Novel display technology for outdoor signage
The continued growth of electronic billboards and screens has prompted industry and display technology providers to introduce new outdoor light-emitting diode (LED) and liquid crystal display (LCD) technology. However, the maintenance costs for such state-of-the-art technology are steep because it is sensitive to adverse conditions and prone to deliberate damage. To address the issue, the EU-funded DIGISTONE (Development of an innovative digital concrete screen for outdoor digital signage applications) project aimed to develop a digital concrete screen that saves on costs, energy and resources. Work began by specifying requirements such as brightness, resolution, view angle, concrete performance and costs for the screen and individual components. The components were designed and developed ahead of testing and performance assessment. Project partners produced LED panels to monitor and control brightness. They also devised a method for the concrete and light guide screen to place and repair light guides in the required positions. To display live images on the concrete screen, they developed an electronic system with the latest LED technology, hardware and software. The DIGISTONE team designed, produced, assembled and then tested digital concrete screen prototypes. A final prototype was assessed for brightness, white balance, movie appearance and text readability. Results showed that the screen sufficiently displays movies, images and text. DIGISTONE delivered a scalable, digital concrete screen system for advertisers, display infrastructure and street furniture owners that uses considerably less energy and is more economical than existing solutions. Moreover, much less service maintenance is required from manufacturers and installation contractors because of its highly resistant concrete interface that safeguards against inclement weather and other external forces.
Keywords
Display, outdoor digital signage, DIGISTONE, digital concrete screen
