These are the public facing components that you rely on to clearly communicate your message to your target audience. Whether that messaging includes a restaurant menu, a promotion for a new product, the latest interest rates, changes to company benefits or important health related information, the combination of media player and display is absolutely critical.

Can consumer grade equipment can be used?

We offer commercial grade displays and media players, designed specifically for use in a digital signage network, however, many times we get asked if consumer grade equipment can be used, meaning displays and computers that can be bought at the local electronics store. With so much riding on the media player and display, we strongly discourage the use of consumer grade equipment.

It’s important to understand that consumer grade equipment is only designed to be used a few hours a day at home not for the prolonged use in a commercial environment. In fact, many warranties will be void or drastically reduced if they are used in a commercial environment and there are many valid reasons for this.

Burn-in is another concern. Images can get permanently etched into a screen creating a ghosting effect that will always appear no matter what is being displayed.

When it comes to consumer grade displays, because they are designed for home use, the build quality does not need to be very high and the components do not need to be robust so they can be easily damaged when used in a commercial setting. Also, these displays don’t need to be very bright so when they are placed in brightly lit areas they will look washed out and lose any visual impact. Burn-in is another concern. Images can get permanently etched into a screen creating a ghosting effect that will always appear no matter what is being displayed. It is most noticeable with lighter content and cannot be fixed. If this occurs, the screen will have to be replaced. A few other issues are that they cannot be mounted in portrait orientation, there are no touch options for interactivity and the bezels (the frame surrounding the screen) tend to be thicker, uneven and usually the manufacturers logo is highly visible.

Commercial displays are designed for 24/7, 365 days a year use and come with a 3-year warranty. They are robust and can be mounted in any orientation. Bezels are thin and without any adornment to distract from the professional, clean look. They come in a variety of brightness’s so they will be clearly visible in any lighting including full sunlight. Most models have a touch option so they can be used for interactive content like digital catalogues or wayfinding.