Digital Signage Sales 101: China, Stack 'em Deep, Sell 'em Cheap

- Mike Prongue

In a prior life, long ago and far away in 2011, when I dropped that envelope into the mail box I knew it was real. The address on the label was a Chinese Visa Processing Center in Houston, Texas and this Florida Boy was actually going to the 2012 LED China trade show in the city of Guangzhou. After the trade show the plan was to visit our LED sign manufacturer in Shenzhen.

 

Doing business directly with a Chinese LED sign supplier is an adventure of astounding proportions. Since this is the 21^st Century, by my calendar, it’s obviously impossible to visit the early days of the California Gold Rush. But, my imagination can take me there and it had to be like doing business with a Chinese LED sign supplier.

 

First you have to get there. “There” is only 9,500 miles away from Pensacola, Florida and would require flying to New York City, then on to Anchorage, Alaska, to Taipei, Taiwan, then to Hong Kong. You cross the border into China and find some way to get to your destination. We were doing the trip “on the cheap” so we rode a train. It was a great social experience but unless you want to drink warm Tsingtao beer on a crowded train for 3 hours.  I’d recommend taking a direct flight!

 The trade show, LED China, was amazing. Every aspect associated with an LED lamp was on display. You could talk to every Chinese manufacturer of LED signs, and see products on display from LED snowmen for your front yard to the most leading-edge LED applications you could only dream of! It was an awakening to the true scope and enormity of the LED industry that we are a subset of!

 

But alas, the glitz and glamor of the trip was behind us and we took the train back down to Shenzhen to meet our Chinese project manager contact who had always been our primary “face” of the company we purchased from. A nice enough fellow, with Americanized language and habits he was, and he picked us up from the lobby of the Marco Polo Hotel near the train station. 

 

Actually it was his “Girl Friday” who found us, sipping yet another Tsingtao (this time ice cold) in the lobby of the upscale hotel, and she ushered us to his waiting car. The city of Shenzhen was a welcome sight- modern, clean, with a great transportation infrastructure and the persistent air quality problems found in Guangzhou were not to be seen. The air was so bad in Guangzhou that there was actually a creosote-smelling film on the interior of the lobby windows. This was not the case in Shenzhen, a modern city, the first Special Economic Zone in China. It had exploded into a modern city of 10 million people, from the previous rice paddies, in less than 25 years.

 

We ate lunch at a local restaurant, tucked away on the second floor of a non-descript building overlooking a busy street, the first authentic Chinese meal we’d had since arriving. After lunch we were whisked off to the “factory”.

  

Clean, efficient, austere, coordinated, machine intensive, labor intensive and a developing force were my first impressions of the facility. If you wanted it, tell the man what you desired and for a price they would do it!

 Would you like?

• Your company’s name on each printed circuit board?

• Your company’s name and logo on each LED cabinet?

• Your choice of cabinet locking mechanisms?

• Your choice of controller or computer?

• White, gray or black cabinets? Any color you like for extra.

And if you wanted a better price, they never said “no”! How they arrived at a better (cheaper) price was the “trick”. For the price point we were offering to purchase their LED signs at, I wondered if they would provide cardboard cabinets in the future to meet that price point!

 

They would definitely “Stack ‘em Deep, Sell ‘em Cheap” for you once the wire transfer was complete. There was no doubt they could make them!

 

The conversations and negotiations with our Chinese host never touched on the subjects of “quality”, “failure rate” and “promises not kept”. I suppose for the dollar per square foot we were offering for their LED sign product, they thought we were not concerned! Perhaps we were not!

 

Any sign company back in the good old USA, who were actually purchasing these signs for their customer should have been waking up in a cold sweat right about then!

 

In the LED Sign Industry, the holy grail of reasonableness regarding LED sign selection is called "The 7 Key Elements of Digital Signage".  This list is embraced by the Digital Signage Federation and the list makes a lot of obvious sense:  Hardware, Software, Connectivity, Content, Operations, Design and Business (http://vantageled.blogspot.com/2013/12/digital-signage-need-to-know-boiling.html).

 

The Chinese supplier, granted evolving as they were, did not really meet the threshold of any of these 7 Key Elements. The hardware had high failure rates, the software was complex, the connectivity was simplistic, there was no provided content, operations were whatever they wished to do or say, the design was cookie-cutter, and the business plan was essentially “wire us the money”.

 

So, that is reality. Will China someday perform like the high-quality USA LED sign manufacturers? I don’t know what the future holds. But I do know what the present delivers.

 

While China was a tremendous learning experience for me, what I really learned was we have it pretty good here in the USA. Not only for our freedom and way of life but also for the products we manufacture.  Sure, it can be argued that all American-manufactured LED sign products include some globally acquired parts. So do our automobiles, the Boeing 777 Dreamliner and many other “USA Manufactured” products. That is the way of the world these days.

 

But what some USA LED sign manufactures add to the "7 Key Elements" is strong partnering. When these factors combine you can rest comfortably knowing you are delivering a 5 star product to your customer!

 

These comments are my personal perspective and do not reflect the opinion of Vantage LED, Inc. or SignVine, Inc. or any other person or organization. If you have constructive feedback please email me at michael@signvine.org.  - Mike Prongue

Digital Signage, Need to Know: Physical Factors for Effective LED Sign Use and Installation.

-Scott Hofheins

Outdoor LED signs are one of the most effective ways to advertise your organization to the public. They help you stand out, be seen and issue a call to action to potential patrons in a dynamic and colorful way. However, there are important factors that determine how much you stand out, and how clearly your call to action can be.

In addition to quality content, quality manufacturing, and a solid support team, their are basic physical factors that play a significant role in the success of your potential or existing LED sign program. Here are some of the factors to take into account.

Location

There are some very important things to consider about the physical location of your sign. Some things will benefit you, others will not. Take some time to really think about where your sign is, or will be located and ways to minimize the negatives, and maximize the positives. Some examples include:

• Stop lights and intersections: Do you have an intersection nearby? Where do the cars stop, and what is the best angle for them to see the sign? How long is the average driver stopped and how can you maximize the readability of your messages? While a nice busy intersection, with long stop lights is a dream spot for an LED sign, not everyone has this. The most important thing is really to use what you DO have.

• Trees, Poles and Structures: This seems like an obvious factor to consider, but you don’t want to be installing a new sign in the winter only to realize in the spring that the bare branches are now full of sign blocking leaves. Trees and other plant life will grow over time, sometimes pretty quickly, keep this in mind when choosing a location around new trees or bushes. Poles and other structures don’t grow naturally, but they can be built and modified manually. Additionally, you’ll want to make sure you know the local code to avoid your prime spot being illegal due to setback requirements.

• Street Speed and Occupation: How fast are the cars going? How many cars drive past per day? What type of people can you focus your marketing on in those cars, bikes or tennis shoes? The answers to these questions will help you maximize the effectiveness of your current content and help determine the right size, resolution and height of your future LED sign.

• Wall Sign, Street Sign or Both: Make sure you are maximizing the available signage allowed on your property. Remember, an LED sign can change dynamically so it makes more sense to go with a bigger LED sign and a smaller static sign. Price is always a factor in these decisions, but try to think of LED signs as an investment. By maximizing its effectiveness, you will increase the return on that investment.

Size

This plays a key role in the readability of your sign and the types of messages you can utilize. Smaller signs will provide less room for text, so you’ll want to increase your text size and decrease your word count. Just because you can technically fit 8 lines of text on your sign, doesn't mean you should. Bigger text and simpler messages will always be more effective for any sign, but the difference is much more noticeable on smaller units.

You can get away with more on a larger sign, especially a billboard, but you still want to make your message large, and bold. You can fit more readable text on the display at one time, but the readability is still affected by how close the viewers are, how fast they are moving, and how high the sign is.

Height and Viewing Distance

How close will your viewers be to the sign? It’s important to get a really good handle on this, so you can create appropriate content for an existing sign, and make sure you purchase the right resolution for a new sign.

The higher you go, the bigger you want the sign to be, and the lower your pitch can be (the millimeters between the LED pixels) and still be effective. Big digital billboards high up the air may look like an 8mm high resolution board, but most of them will fall in the 16-25mm range. They are physically large, viewers are further away, and they have a large amount of pixels because of the physical size; distance between the pixels doesn’t factor in as much. However, a sign lower to the ground is going to be smaller, viewed closer, and have less pixels to work with so you want to fit as many into the physical size as possible to maintain a quality image.

Brightness

During the day your sign is fighting against the sun. It must be as bright as possible, within reason (avoid outlandish brightness specifications) and hold it’s own for as many years as possible.

Additionally, managing your brightness at night is so important. Set your brightness settings, and trust your own eyes. Drive by the sign at night and make sure it’s readable. You do not want a spot light, you want a readable sign just a bit brighter than static lighted signage. If your sign is too bright at night, viewers will see the sign, but not the message you are trying to deliver.

LED Quality and Module Design

LEDs will dim over time, so make sure your manufacturer is using a high quality brand. Working with a US based manufacturer will increase your odds that the LEDs are sourced and binned correctly, from a trusted supplier.

The module design will also affect the life of the LEDs and the viewability of your sign in general. Using a flat black finish on the face of the LED modules (the panels of LEDs that make up the entire sign) is ideal. This helps absorb the sunlight and gives the sign a higher contrast ratio. The louver design is also important. These mini sun-shades block the sun from hitting the LEDs head on to avoid a “washed out” image. Poor louver designs can cause problems with viewing the display at an angle.

In summary, remember that there are many factors to take into account when operating an existing LED sign, or purchasing a new one. Look for partners who are experts in the business, and can provide you exactly what you need, not what they want to sell you. Take the time to write down all the factors at play for your specific location and put yourself in the shoes of your viewers. Announce your message loud and clear: We are here, We can help you, Come in Now!

-SH

I hope this post has been informative and helpful. As usual, I welcome ALL constructive comments. Please feel free to comment and add anything I’ve missed, or additional tips you may have regarding this topic. Please visit www.vantageled.com for many other resources, white papers, and of course: Great looking LED Signs!

**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 stated.

Digital Signage 101: Digital Signage doesn't work! Here's why...

-Deacon Wardlow

We've seen success and we've experienced failure, if you haven't experienced failure then just wait around a bit and it'll catch up to you soon enough. We learn from our mistakes (and, when we're lucky, the mistakes of others). As Zig Ziglar said, "If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost." Try to tell your clients that though...

Digital Signage (DS) can be awesome, amazing, subtle, powerful, pointed, quiet, and a multitude of things, but more often than not, it's a failure. Why? Why would I write this when so many people tout the great leaps and bounds int he market. The huge market share DS is taking up... The gains DS is making within various industries (both profit and non-profit)? Obviously something is working for somebody. Here are the big three.

Content
Feed the beast or it'll eat you alive. Content not only needs to be fresh, interesting, and timely, it needs to be good. It's not enough to slap a picture on a screen with a witty saying or a pricepoint. Where's the call to action? Why put up,"$0.99 hot dogs," when you can say,"First 10 customers - $3 for 2 hot dogs and a 16 ounce soda!" Give people a reason to take advantage of an opportunity (and help them identify an"opportunity when it happens). You can lead a horse to water, but the trick is making him drink when you need him to.

Control
We live in the age of amazing tech where a toddler can pickup a tablet and get to their favorite game or TV show before they can even speak! SIMPLE IS BEST. If the system seems too complex and there's no direct benefit, see if there's a better (simpler) way to do things. The simpler a system is to use, the easier it is for the clients (the organization using the DS solution) to manage and update. The more the DS solution is updated with fresh and interesting content, the better its chances are of achieving that return on investment (ROI) or return on objective (ROO) the organization had in mind when they first envisioned having a DS solution in place.

Too many cooks in the kitchen
I was recently speaking with a DS client who had a great system (a combination of LED displays and LCD interior systems which were synchronized and had a solid, consistent brand and message running throughout the locations). I noticed things were looking splicy (fonts were different, the branding was confusing, and the message outside wasn't consistent with the content inside). Specials advertised on the LED Sign weren't synced up with the LCD displays and the information wasn't correct. I asked the manager what happened. They replied management decided to have one department manage the LED displays (to bring in customers) and another marketing team would handle the interior LCD displays. The teams weren't talking and there was nobody in charge of the complete package to ensure the message was constant and consistent across platforms. The regional manager eventually got everyone to go to a site and they agreed to have one person be responsible for the overall program. When too many people are given control, nobody really has control. Make sure the DS system in place has a definitive person and/or place where, "The buck stops" when it comes to management and content choices.

DS is awesome to work with. After attending the CES (Commercial Electronics Show) in Las Vegas this month, my brain is flooded with the amazing possibilities to integrate new technology to make DS more interactive, more dynamic, and not just about the LCD screen, but the overall experience. The failure of a technology isn't in what it can deliver, it's in how the technology is managed and used.

Make sure whatever DS solution is recommended, the client is comfortable with the system and confident in how to use it to get the most out of their displays. The reason Digital Signage doesn't work isn't because of the displays, or the content, or the systems. At the end of the day, the reason is as simple as someone not taking the time to speak with a client and make sure they get what they need. There's an urge to sell everyone a sports car when they really need a pickup truck. Listen to the client and deliver the right system for their situation and you'll come out with a much better solution at the end of the day.

Please comment here or send questions or requests for information to 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.attitudes, thoughts, etc. unless specifically noted.

Digital Signage Need To Know: What makes a good LED Sign?

-Deacon Wardlow

Technology is somewhat similar to a puzzle, you need all the right pieces in the right places to get things completed properly. The problem with Digital Signage (DS) technology is a lot of people are given a blank puzzle and it's REALLY difficult to get the full picture of what's going on.

A majority of people I speak with have a simple breakdown on their "wish list" for DS. Quality, price, and performance. A good DS system should look great, have few/no problems over the lifetime of its use, be easy to operate, and be cost effective. No objections there right? Are people looking deep enough to qualify a good system? I often hear people use cars as an analogy for the sign industry... "This is the luxury car of signage and what you want is more along the lines of a economy car..."

Using the car analogy, what do people want out of a car? Four wheels, an engine, steering wheel, and brakes. Using that line of thought, a golf cart would be fine for use right? That is until you get out on the road... The problem with LED Signs (and DS in general) is people don't really understand everything that goes into a "good" or "great" system. You could have a sign that looks decent from the outside, the company has a long standing reputation and name in the business so they must be building a great system right? Surprises ensue when you crack open the system and take a really close look at what's inside driving and running that system. The luxury car you thought you were getting is a bit of a lemon and it's all because you didn't have the right questions to be sure you were getting the best for your investment (or your client's investment).

To rectify this, we're giving you three quick questions (with links to previous articles) to dig deeper and make sure you're getting what you expect...

1. How many types of LED Sign do you manufacture and are they all the same? Check Scott's article on Design & Engineering - Followup question, if they aren't the same, what's the difference?

*Not all LED Signs are the same. Some manufacturers cut corners on the build and design, sometimes different (often cheaper) power supplies or other components are used; some "features" which are touted aren't always built-in to the system you're getting, they're only available on the "higher-end" models.

2. If a manufacturer offers different models, what components are different?

In an article I wrote earlier (Sign System Components), I pointed out to be wary of a bait-and-switch. If a company offers different models (and some models are cheaper than others) you can be VERY sure the cheaper models have cheaper components or designs. Find out what is different and why the pricing varies.

3. Is the controller an IPC (industrial computer with a hard drive of 50+ gigabytes running a Microsoft/Linux Embedded operating system) or an Embedded Control Card (simple ARM-based control system running off of a 1-2 gigabyte flash card)?

You should know what's under the hood because the controller will determine how well your system performs over all and if it's capable of being upgraded down the line should some new technology become available. You should make sure your system is "future-proofed" as much as possible or it's going to become old technology faster than you can install it. This is similar (performance wise) with the differences between a golf cart and a muscle car...

If you've been following our blog the last year and a half, you'll know there's A LOT more to all this than three simple questions; if a manufacturer is direct with you, these questions will be serious eye openers. Don't be blinded by "geek speak" and "tech talk." Get a straight answer and ask for transparency. You might not like what you see under the hood, but you'll be more aware of what you're working with and be able to spot the difference between a good partner and a bad vendor.

*Please comment here and/or email me directly with requests, questions, or follow-up 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.

Digital Signage Need to Know: Quality LED Signs Managed Responsibly Improve the Community

- Scott Hofheins

LED signs have been given a bad rap over the years for being “tacky” and threatening to turn peaceful towns into “Las Vegas”. Although progress has been made as local leaders realize this new technology can be regulated reasonably, the old “Las Vegas” stigma still continues to affect the industry. There are a couple of reasons why, and I would like to focus on the few here to help educate both existing and potential LED sign owners.

I saw a local news clip last week on LED signs in Florida. Unfortunately, some of the first words you hear in the segment are “tacky” and “distracting”. As I watched the clip, I was not surprised to see it go immediately to shots of Las Vegas with the reporter narrating about how you wouldn't want the place you live to look “like this”. It moved on to clips of LED signs, Hulk Hogan's new restaurant, and interviews with city leaders. It included some great examples of why LED signs still have a less than perfect reputation.

Quality
All but one or two of the LED signs in the clip had some sort of quality issue. This is a major problem for LED signs and it effects the industry as a whole. High quality LED signs that are working correctly do not look “tacky” or “distracting”. It’s the broken, sub-par signs that give everyone else a bad name. Even if a sign is physically working, it doesn’t mean it looks good. The news clip showed modules issues, color inconsistency, LED binning issues, missing pixels, etc... 

No LED sign is perfect, but many of the signs in the story looked like this wasn’t the first time they had issues. Surprisingly, one of these was a sign for a Hulk Hogan restaurant. It illustrates the fact that expensive and big, doesn’t equal higher quality.

I know I speak for many in the industry who would plead with anyone getting an LED sign to Do Your Homework. Your business image is counting on it There are great manufactures right here in the USA that can provide you a quality sign. You may pay a little more, but it’s worth it. I’m not saying that every single US manufacturer is guaranteed to be great, but your research is much easier to do when it’s domestic and you can talk directly to the people making your sign.

Content
Poor content is almost as bad as a broken sign. People expect more from LED signs these days, and the viewers will only get more picky as the technology improves. The content must be clean, readable, relevant and beautiful. Showing a 30 second long firework animation won’t get people into your business anymore. You need real content, with real information. People are looking to LED signs as they would look at their smart phone: quick, relevant information that they can use.

If you’re doing your own content, make sure it’s on par with the other signs out there. Having talent in house is good, as long as they keep the sign fresh with updated content. If you don’t have your own designers or time to do the content yourself, use a content creation service. It’s worth the investment.

If you have an old or lower quality sign, don’t be afraid to experiment with colors and fonts that DO look good on your display. White backgrounds are usually a bad choice for a low quality sign. Keep it simple and strong with dark backgrounds, thick text and deep colors. Blues and greens work well, but stay away from light blue, light green, light yellow, etc... Find what works with your display and stick to it.

Brightness
This is a big one for me. I still see a number of signs out there that are way too bright at night. I believe most of this is due to a lack of education on the subject, but there are still some out there who think that brighter = better. This is simply not the case at night.

When a sign is too bright, your audience will have less time to read the message. They may see the beacon of light from 5 miles away, but they will not be able to actually read the text until much closer than normal. If your sign is lighting up the freeway it’s too bright. It may be cool to say “hey our LED is so bright it lights up the street”, but that’s about all it’s doing. This is one of the bigger reasons for negative attitudes toward LED signs.

Take the time to really look at your sign at night. Is your audience spending their time seeing just the sign, or the actual content. You want them to see the content. Compare the brightness of the LED sign to the brightness of other lighted signs in the area. The LED sign should be just a bit brighter, but not much.

Most LED signs give you the ability to change the brightness settings. Some use automatic sensors, and others use scheduling or a mixture of both. Sensors are not always the best method, as they can be affected by ambient light, and their own values (how much it dims according the light value) can’t be set for every situation. If you can set these values, do it.  If your sign utilizes a brightness schedule, adjust it. Every time I see these signs, I feel bad for the business because they may be unknowingly losing potential customers at night because they can’t read the sign.

Reasonable Regulations
I’ve always been a proponent of empowering the people, but I’ve found that it’s not always smart to directly confront the city code. If you want reasonable regulations, you have to be reasonable too. Being a good example, and using an LED sign in a reasonable way gives you much more power than if you drop in a huge sign, and literally try to run it like “Vegas”. You’re only hurting yourself at that point. The Hulk Hogan sign in the news story was a good example of what NOT to do in my opinion, but not for the reasons you may think.

If you’re going to fight a battle, you need to have the best weapons to ensure victory. The quality of the sign in this case does them no favors and only supports the notion that LED signs are “tacky”. The discoloration and module issues on the sign detract from the content, and even though the content is colorful and attention getting, it loses significant power on a broken sign.

I have a better scenario. Imagine a high quality 12-16mm with great color balance, and deep high contrast colors. The content is classy and tasteful with smooth fades between the messages, and subtle but effective animations supporting the content, but not overdoing it. This is much better for the operator, the community, and the reputation of LED signs. Instead of people saying “hey that’s a cool looking sign, but it’s kind of cheesy”, they will see the quality and say “that’s a really good looking sign, I wonder why our city doesn’t like these”.

Quality Hardware, Effective Content, Visibility at Night, and keeping it Classy will improve the look of your LED sign and your business. If you are on the lookout for an LED sign, please do your research and make sure you're getting the best quality you can, at a reasonable price. There are good resources out there (like this blog) that will help you with this. Remember, sacrificing quality for a cheap price is a short term plan in a long term game. Lead by example, and look good doing it! 

-SH

I hope this post has been informative and helpful. As usual, I welcome ALL constructive comments. Please feel free to comment and add anything I’ve missed, or additional tips you may have regarding this topic. Please visit www.vantageled.com for many other resources, white papers, and of course: Great looking LED Signs!

**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 stated.

Digital Signage Need to Know: System monitoring obstacles and options

-Deacon Wardlow

My first car was a 1981 Ford Escort. The car was far from new and I learned about auto maintenance the hard way (one car component and paycheck at a time). The saving grace was the warning light on the dash. When I saw something light up, it was time for another repair. For the longest time, I wished my DS (Digital Signage) systems had a similar simple warning/alert on the dash BEFORE something happened...

Diagnostics on DS solutions have gotten better over the years. Third party software has helped a lot with this. Many companies build diagnostics into their systems where the system will alert a client if something isn't playing and make sure there's a place-holder bit of content in the interim. Some systems even go so far as to report what the problem is and what's failed. Here are a few techniques people use for System monitoring:

Eyes on the Prize:
Many systems use a digital camera which is often on a network. This requires someone to physically be checking-in on the system periodically. So long as the camera and network connection are functioning, this is a fairly reliable way to check-in on systems, but they require someone to take a look. The person viewing the system may not be aware of what content is running and a system may be stuck on a single piece/frame of content when it's supposed to be running multiple frames/sequences. The system is only as good as the operator.

Third Party Applications:
On the IT (Information Technology End) there are loads of software to monitor networks and various systems running on the network itself (my favorite software is Nagios for this). On the localized-end of things (for single computers or simple networks) people have relied on LogMeIn, TeamViewer, AMMY Admin and other systems which allow you to put a host monitor on a computer/player which will tell you if the player is active or inactive and often has features which allow you to power-cycle a system remotely or remote-in to the system to find out what's going on. While this is great for general monitoring, these primarily only notify you when something has occured, they're not very pro-active and don't typically have options to dig deeper into secondary components for reporting (i.e. telling you if the display itself is on/off and if the network is mapped/running). Again, the system here is only as good as the operator as it requires someone to check the list of active players/systems and verify things are working as they should. Just because the player is running, doesn't mean the display is up and working...

Hardware/firmware Diagnostics:
These are reportables built into the system itself. Often this is available on the higher-end DS systems though many component manufacturers are stepping up and creating reportables for their systems which kick back to a main server or source to tell if everything is okay or not. This is the most ideal solution as these systems not only report on active status, but often keep a running log of performance so a person can get history on an issue; has power gone out repeatedly at a particular location? Is the issue with a single component periodically failing or several components? When did the system go down and how long has it been inactive? Newer systems are also giving pro-active reports which show when a critical component (i.e. an AC-to-DC converter/power supply is drawing too much or pushing too little power to the system which indicates the component requires a check or replacement BEFORE failure.

When you're checking with manufacturers of systems, see what they've put into the dash for a warning system. The dash warning system on my old car saved me from a lot of long walks to a garage or from being stranded in the badlands (before the days of cell phones). Similarly, a solid reporting/monitoring system can save end-users and your company A LOT of headaches and often avoid problems before they arise. Make sure the manufacturer you're dealing with has some sort of system monitoring to light the way when problems arise (or before they happen) so you're not left in the dark.

-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.