Digital Outdoor Signage – A Growing Industry

The outdoor advertising market remains healthy, as recent reports have suggested. And outdoor digital signage is partly responsible for the continued growth of the industry despite the global economic problems.

In the UK over ten percent of all outdoor advertisements are now digital, while in the USA, the figures are even higher – although due to local laws and concerns that digital billboards are both distracting and not in keeping with historical aesthetics, the proliferation is far more sporadic

By-laws are only part of the challenges of erecting screens as outdoor advertisements or billboards as there are numerous other hurdles to overcome before you can start using them in outdoor locations.

One of the biggest challenges for digital outdoor signage installers in the USA is the differences in weather across the country. While some locations may remain warm all year round, becoming particularly hot in the summer, in other areas temperatures plummet in the winter to well below freezing.

Ensuring any outdoor screen is always working under optimum conditions is a vital part of ensuring the outdoor screen will not fail as is ensuring the screen is protected from the weather too.

Waterproofing is vital for any outdoor screens and so is protecting it from other weather elements such as snow or hail but protection doesn’t just stop at the weather and temperature.

Any outdoor screen represents a substantial investment and a damaged, broken or vandalised screen will evoke another potentially high investment in replacing the device (as well as the revenue loss from advertising while the screen is down).

It is therefore important that any screen placed outside is protected from accidental and deliberate damage.

Most outdoor digital signage devices are housed in some sort of protective LCD enclosure. These can vary but their primary function is to protect the screen from the weather and damage.  Made from steel, there is usually cooling and heating systems installed inside the enclosure too.