Everything You Need To Know About LED Signs & LED Displays

LED Signs go by many different name:

• LED Signs
• LED Displays
• Electronic LED Signs
• Electronic Message Centers
• Electronic Changelable Copy Signs
• Etc...

No matter what you call them they all do the same thing, they display a message (either text, picture, or video) using clusters of LEDs known as pixels.

They allow a business owner to display his or hers sales messages to passing motorists. Or in other words, they advertise to people while they are at your business.

Not only that but you can preprogram messages to be displayed by time of day. So, a convenience store owner could **AUTOMATICALLY** show a message advertising hot coffee in the morning, a different message advertising sandwhiches at lunch time, and a 3rd message advertising milk in the evening.

As you can imagine this is a very powerful tool for businesses trying to advertise products and services.

Here is a short list of industry terms you should know if you want to understand how LED Signs work and you want to be knowledgeable enough to make an informed buying decision.

LED -Light Emitting Diode. Think of these like small light bulbs but much more energy efficient and with a life span of about 100,000 hours.

Pixel - A cluster of LEDs. The number of pixels vertically and horizontially determine the matrix. Signs with a smaller pitch can fit more pixels in a square meter which increases the led denisity of the sign. The number of LEDs in a pixel varies from 1 to 25.

Matrix - This is the number of pixels vertically and horizontally in the LED Sign. For instance, a matrix of 16 x 80 will have 16 pixels vertically by 80 pixels horizontally.

Pitch - The distance from the center of 1 pixel to the center of the next pixel. Typically measured in millimeters. The smaller the pitch, the better the resolution.

LED Density - This is the number of LEDs in a given area, for instance a square meter. Higher LED Density, means more brightness and better performance.   

Degradation - An LED diode will lose about 20% of its initial brightness after the first 2000 hours of use. After that, the LED diode's brightness degrades at a very slow rate, until it dies at an estimated lifetime of 100k hours. When considering purchasing an LED display, keep in mind that the manufacturer's claimed display brightness will drop about 20% after 2 to 3 months of operation.

NIT - A luminance unit equal to 1 candle per square meter. The important thing to know is that it takes at least 5000 NITs to have good visibility in direct sunlight. An outdoor LED display needs to be at least 5000NITs bright after the initial 20% brightness degradation

Viewing Angle - Refers to how far to the side of a LED Sign you can go and still read it. For instance, if you could read an LED Sign while standing right next to it, the viewing angle would be 180°. If you could only read it while standing directly in front of the sign the viewing angle would be 90°. The best LED signs have a viewing angle of 140°.

Monochrome LED Sign - An LED Sign which uses a single color and a single shade of that color to display text and animations. They are typically either Red or Amber.

Greyscale LED SIgn - An LED Sign which uses a single color and 64 to 256 shades of that color to display text, videos, animation, and pictures. They are typically Red or Amber.

Color LED Sign - An LED Sign which uses Red, Green, and Blue LEDs and up to 281 Trillion colors to displays text, videos, animation, and pictures.

There 3 ways LED Signs are usually made.

1. Soldering the LEDs directly to a circuit board and place a acrylic face over the LEDs to weatherproof the board.
2. Soldering the LEDs directly to a ciruit board and seal the face of the board without using a acrylic face.
3. Weatherproof each individual pixel and manufacture them so the plug-in to the circuit board.

Method #1

This method is the least expensive to manufacture. It is also, in my humble opinion, the worst method.

Using this method the manufacturer solders the LEDs directly to a PC board and covers the whole thing with an acrylic faceshield to weatherproof the sign. This creates a few problems.

• The faceshield creates glare from the sunlight reducing the readability of the LED Sign
• If an LED/pixel goes out, the sign has to be turned off and an entire PC board has to be replaced. Becasue of LED degredation this creates a quilt effect on the sign where one sectionis brighter than another section
• Overtime the acrylic face evelops a haze making it even harder to read the sign

I would recommend staying clear of products that are manufactured this way.

Method #2

With method #2 the LEDs are soldered directly a PC board but the board in sealed eliminating the need for a faceshield.

This is far superior to using a faceshield but still leaves the problem of needing to replace an entire PC Board if an LED/pixel goes out. And, you guessed it, these leads to a quilting effect over time.

Method #3

The third, and in my opinion best, method of manufacturing LED Signs is to use individually removeable pixels.

With this method the PC board is sealed but instead of soldering the LEDs to the PC board, the LEDs are connected using pins. This means that each indivdual pixel can be removed if an LED/pixel goes out.

Because only 1 pixel is being replaced instead of an entire section of pixels, there is no quilting effect.

I recommend LED Signs manufactured using this method.

There are 3 types of LED Signs to choose from:

1. Monochrome LED Signs (Single Color, Single Shade Red or Amber)
2. Grayscale LED Signs (Single Color, 256 Shades Red or Amber)
3. Color LED Signs (Up to 281 Trillion Colors)

Which one is right for you will depend on your business. Here are some guidelines.

Monochrome LED Signs

If your products or services can best be described with words or if you are on a limited budget, a Monochrome LED Sign is the way to go.

Businesses such as insurance services, financial services, oil change facilities, convience stores, etc. primarily need text to sell their services. Pictures and video are not going to help them, they need to be able put out messages like:

• Lower Your Insurance Premiums
• 5.5% Mortage Rates
• No Wait Pull, In Now
• Milk On Sale

Here are some advantages to Monochrome LED SIgns:

• Lower Cost
• High Contrat
• High Visibility
• Easy To Program

Here are some disadvantages to Monochrome LED Signs:

• Limited animation capabilities
• No video capability

Grayscale LED Signs

Grayscale LED Signs are a good solution for businesses that can gain an advantage using video or who want to able to use more advanced animations but can't afford a full Color LED Sign.

Theaters, churches, banks, and schools are examples of good candidates for Grayscale LED Signs. They are not trying to boost retails sales but the added pizzaz of Grayscale animations might help raise Top Of Mind Awareness for their organizations.

Here are some advantages of Grayscale LED Signs:

• They are less expensive than Color LED Signs
• More extensive graphics/video capabilities
• Flashier than Monochrome LED Signs

And here are some disadvantages:

• More Expensive than Monochrome LED Signs
• More difficult to program than Monochrome LED Signs

Color LED Signs

Color LED Signs are best for business whose products and services can be visualized. For instance car dealers, restaurants, gyms, and boat dealers are all businesses that can use instantly recognizable, high impact images and videos to sell their products.

A restaurant can put up a picture of a juicy cheeseburger, a car dealer can play a video of a sports car, a gym can show a video of an aerobics class and the passing motorist will instantly know what is being sold. 

Here are some advantages to Color LED Signs:

• Capable of high resolution video and pictures
• You can use high impact animations on Color LED Signs
• Perfect for when a picture can say a thousand words

And here are some disadvantages:

• They are expensive
• They can be complicated to program

This is a very important topic. If your LED Signs are to big, you will have wased money. If your LED Signs are to small, yo will have wasted money. Of course to big is better than to small but why not aim for just right?

The first thing you need to know is where will people be viewing your sign from. The general rule of tumb is you need 1" of character size for each 50' of vieing distance. That is vertical as well as horizontal so keep the height of the sign in mind if it will be up in the air.

The next thing you need to determine is what pitch it should be. The closer it will be viewed from, the smaller the pitch should be. Conversely, the greater the viewing distance, the greater the pitch should be.

Next is the matrix. Figure out what one of your messages will look like. Than you can work on how many characters and lines you will need to effectively display your message.

Lastly is the traffic patterns. Are the stop signs near the sign? Is there a stop light? What is the speed limit? All of these factors will help determine the optimal size your new LED Sign. If the traffic is slow or, better yet, stopped they will have more time to read messages so a bigger display might be in order. If they are zipping by at 65mph they will have less time to read your messages so you will need shorter messages which will mean you will be able to get by with a smaller matrix but you might need a larger pitch.

Sizing is one of the most confusing topics in the LED Sign world. I would recommend getting an expert opinion AND making them defend their size recommendation. 

If you would llike to learn more about LED Signs, how to purchase them and how they can help your business, check out these links:

• LED Sign Central - A Blog dedicated to LED Signs
• iCatch Displays - A Commercial website for my LED Sign company
• Detailed Information About LEDs
• A Newer Blog about LED Signs which shows promise

If you get confused or just have questions, please feel free to give my company a call at 877-287-9180. We would be more than happy to help you out.