While thin client vendors have been trying to wrest corporate market share from PC vendors for years, one manufacturer is taking a slightly different tack. Although it still supplies standard thin client hardware, Thinspace has found a niche providing solutions for signs and displays, whether in corporate reception areas or in more public spaces.

Thinspace, formerly a division of Relisys, has long been active in the digital signage market, where it previously supplied custom hardware for bespoke solutions. However, the firm has now come up with a software-based product of its own that uses thin clients to drive digital displays, an arrangement that is both cost-effective and flexible, according to the firm.

“It’s a huge market, and we think we’ve come up with a really competitive package,” said Thinspace director Paul Gittens. “It’s a good alternative to [printed] posters and physical media, because you can put together a campaign and just press go. It’s easy to update, because you can send new content out over the internet rather than along the motorway.”

Companies can put together content from video, images, or web feeds using an application called Promospace. The resulting presentation is played on a PC or laptop using a tool called Promoplayer, and output using one or more Thinspace thin clients serving as remote display appliances. Because the thin clients have similar video output capabilities as a regular PC, they can drive various displays from LCD flat-panels to large-format plasma screens to digital projectors, Gittens said.

But while Thinspace is finding digital signage a lucrative market, it also continues to supply more traditional thin client markets. The firm recently shipped a laptop-style model aimed at the finance and education sectors, and is about to release a Tablet-style unit for the healthcare industry.

Available since November, the TST750 laptop thin client weighs 2.5kg and has a 15.4in display, but is designed to serve as the user console for server-based applications. At £325, it costs much less than most corporate laptops.

“This has been well received in the education market, but also in the financial industry following the recent data loss scandals,” said Gittens. With its built-in Ethernet and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, the TST750 lets employees work from home or a customer site while sensitive information never leaves the datacentre.

The TST800 Tablet is set to ship in late February, and is already getting interest from the healthcare sector, according to Gittens. One of the reasons for the popularity of the form factor is its lack of a keyboard, he explained.

“One of the problems that hospitals have is that a string of people using the keyboard one after another transfers germs, so they are keen on designs that exclude [a keyboard] and can be wiped clean,” he said. Most deployments are set to involve staff doing the rounds and updating patient records, so keeping data secure on a central store is also important.

The new products demonstrate that thin clients can play a valuable role in many organisations, even while some industry watchers write them off as irrelevant in the era of cheap PCs.