Outdoor LCD vs Indoor LCD

Location, location, location. You may have heard this mantra when talking to DOOH advertiser. While location is very important in advertising, it is also important when designing digital signs.

Indoor LCD systems are made for safe room temperature and controlled environment. As the opposite, outdoor LCD systems are compromised by environmental factors such as solar radiation, heat, cold, temperature fluctuation, dust, dirt, pollution, humidity, condensation, high ambient light and vandalism. Their complexity arises from the demanding needs of the installation environment.

LCD digital signs come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The real main distinction between outdoor and indoor systems are hardware complexity and thermal management.

Thermal Management is the Key

Technical specifications of LCD panels are slightly misleading. All specifications are true only in pitch black room, under “normal” ambient conditions (25°C, +/- 2°C). In general, lower temperatures mean longer life expectancy and a better image quality.

The estimation of panel lifetime is not an exact science as there are a number of variables (i.e. temperature profile of each LED is slightly different due to the thermal characteristics of the panel, LED manufacturing tolerance), but typical operating life time of 50.000 hours is true only in mentioned “normal” ambient conditions.

Outdoor LCD systems have to cope with various external environmental factors. Therefore, performance of outdoor digital kiosks in real life varies greatly from system to system, even if the same LCD panels are integrated.

Temperature management is essential to:

• Enable optimal performance levels.

• Prevent black spots and LCD panel failure.

• Ensure long life time of integrated components.

• Reliability.

An increase of every degree above “normal” ambient temperature, reduces the lifetime of electronics. For every 10-degree celsius rise, the lifetime is halved. Moreover, 55% of electronic failures are due to poor temperature control. To keep it short, thermal management ensures long-term operation and minimizes maintenance.

Visual Performance and Reliability

When developing imotion G7, Infinitus had in mind two basic goals: visual performance and reliability. As we described above, both goals are closely related and depend on the quality of the thermal management.

Imotion G7 solves those problems, with unique HVAC cooling module, which is keeping stable, laboratory like enclosure climate (20-25 ⁰C). Due to its closed airflow loop no dust particles are entering the internal compartment (no filters).

As a result, these systems will deliver best visual performance, highest operation reliability and longest useful life time on the market. The phrase describing these products best is HIGHEST RELIABILITY AND PERFORMANCE for most demanding outdoor environments found on earth, including the ME and Africa region.