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.

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.

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!