Since we launched ScreenCloud OS, our purpose-built digital signage operating system designed to provide the best digital signage experience with ScreenCloud, it was running solely on the high-performing Station P1 device, which has provided fantastic performance at an affordable price. And now we are making the Station P1 Pro (the replacement to the Station P1) available with updated specifications and components. Read this guide to learn all about the specifications of the Station P1 Pro!
A closer look into how we approach ScreenCloud OS hardware
As noted earlier, it’s always been our goal for ScreenCloud OS to provide our customers with the best digital signage experience with ScreenCloud. To expand on this, we want ScreenCloud OS to provide both the best software and hardware experience combined, and of course, providing fantastic hardware is a key part of this.
To accomplish this goal, we worked hard to ensure we chose a strong hardware partner for our first ScreenCloud OS device and found that in Firefly's Station P1 device, which fit the requirements of what we wanted to provide for our customers with its strong performance to price ratio offering top-notch specs at an affordable price.
Another important factor for us was finding a hardware partner that was consistently working towards improving their hardware and providing updated specifications and components. With the launch of the Station P1 Pro earlier this year, which replaces the Station P1, Firefly has done just that, iterating on what was already a great device by bringing it up to date, and after working to add support for the Station P1 Pro to ScreenCloud OS, we are now making it available to our customers.
So what’s next?
We will always be working to provide our customers with even better software and hardware experience. On the software side, we do this by consistently providing OS updates to our customers via automatic over-the-air (OTA) updates which add new features as well as improvements, bug fixes, and security updates. On the hardware side, we will continue to provide even better hardware in the future, with a focus on reaching even better performance-to-price ratios and providing additional features for our customers.
What’s different between the Station P1 Pro and the Station P1?
While the Station P1 Pro has several more up-to-date components, there’s only one main updated component that results in the Station P1 Pro providing better performance than the Station P1, and that’s the WiFi component.
The Station P1 Pro comes with an updated WiFi component that provides 2.4GHz / 5GHz dual-band WiFi, which supports the 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac protocol. This is an improvement from the Station P1’s WiFi component, which only provides 2.4GHz WiFi, with support for the 802.11b/g/n protocol.
In less technical terms, the Station P1 Pro can support 5GHz WiFi, which the Station P1 can not. 5GHz WiFi is commonly used in a wide range of environments, and while 2.4GHz WiFi provides a better range, 5GHz WiFi provides better speed and performance, so ultimately the ability to use either is an advantage.
With this updated WiFi component, the Station P1 Pro also additionally supports the ac WiFi protocol, which is 3x faster than the WiFi protocol the Station P1 supports, the n WiFi protocol.
How can I tell the Station P1 Pro and Station P1 apart?
There are a few ways you can tell the difference between the Station P1 Pro and the Station P1, which are as follows:
The top of the Station P1 Pro has chamfered edges, resulting in a silver strip that runs around the edge of the top of the device, while the Station P1 does not.
The Station P1 Pro has a power button, which sits where the audio out port is on the Station P1, with the audio out port moving to be underneath the micro SD card slot on the Station P1 Pro. Please note that the audio out port is currently not supported on both the Station P1 Pro and the Station P1.
The stickers on both the Station P1 Pro and Station P1 are different, with the name of the device listed under “model”.