Today’s podcast guest is Collin Huber, Out of Home Advertising Market Manager for Daktronics. Collin talks about what to ask when you buy or replace a digital billboard and why mils matter.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:22 — 22.5MB)
Here are the highlights
What are some questions digital billboard buyers overlook?
From a product perspective it’s important to ask what capabilities of this display exist to make sure the sign is looking as good at the end of its life as it does when it is first fired up.
Another thing to consider is what the expected lifetime really is. Displays are going to perform differently when they are in different environments. And just because a display may be sold with a brightness guarantee and even a 10 year warranty that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to last that long, that it’s going to perform, that it’s going to look as good when it ages…
Another question to ask is are there any exclusions in the warranty coverage…There are certain components on the sign that are very expensive to replace…at Daktronics we cover everything that we ship whether its something manufactured here or something that we add on.
Also it’s good for a buyer to ask “how can my display be future proof?” Does my control system allow for the need for more memory and processing power or have the ability to transition to a third party operating software.
Lastly, it’s important to partner with a company that’s involved in the support of the out of home industry. What other things does the company do to help owner operators to be successful…You recently published an article that touched on Daktronics and our signage legislation team and how we are sometimes able to assist with certain regulatory needs…
How should a company think about the replace versus repair tradeoff for a digital billboard?
There are three options to consider when you’re getting to the end of the life of a display…
Replace it, you can replace the aging digital billboard with new technology. If you go with this option it allows an owner to have a display that has improved image quality, the latest control system capability and in general an overall lower cost of ownership.
The second option would be continued maintenance of the aging sign. And in some situations you may be able to extend the life of the display by getting replacement parts ahead of time and refreshing the display…just cleaning the face. As dirt and dust build up on the louvres it will cause the display to look aged…You can use some calibration capabilities that most digital signs have the ability or even moving a discolored older module around the face into an area where its less noticeable…
The third option would be to chose to move this aging sign to another location, maybe it’s a secondary location, and maximize the lifetime by getting a couple more years out of it where it’s not competing against some newer displays…
What are mils and why do they matter?
When you refer to mils, its millimeters and it’s the distance between the LED pixels on the face of the display. So the smaller the number…the closer the distance and the better the resolution…What an owner actually needs is pretty subjective…there is a trend in the industry to go towards a higher resolution product…but you have to keep in mind what your application is. A bulletin alongside a freeway or highway…can get by with less resolution because your audience isn’t going to be very close to it. It’s not going to be able to tell much of a difference between a 20 or a 16 or a 13…Smaller format signs that are closer to the traffic…they are going to need a higher resolution product such as a 16 millimeter. And when we go to smaller format signs or urban type displays we…use 10 millimeter or even less than that which is typically built using a surface mount technology.
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