25% that of conventional LED displays.
Tred’s technology operates on proprietary meso-scale electromagnetic technology. It offers >75% reflectivity, low-power “clean-tech” operation (< 1 watt-sec per refresh, easily powered by batteries or solar cells), 5mm thickness and <5Kg per square meter. Tred's new "hybrid sign" technology allows sign makers to add high-impact digital content to graphic signs while leveraging their existing sign fabrication systems. End-customers can have digital content added to their graphic sign at a small fraction of the cost of LED displays.
“This investment round will get Tred to the point of establishing a working production prototype and select beta-site installations toward the later half of 2008,” said Chuck Edwards, President and CEO of Tred Displays. “With the exception of LED displays, there have been no new digital displays introduced to the signage industry. Tred plans to change this by offering very low-cost digital display products easily integrated into traditional printed signs for the fabrication of a new class of sign.”
The worldwide signage industry is over US $100B with the digital signage portion estimated at approximately $4B. Tred’s display products serve this existing digital signage industry and also offer the opportunity to establish an entirely new market by allowing for digital content to be added to lower-cost printed and cut-vinyl signs resulting in an addressable market of greater than US $15B. This new concept of a “hybrid sign” utilizing Tred’s display products offers an entirely new signage market segment previously unavailable.