As technology advances and we all struggle to keep up with the latest methods of communication, one group of people are always several steps ahead – the young. Modern students are perhaps the most media savvy people in the world having spent their entire lives surrounded by the up and coming technologies.

Trying to communicate successfully to young people can therefore be a challenge as traditional and tired methods of advertising such as the poster or static sign are not going to grab the attention of the internet and mobile phone generation.

Digital signage on the other hand, is far more engaging to the young mind and is able to communicate more successfully to students, which is why it is being deployed in many colleges, schools and universities.

But its usefulness at engaging students is not the only reason why digital posters, LCD screens and even outdoor digital signage is being deployed.

Emergency and Immediacy

Despite the myriad of communication methods available to modern academic institutions when it comes to immediate or emergency information many of these methods – mobile phones, email and traditional notice-boards – are ineffective.

Digital signage allows information to be uploaded immediately and displayed on the entire school network instantly. So any students passing the screen or just arriving can be kept informed; indeed; one of the recent criticisms of a college after a recent campus shooting in America was that it failed to inform students arriving in campus there was an incident but digital signage cold have done so.

Digital signage in a school

Flexibility

Another great advantage of using digital screens around colleges is their flexibility. One minute you can display important information the next you can use the displays to upload educational content, or use them as a scoreboard during a sporting event.

As content can be uploaded remotely and spread around the network it can be used to play scheduled and timed information so somebody doesn’t have to trudge around the campus posting up notices.

Whilst the continued growth of the digital signage industry is a strong sign that more people are using display screens for advertising purposes, there are still many put off by the technicalities of digital advertising.

Many small to medium sized business are often uncompelled to embark on digital signage because of the need to out source nearly every aspect of the digital advertising campaign.

This is a shame as the advantages of digital advertising for small and medium sized businesses are great and no other media can reach such high numbers of people for the same cost, and it does have to be too technical either – there are methods of embarking on digital signage that require little of no technical expertise at all.

Digital Posters

These are perhaps the easiest method of getting involved in digital signage. A digital poster consists of everything you need to run a digital advert – barring the content. The LCD screen, available in a wide range of sizes, comes with an internal media player that allows content to be uploaded via USB.

Digital posters can be easily mounted and normally come with a bracket that is VESA compatible meaning they can be mounted and used by virtually anyone.

Standalone Digital Advertising Screen

Standalone digital advertising displays

Another plug and play digital signage option is a standalone advertising display. These are similar than the digital poster in that they also contain a media player and are a turn-key solution but rather than being mounted flat against a wall they are free standing.

Outdoor digital signage – LCD enclosures

For an easy outdoor solution an LCD enclosure will allow a standard LCD screen and media player to be protected in an outdoor location preventing the need for expensive outdoor devices. They also offer protection to enable secure use in an unsupervised location.

Outdoor TVs are increasingly becoming more and more popular for both businesses and homeowners alike. For businesses outdoor displays act as great mediums for advertising and information. While for home use – they provide a great way of enjoying the sunshine and garden.

But the hurdles in placing a screen in an outdoor location can often be daunting, not to mention expensive.

There are different options for providing an outdoor TV but all of them need to take into account three factors:

• Protection from the sun
• Protection from the weather
• Protection from environment

The sun

The sun is an important but often underrated factor in using a modern LCD screen outdoors. You may have experienced the annoyance of sun-glare on your set at home on a bright day so in an outdoor location the sun glare can make the screen completely unreadable.

Some high brightness and outdoor displays can counter this but the cost of such a device can often make any outdoor TV display seem too expensive; however, an alternative may be to use a standard device in a shaded area or under a canopy or hood.

Outdoor digital signage has to cope in sunlight

The Weather

If a standard device is used then it is going to need protection from the elements. Many outdoor TVs are already manufactured to be waterproof but to avoid such a high cost device a waterproof LCD enclosure will allow the use of almost any standard, low cost device in an outdoor location. These enclosure also provide cooling and temperature control to prevent over heating and allow all-year use.

Environmental protection

But weather and the temperature are not the only concerns of using a TV in an outdoor location. Vandalism in public or unsupervised areas needs to be considered as do accidental impacts.

This is where the advantage of an LCD enclosure supersedes the outdoor display because for a fraction of the cost of an outdoor TV and LCD enclosure will protect from vandalism and impacts and the temperature and weather – providing an all-round and cost effective alternative to outdoor TV use.

Visibility for an outdoor sign is perhaps even more important than the content being displayed on it. If the sign is not visible enough it will get unnoticed and there is little difference in the mounting of digital signage as to other forms of outdoor advertisements.

There is always a compromise in mounting outdoor signage – whether digital screens or conventional signs – as no outdoor advertisement can be in a position where it can cause a nuisance or an obstacle to commuters (including the disabled, elderly and mums with prams).

But most importantly any outdoor screen has to be noticeable and be aimed at the oncoming eye-line (see previous blog post – http://www.lcd-enclosure.com/digital-signage-%E2%80%93-why-viewing-angle-is-so-important/)

There are basically three options for mounting an outdoor TV:

• Floor mounted
• Wall mounted
• Ceiling mounted

Floor mounted

Perhaps the best solution for visibility; a floor mounted screen can either be a free standing unit or mounted on floor poles. Floor standing digital signage can become an obstacle though which for visibility is a good thing (you can’t miss what a sign is displaying if you have to walk around it) but equally can be a nuisance to pedestrians.

Ceiling Mounted

Ceiling mounted digital signage take up less space and are preferred by many installers. There is often a shortage of ceiling space in outdoor locations, although they are commonly mounted under awnings and other bridge like structures. The big disadvantage of mounting a screen in this way is that the viewing angle has to be correct otherwise it can unnoticeable – especially if it is mounted too high as people will walk directly under it.

Floor Mounted Digital Signage Options

Wall Mounted

There are various options for wall mounting a digital display. The first is the basic digital poster that lays flat against the wall. While this takes up less space than any other mounting option it is also less visible – especially as the viewing angle for modern LCD TVs is fairly narrow meaning the content won’t be viewable until the audience is very close to the sign.

The second option is to place the device on a bracket so it overhangs; in essence in a similar position to a ceiling mounted screen – only bolted to a wall. While this method ensures the screen is out of the way it is important to get the angle of the screen right as it can be all too easy to miss the sign and walk underneath without noticing it.

The third option for wall mounting is to use an elbow or perpendicular sign where the screen juts out at a right angle from the wall. For double-sided displays this is a real boon because both sides will be prominent and hard to miss – especially if it is not too high.

The biggest hurdle in convincing somebody to embark on a digital signage campaign is the expected return on investment. No installer can make promises as to the extra revenue that it can create and for outdoor digital signage the problem is intensified.

Not only are outdoor screens more expensive to set-up – needing as they do, protection from the elements – but unlike a screen placed directly outside a store you can’t easily account for any increase in traffic with the screen itself.

Even if revenue is up after installation of the outdoor digital signage screen it can’t automatically be attributed to the sign as so many other variables can affect short-term sales. To make any assessment like this then at least two quarters need to have gone by to make any attribution to the outdoor screen.

Costs of Outdoor Digital Signage

The price of an outdoor digital signage campaign is also quite often a lot higher than the cost of indoor screens. This is due mainly to the added protection and need for high brightness screens. And while these costs can be curtailed with the use of LCD enclosures – it still leads enough uncertainty in people’s minds when it comes to thinking abut recouping that investment.

LCD Enclosures help preserve the LCD TV

However, there are methods to help you increase the ability to establish the return on investment:

Tips to help evaluation of ROI

Be specific – ensure your outdoor campaigns are not too broad. Promote particular products and target particular audiences. Digital signage is a flexible medium so advertisements can be time sensitive or tailored for a particular audience.

A good example is the way restaurants use outdoor screens to promote lunch menus, or special offers during times of the day. In this way it can be easier to establish a link between increase in sales of a specific item and the outdoor digital signage campaign.

Establish clear goals – always ensure you know what you want to achieve. Too many people embark on digital signage with just the intention of increasing sales with little thought as to how they are to achieve this.  Be specific in what you want to achieve and set goals.

A digital signage screen that isn’t working is an all too common sight these days. Damaged, badly maintained or software issues often lead to screen failure but the effects of which have a strong bearing on, not just the screen owners and advertisers who are losing revenue and wasting their investment, but as Raji Kalra on Sixteen-nine points out, “black or damaged DOOH networks hurt the industry as a whole when their product is down or showing problems. It causes another kind of ripple effect none of us want.”

And this is certainly true, for the digital signage industry, our best promotion for what we do are the screens themselves and for every damaged, blank or dead screen and potential user can be put off – not wanting to invest all that money on a system that is flawed.

Obviously, as David points out, accidents and incidents happen and getting screens repaired and up and running is important to prevent the industry from being shown in a bad light – but surely preventing screens from going down in the first place is a better solution.

LCD enclosure

Outdoor Digital Signage

Ironically, despite the conditions that outdoor screens have to cope with, the problem of dead screens is less prevalent in outdoor areas. This may because outdoor digital signage screens are more obvious and a dead screen gets repaired quickly; however, there is another possibility – because of the environment they have to operate in, outdoor display screens are far better protected and less liable to fail.

Many indoor screens are simple devices. Digital posters or standard LCD displays hooked up to a media player, and this may seem fine, in the warm confines of a shopping mall or retail unit. But are these locations really the types of environment these types of screens are designed for?

In outdoor digital signage because of the demands of weather, temperature and the vulnerability to vandalism, outdoor screens are well-protected by weatherproof LCD enclosures – and while many of the protective facets of such enclosures may not be required in an indoor location – such as waterproofing, they do hold other advantages.

Inside an LCD enclosure the exact operating conditions for a display screen is created. The temperature, dust free environment not only protects the screen from harmful exterior elements but also keeps the screen operating in optimum conditions.

If more and more indoor screens were protected in such environmental enclosures many of the dead screens so commonly found may not have been damaged in the first place.

Outdoor digital signage is a fast growing and compelling industry. With huge audience potential, placing a screen in an outdoor location can generate far more interest than a static advertisement or even a comparative indoor digital signage campaign.

Although, being a new industry there are a lot of common mistakes. Protection is perhaps the most common, while few fail to forget about the weather or vandalism protection, often temperature can be forgotten about, but a far less obvious facet of outdoor digital signage is often overlooked – the importance of screen brightness.

High Brightness

Daylight has a tendency to wash out standard LCD displays. The sun’s rays can overpower the brightness of the display making it hard to read; furthermore, when the sun is shining directly onto the screen it can cause glare making the screen even harder to read.

The brightness of LCD screens is commonly measure in units of nits or candela (both units are the same) which represents the umber of candles it would take to accumulate such brightness. Most standard LCD devices generate a nit rating of around 500 but a good outdoor screen needs to have at least twice that to overcome the problems of above.

Samsung High Brightness TV - ideal for outdoor digital signage

LED backlights

Traditional LCD displays have a fluorescent back light, which means the brightness of the image is amplified by fluorescent tubes. These just aren’t strong enough for outdoor digital signage and outdoor screen use but there alternatives.

LED backlights have a bank of LEDs that generate the brightness of the screen. These LED back-lit LCD displays can generate a much higher brightness than fluorescent tubes and are therefore far better for outdoor displays. They do have one drawback, however, and that is that they generate far more heat so additional cooling has to be installed in the outdoor digital signage enclosure

Reactive screens

Some modern outdoor screens actually take advantage of the sun’s rays. Transflective screens run as similar nit levels to regular LCD displays when they are operating under normal conditions but when the intensity of daylight increases, the transflective screen uses the sun’s own rays to boost the brightness of the screen, often exceeding 1500 nits – so the brighter the sun – the brighter the display.

Both these methods provide a far better solution for an outdoor display than standard commercial grade screens and will ensure your message does not get washed out by the sun.

Digital signage is a growing industry but the one thing that puts off newcomers into getting involved is the initial investment and uncertainty of getting a return.

This is exaggerated in the world of outdoor digital signage where the set-up costs are a lot higher. While digital signage can be used for multiple purposes: Advertising, Information, Branding – getting a return on the initial investment is still highly important.

Cost of damage

When a screen is damaged, the additional costs that it can incur will lengthen the time the return on the initial can be recouped but if the devices continue to fail or suffer damage this return on investment may never arrive.

Not only will a damage screen incur the cost of replacement and repair, a dead screen (one that is not working) will not be attracting new customers or promoting products meaning the longer it is out the longer a return on investment will be forthcoming.

Causes of damage

There are two common causes for disabled and damaged digital signage screens:

• Inadequate protection from the surrounding environment
• Inadequate protection from impacts, vandalism and accidents

In addition, outdoor digital signage is more prone to such incidents of failure than indoor systems this is because not only are outdoor digital screens are usually left unattended in unsupervised areas but also they have to cope with the rigors of the weather and varying temperatures of an outdoor environment.

While outdoor digital signage is more vulnerable to these incidents, even indoor screens are vulnerable to damage in these ways as many shopping malls, subways and retail parks where these screens are located are not the ideal environments for modern screens – designed as most of them are for ambient room temperature and the confines of homes and offices.

Protection

Protection for digital screens, whether they are for indoor or outdoor use is therefore important and shouldn’t be underestimated. Not only should the screens themselves be protected from impact and damage but also they should be only run in the temperature and environmental ranges they were designed to operate.

An LCD enclosure offers both physical protection from vandalism, theft and impacts, including eh use of a shatterproof screen but also inside the enclosure the entire environment is the optimum conditions for running a screen; kept at the right temperature range with cooling fans and the housing is a 100% waterproof  TV enclosure

Study confirms that outdoor screens do not cause accidents

Since outdoor digital signage first appeared along roadsides, it has been at the center of controversy. Many people have objected to these electronic billboards and highway digital signage on aesthetic grounds and safety.

There have even been legislation prohibiting and restricting the installation of digital signage and other outdoor displays along the sides of roads with many local authorities citing a risk of traffic collisions.

However, a recent study by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) and Tantala Associates discovered no evidence for increased accidents around the sites of digital screens and billboards.

The study, examined statistical data over eight years on state and local roads around Reading, Pennsylvania. It examined all traffic accidents throughout that period, including all accidents around the 26 digital billboards that are erected in the vicinity with the data including the location, time of day, and direction and speed of the vehicles.

No statistical correlation between accidents and visual exposure to outdoor digital signage was discovered.

And this was not the first study conducted by Tantala, who have also examined accident Data in other areas of the United States – all of which had similar results.

This recent study is another shot in the arm for the producers and installers of outdoor digital signage which in many areas of America is still a source of controversy and is being limited and even prohibited in its use.

Whether or not local authorities will take heed of this statistical evidence is yet to be seen but as outdoor digital signage is still a growing industry this initial paranoia over the safety of the devices should dwindle as it becomes apparent that outdoor screens are no greater a risk to vehicular traffic than other forms of outdoor advertising.

School/college Campus

Unfortunately gun incidents around colleges, schools and universities has become and all-too-common problem. Recent gun-related incidents at universities and even an army barracks indicated the need for providing real time information for the emergency. Many of these incidents can be quite protracted and lives can be saved if people can be warned to remain off campus until the incident is over.

In recent shooting incidents institutions were criticised for not being able to provide this service which ultimately cost lives.

High school implementing digital signage

Tsunami warnings

Another area where huge numbers of lives can be saved by digital signage is in warning of natural disasters like tsunamis. The boxing-day tsunami of 2004 killed 200,000 people and many of these lives could have been saved if warning systems were used. Whilst these tidal waves are difficult to predict and warnings may be only a matter of a few minutes it is still enough time for people to get to safety. Digital screens are now being used across the pacific rim as part of tsunami warning systems as part of the early earning system.

Avalanche warnings

Another area that are finding digital signage screens useful for providing emergency information are skiing resorts. Avalanches and dangerous snows cause dozens of deaths each year.  On ski resorts there really is no other way of providing emergency information to people on the ski slopes which is where outdoor screens really come into their own.

Emergency Warnings Require Durable Hardware

Providing emergency information via outdoor screens is only effective if the screens can be relied upon. While these screens can be used to provide other information, or even advertising, when there is no emergency – when something does happen the screen needs to work.

Outdoor TVs are vulnerable to the elements so ensuring they are well protected will not only reduce maintenance costs but ensure they are working when needed.

Outdoor LCD enclosures are the perfect protection for any outdoor screen used ina n emergency. They not only protect the screens from the elements (rain, snow, sleet, hail etc) but also offer a solid steel housing that acts as an impervious barrier to impacts and vandalism.

Furthermore, outdoor TV enclosures always maintain the optimum temperatures and environmental conditions inside the enclosure so the enclosed TV screen will not only last a lot longer but will always be operating in perfect conditions – reducing maintenance and assuring it will work when required.