“What Kind of Screens Should I Buy?”
This is one of the most common questions that we hear at XOGO. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but don't worry. In this blog post we'll cover all of the main things to consider when choosing your digital signage displays.
Terminology
Digital signage can be played on many types of digital screens, from televisions and computer monitors to tablets, projectors and even multi-panel LED arrays. For our purposes we'll refer to all of these using the generic term "displays".
Location Location Location
The first thing to consider when choosing your displays is where you are going to mount them. Are your displays going to be mounted near the ceiling, in free-standing kiosks, or on the wall? At what point in your customer's journey does he/she need to see your messaging? The first step is always deciding where to put your messaging so that people see it.
Pro Tip 1: If you are mounting your display outdoors, you'll want to choose a display that's weatherproof and extra bright so it can be viewed on a sunny day. Manufacturers like SunBrite build standalone displays specifically for outdoor use. You might also consider a direct-view LED array such as those made by NEC and LG; the panels click together to create a huge video wall with no visible bezels in between each panel, and there are models for both indoor and outdoor use.
Pro Tip 2: Double-check the screw pattern that your display has on the back (i.e. VESA 200) so you can purchase the correct mounting hardware to go along with it. Distributors like Peerless AV have loads of options that allow you to mount your display in landscape or portrait orientation, tilt it to varying degrees, or even hang it from the ceiling.
Screen Size & Resolution
Now that you’ve decided where to put your displays, the next thing to think about is what size they should be. In some cases there will be physical limitations to consider, i.e. the display needs to fit into a particular space on your wall. However, when choosing a size it's also important to consider the distance between your displays and the people viewing them. If you are standing too close to a display, you may start to see individual rows and columns of pixels on the screen. Too far away, and it becomes difficult to see fine details or read text on the screen. So how should you choose?
As a rule of thumb, the optimal viewing distance of a 1080HD display is approximately 2X the display's size (this size is measured diagonally across the screen). The optimal distance with 4k displays is approximately 1.25X the display's size. In other words you can get closer to a 4k display without noticing individual pixels, because a 4k display has twice as many pixels (twice the “pixel density,” in other words) as a 1080HD display of the same size.
The chart below will give you a rough idea of the ideal viewing distances for various sizes of 1080HD and 4k displays. Note that this is just an approximation. When in doubt, don’t be afraid to cut out a cardboard template in the same size as your display, and tape it on the wall / countertop / etc. to see how it will look in your space!
Deciphering LCD, LED, and OLED.
There are a lot of acronyms out there, but here’s what you need to know. The vast majority of displays today use LCD (liquid crystal display) technology. They have an LED backlight (light emitting diode) so everyone simply refers to them as LED televisions. They come in loads of different sizes and price ranges, and they’re very bright so they work well even in well-lit rooms. You probably have one in your living room.
An OLED (organic light emitting diode) display is somewhat different - rather than a backlight, every single pixel is its own independently controlled light source. OLED displays offer amazing control over contrast and black levels, and look really nice even when viewed from a sharp angle. They are not quite as bright as backlit LED displays, however.
Pro Tip 3: A lot of projectors now employ LED technology as well, because it’s energy-efficient and doesn’t require frequent bulb changes. LED projectors top out at a few thousand lumens of brightness and are still at their best when used in dimly-lit environments, but the picture looks amazing in the right setting. It’s also far less expensive to purchase a projector that can generate a massive 100-inch image, versus purchasing a 100-inch television itself. There are even “short-throw” projectors that use a special mirror to project a 90-100” 4k image onto a wall or projection screen just a few inches away. This opens up a lot of possibilities - not only for home theater enthusiasts, but also for displaying digital signage and advertising content.
Standalone or Video Wall?
If you are planning to stack two or more displays together to create a video wall (one picture distributed across multiple displays like a billboard) then you should look for displays that have a thin bezel. That's the part of the display -usually black plastic- that goes all the way around the actual screen. You want this to be as thin as possible so that when you stack the displays together, they will appear as a single large display, without thick black lines in between all of the screens.
If you are stacking displays on top of one another vertically, we would recommend commercial-grade displays (or even direct-view LED panels) that have internal fans to keep their operating temperatures down. Since heat rises, the upper displays in a video wall have a tendency to run hot; internal fans help regulate the temperature and prevent your hardware from wearing out prematurely.
Lastly, for video wall installations we highly recommend selecting displays that have a tile matrix option. This is a software feature that allows you to tell each display its position within your video wall. You can then daisy-chain your displays via DisplayPort cables such that the media player PC connects to display #1, display #1 connects to display #2, and so on.
In a tile matrix setup the displays are able to divide the signal coming from the PC among themselves, so you don't need to purchase an expensive media controller device to split the signal and send a portion of it to each screen. It also makes your video wall setup much faster and easier. Tile matrix is available on commercial displays from NEC, LG, Samsung, ViewSonic and more.
Hours of Operation
If you're just running your display 12hrs per day in a retail location, and not using it in a video wall, a consumer-grade display like the one in your home will likely work just fine. They also cost less and can be purchased almost anywhere.
However, if you plan to have your display running 18-24hrs per day, it's much better to source commercial-grade displays. They are made with heat-resistant components, often have internal cooling fans, and you can schedule them to turn on/off automatically to match your store hours. They cost a little more, but they will typically last much longer than a consumer display.
Pro Tip 4: If you are using a consumer-grade display but you still want to schedule it to turn on/off automatically, consider using a smart power strip like the mPower series from Ubiquiti. It will power your devices on/off according to a programmed schedule, or when triggered over the Internet.
Where to Purchase
Consumer-grade displays are ubiquitous these days and can be found at electronics retailers like Best Buy, and online marketplaces like Amazon. Commercial-grade displays are typically purchased from tech distributors such as CDW and Zones, and certain online retailers like NewEgg. Your distributor can recommend specific models based upon the display type, size and features that you're looking for, as well as your budget.
Okay, but what does XOGO use?
We’ve had very successful commercial deployments all over the world with NEC, and in fact we’re currently building a version of XOGO Player that will run natively on NEC’s Raspberry Pi-powered displays. We’ve also partnered with ViewSonic and LG. In our labs we run everything from top-of-the-line 4k video walls to inexpensive Fire TV televisions & tablets from Amazon. At the end of the day, you can play digital signage on nearly any display but by following the guide above you’ll ensure that your content looks sharp and that your displays will have a long service life. Feel free to contact us if you have questions or would like an introduction to one of our display partners.
