PRODUCT TRENDS LG
PRODUCT TRENDS LG BUSiNESS SOLUTiONS COmPaNy USES iFa aS EU PROmOTiONaL PLaTFORm “a PERFECT BLEND OF STyLE aND TEChNOLOGy” FEaTURES NEw NETwORk mONiTOR SySTEm By Richard Barnes Exclusive Interview Jae Hoon Bae, Executive Vice President BS Marketing Division, Business Solutions Company Following LG’s restructuring this year, we are, for the first time, finding their Business Solutions Company with a strong presence at IFA 2009. Indeed, since January, LG group has been divided into five companies: the Business Solutions (BS) company, the HE (Entertainment) HA (Appliances), the Mobile company and the CHE company (Air Conditioning etc). The LG Business Solutions group was established early this year to focus on providing professional IT products to customers and business partners. At IFA 2009, LG is showcasing three new monitors along with its line of network monitors, which are designed to enable a number of users to simultaneously share a single desktop PC. We asked LG’s Executive Vice- President, Jae Hoon Bae to tell us more about the change in tack for the Korean giant… While we’ve been very successful with a number of devices such as mobile phones, TVs and air conditioners, if we’re able to add value on top of that by providing a complete solution which includes software, networking, system integration and maintenance, then we can offer a lot more value to our customers. It is a direction in which we need to head for our long term success and survival. The company has made a tremendous amount of investment in creating this company. Why use IFA as a platform? While we realise IFA is primarily geared towards consumer electronics, we have a product that we are very excited about which is a demonstration of our solution capability, which is a network monitor. It enables one PC to be used with up to eleven terminal devices or network monitors… so it has tremendous advantages in terms of acquisition and maintenance costs as well as environmental impact in terms of the amount of energy used. We were very excited about this product and we though this would be a good forum for us to demonstrate it as a first sign of what we’re doing in terms of building solutions. How does the network monitor system work? We realised that today’s multi-core computers are so powerful that the vast majority of applications use only two to five-percent of an average computer’s capacity. LG’s network monitors make use of the computers’ unused capacity, and enable up to 11 users to share a single PC without compromising performance, stability or speed. These monitors include keyboard, mouse, and audio connections. The host PC only requires a PCI card to connect to the monitors to create multiple virtual workspaces. What kinds of places can they be used? This is an ideal solution for small businesses, schools, government offices, libraries and call centres that need to provide computing capabilities but must also consider costs, maintenance and environmental impact. In fact in a recent independent survey of IT managers, 70-percent of respondents expressed interest in a solution like this if it did not impact system performance. So it’s all about cost efficiency or increased Return on Investment? Absolutely! LG’s network monitors offer substantial cost savings compared to traditional PCs and thin clients. These monitors eliminate the need for all users to have individual computers at their desks and unlike thin clients, they do not need expensive servers that take up considerable space in a data centre. Implementation can reduced upgrade costs by at least 60-percent and maintenance costs by at least 70-percent over alternate solutions. LG’s network monitors also help minimise environmental waste. As the system only requires one single host, it consumes 90-percent less energy than a solution that relies on multiple computers. The monitors also generate less heat than conventional PCs, which helps reduce additional cooling costs. A further advantage is the ease of maintenance. As up to 11 monitors can operate with a single host, there’s a corresponding reduction in time spent by IT personnel on repairs, patches, updates and software installation. In addition, IT staff responsible for deploying and Global Web Site maintaining a network monitor solution don’t need specific technical expertise because the system relies on a standard computer as a host rather than a server. Furthermore, monitors are much less complex than full-fledged desktop computers, meaning that they are far more reliable and the configuration is far simpler than for a traditional network. How did you develop this solution? We developed these network monitors in collaboration with NComputing, a growing desktop virtualization provider, based in Silicon Valley. NComputing is the leader in low cost desktop virtualization solutions and was recently honoured with an Innovations Design and Engineering award in the US. LG’s Network Monitors can be seen at the LG stand. Hall 11.2 / Stand 101 30 www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Saturday, 5 th & Sunday, 6 th September 2009
PRODUCT TRENDS ThaT’S ONE TOUgh LiTTLE SUCkER! ThE DC26 DySON CiTy May bE SMaLL, bUT iT PaCkS a big PUNCh! Who’d have thought that a mini vacuum could be this small and this gutsy? The DC26 Dyson City is a compact but powerful cylinder designed for small spaces. Even though DC26 Dyson City sits comfortably on an A4 piece of paper, it still has the performance of a full size vacuum. And because it’s made by Dyson, it doesn’t lose suction. According to Dyson, miniaturisation is not just about making something smaller. All 275 parts of DC26 were analysed by Dyson specialists and engineered with size, weight, functionality and robustness in mind. In other words, small size can still equal optimum performance. Dyson’s patented Root Cyclone technology has been condensed to fit into the machine. 13 small inner cyclones deliver superior efficiency in as little space as possible – keeping air velocity high and energy consumption low. While suction can drop by half in some bagged vacuum cleaners, the DC26 Dyson City retains the same high level of performance, room after room. James Dyson explains: “With DC26, the engineering challenge was to miniaturise the machine without compromising on performance. It took us five years to painstakingly compress and rebuild every single component before we had a machine that was a third smaller than its predecessor, yet could still tackle dirt like bigger machines.” Although Dyson City weighs less than some laptops, it’s incredibly tough – withstanding 5,318 drops onto a hard floor and 10,000 pummels against a metal wall from Dyson’s test team. Asthma and allergy sufferers can breathe much easier, as every component and seal in DC26 is engineered so allergens are retained. Its dual channel floor tool also means that two separate airflow channels can direct suction power evenly so pick-up is improved across every floor type. As with all Dyson vacuum cleaners, the air expelled from DC26 contains up to 150 times less bacteria and mould than the air you breathe. Hall 4.1 / Stand 204 IFA International • Saturday, 5 th & Sunday, 6 th September 2009 www.ifa-international.org 31
