Whether it’s digital signage screens used in retail to promote brands and products, to information screens in public buildings, making sure the screen is prominent is essential to ensure its effectiveness.

Indoor Digital Signage Displays

Indoor areas are full of all sorts of things that compete for people’s attention s a badly positioned digital signage screen could easily be missed. This is never more apparent than in retail environments, where sale items and other signage can make a screen virtually invisible if it’s not in the right place.

One of the best locations to attract people’s attention with a digital signage display is near the entrance so it becomes the first thing they see when they enter a store or building. However, a screen placed too high, such as suspended from a ceiling, or positioned flat against a wall, will not be as noticeable as a screen positioned at eye-level.

But how do you position a screen at eye-level near and entrance? The key is in the digital signage enclosure. A floor-standing enclosure, often called a totem digital signage system, is a freestanding unit that stands at eye-level. This provides a prominent method of digital signage implementation, which is highly noticeable, far more so than wall-mounted digital posters and ceiling mounted displays screens.

Outdoor Digital Signage

Outdoor digital Signage has to work even harder than indoor signage to get noticed. This is because the dwell time for an outdoor screen s far lower, a few seconds at most, and outdoor environments have far more distractions.

Again, an ideal place for positioning an outdoor digital signage screen is near an entrance. Whether it’s a school or college wanting to relay important information to students and staff, or a retailer or transport hub, by placing a screen near to an entrance you can be sure to communicate with everybody that enters.

As with indoor screens, eye-level is key for an outdoor screen. Outdoor digital signage totems provide the same sort of digital signage display unit as those for indoor environments, except, obviously, an outdoor digital signage totem provides protection against the weather and variable temperatures of an outdoor environment.

Outdoor digital signage screens are often viewed from farther away than indoor screens, so larger screens are more effective at being noticed. For this reason, outdoor digital signage totems come in sizes up to 70”, which provides a large, eye-catching form of outdoor screen that is near impossible to miss.

Position Matters – effective placement of digital signage displays is a post from: Armagard

 Both IP ratings and NEMA codes, such as the IP65 and NEMA 4, which are commonly associated with outdoor environments, denote the level of ingress protection an outdoor digital signage enclosure provides. Ingress is the protection offered by an enclosure in preventing foreign bodies from getting inside. These bodies may be dust, rain or snow, which while important to keep out in an outdoor environment, there is more to outdoor digital signage protection than just ingress protection.

While an IP65 digital signage enclosure (or a NEMA 4 enclosure) will offer a useful guide as to the environment it can operate in, it’s important to ensure an outdoor digital signage enclosure is equipped to deal with all the hazards that outdoor digital signage faces in operation.

Temperature for instance, is something not covered by either the IP rating system or the NEMA codes, and yet any IP65 digital signage enclosure not equipped to cope with the variable temperatures of an outdoor environment will soon fail. Both ranges of temperature, high heat and freezing cold, need defending against to prevent screen failure, so as well as ensuring a screen is waterproof to NEMA 4 or IP65, and IP65 digital signage enclosure also needs to be able to cope with seasonal temperature changes.

Physical protection is also something not covered by either the IP or NEMA rating system. Again, an outdoor digital signage system unable to cope with impacts, either accidental or deliberate vandalism, won’t last very long in an outdoor environment. For this reason outdoor digital signage enclosures need to be rugged enough to withstand impacts and attempts at vandalism.  This often means be solidly constructed from a tough material such as steel, as well as having some form of shatterproof screen protection that won’t smash.

Outdoor Digital Signage – Thinking Beyond IP and NEMA Ratings is a post from: Armagard

This means people want to read the news when they have a few minutes spare with little else to do, such as when commuting on public transport, waiting at a train or subway station, or standing in line at a fast food restaurant.

And providing news to people in such situations can have several benefits for service providers and digital signage provides the ideal method of offering people news and information.

By installing a screen that provides customers with news and information, you can keep people amused during times of waiting. This increases customer satisfaction and reduces complaints when trains are late or when waiting in a particular long line.

Secondly, by providing news and information on an outdoor digital signage screen you are giving people an impetus to look at the display, providing other opportunities to offer more self-serving content. This can come in the guise of advertisements, promotions or branding information, which is more likely to be viewed than just providing this promotional content on its own.

Of course, news feeds do come with fairly high subscription costs from many news outlets, such as Reuters or Associated Press, but news doesn’t have to be national or from a top service provider. Indeed, providing more localized and relevant information can often be just as effective at getting people’s attention.

News concerning changes in service and the latest developments in a particular industry can garner interest from customers, especially if it is relevant to their needs. Some companies are even taking this measure to its extreme, by starting up their own TV stations to provide digital signage news and content, such as McDonalds, which has just launched McDonalds TV, where fast food outlets will have digital signage displaying entertainment, news, advertising and restaurant-specific pieces.

But news feeds don’t have to be so sophisticated. Uploading content from blogs, Twitter feeds or the company website can be just as effective at gaining people’s interest. Providing such content provides an ideal platform for communicating between your business and your customers, helping to develop trust and raising brand awareness.

Using Outdoor Screens as Digital Signage for News Feeds is a post from: Armagard

Various methods of interactivity are available such as touchscreens, but even standard outdoor LCD screens can be used interactively, thanks to a brand new app, available for smartphones.

Screach is a new and unique interactive digital media platform, which allows real-time, two-way interactive experiences between a smartphone and any screen. Using Screach, content developers can build interactive experiences for customers at no cost and in a matter of hours, such as live polling, gaming or quizzes.

Screach is cross-platform and available on most smart phone devices, iPhone and Android, with Blackberry, Symbian and Windows 7 coming in 2011.

An example of Screach interactivity can be seen below, with the large outdoor digital signage display outside the Westfield shopping centre in London being used to provide an interactive driving game, helping to promote car insurers Swift Cover.

Screach is available to download for smartphones at the usually app store locations, and for content developers, more information can be found at: http://www.screenreach.com/the-platform/

Screach App – Interactivity on any Outdoor Screen is a post from: Armagard

Digital signage has been around for about ten years now, but what does its future hold, and will we still be viewing out of home screens in a decade’s time?

Digital signage has been around since modern flatscreen TVs first came on to the market. The lightweight, unobtrusive nature LCD and plasma screens made them ideal for placing on walls to provide advertising content.

Soon our shopping malls, airports, and other locations that receive large amounts of visitors became littered with digital signage displays, and they are now found in doctor’s surgeries, gas stations, pharmacies and outside as outdoor digital signage.

Today, the global digital signage market is a multi-billion dollar market and by 2017, it is estimated that globally the digital signage market will be worth $14 billion.

Currently, indoor digital signage is beginning to wane and receiving less growth than outdoor digital signage. As there are far less outdoor screens around, there is obviously much more room for outdoor digital signage to expand—but does this mean that indoor is reaching a zenith?

With the advent of technologies such as high definition, glasses free 3D and facial recognition software, digital signage is expected to advance, maybe not in installations, but advance in sophistication, providing both consumers and advertisers more opportunities.

Digital signage is here to stay, but the shape and design of future out of home systems may make the modern digital signage display as antiquated as the VCR.

The Future of Digital Signage is a post from: Armagard

More and more digital signage displays are being utilised outdoors and in other hazardous locations, not just for advertising but also for information and communication. Of course, standard digital signage screens are unable to operate in the open air, as the weather would cause the screens to fail. The same is true of dusty locations, as dust is just as problematic as liquids if it penetrates a TV as it can lead to short circuiting, overheating and other problems.

Different types of locations require different levels of protection. While a distribution warehouse may only need to keep dust out of a display, a screen operating in a food production facility that is regularly washed-down will need to keep water out. While outdoor locations will need to keep both rainfall and other weather elements from the screen as well as any wind-blown dust or particles.

Fortunately, outdoor LCD enclosures used for protecting screens in outdoor and harsh locations, are manufactured to international guidelines, which indicate what type of environment the equipment can operate in.

IP rating

The European IP rating (ingress protection) is a numbered scale that describes protection from both liquids and solids. The first digit of the double-digit number denotes the effectiveness of the enclosure against solids. The higher the number, the more effective, and therefore, smaller the particles the enclosure prevents getting inside.

The second digit denotes its effectiveness against liquids. Again, the higher the number the more effective the enclosure is defending against liquids; with splashes on the lower end of the scale to full-scale power-washing defence on the higher end of the scale.

NEMA

Commonly used in North America, the NEMA scale operates a little differently to the European rating. NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) operates a single digit number scale going from 1 through to 13, with each number offering a specific type of protection. For example, a NEMA 2 enclosure is suitable for indoor screens just requiring protection from dust, while a NEMA 4 enclosure is suitable or outdoor use to defend against rain.

For most outdoor digital signage systems the minimum ratings to look for are NEMA 3 (NEMA 4 is preferable) and IP 54 (IP 65 is more comprehensive).

IP and NEMA Ratings for Digital Signage is a post from: Armagard

Royal Caribbean are installing digital signs for wayfinding, which will also provide details of onboard activities, real-time updates, and customised directions and routing, while LED Video Walls installed across the pool decks will provide cruise ship entertainment programmes.

Digital signage is an ideal medium for modern cruise ships, which are like floating cities containing hundreds of passengers, multiple decks, shops, restaurants and entertainment facilities, so finding an effective method of communicating with passengers is essential.

Digital signage has many advantages, especially in such a scheduled environment like a cruise ship where programmes and arrival times become subject to changes, the screens enabling real time updates and providing passengers with the latest news and schedule changes.

Using digital signage on board a boat, particularly outdoors, can pose problems for the technology, though. While all outdoor digital signage requires comprehensive protection, ensuring weather elements can’t get at the screen, on an ocean-going cruise ship protection against salt-water needs considering.

Salt-water provides some serious challenges for outdoor digital signage; not only can the water itself cause problems, damaging the screen if allowed to penetrate, but salt-water also causes corrosion.

Any screen located in or near an ocean environment needs protecting against salt-water, even if the screen is quite far inland, as sea-spray, and therefore salt-water, can travel on the breeze.

Another problem in ocean locations is the threat of wind-blown dust and debris. As oceans are flat, with no topographical features, the areas tend to be windier than locations inland.

Wind-blown dust is just as damaging as water if allowed to penetrate and outdoor digital signage enclosure as dust can constitute all sorts of materials, including conductive elements that can short-circuit electronics.

Dust also causes overheating by blocking vents and clogging up fans, so outdoor digital signage enclosures need dust proofing as well as waterproofing.

Digital Signage on the High Seas is a post from: Armagard

Outdoor TV in a beer garden

When the sun’s out, the pub trade gets a slight reprieve, with more customers flocking through the doors; the same can be said for big sports tournaments like the World Cup or UEFA championships.

Making the most of these peak trade events can make the difference to a pub staying in profit by the end of the year, or having to close its doors, permanently.

Following the smoking ban, many pub customers now prefer to socialise outdoors, so providing them with outdoor entertainment helps keep them for longer—especially during these big sporting tournaments.

Outdoor TVs are a great way of keeping customers happy and help generate new trade. The only problem with many outdoor TV systems is the initial cost—often too much of an investment for a struggling publican to justify as they cost many times more than standard TVs.

Of course, a standard LCD TV can’t be taken outside because of the weather; however, they can if they are adequately protected.

An outdoor TV enclosure is a cost-effective method of using standard LCD TVs outside. Housing standard TVs, LCD TV enclosures can be mounted on the wall and ensure the enclosed TV is protected from the weather, as well as providing a secure anti-tamper housing that protects against theft and vandalism.

Whether you use an old TV, or buy a new one for outdoors—high brightness screens are best suited for this task—the cost savings using an outdoor TV enclosure compared to a specific outdoor TV (which will still needs some form of theft and vandalism protection) can be huge.

LCD TV enclosures can also house several generations of screen so you can upgrade and replace the housed LCD whenever needed.

Want an Outdoor Screen for your Pub? 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

However, computer equipment can harbour a hidden menace. Viruses, bacteria and other pathogens are commonly harboured on computer keyboards and mice. In fact, more of these germs exist on the average computer keyboard than they do on a toilet seat, making computer keyboards and mice a transmitter of infection.

Hospital acquired infections are a serious problem. These superbugs, such as MRSA and C. difficile, are often resilient to antibiotics and are responsible for thousands of deaths in hospitals each year.

Controlling these infections is now a prime consideration of healthcare services and severe measures of hygiene control are initiated in many hospitals, such as ensuring staff and visitors use barrier creams and wash hands thoroughly between patients.

A medical keyboard and washable mouse is part of this overall infection control. Keyboards, manufactured from silicone, can be regularly cleaned and provide a surface that is resistant to bacteria.

A computer mouse is an object that is handled frequently. A computer mouse used by several people can transfer infection to dozens and even hundreds of people. A washable or medical mouse will also be manufactured from silicone and can be cleaned easily.

However, a computer mouse has to be practical and in the modern health care setting there is often not the space; or it can be hazardous to have too many wires hanging around. A wireless mouse offers freedom to control and input computer systems without the need of being tied to the same spot.

Now, a wireless and washable computer mouse is available that has operates by Wi-Fi. Capable of controlling a mouse pointer from over fifteen feet away, this precise and smooth mouse is washable and contains nano silver anti-bacterial components.

Manufactured from silicon and battery powered the washable wireless mouse communicated with a miniature USB dongle and has all the functionality of a standard mouse including: left and right buttons and scroll wheel functions (controlled by buttons).

Wireless Medical Mouse – Washable and Wi-Fi is a post from: Armagard