Indoor, Window or Outdoor? Choosing a Digital Screen

Inside the building

Reception areas, waiting rooms, canteens, showrooms and menus behind a counter are the easiest places for a screen. Light levels are controlled, there is no weather, and commercial-grade LCD displays designed for long running hours are the usual choice.

The main decisions indoors are size, mounting and orientation. Portrait screens suit menus and directories; landscape suits video and presentations. Where a single screen is too small, several can be combined into a seamless video wall.

Facing out through a window

This is where many projects go wrong. A screen behind shop glass is competing with daylight, and at midday an ordinary indoor display looks washed out or black. Window-facing displays need to be high-brightness models built for that job.

Think too about what the screen blocks. A large display can hide the view into the shop, which may be the most persuasive thing you have. Some businesses use a screen in one window bay and keep the others clear.

Fully outdoors

Outdoor screens face rain, temperature swings and direct sun. They need high-brightness panels and protective housings, and the fixing and power supply have to be planned as carefully as any illuminated sign. Large outdoor displays are often LED rather than LCD, built up from modules to the size required.

Outdoor digital displays can also raise consent questions, particularly with moving images near roads. Check before committing.

LCD, LED or OLED?

Our digital displays are available with commercial-grade LCD, LED and OLED technology. As a rule of thumb, LCD suits indoor screens viewed from close up; LED suits large sizes and bright conditions and can be built to non-standard shapes; OLED is a premium choice for indoor settings where picture quality matters most. The right answer comes from the viewing distance and the light, not from the technology itself.

Controlling what is shown

A screen is only as good as the content on it, and the content is only kept fresh if updating it is easy. Content management options include scheduling — breakfast menu in the morning, lunch at noon — and remote management, so one person can update screens across several sites. Interactive touchscreen functionality is available where visitors need to search or choose.

Three questions to answer first

• Where exactly will it go, and how much daylight hits that spot at midday?
• How far away will people be when they read it?
• Who will update the content, and how often?

Answer those and the hardware specification mostly writes itself.

Mounting, housings and running hours

Where a screen is fixed matters as much as the screen itself. Wall mounts, ceiling mounts, freestanding stands and window-facing frames each suit different spaces, and the survey checks the wall, the power point and the cable route before anything is ordered. Outdoor and exposed displays need protective housings to keep out weather and knocks.

Commercial displays are designed for 24/7 operation, which is what separates them from a domestic television. If a screen will run all day, every day, specify one built for it, and plan when it switches on and off so the content schedule and the opening hours match.

Finally, think about who looks after it. A screen with an out-of-date promotion on it does more harm than an empty wall, so agree at the start who owns the content and how often it will be refreshed.

Common questions