Outdoor digital signage is a world apart from using screens and displays in indoor environments. Your average in store digital sign operates in a location not too dissimilar to those of the home entertainment environment that displays such as LCD or plasma were designed for.
Outdoor locations however, are not conducive to the operation of a sensitive an electronic device such as a TV so protection of any display that is to be used for outdoor digital signage is crucial.
The weather obviously plays a key role in outdoor environments so ensuring the device is protected from rainfall is essential.
However, there is more to the protection of outdoor digital signage than just ensuring the display is waterproofed as there are a lot of other aspects of outdoor areas that have to be considered:
Temperature Control is another important aspect of outdoor displays. The temperature range that outdoor digital signage has to operate in can be at either end of the extremes from sub zero to baking heat.
Ensuring that either the cold or heat doesn’t damage or disable the digital signage is also a consideration and is often left to the display of LCD enclosure to provide adequate cooling, heating and insulation.
General Ruggedness, Outdoor digital signage often has to cope with being left unattended or in unmanned locations, which means that any display operating such an area needs to be resistant to attempts of theft and vandalism.
Mild steel LCD enclosures with tamper proof locks and anti-shatter screens are a recommended solution but there are other methods of preventing vandalism or theft.
Image Clarity and retention One area of outdoor digital signage that often gets neglected is protection of the screen itself. Direct sunlight can often make digital outdoor signs difficult to view and furthermore, direct sunlight can also cause image retention and can create hotspots causing permanent burn marks.
Anti-glare glass is one method of ensuring that the screen is readable no matter how bright the sunlight is but to ensure adequate protection of the screen against burning then some method of screen cooling is required. This is often accomplished by an air curtain that blows cool air across the surface of the screen to transfer any heat away.
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