LCD displays have now replaced traditional CRT TVs and monitors. Flatter, wider and with high definition, LCD displays provide far better picture quality for entertainment and computer use. But increasingly, LCD displays are being used outside the home and office, providing information and advertising, helping businesses communicate more effectively with their customers.
Using LCD displays in an outdoor environment is both rewarding and challenging. Unlike static signs, advertisements or posters, an LCD display can provide moving images and up-to-the-minute information, ideal for keeping customers informed, providing advertisements and boosting a customer’s experience.
While LCD screens are commonly used in indoor locations, providing digital signage in shopping malls, or information in transport hubs, outdoor locations have added advantages, and added challenges.
Advantages
Compared to static, traditional media, an outdoor LCD display provides a more engaging and eye-catching form of communication. With modern, wide-screen, high-definition screens, the right content can really attract people’s attention, far more so than static media. Moving images, transitions and bright colours, all provide a more noticeable platform than static imagery.
The immediacy of content also provides many benefits over static imagery. Up-to-the-minute information, that doesn’t require technicians to go from location to location, also enables service providers to give their customers real-time information. Cancellations, delays and amendments can all be uploaded instantly.
Compared to indoor screens, an outdoor LCD display has one big advantage—the size of audience. No matter how many people view a screen inside a shopping mall or retail store, far more people will get to see a sign positioned outside.
Outdoor LCD displays can reach huge numbers of people, although there is a downside in comparison with indoor screens—the dwell time. While people may view an indoor screen for up to 10 seconds, outdoors that dwell time is drastically shorter—especially if the weather is bad; providing bold, eye-catching content that is simple and to the point is, therefore, more important for an outdoor LCD display than one positioned indoors.
But dwell time is not the only challenge in using outdoor LCD displays, there are others:
Challenges
Protection from the elements is essential for an outdoor LCD display. A standard consumer or commercial grade screen can’t function in an outdoor environment and requires protecting from several aspects of the weather.
Rainfall and other weather elements obviously need keeping from the display. Even small amounts of water if allowed to penetrate a screen will cause it to fail, and quite possibly require replacement. The same is true of airborne dust and debris, which is just as capable of leading to screen failure if allowed to penetrate inside the ventilation system.
Temperature too is capable of disabling a screen. If a screen gets too hot then the display will overheat and this can be caused by high ambient conditions and bright sunlight. Sub zero temperatures pose just as much of a threat too outdoor LCD displays as high temperatures.
Another challenge in using an outdoor LCD display is protecting it from impacts, either accidental or deliberate. Vandalism is all too common, so any outdoor screen left unattended needs to ensure it is protected.
Various solutions for protecting outdoor LCD displays are available but one of the most comprehensive and cost-effective is the use of an LCD enclosure. Weatherproof with a controllable internal temperature, an LCD enclosure also provides a tough steel housing o protect LCD displays. Used for outdoor digital signage, outdoor information screens and outdoor entertainment, LCD enclosures are an effective form of outdoor LCD display protection.
Armagard have nearly two decades of experience manufacturing protective environments for computers, printers and displays. Using this knowledge and experience, Armagard have produced a range of
outdoor lcd display enclosure designed for protecting standard LCD and CRT screens in outdoor or hazardous locations – ideal for outdoor digital signage or patio/backyard TV viewing. Our
