Waterproof TV enclosures and digital signage displays do have some drawbacks, however. Essentially, a digital signage system is just a TV hooked up to a network, where content can be distributed from a central media player. However, TVs are highly sensitive piece of equipment and are not designed for use in areas where they are at risk of being splashed with water.

In many food production and storage facilities, wash down is an important part of the hygiene process. Machines and food storage areas need to be kept clean, which means that any display screen operating in such an area is at risk of getting wet, and ultimately failing.

Fortunately, there is a solution for enabling TV displays to be used in wash down areas: the waterproof TV enclosure.

Waterproof TV enclosures are designed to house standard TV screens and protect them from water splashes in wash down areas. The waterproof TV enclosure provides an impenetrable barrier that keeps water from the screen, but also still provides air to penetrate inside the enclosure to maintain cooling. This is achieved through clever use of air filtration chambers that permit air to enter and exit the enclosure, but not moisture.

Most waterproof TV enclosure are designed to international standards that denote the type of area the screen can operate in. IP54 and IP65 are common European ratings these waterproof TV enclosures are built to, as is the US NEMA 4 standard.

To prevent corrosion, waterproof TV enclosures are manufactured from either stainless steel, or a powder-coated mild steel that prevents rusting, which is important to prevent contamination in food production areas.

A shatterproof screen also protects the TVs housed in the waterproof TV enclosures. This too, is highly important in food production and storage areas as a glass screen could lead to contamination if it is accidentally broken or smashed.

Waterproof TV enclosures provide a cost effective and efficient method of installing display screens and digital signage in food production and distribution areas, enabling almost any make, model or size of screen to operate in locations where water is used in a regular basis to clean and wash down the environment.

Waterproof TV Enclosure in Wash Down Areas is a post from: Armagard

LCD enclosure protect outdoor communication screens

Traditional forms of outdoor communication have many disadvantages. Public address systems, for instance are not always easy to hear, especially in noisy locations, and messages need continuous repeating to ensure keeping people arriving at different times informed. While outdoor noticeboards are no good for posting immediate information, such as emergency warnings, which is why outdoor digital signage is now being utilised by many businesses.

Outdoor digital signage provides an effective, immediate and noticeable form of communication, ideal for many different applications, and it has many advantages over other forms of messaging.

Outdoor digital signage content can be uploaded instantly, and when connected to a network, screens over large areas can instantly display the same messages, ensuring immediate and widespread dissemination of information.

Screens can vary in size and be positioned in prominent locations ensuring maximum visibility to ensure a high-impact, visual form of messaging.

While using outdoor screens as a communication tool requires some form of protection, to ensure weather elements, variable temperature and impacts don’t disable the screen, LCD enclosures can achieve this at relatively low cost.

Manufactured for all the major screen sizes, LCD enclosures can house standard LCD screens, reducing the cost of outdoor digital signage by doing away with the need for expensive outdoor screens. The comprehensive protection they offer ensure the screen will continue to function, regardless of the location and make an ideal outdoor communication platform.

Outdoor Communication with Digital Signage is a post from: Armagard

Digital signage is ideal for healthcare locations, not just because of the importance of getting important healthcare information to patients but healthcare settings have several key advantages for using digital signage.

Firstly, in healthcare environments the audience tends to be captive. That is, whilst waiting for appointments, there is little else to do and screens provide a diversion that patients can’t help looking at.

Secondly, for advertisers, healthcare settings provide a clear demographic. People in clinics and waiting rooms have a clear interest in healthcare products, while ascertaining other demographics from the healthcare setting is possible too. Mothers with children commonly frequent doctor’s surgeries because of the early year’s vaccination programmes and other childcare needs, while pensioners provide a higher demographic in healthcare settings because of the nature of getting old, so advertisers have a clear idea what type of person will be watching their content.

For healthcare practitioners, having a clear advertising audience enables them to negotiate a great deal with advertisers. It is common in healthcare settings to have advertisements and healthcare information interlaced together, with the advertising more than paying for the screen and providing a revenue stream for the healthcare environment.

Digital signage also enables displaying of notifications for both patients and staff. As digital signage allows the immediate uploading and dissemination of information, important information can be spread around a hospital environment, instantly. It also provides effective communication for staff members, a notorious difficult task in large-scale healthcare settings.

The use of Digital Signage in Healthcare is a post from: Armagard

Modern manufacturers face huge challenges, though. With stiff competition from the Far East, reliance on currency values abroad, and the increasing costs of raw materials mean that efficiency is increasingly vital for manufacturers.

Digital signage can help improve both processes and communication, two aspects that can increase efficiency and bolster revenue opportunities.

Information Technology has long been an important aspect to manufacturing with computers and other IT part-and-parcel of modern industrial practices, helping to increase efficiency and reduce waste.

Digital signage can also benefit manufacturers, particularly in communication, often difficult in industrial-type areas. Email and other modern communication methods are often not practical in manufacturing areas, which makes communication a challenge; often resulting to old-fashioned systems such as tannoys (often impractical in noisy environments); notice boards (reliant on people visiting and reading it); or word-of-mouth (also impractical in larger premises).

The advantage of using digital signage as a communication method in manufacturing is pretty clear. Relaying information to workers efficiently, clearly, and in real time, enables manufacturing processes to run smoothly and more efficiently, without the delays other communication methods present, but of course, there are disadvantages.

Many manufacturing areas are not conducive to running a digital signage screen with dust, variable temperatures, liquids and risks of impact, and as with industrial computers, protection is critical.

Perhaps the most flexible solution for protecting digital signage displays are LCD enclosures. These provide comprehensive dust and liquid protection (usually to NEMA and IP ratings), and contain climatic controls to maintain a steady internal temperature. They are also tough and rugged (usually manufactured from steel) essential in the rough and tumble world of manufacturing.

An LCD enclosure will also let you choose your own screen, replace it at will, and can keep media players encased too, ensuring all the hardware is protected from damaging elements.

Digital screen in a manufacturing environment

Related Information:

Article on Factory Digital Signage

A US-based creative content and management service are running a webinar on the benefits of digital signage in manufacturing.

Digital Signage in Manufacturing – Protection is a post from: Armagard

Technology has advanced exponentially over the last two decades, and Armagard have had to ensure their products match the ever-changing face of modern technologies. One of the biggest changes over the last decade or so has been the rise of the flat screen television.

Few people still use CRT monitors and TVs with LCD and plasmas now being ubiquitous in both consumer and commercial uses. For this reason, Armagard began producing their LCD enclosure range, designed to accommodate these modern screens, and come in all the major screen sizes.

LCD enclosures are incredibly popular, primarily because of the rise of outdoor digital signage and the increase in use of information screens, but all sorts of other enclosures exist in Armagard’s range too.

Computer enclosures are still a common requirement in some locations such as factory floors and industrial units. While industrial computers can operate in harsh environments, they often don’t provide enough flexibility and cooperation with IT systems already used around the office, which is why so many people turn to standard PCs and house them in an Armagard enclosure.

Printer’s too, struggle to operate in locations outside of offices and home environments, and have traditionally been unable to work in location where temperatures are close to zero. Armagard’s printer enclosure range not only allows printer use in dusty and wet environments, but heated printer enclosures mean even chillers and freezer locations can use printers.

Security is another reason people turn to an Armagard enclosure. Computer safes and anti-vandal LCD enclosures help protect valuable assets from theft and abuse.

Armagard Computer Enclosure

Armagard Computer Safe

Armagard Printer Enclosure

Types of Armagard Enclosure is a post from: Armagard

Commonly used throughout Europe (the National Electrical Manufacturers Association-NEMA- promote standards in the USA) as defined in international standard IEC 60529 (International Electrical Commission). The IP rating is a two digit code indicating the type of conditions the enclosure can operate in.

The two digits of the IP rating specify both protection from solids (the first number) and protection from liquids (the second digit). The first digit ranges from 0 (zero), which offers no protection from solid objects to 6, indicating total dust tight protection, with the numbers in between, indicating smaller and smaller particulate protection.

The second digit of the IP code, which indicates the protection afforded against liquids, also starts at zero, where no protection against liquids are offered all the way to number 8, where the enclosure is completely water tight and can even be immersed without suffering leakage.

A full breakdown of the IP ratings can be seen in the charts below.

Often people think for outdoor digital signage use, an LCD enclosure would need to have the maximum amount of protection possible; however, due to the need of LCD screens to have a direct airflow, to prevent overheating and provide cooling, this total sealing against water and dust is impossible.

Indeed, this sort of protection is also unwarranted. When using an outdoor enclosure, perhaps for digital signage, the protection required is only from rainfall and other weather elements.

As rainfall falls down and is at a low pressure then the type of protection required for an outdoor enclosure is around the IP54-IP65 range. An enclosure within these limits will be able to operate in outdoor locations no matter what the weather and will ensure the screen is not only protected from rain and other weather but also airborne particles, dust and pollution.

IP Rating First Digit -- DUST

IP Rating First Digit -- LIQUIDS

IP Ratings and What they Mean for Outdoor Enclosures is a post from: Armagard

Patios, decking and barbecue areas are household luxuries that enable us to spend time outside during whatever brief spell of sunshine we are fortunate to receive. Many of us adorn our outdoor areas with patio furniture and outdoor lighting to maximise our use of these outdoor spaces.

However, there is one luxury that is often overlooked by householders who often deem it as fancifully expensive, and yet is the ideal outdoor luxury, the outdoor TV.

Outdoor TVs are really a fantastic luxury item for those that enjoy the outdoors and spending time in the garden during the summer. By installing an outdoor TV you can relax outdoors and still watch your favourite TV programmes or the big match.

Quite a few manufacturers now produce outdoor variations of their plasma and LCD TVs. Commonly, these are highly expensive and beyond the budget of most householders as they typically cost thee, four or five times the price of a similar sized conventional TV, but there is an alternative.

Increasingly, more and more people are looking at outdoor TV enclosures as a budget solution for placing a screen outside, and not just homeowners either, more and more pubs and bars are using them to provide outdoor TVs in the beer gardens or outdoor smoking areas.

The big advantage of an outdoor TV enclosure is that they house almost any standard make or model of flat panel TV. Whether it’s an LCD, plasma or a modern LED backlit screen, as long as it’s built to VESA (Video Electronic Standards Association) standards.

The TV can even be an old model, perhaps a spare room TV that can be housed in the enclosure and taken outside. The outdoor TV enclosure provide al the protection required for outdoor use, protecting the housed TV from the rain, temperature and even attempts at theft.

LCD TV enclosures are lockable and secure; once installed are tamperproof and vandal resistant as they are often made from steel and have shatterproof windows.

LCD TV enclosure used for outdoor TV viewing

Home Improvement Ideas – Patio TV is a post from: Armagard

From office computer screens, to outdoor digital signage, modern TVs have all sorts of uses and for industry the benefits of using screens instead of traditional methods of production monitoring can save both time and money.

The great advantage of using screens in an industrial or production location is the clear visibility it provides. A decent sized LCD screen (or plasma) can be viewed from a good distant away making them far more practical in industrial and warehouse locations.

Secondly, modern TV screens can provide information instantly, relaying production details as they happen, or displaying content uploaded from the production office, making it a very flexible and dynamic form of information presentation.

And finally, LCD screens are far more aesthetically pleasing and practical. Unlike paper media, they won’t get dirty, torn or end up fading, and can provide a good modern and contemporary image.

Using modern LCD and plasma screens in an industrial or production location can provide many challenges, however. There are many elements and conditions present in industrial locations which can damage a modern screen and prevent it operating.

Dust is a common consideration for such areas. Dust can cause screens to overheat, block filters and even short circuit a screen if enough penetrates into the device. Water too, and other moisture of often used in production facilities, especially food processing locations where it is used to regularly clean surfaces and equipment. And temperatures too can vary in such locations which are often cooler than normal conditions (and in the case of some food production locations actually chilled).

Coping with these challenges is pretty straightforward, as a decent LCD enclosure should not only keep all these harmful elements away from the device, but also maintain a steady temperature inside the enclosure, which will also protect the screen from any accidental impact.

Industrial Displays – Monitoring Production with an LCD Screen is a post from: Armagard

Despite the continued falling cost of displays and digital signage equipment, installing a screen network still involves quite a substantial investment, and failing to protect the screens and hardware can lead to costly replacements and repair.

Protecting the Hardware

The biggest investment involved in a digital signage project is the cost of the hardware. LCD screens and media players are expensive, and vulnerable to damage from vandalism and in some cases theft.

An act of vandalism that breaks the screen, or knocks the display out of service, even temporarily will lead to a dead screen. Dead screens not only mean that the digital signage system will not be working and generating revenue, but if there has to be replacements and repair—this will increase any investment and make getting a return harder.

Furthermore, dead screens look unsightly and are a bad advertisement not just for your own displays but for the digital signage industry as a whole. A broken screen can also lead to injury of passersby, which can lead to the display owner being legally liable.

An LCD enclosure is one of the most comprehensive forms of physical protection. Made from steel with shatterproof screens, an LCD enclosure will protect not only the screen but any media player connected to it too.

Protecting the Content

Another area of security that is essential, especially for users of non-networked digital posters, or single display that use media players, is ensuring people can’t get access and upload their own content.

Most digital posters have some form of locking mechanism over the USB connection to prevent access by unauthorised persons, but if a screen has no such protection, then again, an LCD enclosure may be the answer as being lockable; any prospective content vandal will not be able to gain access.

Security Issues with Digital Signage is a post from: Armagard

The spread of digital advertising continues to grow as the cost of the technology falls and more and more people realise the potential worth of an investment into digital out of home (Dooh).

The common cost of digital signage is not as high as people often believe it is. The common price paid for a “40 commercial display is between £400 and £600, and the most common size of display people opt for when embarking on digital signage is the 30-50” range.

Commercial grade displays are more commonly used because they are designed to be more durable, able to be left on for longer periods without fear of overheating.

For outdoor digital signage, these displays need protecting from the weather elements and extreme temperatures that outside locations can suffer from. For any screen going outside, or to be used in an area where temperature is not the same as an indoor location, then you have to budget for the cost of protection.

LCD enclosures are fairly cost effective forms of protection housing any commercial grade screen—or consumer grade for that matter—in a protective and weatherproof  cabinet that not only keeps the screen dry, but ensures it is operating in the optimum environment for a screen.

LCD enclosures also physically protect LCD and plasma screens, ensuring they can withstand impact and attempts at vandalism—essential for using displays outside.

By using an LCD enclosure, the commercial grade screen will last many times longer than an unprotected device, even in decent conditions so the enclosure can often be a wise investment adding value to the cost of the screens.

Budgeting for Digital Signage Screens is a post from: Armagard