Outdoor Digital Signage – Three Stages of Deployment

While most users of outdoor digital signage use a third party company to take care of their network and installation, more and more businesses are tackling outdoor Dooh projects, themselves.

Embarking on outdoor digital signage yourself can be quite daunting – but not impossible – as there are many challenges to counter.

Choosing location

The most fundamental aspect of any outdoor digital signage campaign is to find the right location for your display. Nearly every other aspect of your campaign will hinge on where the outdoor screen is to be placed. The size and type of display, the type of content that will be displayed, and the protection that is required will all depend on the location.

The most important aspect of any location for outdoor digital signage is the potential audience. A good location needs to be where there is the highest audience possible in many outdoor locations this means high footfall.

To identify the best locations it is recommended that you do a full site survey, noting the potential audience and any changes in frequency (in many areas footfall can dramatically increase/decrease depending on the time of day.

Sourcing the hardware

For any outdoor screen that has to operate in daylight, the screen brightness is the most important aspect of any screen. The brighter, the better as it will have to counter the effects of the sun. The size of screen will depend a lot on the location but as a rule of thumb – the bigger the better.

Protection is also important for an outdoor screen and while waterproof LCD devices are available, they are highly expensive and as they still require additional protection against impacts and vandalism a more cost effective solution is to but an outdoor digital signage enclosure that will both physically protect the screen and provide a weatherproof barrier.

LCD enclosures offer all round protection

Using an outdoor LCD enclosure with just a standard commercial grade screen inside will make far more financial sense than investing in a highly expensive outdoor screen.

Content

The final step, but certainly just as important is the content. Digital signage content is not the same as TV advertising, the view time is far shorter, a few seconds at most (and less outdoors) so content has to be tailored to be bold, simple and concise. Different colours, fonts and styles look different outside too, so ensure you test any content before it is uploaded.