A door that tells the truth about the calendar.

Not a badge, not a tablet, not a shop

Worn e-ink is 250×122 on a chest. Mounted e-ink is a larger film at corridor height that should answer two questions without unlocking a phone: is this room free, and whose meeting is it. Mixing those sentences is how a buyer receives a lanyard when they meant a screw plate.

A tablet on a door is a glowing rectangle that sleeps, glares, and begs for a charger. An e-ink register holds a still image until the next truthful write. Refresh is a cost. Always-on LCD is a lie about batteries.

Joan’s 6-inch class hardware — Joan 6 RE as of 6 September 2026 — is a 6-inch capacitive-touch e-paper panel at 1024×758, sixteen greys, about three months of battery in their published conditions, EcoSync, magnetic mount, €349 plus a device licence. That is a product. Ours is not, on this site, today.

This URL exists so searchers who type e-ink displays next to our badge shop do not land on a fake cart. If we ship a door SKU later, this page will grow a price and a pairing story. Until then, treat every sentence as engineering, not an invoice.

What a status register actually has to do

The job is occupancy truth at walking pace. A person in a corridor should not open an app to learn that Standish is in use until 14:00. The film should say Standish, in use, until 14:00, or free. Secondary copy can wait.

Two-way calendar pairing is the usual industrial answer: the panel reads the room mailbox, and a tap or a button can claim or release. Joan’s public room-scheduling materials describe Meet now, Extend, and auto-release when a meeting does not start. Those verbs are product. We will not print them as ours.

Our software today compiles visitor faces and events. Calendar connectors that mint visitor requests are specified, not live. Door pairing is the same honesty: specified as a future object, not a live pairing screen. An essay that pretends otherwise is a trial landing page in costume.

Multi-location is a volume of panels, not a second OS. Twenty doors in one building and twenty in another are forty films and forty mounts. Admin consoles that federate campuses are Joan’s workplace story. Ours would be a crate of devices if we sold them. We do not, yet.

Joan 6 RE, dated 6 September 2026

Public shop facts we will keep until they rot: 6-inch touch, 1024×758, 16-level greyscale, battery life on the order of three months in their published use, EcoSync to keep the image honest without a constant radio, magnetic mount, €349 hardware plus a per-device licence. NFC and workplace OS features live on their visitor and scheduling sites. Link getjoan.com/joan-6-re/ and their shop when you compare.

We will not undercut a number we do not sell. We will not invent a cheaper 6-inch twin. If you need that class this quarter, their shop is the closer URL. Our comparison page and this essay exist so you can tell a badge hire from a door licence.

Joan also sells 10-inch and other sizes in the same family. Pixel maps and touch stacks differ. Do not assume a 6-inch grey panel is a stretched 250×122 three-ink badge. Colour counts, orientation, and mount are different objects.

Visionect’s ISO 27001 and workplace analytics are their trust story. Ours is Companies House 17265335 and a Yorkshire compile for badges. Different proof. Do not paste one ISO onto the other.

Power, glare, theft, refresh

LCD doors need a PSU or a weekly charger hunt. Facilities teams learn this the second winter. E-ink’s bet is months between charges if the write rate is honest. If you refresh like a video wall, you have bought a tablet with extra steps.

Sun on glass in a glazed corridor makes a tablet a mirror. E-ink is a pigment. It is not magic in every lighting condition, but it does not compete with a window the same way a backlit LCD does.

A tablet on a door is a theft SKU. An e-ink panel with a magnetic mount is still stealable, but it is a worse fence-and-resell object than an iPad. Joan’s mount story is public. Ours would need a mount drawing before a shop.

Refresh latency is the honesty tax. A person who just booked the room on their phone may wait seconds before the door agrees. That is acceptable if the image is then still. It is not acceptable if the image lies for an hour because the radio is asleep and nobody wrote a policy.

Calendar pairing we do not operate

Google, Outlook, and booking tools that mint a visitor request are on a specification for badges. They are not a live connector that writes a door. Do not book a hire of badges and expect a corridor panel to appear in the same crate.

When — if — we ship a display, pairing will be a first-class object: which calendar, which room mailbox, which fail state when the token dies. Meet-now and auto-release will only appear if the firmware has those buttons. Copy will not invent them first.

SSO, SCIM, and campus admin consoles are not implied by an e-ink film. A large firm that needs those rails already has a workplace OS conversation. Sequence it. Do not use this essay as a substitute for that RFP.

Until a SKU exists, the useful link from this page is the badge pillar and the visitors hub. Those take payment because those objects ship. This page does not.

What we will not sell from this URL

No price. No quantity picker. No hire-by-the-day for a door. No buy button. No designer that targets 1024×758 grey. The badge designer is 250×122 three-ink. Pointing it at a door is a category error.

No ‘coming soon’ checkout that captures a card. If you want to be told when a display exists, email hire@inkbadgehire.com and say so in plain English. That is a mailing list of one, not a product.

No comparison table that implies we have a twin SKU. The Joan numbers above are their shop. Our column is ‘not sold here’.

Child essays: room status (calendar truth without pretending we ship Meet now), and versus tablets (power and glare without a cart). Both inherit this notice.

Write policy is the battery

E-ink’s month-scale battery claims assume a write rate, not a video wall. Joan’s public EcoSync language is a policy: the film updates when the calendar actually changed. If you push a new image every ten seconds, you have bought a radio with extra guilt.

A status register should be still. Free until 14:00 is one frame. A looping corridor advert is a tablet job. Mixing those jobs is how Facilities charges a ‘paper’ panel every night.

Our badges spend power when the face changes. A door would too, if we sold one. We do not. Do not infer a wall panel from a USB-C hire crate.

When a SKU exists, the datasheet must name the write budget: poll interval, button writes, fail-stale timeout. Until then, treat every three-month number you see as Joan’s published story, dated 6 September 2026, not ours.

Mount, theft, and the electrician

Joan 6 RE lists a magnetic mount. Magnets walk if nobody specifies a screw. A tablet on a VESA arm is a known street price. An e-ink panel is a worse fence-and-resell object, which is not the same as secure.

Buildings that forbid corridor batteries want PoE or a PSU. That constraint picks a shop with a powered SKU. We still have no SKU inside that constraint. Do not email us a drawing of a backbox.

Front light on some e-paper doors exists because niches are dark. Backlight on LCD exists because the glass is the lamp. Different physics. Different glare in a glazed corridor at 08:00 in February.

If you already screwed Joan, Crestron, or a tablet to the door, keep it. Hiring our badges does not require ripping the corridor. Sequence vendors. The visitor crate and the door licence are different purchase orders.

Licence versus hire — two clocks again

Joan’s door is hardware plus a device licence. The workplace OS is the product. A hire-by-the-day door would be a library of panels for a project office. We like that sentence as engineering. We will not print a price until the library exists.

SME boardrooms Joan’s licence model can punish are real. A six-month project room does not want a twelve-month OS. That is why this essay exists. It is still not a cart.

Large firms that already bought the OS should not rip it because a badge shop wrote an essay. Put the 250×122 chest on the table for visitors. Leave the 1024×758 grey on the door if it already tells the truth.

A ten-badge hire and a two-hundred-badge buy use the same chest compiler. A future door hire and a future door buy should use the same status compiler. Quantity is a number. The millimetres still must not mix.

What a future SKU would have to confess

Pixel map, greys or colour, touch or not, mount drawing, battery or PoE, mailbox mapping, OAuth death, stale-image timeout, whether Meet now exists, whether auto-release exists, GBP price, whether hire exists, what is in the box, what is not.

Until that list is real, this URL is an essay. Child pages inherit the notice. Searchers who typed e-ink displays next to our badge shop should not find a fake quantity picker.

Calendar connectors that mint visitor requests are specified for badges, not a door writer. Do not read the integrations answer as a room-display datasheet.

Corrections to Joan 6 RE figures belong on About and in an email to hire@inkbadgehire.com. We date-stamp. We do not silently keep a dead €349.

Always-on without a backlight tax

The shared engineering story for worn and mounted e-ink is the same sentence: the image sits without a lamp. Power is spent on the write. Tablets spend power on being a lamp. That is why a charged badge kit lasts a morning, and why a door panel can last months if the write rate is honest.

Joan’s line — competitors sell software with an optional screen; Joan builds the screen — is a workplace-OS claim. Our reverse for visitors is true today: we build the chest, and the software only compiles the face. For doors, the reverse is not a shop. It is a future object.

Hire or own is the commercial story for badges. Displays may one day ship configured to a calendar resource. May is not a checkout. Configured is not live pairing.

Do not merge the millimetres because both objects are e-paper. A 250×122 three-ink badge is not a 6-inch 1024×758 grayscale scheduler. This hub exists so that sentence stays on the site.

UK programming and dispatch for badges is live. Displays may one day ship configured to a calendar resource. That sentence is a plan, not a pairing screen, and not a price. If you needed a door this week, Joan’s 6 RE shop is the closer URL — getjoan.com/joan-6-re/ — dated 6 September 2026: 6-inch touch, 1024×758, sixteen greys, magnetic mount, €349 plus a device licence.

Where the live product actually is

Hire or buy the chest film at /e-ink-badges/. Specs, box contents, £6 day-rate, £80 buy. That page takes a booking because the object exists.

Visitor workflow — office trickle and event cohort — is /visitors/. Answers on what an ePaper badge is and how ship-state works sit under /answers/. Calendar integration copy is labelled planned.

If your actual problem is a door this month, open Joan’s shop, or another integrator who lists a panel, mount, and licence. Then, if you still need named lanyards for Thursday, come back here for the crate.

Corrections: if Joan’s 6 RE page changes, email hire@inkbadgehire.com. We will date-stamp. We will not silently keep a dead €349.