In recent months we could read worrying environmental headlines. Whatever the reasons, we cannot deny that extreme weather affects our daily lives. This new reality is not impacting only people, but also all outdoor electronic systems. Hence, thermal management in outdoor electronic systems is becoming increasingly important.

Temperature the Silent Killer

Universally is recognized that electronics reliability suffers when devices are too hot for too long. The rule of thumb is that an increase of every degree above room 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.

This is especially true for outdoor LCD signage system. Outdoor LCD totems have to cope with various outside environment effects. Due to this fact, performance of outdoor digital kiosks in real life varies greatly from system to system, even if the same LCD panels are integrated. The essential element of outdoor system is temperature control.

Temperature management is essential to:

• Prevent black spots; the effect on LCD panel when on-surface temperature is too high.

• Enable optimal performance levels; generally speaking, high brightness and good contrast ratio means quality image.

• Ensure long life time of integrated components.

• Reliability.

Temperature Peaks are Important

If the enclosure temperature moves towards operational bounds components can get permanently damaged. Operational bounds are in general around 0 - 40°C. At first glance, the temperature range looks great.

But don’t forget that the heat is generated by three factors:

• Ambient air temperature.

• Integrated UHB LCD.

• Solar radiation.

Imagine getting into a stationary car after it has been in the sun, at 32°C all day. When you get into a vehicle that’s been in the sun for a few hours, without moving, the internal temperature is generally hotter than the external temperature.

When choosing correct technology for outdoor digital sign, simple logic would be to check the average temperature at micro location and look if the cheapest solution meets the criterium. For example, in Rovaniemi the hottest month is July, (max) average temperature was 20°C, let’s add another 5°C, just to be on the safe side and we get 25°C. Perfect, this is room temperature, which is ideal. But unfortunately, things are not that simple. In to equation, we must add solar radiation and heat resulting from integrated UHB LCD (backlights). Therefore, enclosure temperature will be much higher than ambient. We also forgot that average temperature is not appropriate data to draw conclusions. Temperature peaks are important. And this fact brings us back to the initial thought. Just one extremely hot week in the year can mean unanticipated rising costs and a bad experience for both, system integrators and their clients.

LCD digital signs are expensive piece of electronics. They are intended for 24/7/365 operation and installed in environments in which conditions constantly change. To justify high initial investment, LCD systems need to be reliable.

Why we mentioned Rovaniemi? Because it’s a great example how the things should be done. Santa Claus Village wanted better exposure of local services. They wanted a shift from static to interactive, advanced technology. They needed outdoor digital sing that can be deployed in toughest of the environments and still reliably deliver best visual performance. They choose imotion G6, a unique technology which uses two separate heat exchange bodies. Internal and external compartment are hermetically divided into two separate environments. Such principle enables to close LCD and all other electronics into a completely protected environment. Because no air from outside enters inside compartment there is no need for any sort of air filtration. These systems are immune to almost all-weather effects, from one meter of snow, to extremely hot summer temperature peaks.

Because Santa Claus Village choose imotion G6 technology, which we must admit is not the cheapest on the market, they are worry free, even in extreme weather times. Few weeks ago, Lapland region recorded stunning 33.4°C (92.1°F), all-time record. These temperatures are not what comes in to our minds when we think about Santa. But unfortunately, this is the new reality. Have this in mind when buying outdoor digital signs.