One of the most common purposes of outdoor digital signage is to display menu information at drive-thrus.
Dust and dirt
Brake fumes, dust and air pollution can also reduce a display’s life cycle by damaging the LCD panel, clogging the air intakes and filters and damaging the electronics housed within the display.
Safety
In addition to environmental factors, safety is another concern with outdoor digital signage deployments. The units must be structurally sound and electrically safe in compliance with local, national and/or international laws.
Ideally, the electronic components used to build the display should be certified by an internationally recognized organization, such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL) or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA).
Security
Beyond windblown debris and other damaging weather conditions, digital signage can also fall victim to deliberate attacks by vandals. This is even the case in supervised locations.
To protect units against vandalism and ensure their longevity outdoors, shatterproof and impact-resistant screens should be installed within tamperproof steel enclosures.
Regulations and permits
Many cities have restrictions that apply to outdoor digital signage, such as bylaws prohibiting the display of full-motion video toward vehicular traffic and codes requiring screens to be dimmed or shut off at certain times of day.
By ensuring they use products and systems that comply with these local rules, digital signage installers are more likely to acquire all necessary permits, certifications and other legal documents with ease.
Power
Operators of outdoor digital signage will need to investigate their power supply options thoroughly before installation. The total cost of ownership (TCO) will depend on the displays’ power requirements, where the power comes from and how the cost of that power is being covered (i.e. by one or multiple parties). It is imperative to establish these conditions early in the process, so as to avoid confusion down the line.
LCDs need to be specially engineered for outdoor installation to prevent failures and to reduce the need for expensive on-site maintenance and service over their life cycle.
Power is also an important consideration after the installation, as it may be necessary to monitor to show other parties how the unit is receiving power, how ‘clean’ that power is and whether or not the unit is also pulling power from other sources.
For the operator, it is important to track what happens during power fluctuations and whether or not the unit will shut down and reboot gracefully during an outage. Among the most embarrassing fates for outdoor digital signage, but not entirely uncommon sights, are the startup screen and the dreaded ‘blue screen of death,’ so operators should have a plan in place to cope with outages.
Monitoring
In addition to monitoring power use and responses to outages, operators will need to remotely monitor their outdoor digital signage’s on-screen content, to ensure it is always appropriate. The display can connect through a wireless network to remote computers where the operator can adjust content.
Further, new developments in monitoring are allowing digital signage operators to fix problems as they arise, without needing to send a technician to the specific installation site, thus reducing service and maintenance costs over the unit’s lifetime. Some remote monitoring systems can even predict possible failures, allowing for pre-emptive service.
Outdoor digital signage units can be expensive and difficult to access for maintenance purposes, so any measures to improve their reliability and ease of service will be worthwhile.
