Outdoor Digital Signage
Digital Screens for Advertising Year-Round
The advertising opportunities offered from outdoor digital signage opens a world of possibilities. Retail store owners can increase foot-traffic, digital displays at petrol pumps help with cross-sells, and floor standing digital menus at the drive-through queues of fast food restaurants can increase potential sales and speed up service.
The objective is always the same and that’s to get information to your customer in a way that’s convenient, attention grabbing and helps your brand stand out.
It’s not without its challenges though. Outdoor digital signage solutions for max impact advertising requires a far more robust design and features than any type of indoor LCD display can offer.
Considerations for Outdoor Digital Screens
Naturally, weather resistance needs considered. There’s going to be wet days, sunny days and freezing temperatures that the screen will need to cope with.
Different display screens need different protection, while others are already pre-designed to withstand a variety of climates.
Some features you’ll want to consider are:
Does the outdoor digital screen have a light sensor?
For any advertising campaign to be effective outdoors, people need to be able to see your message without eye-strain. A quality outdoor digital screen will have light sensors integrated to optimise the brightness based on the amount of sunlight. An ideal outdoor digital screen will be able to display at least 700 nits. (Nits are units of brightness used to describe the brightness of LCD monitors and computer screens). Sunlight readable screens can be as high 2,500 nits.
The higher the nits number, the brighter the display. With the increased brightness, there’s increased electricity consumption, so that’s something to keep in mind.
Weather-resistant screen enclosures for outdoor LCD screens
Outdoor digital signage should have weather-proofed screens with thermally toughened glass, but that’s no guarantee the life-span will be as long as it could be. The longevity of outdoor LCD displays is enhanced by placing it inside an LCD enclosure. These add further protection against corrosion and other elements from outdoor climates.
Air-conditioned LCD screens
This is something that’s never considered with any other type of LCD screen other than those used for outdoor digital signage. The reason is your screen can’t run too hot or too cold so a decent screen that’s designed with longevity in mind will have temperature controls integrated. Air conditioning to cool the unit down in strong summer heat and integrated temperature control sensors to keep the screen operating at an ideal temperature, maximising the life of all components inside the unit.
Anti-reflective screen technology
Brightness control can only go so far, but it can’t control the glare from strong direct sunlight that can make it impossible to read or see the information on display. For that reason, you’ll find on screens for outdoor use, they use an anti-glare screen or a coating to defuse strong sunlight. Screens with anti-glare give solid visual clarity in all weather. Especially when they’re combined with integrated light sensors to automatically adjust brightness levels.
Industries Benefiting from Indoor Digital Signage
Estimates report around 65% of digital displays are used in retail space. Other areas indoor digital signage is gaining momentum are: transport hubs, the hospitality sector, medical facilities (including GP practices, Dental Clinics and hospitals), in the education sector, corporate buildings and in high street banks.
Digital displays bring the online experience in-store. They are easy for customers to use and it improves their experience because they can get the information they need faster without waiting in line at the customer services desk. Additionally, customers aren’t blinded by static poster adverts. Digital displays can be programmed easily to rotate adverts and change them around based on a pre-programmed schedule.
In hospitality, specials can be broadcast for breakfast, changed for a lunch menu, then again in the evening. The displays don’t even need to be near a restaurant. Indoor displays come in a variety of sizes, letting large LCD displays be displayed up high like you may have seen in any franchise fast food chain. Eye-level displays can be located in elevators, freestanding at the top or bottom of escalators and in fashion stores, even the changing rooms can accommodate digital displays.
Dental practices are bringing indoor digital signage to the waiting areas, engaging with customers to provide good oral hygiene lessons either shown on video, presentation, and/or combined with other media formats letting a display screen be used as their own sort of TV. Play some pre-recorded educational videos and in-between short lessons, run some commercials for any services the practice wants to promote.
Any large space where people need to navigate, use indoor digital signage as way finders. In large shopping malls, these can be used to show customers where they are in the shopping centre, the stores around them and also put targeted ads within the display, showing potential customers where the best deals are, show some food imagery to encourage foot traffic into food palaces and gently remind customers to use the bins around the complex.
Finding the Right Outdoor Digital Signage to Meet Your Business Objectives
Businesses have digital screens and totems installed for various reasons. While most are for advertising, different solutions can be tailored as each screen is powered by different technology. Some outdoor digital totems are designed with interactive touchscreens letting customers in shopping malls use the touchscreen for way finding or even to place orders.
The size of the screen is imperative to get right because too small and people will struggle to read information, leaving you limited to visual advertising without much impact on relaying contextual information. Go to large and the opposite can happen with passers-by too close having to step back to get a clearer view of what’s on display. Optimal sizes tend to be between 47” and 65” for outdoor digital screens.
Operating Temperatures – don’t go by what you think the lowest temperature in Britain could be. Technology permanently installed outdoors needs to withstand much more than -5oC. Some models of outdoor digital displays are designed and tested to withstand temperatures as low as 40oC. It may look extreme on the specifications, but when you factor for the effect of wind power, it’s actually realistic. Wind chill can drop temperatures by double digits and very fast. The faster the wind speed, the lower the temperature the screen has to cope with. And, wind speed needs taken into account during installation to ensure there’s minimal risk of it becoming a public hazard during high winds.
IK and IP ratings
IK ratings (IEC 62262:2002 and IEC 60068-2-75:1997) are used to describe the impact protection rating for enclosures surrounding electrical equipment. The IK scale ranges from 00 to 10, displayed as IKXX where XX represents the numerical value. An IK00 rating has absolutely no impact protection, whereas an IK10 rating means the enclosure could withstand up to 5KG being dropped on it from 40cm. The impact rating is important to know as objects could be blown into screens during high winds, but also, in public places, a higher impact rating gives some protection from vandalism.
IP ratings are for ‘ingress protection’ (BS EN 60529:1992) The higher the IPXX number, the better protected the digital screen will be from particles and liquid. In IP ratings, the first number represents the level of protection from dust particles or even access to the internal components of the screen enclosure. On outdoor digital displays, the level of protection needs to be 5, preferably 6, which means it’s protected against dust particles that could damage the components. The second digit represents the moisture protection level. As outdoor digital signage is going to be affected by rain, it needs at least a 5-rating meaning it’s protected from water spray from all directions. An 8 rating for moisture protection means it could withstand temporary immersion in water.
Digital outdoor screens tend to be IP65 rated at minimum going up to IP68. The higher the rating, the better protected the screen will be, giving a longer life-span.