We did it, finally. It took about 14 hours – from 6h00 in the morning until 20h00 in the evening but we finally did it.

Euro Display installed the biggest and highest outdoor advertising LED screen in Italy during a spectacular installation yesterday in Milan: with a surface of almost 100sq m and a weight of 13 tons, the LED screen was lifted up 50 meters by a huge 400 tons crane and fixed by 2 specialized technicians equipped with special climbing gear.

The installation itself took about 4 hours, including the lifting, fixing and start-up – but the process was postponed 3 times during the day due to the strong wind onsite that almost forced us to delay the installation to another day.

I believe it is a really unique screen because it brings together one of the most remarkable locations in Italy, with the biggest advertising LED screen ever installed outdoor in the Country.

Euro Display’s management software enables the LED screen to visualize hourly updated local/national weather forecasts, international news and live videos to attract audiences with updated and interactive content. And of course the LED screen is programmed to self adjust its brightness to any environmental conditions.

The LED screen was designed by Euro Display technicians to deliver the highest image quality, even at extreme viewing angles due to the height at which the screen is installed.

Our Customer didn’t want to incline the LED screen, so we had to design a new frontal protection system to ensure an amazing side view angle of 170° without any distortion.

The huge LED screen was installed in Via Alcide De Gasperi and it is visible from the highly trafficated freeway exit of Viale Certosa, the very first exit which leads downtown to the FieraMilanoCity Exhibition Centre.

The installation procedure was impressive: the huge structure weighting more than 13 tons was lifted up to 50 meters where 2 technicians equipped with special climbing gear proceeded with the mechanical installation.

With almost 100sq m and a resolution of 800 x 640 pixels and over half a million highly selected LEDs, Euro Display’s LED screen will become a landmark in sight of Milan Expo 2015, the universal exhibition which will be held in the next few years.

Here’s a few pictures of the installation as well. Hope you like it. I do!

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

Today is your turn to speak because I would like to ask each one of you, a very serious question that too often suppliers forget to ask...

What bothers you the most about LED Screens? What gives you a headache?

What is it the one thing that frustrates the heck out of you? What is that still stops you from making the final decision?

• Is that you are not sure about the ROI?
• Or maybe you can not find a supplier that you fully trust?
• Are you doubtful about the reliability of the equipment?
• What is it that bothers YOU?

Please let me know, if you ever thought of installing a LED Screen, what did stop you? Why did you give up the idea?

To send me your opinion, please just Click Here.

If you’ll be kind enough to give me your opinion, as a token of my appreciation I’ll be pleased to send you for *free* a couple of very cool bright blue LED key chains.

I really look forward to your comments.

Fabio

PS: please Click Here to tell me what bugs you the most with LED Screens AND remember to include your full address in order to get the free gifts.

Ok, so we said that your job is to be the salesman of your Customer - using your LED screen properly.

You must create ads that will help him to sell more of what he offers: if you fail to do that, on the long run your Customer will realize that he could spend his advertising money on another medium or just use them to go out with friends.

Now, this is not an easy task: if it was easy, anyone would do it - that's why you are paid good money from your Customers.

There are many things you should do to create effective advertising (and in case you didn’t notice it yet, investigating such techniques is the main aim of this blog), but the very first thing you should do is identify your (Customer's) target, the final user.

This isn’t easy either because most of your advertisers don’t know who their "target Customer" is... so if even they don’t know, then why should you care?

Because if you don’t find it out, your advertising won’t be effective, your Customers won’t renew their contracts and you'll have to spend resources finding new Customers rather than milking those you already have.

How to identify the "target user" will be the topic of a few posts to come, but here are some hints you may want to consider:

• Advertising messages should be created for, and directed at, the Heavy Using Customers in your category (please, order the The Ad Contrarian book. It's free - see the Resources Section).
• Women make [almost all] the financial decisions and they buy [almost] everything—commercial as well as consumer goods.
• People over 50 comprise 29% of the population and they control 77% of financial assets (and they are the target for 10% of all advertising!!!)

Now, I know that the profile of your target Customer must be way more accurate and that these are general facts that not necessarily describe your final user... but you can not ignore them either.

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.