Sunday 23 August 2009

Installing outdoor TV’s in smoking areas in UK Pubs and bars.

With the new law that has come in the past 18 months, where no one can smoke in a “closed public areas” such as a pub, office or restaurant, this forced businesses to look at how they operate their business.

Since the recent recession hit, 1 UK bar closes every day due to lack of customers and this has the industry thinking, “how they can keep their customers longer and make more money from them?”

An independent pub realised that with the new football season approaching in September 2008 that they would put a TV outdoors, for the customers who smoked. This worked well as the pub already had an external smoking shelter. So they pondered the idea to put a waterproof TV out side, the televisions that were used were 42” LCD and IP65 (waterproof – washed down with a high pressure water jet). When the quotes came in the prices ranged from £3,899 (US $5,592) to £5,479 (US $7,999).

Speak to your customers.

Now with this large investment for an independent bar in an economic slow down, the owner of the bar decided to ask his smoking customers, “if they had an outdoor TV would they spend more time at the bar?” A resounding “Yes”, was the answer.

Plan of action.

So the landlord decided to look at the options open to him and found a company based near Cambridge that manufactured special housings for televisions, these housings protected TV’s in Industrial applications from dust, fluid, theft and abuse, they also supplied the Outdoor Digital Signage market with protective LCD enclosures that provided vandal proof protection for the plasma or LCD TV.

The NEMA 4X (IP65) LCD enclosures would accommodate any 42” TV, so the landlord wasn’t tied to a particular manufacturer, so he shopped round for a cost effective TV and found that he could have a 42” LCD television housed in an LCD enclosure and fitted outdoors for £1,200 (US $1,752).

Now the landlord after speaking to the HDTV case manufacturer, decided to look at putting digital advertisements on the TV, promoting the “daily menu specials”, as well as local taxi’s, etc – this paid off!

The Results!

The landlord placed the orders and at the end of August 2008, the outdoor TV and enclosure were installed. He had already approached local businesses and had sold 36 advertising slots at only £50 (US $73) paying for the entire installation of the outdoor TV.

The landlord studied the sales from September 08 to November 08 and compared them to the previous year, bearing in mind that the UK was in the worst recession in decades during 2008. The bars turnover had increased by 27%, whilst his profit had increased 21.24%!

The results meant that more people where eating and spending longer at the bar than previously. Most Saturdays are jammed packed, with mid week games becoming ever more popular, proving that it was a wise investment.

Future Opportunities.

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup just around the corner, this is a fantastic opportunity to increase your businesses exposure, by installing outdoor TV’s, people will always remember who won the world cup and where they were when they saw it.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

How To Make Your Digital Signage Vandal Proof.

When you invest any amount of money into a project, no matter how small, you have to make sure that you are limiting your risks, this applies more so to outdoor digital signage.

When you have spent many man hours creating “audience stopping content” as well as investing in the signage hardware, you have to be certain that the sign is not at risk from vandals. How do you limit the risk?

Well firstly, if the location is un-manned, you have to consider some sort of surveillance system to monitor the sign, there are some basic systems that when an incident such as an attempted theft is detected, an alert is sent to the nearest security company, to go and investigate. However, normally by the time they have reached the site the culprits have vanished. Other more sophisticated systems employee a webcam and actually take the image of the offender.

Another solution is to buy a digital signage that has some sort of vandal protection, some of the interactive kiosks offer this as standard, as well as the added benefit of being waterproof to IP65, however the only drawback is the cost as these Interactive kiosks are at the top of the price range

The last solution is to use a standard LCD display, along with a small form factor PC, that will hold the content, then install them into a vandal proof LCD enclosure, these digital signage enclosures are specially manufactured from heavy gauge steel and protect the electronics it houses from the weather and vandals. Even the viewing window is manufactured from anti vandal glass.

Now you have the basic options to improve the security that is around your dynamic signs, LCD enclosures are the answer.

Tuesday 21 April 2009

Rugged LCD TV enclosures - understanding the details.

When you are installing an LCD television in areas other than a home or office, you need to consider the following factors:
  1. What is in the air - any harmful chemicals?
  2. Is the area prone to vandalism?
  3. What size of television display will be used?
The last point is almost decided when the project is commissioned, however there are varying degrees of rugged protection, from putting a plastic screen on the front on the TV to protect the actual screen to a completely water tight enclosure.

The real rugged LCD enclosures are the enclosures that protect to the following standards; IP54, IP65 or NEMA 4X the American standard, I will try to explain the basic differences between them.

IP54 LCD enclosures.
These will protect the TV and any other hardware that will fit inside the enclosure, from dust and fluid splashes.

IP65 LCD enclosure.
These protect the internal hardware from water, as the enclosure is designed to withstand being washed down with a high powered water jet, ensuring that the unit is ideal for wet outdoor areas. These are also known as waterproof TV enclosures.

Now here is the difference from the main dedicated manufacturers of LCD enclosures, they have a vast experience in both cooling and heating the enclosure, to make sure the TV has the maximum lifespan possible. There are a few companies out there, who claim to manufacture these units however they will tell you that it's on a long lead time and that the LCD enclosure is "not part of their standard product range". If you come up against such a company, run away - FAST!

LCD Enclosures Global are a dedicated manufacturer of protective LCD enclosures for all types of applications from displaying product advertisements on large LCD displays on the factory floor (for showcasing a product to potential new customers.) To supplying vandal proof TV enclosures for un-manned areas, they have the solutions for you.

One dedicated manufacturer's blog is below...
Rugged LCD enclosures

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Stainless Steel LCD enclosures.

Stainless steel is a product used world wide, allowing products to made from a material that has high Chromium content, making it an excellent protector for corrosion.

Stainless steel has twice the tensile strength of mild steel, due to the other elements in the metal, now if you have an area that is constantly wet and you use mild steel, the product will have to be replaced due to the quick erosion of the mild steel. Now manufacture the same product from stainless steel and the results are a different story - the stainless steel unit will need to be replaced possibly due to a fork truck accident rather than corrosion.

Now should you have the application were an outdoor digital sign is being installed near salt water, in a wharf for example, the ideal solution would be a stainless steel LCD enclosure. These protect the digital signage hardware from the hostile areas including the sea salt that would corrode mild steel enclosures.

Normally, the application would be in an un-manned area, so physical security would be required, to protect from vandals, now the ideal solution that will protect from every thing nature can through at it, is an LCD enclosure, these units comply to NEMA4x and Ip65 standards for electronic enclosures.

Tuesday 31 March 2009

Outdoor signage enclosure blog launched.

We have decided to launch our own blog on our website so that we can manage 1 blog and maintain some good and fresh content.

We will be featuring Out Of Home Advertising and why LCD enclosures are needed.

Were to get Free digital signage software as well as the basics in creating your very own media content for either your standlone outdoor signage solution or your intereactive kiosks.

Outdoor signage enclosure blog.

Thank you in advance,

LCD enclosures

Monday 9 March 2009

Out of Home Advertising needs LCD TV enclosures.

The term Out Of Home advertising is commonly referred to as OOH, this is any type of advertising medium that reaches a consumer while they are out of their home. This is not broadcasting or print marketing which targets the consumer at home.

This is why OOH is popular, as it targets consumers while they are on the go, going to train station, airport, ferry terminal, cinema and even petrol stations.

One of the main advertising mediums in the USA is bill board advertising, if you have ever been to Times Square in New York, you will know what I mean! 1 40 story office building makes more money renting out the building exterior for adverts, than it would if the office were fully occupied.

With the cost of digital displays becoming more affordable and the advancement of digital signage, this is why LCD TVs are being used to send marketing messages to potential buyers in outdoor environments.

A digital signage network can be set up covering entire countries, for example the head office could be in New York, with branches in Europe and Asia, the marketing message in the form of content media, can then be sent to all digital displays throughout the global network remotely and even scheduled to upload the new media at a particular time and reboot the system for when the store opens at the local time.

This makes the marketing budget go much further than before and the relative low costs, enables small businesses to use digital signage to increase their sales.

All you need for an outdoor digital signage solution is an LCD or Plasma display, a computer, media content (digital media content creation software this can be found free on the Internet) and an outdoor LCD enclosure. This can be achieved for as little as $700, but the financial rewards are worth it.


So if you are putting a digital sign outdoor, you need to protect your investment, what would happen if a drunken man through a rock at the display? Or if rain or snow got inside the LCD display...the LCD tv enclosure protects from all the elements to NEMA 4X and IP standards, allowing you to set it and forget it!