Ask Yourself, "What does my LED sign say about my business?"

What type of display to get?

Monochromatic, color or video display - choosing the LED best for your business.

• If you are dealing with simple text message, price changing or time and temperature displays, a simple digit or monochrome text message center would suffice for your display needs. Motels, convenience stores or a gas station owner who deal with on going price changes and vacancy information prefer a one - three line monochromatic message center
• If your sign messages are image oriented with graphics, icons and video imagery, a full color display will better represent your business look. A sports bar showing sports highlights, a shopping center advertising upcoming events, or a movie theater showing trailers from forthcoming films all do the same thing; bring customers to your business.

Viewing Distance and Speed

The distance between your sign and its viewers is the number one factor in determining the type of LED display you will need. Longer distances require less resolution and shorter distances require higher resolutions. In addition, if you are traveling at 55 MPH on a freeway, and the sign is 600 feet away at a truck stop, the text letters must be at least 20 inches tall to be legible. Likewise, if you are standing 60 feet away from a street level sign, the letters need only be two inches tall to be legible. The rule of thumb is that you need 1 inch for every 30 feet of viewing distance.

Character Height

In addition to the discussion of viewing distances, it is important to know that at least seven rows of diodes are required to make one text character. For multiple lines of text, it requires an eighth line as a separator. This means that for each line of text there needs to be eight rows of pixels, and that those eight rows together measure the required character height.

In other words, if you need three lines of ten inch text characters, you need to have 24 rows of 36 mm pitch pixels to get the proper character height. Of course, you can always use a higher resolution display and combine lines to make bigger text letters.

What about the message content on my display?

Transfer your business expertise to communicating specific messages to attract your customers' attention. A good word, an inspirational thought for the day, new sales specials, you're a keyboard click from keeping in touch with your customers on an ongoing basis.

Your business image. A good display tells who you are.

LED displays are an on-premise advertising medium, and intended to direct nearby traffic flows into your business location. Once you install an LED display outside your business location, it becomes part of your business image. LED displays add a high tech, modern feeling to your business location and help influence 'impulse stops' from passing motorists to do business with the store beneath the sign.

Speedy customers. Are your customers passing you by?

In advertising with any outdoor marketing medium, make sure your audience can easily notice and read the messages on the display.

• When purchasing and installing an LED display, identifying the viewing distance between your audience and the proposed display location is very important.
• Sign location is everything on roadside location. The sign's angle of view, and the amount of time allowable to read the sign messages are important determinants in how your LED sign is placed on location.
• A long viewing distance requires careful though in size of text, pitch of LEDs, and display time per message. The below table is a quick reference to tell you what kind of pitch is ideal for certain viewing distance as well as how much time your audience will have to read the messages on the display.
• When choosing display size and creating messages, it is also important to factor in the speed your audience will be traveling. The best message content is short and sweet. Long text messages are usually have read. It is always a good idea to fit the key information of a message into 1 frame that stays still for several seconds so the audience can finish reading the whole message in one glance.

Government Regulations On Sign Use

In many states and cities, there are regulations governing the use of an LED message center. In certain urban centers, moving messages or video clips may not be permissable. In planning any new sign installation, it is important to talk to your local LED display dealer for assistance in interpreting your local municipal sign codes for regulations about what the kinds of displays that can be put up in public and roadside locations.

Please feel free to contact us to locate an authorized Optec dealer near you, they will be glad to help you.

Optec Displays See The Light of Day

Getting your customers' attention and getting your messages across is the first step in any form of advertising. A boring, non-attention grabbing advertisement will not grab your customers' attention, no matter how effective the marketing message is. A low price, low performance (low brightness, poor readability) LED display can be a big expense with a low return on attracting new customers or bringing in increased sales.

When someone is trying to sell you a display at a low price, it is important to compare their sign's performance with products from established manufacturers such as Optec during daylight before you make the purchase. Think about how many of your customers will miss the messages you are trying to tell them if your display underperforms.

Optec Displays is more than a sign, it's also a brand with a level of product quality, technical service, customer support and a warranty to guarantee you getting the best LED sign products and corporate support for the entire life of the sign.

To help in your decision about the best LED display for your business consult with our Optec sales representatives for selecting the most suitable displays for your application.