Outdoor LED signage has become indispensable for organizations looking to offer relevant, easily updated information, alerts and advertising.
But before purchasing LED outdoor signage for your business, you must ensure you’re making a well-informed investment. Your digital signage is likely to last at least 10 years; careful planning will help ensure a successful experience, longer lifetime and lower cost.
Here are eight key factors to consider as you look for the best outdoor LED display screen to meet your needs:
Depending on where your outdoor digital sign is located, you may need to consider how it operates in hot or cold temperatures, as well as in rain, snow, wind, dust and humidity. Against these elements, the design of your screen and its enclosure is critical to the continuous operation and lifespan of the LEDs.
In terms of environmental factors, your first consideration should be removing heat from both the LED elements and their driving electronics. Ask any vendor about their thermal management solution and its ability to maintain LED temperatures within the elemental conditions you anticipate. To protect your signage from the elements, check that the enclosure design meets specifications for resistance to water, dust, humidity, etc. — whatever concerns apply to your location.
Can your potential supplier offer support and advice for the screen’s design and permitting process? Will they listen to all stakeholders and design a solution that fits their needs? Can they work with a customer project leader or recommend a qualified installer?
Hopefully, the answer to these questions is yes. You want a partner in this process, not simply a vendor.
Once your LED outdoor signage is installed, routine maintenance and servicing are critical to ensuring it always looks great and lasts as long as possible. Ask your vendor how often calibration is required — and how easy it is to accomplish — to ensure consistent image quality for years to come.
Similarly, establish how and when the screen will be serviced. Some vendors, such as Samsung, offer a network operations center (NOC) option to constantly monitor your sign and send a technician to fix any issues before you may even be aware of them. To avoid downtime, servicers will need easy access, too, so establish protocols for that.
How long has your potential LED supplier been in business? What are other customers’ experiences? Will the supplier be around in 10 years? Will they be responsive to any needs you may have after installation?
To ensure you get the best outdoor LED display possible, ask for references and referrals from their previous customers, especially for jobs done five or more years ago, to get insight into the provider’s integrity.
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To local and state governments, your display brightness can be a major safety concern. A sign that’s too bright may distract drivers and make it difficult to drive at night. Check if your LED display has an auto-dimming capability to lower the screen’s brightness relative to surrounding light, which should minimize it at night, saving power and keeping drivers’ eyes on the road.
The materials used in the LED screen and its enclosure can also lower the risk of dangerous signage failures and assuage any safety concerns. Look for products certified by Underwriters Laboratory (UL), which imposes strict safety requirements.
6. Price and warranty
You may be tempted to choose the least expensive LED signage option, but you’re likely to get what you pay for. Low-cost suppliers use lower-quality materials — not military-grade components. Their design teams may not ensure the safety and longevity of your signage. And they may under-specify the screen’s performance to lower the cost.
Many signage suppliers offer a warranty, but check the fine print to make sure you understand the exceptions and limitations. Here’s where you may be better off going with a trusted brand, even if it costs a bit more. Ultimately, smartly designed and well-built LED advertising screens will deliver greater overall savings.
Your LED supplier may not always be the organization that physically installs the screen. In many cases, you may end up hiring an architect, consultant or project manager to oversee or carry out the installation. Is your LED supplier ready and willing to work with these managers?
You may also simply want to appoint an installer who can manage the entire project. Can your supplier suggest a qualified installer? Again, check their references and ask about the success of previous installations.
Outdoor signage is meant to draw the attention of passersby and communicate a message about your brand. The vividness of the image has a significant impact on how that message is received. Your outdoor LED signage should be bright and vibrant, and it should display colors accurately. Skin tones that look washed out, for example, will draw negative attention, so check the LED supplier spec sheet to be sure the display shows true-to-life color.
Another key consideration is pixel pitch, in other words, the space between RGB pixels. It’s important you choose a vendor that will match the right pixel pitch for the viewing distance. Over specifying the pitch may cost more, but if the pixel pitch is too large, the visual quality may suffer.
Establishing an outdoor LED signage solution can be a daunting task with many moving parts — and concerns about visual quality, cost, safety and reliability. Starting with these eight tips in mind, you’ll be prepared to ask the right questions and set your project up for success.
For an array of innovative display options, check out the full lineup of LED outdoor signage by Samsung, designed to weather and outshine all sorts of unpredictable environments. Whether it’s one screen or dozens, you can configure and tailor their messaging in real time using an integrated CMS, as explained in this free complete guide.
There’s no better way to draw attention to your brand or company than with an outdoor LED display. With crystal-clear picture, bright colors and vivid display, today’s video screens are a far cry from traditional printed materials of the past. As LED technology advances, business owners and advertisers are gaining new opportunities to raise brand awareness with functional, affordable and effective outdoor displays.
For businesses that want to take advantage of these rapidly developing opportunities, you should know some crucial pieces of information so your content impacts your audience.
So, ready to get started? Here are nine tips to get the most out of your outdoor LED display.
When water seeps through the LED enclosure, your display can be damaged – or worse – fail completely. In order to reduce the risk of rain damage, have your LED technician install a closed loop air circulation system which will isolate the display enclosure, protecting it from moisture and contaminant infiltration.
The ingress protection (IP) rating measures water resistance and protection against solid object contact. It also shows ways to protect the display when exposed to various weather conditions. Look for displays that have a high IP rating to protect against moisture and solid objects.
Specific displays are best suited for certain climates, so choose your display appropriately if you live in a seasonal area or your city experiences extreme temperature fluctuations. When you choose a full outdoor-rated LED screen, you’ll gain peace of mind knowing that it won’t be harmed by direct sunlight or snow, and will display your content now matter how hot or cold.
Outdoor LED screens require an optimal internal temperature to function properly. Since they’re constantly on, you need to take steps to avoid overheating problems, such as dying pixels, mismatched colors and fading picture. To protect your screen against this risk, your outdoor screen should have an HVAC system installed that can regulate its internal temperature.
Looking for more technical resources on LED displays? Check out our resource hub – LED Academy and learn all about LED technology!
The brightness of your outdoor display is one of the most crucial aspects of capturing the attention of passersby. Because of the brightness of direct sunlight, your outdoor screen needs to be highly visible. Choosing high-brightness, high-contrast displays will only make your content more attractive. The rule of thumb is that a display won’t be visible in direct sunlight unless the screen has a brightness rating of 2,000 nits (nits is a measure of luminance). If your display is weaker than this, you can try putting it under an awning or tent to block sun exposure.
Although this should be common sense, many people will try to rig up an indoor display at an outdoor event. Not only does this reduce the effectiveness of your content, it’s a dangerous way to cut costs. One drop of rain and a non-weatherproof indoor display becomes a huge electrical risk – at the very least, the display will most likely fail and no one will be able to see your content at all.
Outdoor LED signs can take a beating from weather, climate changes throughout the seasons and natural wear over time. That’s why it’s essential that you have an LED professional conduct routine maintenance on your screen. This will keep your screen bright and healthy for years to come and protect your long-term investment.
Whether you live in the intense heat of Death Valley, California or the biting cold of Anchorage, Alaska, there are outdoor LED screens designed for extreme climates. Outdoor displays have recommended temperatures for optimal use, make sure you’re renting the right type. Additionally, you can try renting a display with protective glass that’s optically attached to the LED display surface to protect against sunlight and water.
Location is extremely important for attracting a highly targeted target audience to your content. It’s also extremely important to ensure the overall long-term health of your outdoor display screen. We suggest installing outdoor screens in an area outside of direct sunlight, such as under an awning, or on the west side of a building. If your LED screens are in an urban or high-traffic area, vandalism may also be a concern of yours. Some outdoor LEDs are coming to market with vandal-resistant glass that can help ward off unwanted damage.
An ideal outdoor display should come with remote monitoring so you can ensure your screen is healthy from afar. With remote monitoring alerts, you can take quick action to correct any issues that may lead to further problems down the road, see the content that’s being displayed, update the content as you wish and monitor the overall temperature and performance of the screen in real-time.
Any good event manager should be taking photographs to place on their website, social media and other marketing materials. But, oftentimes, amateur photo enthusiasts run into a problem called the moire effect. This happens when the pixel density in the outdoor LED display is different than the pixel density of your camera, creating unflattering screen patterns and colors on the final images. To combat this issue, there are a few things you can do as an event photographer or videographer.
Learn more about all of these strategies to remove the moire pattern and more in our post: How to Remove the Moire Effect from Your Event Photos and Videos
Insane Impact specializes in outdoor LED signage and displays, offering our full fleet of proprietary products, perfect for any event, marketing or business application. Our crystal clear screens offer enhanced audience engagement and true ROI. Find out why our customers love us – get in touch with Insane Impact today!
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