The gen4-uLCD-50DCT-CLB display integrated in the Analog Audio Design’s TP-1000

Once a cornerstone of musical delight, the tape player has long held a place in the hearts of music enthusiasts. Many still believe music on tape offers qualities superior to that in digital format; a warm, rich sound, a wide dynamic range and a more authentic representation of the original sound. For some, the tape player remains a soulful connection to the past.

It’s unexpected, then, that a new analogue tape player would be released against a backdrop of smartphones and wearable IoT. However, Analog Audio Design, a small company based in Pleumeur-Bodou in France, saw an opportunity and embedded modern innovation into a late 1900s relic.

Last year, Christophe Martinez, the founder of Analog Audio Design, released the TP-1000 ⸺ an open reel tape recorder. At first glance, it looks like a nostalgic nod to decades past, but the TP-1000 is a harmonious blend of classic charm and cutting-edge innovation.

Here’s how 4D Systems assisted Analog Audio Design with the development of their modern tape player by providing the perfect LCD display solution.

Beyond Vinyl: Reviving Vintage Sound

The recent re-emergence and popularity of vinyl records and audio cassettes prompted Christophe Martinez to consider a new tape recorder project.

Identifying a gap in the market, Christophe began development of a modern tape recorder in 2017. His goal was to provide music-lovers with an unrivalled sound experience, surpassing even vinyl records.

In 2022, he launched the TP-1000, offering customers a new, reliable machine capable of delivering an unparalleled analogue sound experience. The device is entirely analogue and designed for the reproduction of 1/4″ magnetic tapes.

Harmonising the User Experience

One of the key challenges in TP-1000’s development was providing users with ergonomic access to advanced functions. Having the perfect display module was pivotal to the project’s success.

Christophe had worked with 4D Systems more than a decade prior and, based on this experience, he reached out for assistance.

The simple serial link between the microcontroller and the screen and the screen-integrated graphics processor resonated with Christophe’s vision for the tape player, and he chose the gen4-uLCD-50DCT-CLB display module with cover lens bezel.

The gen4-uLCD-50DCT-CLB is a powerful 5.0″ Intelligent LCD-TFT display powered by DIABLO16. It features an 800 x 480 resolution, delivering RGB 65K true-to-life colours.

Christophe says the touch screen streamlines the design by removing the need for buttons.

The display has been programmed to showcase time counters, speed and equalisation options, audio output levels, and maintenance pages.

A Classic Symphony with Modern Riffs

After four years of development, the TP-1000 successfully addressed the demand for a high-quality, modern tape recorder for audiophiles worldwide.

The tape player boasts impressive technical features, all conveniently accessible through the display interface (gen4-uLCD-50DCT-CLB), making it exceptionally user-friendly. For example, the REW + Play feature automates the tape rewinding process to the beginning and seamlessly initiates playback. The device calculates the optimal rewind distance based on the remaining tape diameter and core diameter, both adjustable on the intuitive touch screen display.

While being somewhat vintage in appearance, the tape player boasts a range of modern capabilities, including a 6.35mm headphone output and an RJ45 Ethernet socket which allows remote control and software updates.

The final outcome garnered immense praise at its launch listening session at the Acoustic Gallery in Paris, leaving attendees astounded by the depth and quality of sound, precision in tape movement and the feeling of unlimited bandwidth and dynamics.

Encore: Soundscape of the Future

Christophe Martinez has ambitious plans for the future, including the development of the TR-1000 recorder version, which will be an advanced edition of the TP-1000. The gen4-uLCD-50DCT-CLB display will see further use, with plans for a touch-screen remote control in subsequent projects.

Analog Audio Design’s TP-1000, equipped with 4D Systems’ gen4-uLCD-50DCT-CLB display module, has successfully brought the unparalleled sound experience of analogue devices to passionate audiophiles worldwide. The incorporation of the intelligent display has added convenience, functionality, and an elegant design to the TP-1000, making it a remarkable and sought-after open reel tape player.

In an increasingly modern world, the TP-1000 remains an ode to music, a testament to the enduring appeal of analogue sound, and proof that technology and culture can co-exist in harmony.

Until next time.

JAC makes commercial bakery products more interactive, intuitive, adjustable and user-friendly. 

JAC is a leading manufacturer of specialised industrial machinery with a global customer base. With their products being highly regarded for their quality, efficiency and innovative design, 4D Systems was the ideal supplier to provide display units for their JAC Varia and JAC Tradilevain commercial bakery products.

Problem: Seeking control and configuration in a display

JAC had spent a significant period of time searching for a screen capable of serving as a control and configuration interface for their bread slicers, which offer adjustable slice-thickness settings. Given their attention to detail, they had a list of must-haves for the screen: solid, reactive, visually appealing and of exceptional quality. Most importantly, the screen needed to be able to integrate all the adjustment settings made possible in their machines.

“Our main interest was to be able to integrate all the adjustment possibilities of our motherboard, whether it be the technical adjustments or the parameters that the customer can vary via the graphical interface,” says Adrien Craeninckx, CEO at JAC.

Solid yet refined

JAC already had a 7-inch display from 4D Systems, but it was an older version with a soft surface – so it didn’t fit the brief. The team needed something more solid with the same resolution but that was smaller and easier to integrate into their products.

Additionally, JAC needed the screen to be user-friendly enough so that their in-house R&D team could quickly get to work on programming and troubleshooting in order to get the product to market sooner.

Solution: Crystal-clear visuals and full functionality

After being given a glowing recommendation, JAC turned again to 4D Systems to find their display solution. 4D Systems recommended the gen4-uLCD-50DCT-CLB, a 5-inch intelligent display module that combines a high-quality TFT LCD display with a capacitive sensor. The screen also features a resolution of 800×480 and RGB 65K true-to-life colours, which would ensure JAC customers would have a crystal-clear and visually appealing interface on their products.

The display unit also includes a built-in graphics engine that allowed JAC to design and create their own custom graphics and user interface elements. This was particularly valuable as it allowed them to develop an intuitive interface that met the specific needs of their customers.

Integrating the display

JAC’s R&D team got straight to work on programming and integrating all the necessary adjustments and settings into the graphical interface. The screen was then assembled on their production lines and configured at the end of the line by their electronics engineers.

OUTCOME: Market-leading bakery products

The gen4-uLCD-50DCT-CLB from 4D Systems proved to be the perfect match for JAC long list of must-haves. Both the Varia Bread Slicer and the Tradilevain Sourdough Fermenter have been on the market for some time now and continue to keep customers happy with their adjustability and user-friendly interface.

“The Varia screen allows customers to slice bread with their choice of thickness and number of slices, while the Tradilevain screen makes it much easier to manage the production of sourdough,” says Craeninckx.

Setting themselves apart from the competition

The gen4-uLCD-50DCT-CLB has allowed JAC to create market-leading products that are easy to use, visually attractive and highly intuitive for customers who want greater control over their product’s output. The custom graphics and user interface elements have also helped set their products apart from competitors and improve their overall brand image.

Off the back of such a successful product roll-out, JAC will continue working with 4D Systems in the future to meet their growing need for high-quality interfaces.

“4D Systems offers the type of interfaces that will become more widespread in the future at JAC. It’s a great way to make our products easier, more attractive and highly intuitive,” says Craeninckx at JAC.

South Africa – Entrepreneur Henlo van der Westhuizen spent years developing South Africa’s premium espresso coffee machine. Here’s how he partnered with 4D Systems to help coffee lovers brew the perfect cup – every time.

Idea

Henlo van der Westhuizen’s remarkable coffee machines are the perfect integration of art, engineering and functionality. With a firm focus on design-led engineering and a passion to drive creativity through entrepreneurship, it’s no surprise he has achieved so much in such a short amount of time. What started as a youthful obsession with Lego soon transformed into a passion for building custom gaming computers. But the final evolution in his engineering appetite came at Stellenbosch.

“Stellenbosch was an absolute hub for coffee, wine, beer and cycling in South Africa,” van der Westhuizen says. “I was quickly drawn to the coffee-shop environment and saw all the different commercial espresso machines – all of which seemed to be running on technology out of the 1980s.”

He came to realize that not all cups of coffee are made the same, so he wanted to figure out what he could do – from an engineering angle – to ensure that every cup added to the coffee-shop experience.

“After I did some research and found out what they were selling for, especially the premium ones, I knew I wanted to do it better for less. So I started some very rudimentary cost analysis and built a business case. By the end of my final year, I was already on my fifth iteration of the business plan as I was chasing down venture capitalists and improving my business model based on feedback from them.”

When van der Westhuizen achieved the financial support to put his premium espresso-machine designs into practice, he wanted them to stand apart from the competition. Central to this was a focus on cost, sustainability and technology.

“Being a technology enthusiast, I wanted our base model to incorporate all the latest innovations, which turned out to be a great decision when we compared the price of our product to functionally similar competitors,” he says. “We are priced exactly on par with the mid-high range ‘workhorse’ espresso machines, but with the added benefit of telemetry. As part of our company culture, we don’t want to rely on the servicing of our machines as a recurring revenue – we believe this will lead to compromises and bad decision-making.

“We wanted to design sustainable machines that have incredible service life, which is better for the environment and gains favour from our customers. This is where the telemetry and data reporting steps in.”

And it’s also where the Henlo team had to find the right technology partner for their machine’s display.

Solution

Henlo products are built with sustainability and longevity in mind. Van der Westhuizen was adamant about creating a product that would deliver a big return on investment long after the machine had been paid off – with right-to-repair and cost-effective access to parts out of warranty. In particular, he wanted to incorporate an interface that would greatly reduce the mechanical wear-and-tear of levers and buttons that are typically used to operate subsystems of espresso machines.

“By adding the screens as IO to the machine, you add a complete software layer between the customer and machinery – which in turn keeps your customers happy, even if there are minor issues that pop up,” he says.

Henlo chose to incorporate two units from 4D Systems’ suite of products. The gen4-uLCD-43DCT-CLB is a slim intelligent display module with embedded DIABLO16 processor and capacitive touch panel – designed specifically for ease of integration and use, with careful consideration for space requirements and functionality. The premium espresso machines also boast the pixxiLCD-13P2-CTP-CLB – powered by the configurable PIXXI-28 graphics processor, it allows various functionalities such as touch detection, microSD or serial flash memory storage, GPIO, and ADC, along with multiple millisecond resolution timers, and UART and I2C communication.

For van der Westhuizen, the most important feature of both displays was the glass bezel, which completely seals the screens from moisture that occurs during the coffee-brewing process. This resulted in much more room to create a custom seal for the back of the unit, with cable routing being a breeze. Following a human-centred design approach, these powerful UI tools gave Henlo’s UX/UI designers a lot of freedom to create an interface that looked and functioned exactly as their customers demanded.

Outcome

Van der Westhuizen ultimately chose 4D Systems because of the industrial-grade quality of the products and their experience in the market. For a technical mind such as his, he also appreciated the attention to detail in the product documentation, and the fact that the devices were able to handle the temperatures and wet environments they would be exposed to in coffee shops.

“The glass bezel was also a huge factor, as it beautifully completes the screen without any design from our side,” he says.

The Henlo team had to rapidly upskill themselves on the IDE, but they appreciate that 4D Systems were always readily available with support to help them meet their UI/UX needs.

“This allowed us more time to focus on other key areas, and time spend on actual development instead of learning. Even though the time zones made multiple messages over a day difficult, the willingness to always help in the best way possible made us unwaveringly committed to using the products.”

Today, van der Westhuizen is excited to watch his machines being used in professional environments and is always looking for ways to improve how his Henlo espresso machines pour the perfect cup, every time.

“Our first machine has been running for about three weeks in a coffee-shop environment and produced over 4,000 cups to date without issue,” he says. “Being in the premium market where a lot more established brands live, we know that adoption will initially be quite slow. But being the only local manufacturers, we can offer much more support on parts and issue resolution than competitors. The smart nature of our machines, for example, means we can monitor and debug issues remotely and efficiently.

“Our goal, however, is to win over the customers for our clients. Our core technology is in reproducing the conditions for the perfect cup at the machine level, with the capability to ‘train’ the barista on human error. Our clients will see higher volumes of sale due to customers returning for the consistently excellent coffee.”

No matter what project you are working on – from hobbyists to commercial-scale product development – we have a diverse product range to meet your needs. 4D Systems’ intelligent display solutions will take your project to the next level, so contact us today or call +61 2 9625 9714.

From protecting vulnerable patients in hospitals to empowering research laboratories, Airinspace, in partnership with 4D SYSTEMS, is setting new standards for clean air technologies.

Idea

Airinspace, based in Élancourt, France, was founded in 2002 with the objective of doing exactly what the name suggests– develop a way to provide the cleanest air in space.

By developing air purifiers and airborne surface disinfection machines, they provided safe environments for humans in space, initially on the Russian space station Mir and later at the International Space Station (ISS).

Today, the French company’s air purifiers are depended upon in hospitals across the world (circa 50 countries) to keep vulnerable patients safe from air and surface contamination as well as by research laboratories needing to mitigate potential airborne particles and microorganisms from disrupting their results.

Airinspace was well positioned after 20 years of research and development to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic with a broader, domestic range to protect people in collective spaces such as schools, nursing homes, medical offices, restaurants and meeting rooms.

As the range of products grows, one challenge is always to make sure that the user’s experience of the appliance is as simple and elegant as possible. The product design team’s emphasis on the product’s ergonomics and aesthetic needs to be matched with an equal touch-screen experience also.

Solution

Airinspace partnered with 4D SYSTEMS to source an intelligent display solution to embed in all of their air purifiers.

As the user interface is what a person interacts with most, it was important to Airinspace that the embedded display was high quality, robust, reliable and able to achieve all of the technical requirements.

“We looked for a supplier capable of supporting us in the development of the interface because it was a new subject for us and we were looking for a solution that was easy to implement”, said Arnaud Le Laidier, Electronics Project Manager at Airinspace.

“What appealed to us the most about 4D SYSTEMS was its Workshop IDE development environment. Thanks to this tool it was possible to design our screens, our buttons, and all the necessary graphic elements ourselves without having to write a line of code. It was then very easy for us to develop our interfaces based on feedback from our customers in order to improve in an agile manner and optimize the operating ergonomics of our products”, Arnaud continued.

The 4D SYSTEMS embedded displays used vary across the PIXXI, GEN4 and uLCD range and can be between 2 to 9 inches in size depending on the product.

The large range of sizes and capabilities allows for more flexibility by the design team.

Outcome

The importance of an intuitive and well-designed user interface cannot be overstated. According to Nicolas Klaczynski, Head of Development at Airinspace, “the interface is a real advantage over our competitors and a real comfort for our customers and users”.

Equally however, especially during a global pandemic, supply reliability is critical.

4D SYSTEMS was capable of supporting a 5x increase in production by supplying components directly from Australia.

The network of close partnerships with suppliers has been of enormous importance to Airinspace and by partnering with suppliers who share the same values of innovation, creativity and quality, they have been able to make huge leaps in innovation in a very short period of time.

With a team of 25 people and annual revenue of 16 million euros, the future is bright for Airinspace as well as the lives they are positively impacting around the world.