Avocent Rolls Out Larger Flat Panels, Blade Product

When Don Davidson, president of Avocent Digital Desktops (booth #3500), takes a booth at the SIA show, he does so because at any time, "The CIO of Goldman or another large financial institution will walk the floor," he says.

And when they do, Davidson hopes they notice Avocent's larger flat panels that have been designed with a high-end user, such as a trader, in mind.

Avocent's new standard sizes for flat panels are 19 and 21 inches, and will be showcased for the first time today. Previously, Avocent's standard-size flat panel was 18 inches.

Davidson says the flat panels are made with a very high-end glass and offer increased resolution and brightness. "The new line of pixel-vision flat panels have high resolution, high contrast and video delivery, which leverages video-digital display," according to Davidson. Avocent acquired Pixel Vision approximately five years ago, thus the name Pixel Vision flat panels.

Davidson notes, "The trend is moving away from 17 and 18 inch monitors because traders want to reduce the number of panels at their desktops. Space is of the essence on a trader's workstation. Rather than have four CRTs, trader's want two, but they still want all the information they were getting on four," he says. "The larger screens give them the flexibility to get the same amount of information but on fewer screens."

Some of Avocent's clients for its traditional flat panels include the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, Prudential and Bank Boston, Davidson says.

As for the company's main competitors, he says, for the large panels they include Samsung, NEC-Mitsubishi Electronics Display and Sony. Avocent's competitor NEC also offers a range of flat panels from 15 inches to 40 inches. NEC will be showcasing its products at the show as well.

He adds that the products are all sold through distributors and the list prices are as follows: 18 inch is $725, the 19 inch is $1,030, and the 21 inch is $1750. However, the company gives volume discounts of between 15 and 25 percent, depending on quantity purchased. Avocent's flat panels are produced in Thailand by Coretronics.

Avocent will also be demonstrating another one of its products called ShadowIT. ShadowIT is a software product that provides remote-desktop control and administration for networked applications. The blade product allows an administrator to look at multiple displays. "The administrator can look at all 200 traders and see all of their panels and can assist with the help-desk control and administration," says Davidson.

It also allows the user to build in levels of security. "A trader might not want the IT guy to get in if there is something you don't want him to see." He explains that the trader could block the IT person from viewing his screens at certain times.

This product is geared towards several vertical markets including financial services, government and 911 emergency call centers. It can work with any standard PC.