Thomas de Laar with SeekInk and Holitech

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

industrial, display, technology, thomas, paper, world, Seekink, change, company, tft, dusseldorf, advertisement, people, module, customers, barcelona, signage, put, smart, power

00:03

Welcome to the Industrial Talk podcast with Scott MacKenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's get our I once

00:22

again, thank you very much for joining Industrial Talk the number one industrial related podcast in the universe that celebrates industry professionals all around the world. You are bold, you are brave, you dare greatly. you innovate. You, you collaborate, you solve problems, you make the world a better place. That's why we celebrate you on this particular podcast, and beat you might hear the buzz in the background. We are on site IoT solutions World Congress, this is in Barcelona, Spain, and you need to definitely put this on your calendar to attend. If you're not here. You're missing out. All the cool kids hang out here in Barcelona. So be part of the cool kids be here next year. All right. As I said, we have cool kids hanging out in the one in the hot seat. His name is Thomas. How do I say your last name? Thomas? De Laar.

01:10

So alar? Actually, it's the name of my wife. I took over the niche. Cool.

01:17

All right. Seekink is is the name of the company that's Seekink. Yes. And make a note of that. But it'll all be out on Industrial Talk.com. Let's get cracking. That's pretty cool. Dr. Thomas de Laar. I can I can say that you haven't a good conference? Yes.

01:38

It's a so very, very nice people here. So good booths, good customers, Rachel.

01:45

So you got a lot of customers here. Yeah, so

01:49

actually, so some of our customers are here. And so we are presenting our technology, of course. But there are a lot of customers using our, our E paper displays for the application. Yes.

02:02

See, this is just a whole new new area for me. I just take it for granted. I just just just do. So with that said, before we get into that conversation, can you sort of give us a little background on who Thomas is?

02:17

Oh, Thomas. So Thomas is 58 years old already. So I have frickin so I'm, I have a lot of experience in semiconductor film. So and let's say in the middle of my life, I, I changed to the display world. So first I, I was promoting TFT technology for auto for Chinese company. But then I changed again to the paper display technology. And now I'm, I'm working for Seekink and so we are located in Dusseldorf, and we are the European window for Seekink. Okay,

03:03

let's get into Seekink Yes. Just as simply as you possibly can. Because we just had another conversation about ea, ea, and what that means, take us through what Seekink does. Okay,

03:22

so in simple words. So

03:27

because I'm a simple guy. So

03:29

what Seekink is doing so we are taking the Inc film technology. So that means we are taking the film, and we are manufacturing epaper display. So that means we have to add certain things like the backplane, like the FPC, like the IC controlling this display. And in the end, we have a display, which you can run with your application

03:56

has the cost of being able to provide these solutions to technology? Has it steadily been going down? Or?

04:04

Yes, it's going down. But still. So we are of course you can imagine we are somehow very often in competition with the standard display technology such as LCD TFT. So that means this is really a challenge for us. So we still have to, to bring the cost down so that we are competitive to this technology.

04:27

But it's heading in that direction. Yes, I mean, definitely just seems it just seems that the value of being able to achieve what you're doing. Makes sense. Absolutely. Why is it beneficial? Why Why? Why is it important?

04:44

It's important because this display technology has a lot of benefit for customers who are looking for energy saving or being more environmental company. So in the end so this technology requires almost zero power. So that means you can run this display with almost zero power, you just need a little bit power to change the content. So this is the first advantage. The second advantage is, if you're going around in every day, so you see a lot of signs and made out of paper. So obviously, if you're replacing all this stuff, you can you are very, you can save a lot of, you know, trees, and actually, you see right now, so there are a lot of activities, young people going on the street. So being environmental is a very hot topic right now. And actually, so this display technology is going right into this direction.

05:47

In the world of let's say, merchandising, and signage, and is it difficult to sort of transition companies into that type of technology, to where you're using that signage, I'm a paper person, I put that that display out there, that's what I do, I print it out, I do whatever. Is it difficult to be able to change accompany in that way.

06:15

I think now in times where we are discussing, so to make this world better in terms of, you know, environmental topics, so more and more companies are thinking how to replace paper. So for example, advertisement on the street, so you're using tons of paper, and it's not so easy to change the content, because people have to go out if to change the advertisement, and so on. Now, using an epaper display module, make it make it very easy to change the content, because you have, for example, an interface, let's say like, mobile phone network, you can just send the data via this network and change the content and you don't need to send any anyone out there. And also, you're saving tons of paper.

07:03

And power if you How is there any size limitation? So if you have a display outside, let's say you have an advertisement outside, you see a billboard, it's a big billboard, is there any limitation associated with that technology? Can that be converted into an an E, E side he paper sign?

07:26

Yes. So, so right now, so we, we have already 42 inch size, paper module in mass production, we are not thinking of releasing a 65 inch. So in terms of size, I think there is no limit. And what you also can do, you can put many modules side by side and make a big screen out of it.

07:53

And that that gives you scalability and be able to sort of link it in such a way that it makes sense that communicates what is necessary to be communicated. Right. So with that said, so what are some of the things that you see that are going to impact the bid, impact the market? Give us your future view of what's taking place? You got all this IoT stuff out here? You got all of this? Tell us a little bit about that. You

08:21

can see it, there's a there's a big big change going on in the in the display industry, let's say. So, so many new applications are now popping up. They are all interested now in using epaper. So we are talking about Smart City, we are talking about smart retail, we are talking about variables. And even we are talking now to customers in the fashion industry. Who wants to use the paper technology and integrate e paper into their clothes in caps in shoes. And this is the kind of communication tool let's say yeah, like young people are using the internet like Instagram and CO to talk to each other. You can use it as well in your fashion to give a kind of message to other people.

09:15

How does you piqued an interest? Because I think we have some companies that are invested into smart cities. What does that mean? Smart

09:26

City so think about for example, bus stations. So you can be somewhere in the desert. And for example, that's the bus stop and you don't have any power nothing. So you can simply use the solar solar panel put a paper display module for 42 inch, this can be run with the solar power easily and you will see all the information you need for you know bass connection and everything. This will be displayed without having any power there. Right

09:58

see and as you can see also integrate with the cellular so you can change things up. Correct. I still I'm stumbling on the fashion one. See that on a hat though? That'll be distracting. No son of God. Well, that's just absolutely spectacular. i Are you manufacturing these signs in Dusseldorf?

10:23

No. So the factories in China of course, yes. In Indian? Yes.

10:31

Now you are You are wonderful. People, you've opened my eyes, because I didn't know any of this stuff. Now we're gonna be looking at signage. How would I tell an E paper sign versus a regular sign? How can I tell the difference? Well,

10:51

actually, so the paper you can see immediately it's very eye friendly. There's you don't have these blue lights so you can really relax while you're seeing information. Hey,

11:00

girl. All right. All right. If somebody wants to contact you, Thomas, are you out on industrial or LinkedIn? Yes,

11:07

we are. So just search under a Seekink we are on LinkedIn so you can reach us very easily. Very

11:14

good, man. All right. Thank you very much, Thomas. We are broadcasting once again from IoT solutions World Congress, Barcelona, make this a priority. Put this on your calendar for next year. It is a great event. And you get people like Thomas who know a lot of things much, much smarter than me. All right, we're gonna wrap it up on the other side, we're gonna have all the contact information for Thomas out on Industrial Talk. So stay tuned, we will be right back.

11:38

You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

11:48

Alright, Thomas is the name. Seekink. is the company or the organization. He's also the CEO at Holitech, Europe. He's got a lot of irons in the fire. He does what I got to tell you this E paper is fascinating. You're talking about smart building smart hospitals, smart signage that allows you to, to really communicate in an effective way. But it doesn't require a lot of power. It's then it's it's just an amazing solution. And it's only getting better. Check them out. Go out to Industrial Talk. All right, building a platform. It does real talk, you have a podcast, put it out on Industrial Talk, you have one do it. If you have the technology that you truly want to amplify, put it out on Industrial Talk. Finally, if you want to be on Industrial Talk, just go out to Industrial Talk the processes easy go to Industrial Talk, and reach out and have a conversation with me. We're going to have another great conversation coming from this particular event. So be bold, be brave, daring, greatly hanging out with Thomas change the world