Some “manufacturers” promise you they are using 100% Nichia LEDs... but be careful because some of them could not be totally honest with you.

Nichia is one of the leading companies in the LED industry and surely the most awarded... that's why some suppliers try to take advantage of this brand. Here’s the whole story:

The main reason why you should be suspicious is because on the LED screens, there are 3 colors – Red, Green and Blue, the primary colors.

So the first question you should ask the potential supplier is: are ALL the 3 colors provided by Nichia, or only one of them?

Indeed, when they tell you they use Nichia LEDs, usually what they actually mean is that they use Nichia for the Green, Cree for the Red and Opto Tech for the Blue.

In order to protect yourself from this fraud I suggest you to take the following steps:

• The first thing to do is to ask the supplier to provide you a proof of purchase of the LEDs from the LED manufacturer. Such document should include the number of order, date of issue and quantity.
  
  In case the potential supplier find any excuse not to provide you with this document, please start to evaluate the situation very carefully.
• The second thing to do is to have Nichia’s experts to perform a test to prove whether you received what you paid for or not. The test has an indicative costs of a few hundreds Euros and you can expect results within a couple of weeks.
  
  You can reach Nichia Corporation’s laboratories at the following contacts:
  
  Nichia Chemical Pte Ltd
  78 Shenton Way, #05-04,
  Singapore 079120
  Tel : +65-63248218
  Fax : +65-63245756

This is the first article of the series titled "LED Screens: Top 10 Tips for First Time Buyers". So if you are considering the purchase of a LED screen for advertising, sport or events, stay tuned.

The next article is about the "Dedicated Proprietary Control System": it actually sounds very professional, but this fancy denomination hides some serious drawbacks that nobody ever tells you, until it's too late...

IF you are considering the purchase of your first LED screen, then keep reading.

When you face the LED Screen industry for the first time, you are most probably overloaded with technical information, promises and ideas that are passed to you as hard facts.

The series of articles described below will explain how to avoid the most common, painful and expensive mistakes people make when buying a LED screen.

Here’s the summary of what we'll discuss in the next articles:

1. Nichia LEDs… or Not?
   Some “manufacturers” promise you they are using 100% Nichia LEDs... but they are promising the impossible. Here’s why they are lying and how to recognize them..
2. Dedicated Proprietary Control System
   It actually sounds very professional, but this fancy denomination hides some serious drawbacks that nobody ever tells you, until it's too late.
3. LED Screen in Franchising
   Very interesting proposal. If you are a novice in the industry, the low initial investment can be very tempting… but not all that shines is gold! Here’s the nightmares stories of entrepreneurs that already tried it before you.
4. Resellers: Watch Out for their Conflict of Interest
   On the market there are several options if you want to buy a LED screen, but not all are manufacturers... Here’s what you risk when buy from a reseller that has a conflict of interest in providing you the best equipment and how to recognize them..
5. Air Conditioning: How to Solve a Problem at Your Expenses
   Sometimes you might be told that you need to install the air conditioning on the screen, at any cost. While this makes sense in tropical areas, it is un-necessary for moderate climates… so why insisting? Here's how they are trying to solve their problems at your expenses.
6. Prices Drops Dramatically before Closing the Order
   Of course it is normal a little discount to seal the deal, but sometimes you‘ll see prices drop dramatically (over 30%) when you are pressured to close the order. Here's why they are surely cheating you.
7. Best Quality at Lowest Prices, Thanks to Big Volumes?
   Someone claims to use the best components on the market, and still be able to provide the lowest price on the market. Of course this sounds so tempting, and you wish it was true. But when you think about it rationally, this does not make sense. Here’s why it's not possible.
8. The Photo-Book
   This is a classic “hard-sell” technique, used in many Industries. When visiting a supplier, they will show you a photo-book where there are several nice pictures of what they claim to be their product and some ugly pictures of what they claim to be their competitor’s product.
   
   Since this strategy can be counterproductive, it is used only with Customers that are considered less competent, since they won’t notice some incongruences… that we'll explain into details.
9. “I Am the Real Supplier”
   Some companies might claim to be the “supplier” of the company you are dealing with or – as a variant – they might claim (1) to have the same control system, (2) the same software, (3) to have “Italian Heart Inside”, or (4) even to have shares in the competitor company. Here's how to recognize them.
10. Are You Getting the Same Product You Were Shown?
    This is not a selling technique but a real scam, and you could take legal action against it... but prevent is better than cure. Here's how it works: you could be shown (and then purchase) a LED Screen with a smaller resolution than declared. For example, you could be shown a pitch 6/12mm and told that it is a pitch 8/16mm... Here's how you can make sure to get what you saw.
11. BONUS Tip – If YOU Are the Reseller
    In case the reseller is you, be careful and never disclose the name of your final customer until you signed a Non Disclosure Agreement that protects you. Otherwise you risk that the supplier contacts directly the final Customer and you loose the business… This can happen especially in two circumstances: here they are.

Here’s the 10 tips to avoid costly pitfalls that you could regret for a long time. Please stay tuned as the followig articles will go deeper in each of them. If you can not wait, please come and see us or call at +39/011-954-1015 for further info.

Is air conditioning on digital billboards and LED screens really needed? As it often happens, the answer is "it depends".

But statistically, from my experience, I would say that only less than 10% of the LED screens needs it. Which means that more than 90% don't need air conditioning.

What is the Main PRO of Air Conditioning?

An effectively designed and installed air conditioning system provides higher protection in extreme weather conditions. In general, such conditions are mainly in Middle East countries and tropical areas.

Cooling down the air inside the modules allows you to:

(1) reach higher brightness because you can increase the LEDs brilliance without the risk of overheating

(2) and therefore extend the electronic components lifetime which otherwise would be considerably shorter in such extreme weather

But if there are such advantages, why aren't ALL digital billboards on the market equipped with air conditioning? Because despite this undoubtable benefit, there are some critical consequence that must take into account: 

What are the Main CONS of Air Conditioning?

(1) Consumptions: with the A/C the power supply rise to approximately twice the consumption of the LED screen only. That's because in order to cool down a system, you need roughly as much energy it was needed to heat it up. In some very extreme conditions, the final cost was even more than doubled.

(2) Maintenance: in order to keep the air conditioning system working effectively all the time, you must dedicate a considerably higher amount of time (scheduled maintenance, systems checks etc).

(3) Complexity: by adding another significant element to the equipment, such as the A/C system, you add the number of potential inconveniences

(4) Response: the digital billboard supplier is of course your only reference for the installation, but due to the fact that the A/C is covered by the warranty from the third party, the response time could be slower than you wish.

(5) Direct and Indirect Costs: last but not least, the overall cost of the equipment is higher.

And it is important that you do not only consider the direct cost, which is the cost of the A/C system. Indeed there are more subtle expenses that are more difficult to control but that can have a big impact on the final investment.

Such indirect costs are: higher cost of the structure to support the extra weight (usually about 30% more weight), higher cost of transportation (for the same reason), higher cost of installation (more connection, more people needed).

Final Thoughts

So as mentioned at the beginning, each case must be analyzed to decide whether the A/C system is really needed or not.

In general, I would say to trust what we (or your supplier) suggest you: our technicians have more experience and they can use mathematical models based on the average temperature in your area to decide whether the A/C is needed or not.

Furthermore, due the 24 months full warranty, it is in our interest to provide you with a product that will run smoothly and with no problems.

Latest Installations

The images below and the one at the top of the post, are taken from a recent installation in Greece of a proMarket 410 with Air Conditioning (4x3 meters).

Foto 1 | Mounting

Foto 2 | Rear View

Foto 3 | Closeup

Well, if you ask me, of course it is. But you could also say that I’m biased.

So here’s a picture with two screens: on the left there is a screen from a pretty famous competitor, on the right a screen from Euro Display (3 years old). Both screens have a 10mm Virtual Pitch.

Do you see any significant difference?

Of course you do. But how can we explain such differences? Here a few advantages of the Euro Display technology that the pictures explains better than a thousands words:

• Pure White: this is the measure to evaluate any LED Screen quality. The whiter the white, the better is the screen. But why it is a key aspect to evaluate? Because it is the result of (1) the perfect calibration of the RGB colors made by the Electronic Control System and (2) the great contrast ratio provided by the mechanical design of the frontal sunshaders. Therefore a “Pure White” can be obtained only with superior know-how, both electronically and mechanically.
• Chromatic Equalization: this is an image management feature that ensure realistic colors and images at any time. How do we do it exactly? By automatically recalibrating the “red” component added by the sunlight during the day-hours. This feature is fundamental to avoid red-ish images and most important, complaints from your advertisers or viewers.
• High Refresh Rate: this feature is important to avoid flickering and blurry images when the screen is photographed or recorded with a video camera.

To be fair, the second image is taken from a prospective more in favor of the Euro Display screen. But that should affect the perceived resolution, not the overall image quality.

So if you ever thought that any LED screen equals another, be careful. When I say that superior image quality has always been one of our main concerns and selling points, that’s what I’m talking about.

Here's the second round of our virtual match between, on the right coner, the LED Screen manufacturers from China and, on the left corner, the potential Customers from the rest of the word. Today I'm publishing a second message I got from Tom (see the first email here) and another message I received from Asia (and Edwin seems to be more a Customer than a Vendor).

Following the suggestion of a friend, I removed the comments I initially posted.
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