The obvious differences are that one is indoors such as shopping malls and the other is outdoors. Now the real benefit for outdoor digital signage, is that it is your 24 hour sales message, so when the malls close no one sees your advertising campaign, were as outdoor signage is seen by everyone who passes it, every minute of the day.



Image for a minute, that you get 100 viewings of your signage every hour and after 10 hours the shopping mall closes, then compare it with 75 viewings of an outdoor sign that runs 24 hours per day, you get an extra 800 viewings per day. 5,600 viewings more per week, 22,400 more than the mall per month, what will this do for your product range.

When outdoor digital signage systems are planned, there are normally two solutions to consider, they are to use dedicated vandal proof displays, that have an integral media player built in or to use a standard, off the shelf LCD or plasma display with a media player and house them in an LCD enclosure.

There are benefits for using either of these solutions, both solutions provide the relevant IP65 (waterproof protection) or NEMA 4X standards (the USA standard for Industrial Protection), necessary when the digital signage hardware is being located outdoors.

However, the major difference is that a waterproof LCD television costs five times more than a standard LCD display, this is what puts most projects off at the planning stage. But by housing a standard LCD display and media player in a waterproof LCD enclosure, this gives a large cost saving on the price of a waterproof television, making the waterproof television enclosure a more cost effective option.

The way the LCD or plasma television enclosure is cooled is very similar to the way the waterproof TV cools itself, it has an inbuilt cooling system that acts as an exhaust for the hot air and replaces it with clean cool air, ensuring that the LCD display is at the best internal temperature possible. The cooling system on the LCD enclosure filters out small particles of dust, preventing them entering into the enclosure and causing possible damage to the display or the media player.

With the huge opportunity to increase brand awareness, outdoor digital signage is growing at an alarming rate, even in a recession as all businesses need to increase brand or product awareness and make sales. This is one of the reasons why dynamic advertising is so successful as the return on investment is quick.

So to summarize, if you are planning to install outdoor digital signage, the choices will come down to budget, however if you have a limitless budget go for the waterproof television, alternatively you can purchase a standard LCD or plasma display, a media player and an LCD or plasma enclosure to house all the electronics and save yourselves thousands of dollars.

In the current financial market, many businesses are taking the corporate line that the best prices gets the business, providing it does not have any effect on quality.