LED Display Boards - Getting Noticed, Bringing People Together and How They Work!

In a world where the average person can be marketed to thousands of times a day, it begs the question, HOW DO I GET NOTICED?

Shopping centres, metro stops, train and bus stations, airports, football stadiums and city centres have always been hot spots for advertisers because of the traffic and footfall they offer. Standing out of the crowd and differentiating your message against competitors becomes extremely important in these lucrative areas.

Large Format LED screens are establishing a greater presence in prime advertising spaces, due to technology diffusion and cost reductions. They are also seen to be offering a welcome juxtaposition to the grey of a cityscape. Modern LED screens come with close proximity LED pitch and it’s not uncommon to have systems which feature a palette of over 281 million colours. LEDs provide high brightness and contrast together with lower energy consumption and can be embedded into water-resistant structures. This enables any advertiser to reproduce incredible image/video quality and exceptional brightness which rivals that of even LCD flat panel displays, but at a fraction of the cost. And the ability is there to shape LED tiles or curtains to just about any size or contour!

Outdoor digital display screens are simply out-performing any other medium for engaging mass footfall and traffic flow in public areas. If you need to be seen, you need an LED screen!

Whether it be standing beneath the live trains timetable at London Euston or sitting with a picnic on Henman Hill (or is it Murray’s Mount?), LARGE LED SCREENS BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER.

Sporting events, royal ceremonies and music concerts are all national celebrations which are viewed by millions in their own homes yet could be much-enhanced by being watched in public together. Public realm space within town and city centres plays a vital role in attracting shopping tourists.  From a council’s aspect, large digital screens have the potential to contribute positively to town and city centre spaces by making their centre a more commercially viable opportunity for stores to be located. Not only that, LED screens support local policy objectives such as regeneration, economic development and community engagement, this is termed ‘placemaking’.

Swindon Town Square

A screen could attract new audiences to town centres and help to sustain activity in spaces by keeping potential customers within the commercial area for longer during core times and extending the visitor offer beyond normal shopping hours with a wider audience spectrum.

The High Street is under increasing competition from out-of-town retail parks and internet shopping. Public centres are challenged to create spaces which compete by offering a greater experience and adding value to leisure time spent shopping. LED large screens which create public focal points for get-togethers, celebrations and announcements are undoubtedly a powerful tool in enabling central shopping districts to thrive and survive.

WHAT ARE LEDs?

An LED is a light-emitting diode which is a semiconductor of light (glows when an electric current is applied through it.) Although research on electroluminescence goes back as early as 1907, the first unit which resembled a true LED was patented in 1962. Early LEDs emitted a low-intensity red light, but progress has led to spectrums ranging through millions of colour variations with very high brightness.

LEDs are used in thousands of applications due to their low energy consumption, extended temperature range and high-brightness. LEDs are cheap to manufacture and have a much longer lifespan than most incandescent light sources, and because they are individually encased, they are physically robust. Temperature affects the output of LEDs, brightness actually rises at lower temperatures down to around −30 °C so much of the research and development into LEDs has been focussed on maximising effectiveness and durability in higher working temperatures. Units have been developed with heat sinks and clever architecture to now allow for truly wide operating temperatures.

When configured together on a display module (tiles which can be fitted together,) LEDs can produce screens of virtually unlimited size. The largest LED display in the world is over 500 m long and is located in Suzhou, China, covering the Yuanrong Times Square. They can also be configured to flexible mesh, allowing for placement around the contours of walls and building exteriors, something which LCD screens are much more limited by. Many applications simply make use of the brightness and energy consumption benefits e.g. aviation and automotive lighting. However, it’s the high switching rate in LEDs which allows for the use in video and signage. 

The most common configuration of LEDs used to be where clusters of red, blue and green diodes were placed together to make one colour pixel. This is fine for much of the outdoor installations and indoor displays where the viewer is at a distance.

Discrete LED cluster makes one pixel

However, new SMD (surface-mounted device) LEDs which are essentially of the same configuration but are of a much smaller size (each diode the size of a pinhead) and built together into one unit to make a pixel, have reduced the optimum viewing distance down by 25% or so. SMD technology is now commonplace for indoor LED displays but as cost goes down and the quality of video is much improved, SMD boards are naturally taking over outdoor as well.

HOW THE TILES WORK TOGETHER

Ever seen a Meccano set? All the circuitry and LED configured pixels are housed in sturdy modules of either aluminium or other resistant metals built to withstand the designated conditions of the modules installed environment. For outdoor use, a durable yet transparent coating is applied which weatherproofs the LED frontage.

Industrial fixings then lock and grip the tiles together tightly to present a seamless frontage with a confidently secured reverse.

Assured Systems Outdoor LED Module

Each module is then configured and powered through a series of linking cables. Receiving cards (controlling up to 2 modules from one card) then present the information coming from a media player, using specific control software, to the LED circuitry. The control software used for Assured Systems outdoor and indoor units is called NovaLTC Mars.  This is the specific control software for Novastar receiving cards that are used in these displays. With this you can control screen layout, brightness, testing, reporting and other control related functions. 

Each installation differs in requirements from the modules used, but perhaps more pressing considerations with such large scale screens are daunting. Installations can be classed more as construction projects for larger screens and are just as subject to planning regulations. Assured Systems offer a full installation service which will make sure all due responsibilities have been met as well as working with any site management on the installation operation itself. Call us on 01785 879050 to discuss your LED project or visit our website section on indoor and outdoor LED options.

RUNNING YOUR CONTENT

Your content is important, to get the maximum impact you need to marry the correct LED screen with a media player with the correct competencies and durability to match your desired screen installation. Regardless of whether the screen is indoor or out, you will need to consider how you drive content to the display. It could be a small form factor media player running simple videos uploaded manually via a USB stick and left to run; alternatively, you may require a remotely managed solution which allows content to be updated from a central location, for example a marketing department in a different city, or even country from the screen’s location. Whatever the needs of the system are, Assured Systems offer a complete range of embedded computer systems designed specifically for the depth and breadth of challenges faced by presenting digital content. View our digital signage pc selection here or give us a call to discuss your requirements.

HIRE OR BUY

Hired LED Video Wall Being Tested Before Dispatch

Large format LED installations are reducing in price but are still a substantial investment to undertake. We are certain the benefits and commercial potential is well worth the initial financial investment. If however you want to experiment with a system temporarily, for exhibitions or temporary promotional installations; Assured can hire a relevant system without you having to commit to a purchase. Ask us about our hire service by giving us a call on 01785 879050.

by Jackson Cummings
www.assured-systems.co.uk