Outdoor Digital Signage – Cooling Matters

There are many aspects to providing an outdoor screen need thinking of before embarking on any outdoor digital signage project. Protection is perhaps the most obvious, with weather and physical impacts obvious threats to any outdoor display.

While weatherization is essential for any screen to function outdoors with rain and other weather elements capable of disabling a TV display, another aspect of protection is just as important to think about—temperature.

All screens, whether indoors or out, generate heat, and dissipation of this heat is necessary to prevent overheating of the screen. An overheating screen will soon fail, but with an outdoor display, letting heat escape proves problematic.

On most indoor screens, such as a home TV, small vents situated on the device allow the screen to breathe. Combined with internal fans, hot air generated by the screen is transferred out of these vents, preventing overheating; however, when a screen is taken outdoors, leaving vents exposed could lead to weather elements, such as rain, getting inside the device.

Keeping an outdoor screen cool, while also keeping it dry, therefore, can be a challenge.

LCD enclosures deal with this heat transfer in a rather unique way. As the screen is housed inside the enclosure, the normal vents of the TV omit the hot air. Cooling fans inside the LCD enclosure then transfer this heat to the enclosures vent; however, rather than just have exposed slots for the air to escape, LCD enclosure have cleverly shaped channels that allow air to blow out, but no moisture or other elements to get inside.

In extreme heat, more measures than just cooling fans are required. Air conditioners are an option for locations with very high temperatures; however, in some locations the opposite can be the problem.

When temperatures drop too low, preventing the screen from freezing becomes the biggest hurdle. LCD enclosures often use insulation to trap the dissipated heat from the screen to keep the screens warm, but in many locations the use of heaters is the only option to prevent freezing.