LCD Enclosures: A Buyer’s Guide to Protecting Outdoor Digital Signage

Digital signage or digital out of home advertising (Dooh) has become a fantastic new marketing tool and has allowed companies through relatively low initial outlays to produce marketing campaigns that are seen and heard by hundreds and even thousands of prospects customers.

Using standard LCD TV systems to portray marketing messages, digital signage can reach huge audiences and one of the areas where the largest potential audience can be found is outside in outdoor locations. The advantage of outdoor digital signage is that the number of people that can see it is potentially a lot larger than other implementations of Dooh.

However, there is one major challenge in utilising outdoor digital signage and that is ensuring the LCD or plasma TV device is protected from the elements. Outdoor locations are not best suited for signage devices like LCDs but they can be protected to ensure they can function outside or in hazardous locations.

There are a few fundamental principles to protecting an LCD device outdoors:

*          Waterproofing ' essential to ensure the device can operate outside. Ensuring the LCD is protected from rainfall is perhaps the fundamental most important aspect of outdoor digital signage protection.

*          Temperature Control ' It is important that any LCD device that operates outside can withstand both extremes of temperature. The device may have to function throughout a heat wave in the summer whilst also having to endure the frozen temperatures of winter.

*          Humidity ' Another consideration is ensuring that humidity doesn't build up inside the LCD as failing to counteract any condensation of humidity will allow water to build up inside the device and potentially disabling the LCD.

*          Impacts, attempted theft & vandalism ' If any LCD or plasma is to be left unmanned in an outdoor location then consideration needs to be given to protecting the screen from unwanted attention.