Mistakes you should never make with outdoor LED displays

As with every technology, outdoor LED signs also have had its ups and downs. Save yourself a whole lot of time and trouble by going through these points to look out for before entering the world of digital signage.

• Installing a digital signage system is a big deal

A real digital signage system is more than just a computer, slide show, and a few hardware components. The actual list for a one location installation consists of about 15 items which include wall mounts, power converters, software licenses, surge protectors, accessory kits and screws. Each of these need to be compatible with the other and should be present at the right place at the right time in order to successfully complete the installation.

• Don’t go for cheap hardware

If you want your outdoor LED sign to live long, you need solid computer components and commercial grade displays at the least.

• Don’t underestimate content management

A digital signage system with two frames will need approximately 50 pieces of content per month, or maybe more. Make sure you have the resources for proper content creation and management.

• Free content from the web is out of bounds

Yes, you can surely get free content from the internet but there are serious issues with those. Copyright is one: if you get caught, lawsuits can make you bankrupt. Bandwidth is another consideration: the free content does not cater to digital signage therefore videos for example will need to be reloaded every time it is played. This can conflict with others using internet facilities on site for more important work.

• Don’t skip tech support

Managing over a dozen hardware pieces, 50-100 content pieces a month, various formats of photos and videos, environmental conditions such as heat, cold, lightning and so on, cannot be done by you. Tech support is a real issue and make sure you hire someone knowledgeable and dependable.