Digital Signage Need To Know: New technology making things simpler with LED Signage

-Deacon Wardlow

Depending on your age and or location, you may have come across a piece of living history either through personal use or at an antique store or flea market. At the company's peak, Underwood typewriter sales equaled (in quantity) the sum total of all their competitor's typewriters and they were churning out typewriters in Hartford, CT at a rate of one per minute. many of the classic Underwoods (specifically the No 5 model) are still around and work just as well now as they did when they were fresh off the factory floor. Simple elegance.

Technology is complicated, but manufacturers are constantly striving for simplicity. Smartphones have few, if any, buttons and rarely come with instruction manuals as the interfaces are very intuitive. At one time, computers were massive machines for business or science and now a powerful PC can fit in your back pocket (just be careful when you sit down). The driving force behind this systematic simplification is both ease-of-use and to lessen points of failure.

SSD (Solid State Drives) were developed to lower the weight and power consumption in computers, increase efficiency, and decrease failure rates (as "regular" hard drives contain spinning discs which can become damaged corrupting data and possibly outright making a paperweight out of a decent computer). LED and Digital Signage (DS) systems, are constantly moving towards streamlining and simplification taking place as well. Controllers take advantage of SSD technology, photo cells are being replaced with software programming (no more photo cell failure at midnight "blinding" passer-bys). Where are manufacturers going from here?

Temperature probes are dinosaurs. Asphalt and Concrete cause temperature readings to spike during the day and wind/rain can cause actual temperature readings to drop down. Manufacturers are starting to rely on national databases for accurate readings. Even software (the old standby) is going away and being replaced with Mobile Device Apps, cloud-based controls, and more universally accessible "anytime, anywhere" driven control systems. It's interesting how the more our technology is driven forward, the "simpler" and more streamlined it gets.

Keep an eye on the market, you'll see changes for the better with manufacturers who care about influencing the direction of the industry. The dinosaurs will likely fall behind, but that's how technology works. Typewriters are replaced by computers, computers are replaced by tablets and smartphones, old technology makes way for new. Make sure you're working with a manufacturer who's ahead of the game and not falling behind.

-DH

*I invite you to comment here and/or email me directly with requests at deacon@vantageled.com. Vantage LED has white paper resources and more educational material on the website (http://www.vantageled.com), please check it out when you have a moment. Note all posts/thoughts/writings are strictly the viewpoint of me and me alone and do not reflect nor speak for Vantage LED’s beliefs, attitudes, thoughts, etc. unless specifically noted.