[pfgallagher]

I used to work at Cooler Screens, if anyone has any questions :D

[jw_cook]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the article's theory that the main (technical) problem is thermals:

> "Cooler Screens does refer to them as vivid and engaging, and they must have thought that they needed to compete with store lighting to catch attention... the wattage of the backlighting (and attendant heat dissipated) must be considerable.

> "...I suspect they have a thermal problem. The whole system probably worked fine on a bench, but once manufactured and mounted with one face against an insulated cooler door, heat accumulates to the point that the SoC goes into thermal throttling and gives up on real-time playback of 4K video. The punishing temperature of the display and computer equipment leads to premature failure, and the screens go dark."

Does that sound accurate, or is there more to it?

[pfgallagher]

I wasn't involved with the hardware side of things. The SoCs are from Nvidia, iirc. The widely-publicized issues with Walgreens are 'electrical,' but I'm unsure of what that actually boils down to in practice.

[tech_ken]

Was there any awareness that the premise was kind of goofy from the jump? Was there any concern about the optics of the failing units described by the author?

[pfgallagher]

Unlike the starting point, a regular glass door, which effectively always accurately displays its inventory, a screen layer, by nature, introduces the possibility of inaccurate data, an entirely dark door, etc. Hardware maintenance is no doubt important: having a bunch of inoperative doors, especially in a single location, can lead to customers having negative experiences. The advertising premise is more straightforward - show contextual ads to customers seconds before they make a purchase.

[ranger207]

Why'd you join? What was the vibe in the company?

[pfgallagher]

Some friends worked there. The vibe was very corporate for a startup; they definitely took a lot of management cues from Walgreens.

[topaz0]

What part did you work on?

[pfgallagher]

I was on the Retail Value Add (RVA) team, which primarily handles the backend providing the content to the doors, as well as an interface for clients to update said content.