A Beginners Guide to Outdoor Digital Signage

In today’s marketplace businesses are always trying to find new ways to advertise their service or products to the public. Billboards have long been accepted as the best way to engage with potential customers outside of the home. If you place any advertising display in an area with high foot traffic, say for example a town centre or train station then it is more likely to achieve its goal. Outdoor Digital Signage is now a growing market in OOH (Out Of Home advertising) and now is the time to learn more about it.

You may already be acquainted with Digital Advertising Displays designed for indoor environments but before you get started with Outdoor Digital Signage you need to be aware of the major differences between them.

The most important factor when you are talking about Outdoor Digital Signage is the screen itself. In an open-air environment you need the display to be bright enough so that the content is visible. Standard Digital Advertising Displays have a brightness of around 500cd/m2. Screens built for use outdoor use a ‘High Brightness’ LCD panel specifically for this issue that has a luminance of 1,500cd/m2. Another issue that regular LCD panels face when in direct sunlight is that blackening of the screen can occur when the panel gets too hot. Outdoor Digital Screens require a smart temperature control system to keep the panel at the optimum temperature. The not only helps the quality of the display but also extends the lifespan of the screen exponentially. An Outdoor Digital Advertising Display needs a proper air conditioning system to make the investment in the screen worth it.

When using a digital advertising screen outdoors it is important to consider what will be protecting your screen. To do this, most Outdoor Advertising Displays have a mild steel case to protect them from various elements. Any enclosure needs to be secure enough to not allow adverse weather conditions to interfere with the displays functionality. Outer cases should have a minimum of an IP65 rating meaning that they are protected from wet weather conditions preserving the electrical components inside. It is not just water that this protects the screen from. It also stops dust, debris and moisture from the air entering and affecting the screen itself.

There are also basic logistical differences that occur when having an Outdoor Digital Advertising Display, for instance you have to consider how you will be delivering content to your screen. There is classic USB stick ‘plug and play’ method which is now almost synonymous with uploading Digital Signage content. Thomas Fraser-Bacon from Allsee Technologies Ltd said “This is a great budget conscious solution to those with a small number of outdoor screens but for those who have a bigger number of outdoor screens it is easier to upgrade the screens to a network solution.” This solution makes it easy to update screens remotely via a cloud-based Content Management System (CMS). Many Digital Signage manufacturers that supply Outdoor Advertising Displays also now can offer a package of the screen, enclosure and the software built in to one simple package. Having all the components in one package is significantly easier to handle, both in terms of installation and management, when compared to all of the components coming from different sources.

Installing Outdoor Digital Advertising Displays is an area that needs careful consideration beforehand. Making sure that a power supply and LAN internet connection are plumbed in prior to installation of either a Wall Mounted Outdoor Advertising Display or Freestanding Outdoor Digital Poster is a must.

Outdoor Digital Signage is becoming cheaper than ever before to acquire meaning it is now more accessible than ever. It is not hard to see why Outdoor Digital Signage Screens are an attractive marketing tool compared to traditional paper advertisements and billboards.