By Bill Yackey, editor, DigitalSignageToday.com

One of the buzzwords in the display industry right now is LED. But long before being used in the home, LED-lit screens were being used commercially, and have since dramatically changed digital signage, particularly outdoor installations.

Peter Kaszycki, vice president of business development for Manufacturing Resources International, said that LEDs are more durable – if protected and managed well, LED back-lit screens should be able to survive five to seven years at nearly full brightness. The main advantage that LED backlighting has over CCFL backlighting for outdoor applications, he says, is that it handles extreme temperatures better.

“Really the biggest problem with CCFL is the temperature,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of people don’t read the fine print on these systems where it says that the screen produces 1,500 nits of brightness based on a surface temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit. But how often is it comfortably 77? When you get in the hot summer months, the brightness can drop 30 percent when it gets to be about 95 degrees. It can drop 25-30 percent when it gets near 35 degrees.”

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