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Topic: The "What makes me go insane!" thread
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 12-23-2009 08:23 PM
quote: Mike Blakesley
How do those multi-color LEDs work? Is it just 3 LEDs in one, or is there some other process?
Each "pixel" in a full color LED-based electronic message center has at least three separate LEDs (red, green and blue) packed into one cluster.
These LED pixels/clusters are almost always organized into larger tiles, sometimes referred to as driver boards. Depending on the driver board's pixel "pitch" (how far apart the LED clusters are spaced between pixel centers) the board may have 8 X 8, 16 X 16, 32 X 32 or even 64 X 64 rows/columns.
Most monochrome LED signs (red only, green only, amber only) will have just one LED per pixel. But larger signs with loose pixel pitches (23mm, 35mm or greater) will have two, three or more LEDs per pixel.
quote: Joe Redifer
The RED LEDs are also pretty ugly. Green would be much easier to read. They are also super-low resolution, like one light bulb per inch or so. Look at LED signs above auditorium doors. The letters are blocky like Atari 2600 graphics.
This all depends on the pitch of the electronic message center.
BTW, I think the amber colored message centers are easiest to read. They're certainly best at showing monochrome/gray scale photo images. Red appears a little too dark for photo and graphic material, but Red works well on plain text. Green LEDs might seem to work better at first glance, but they are really bright and can appear more fuzzy. The message center operator would need to play with the brightness levels so it wouldn't appear irritating.
An indoor LED sign with viewing distances of as little as 20' or so would need a tight pitch, such as 8mm to give off any sort of continuous tone effect. The downside with choosing a tight pitch like 8mm is COST.
An LED sign that shows only text messages, like the signs above many movie theater auditorium doors, do not need a tight pitch. They're just meant to deliver a basic, text-only message instead of graphics.
A 12' X 4' LED sign with 8mm pitch will have four times the number of LEDs as a 17mm unit with the same 12' X 4' cabinet size. But the 8mm pitch unit would have four times the number of pixels, four times the level of resolution and much more capability of showing fine levels of detail.
Any business looking to buy an LED-based electronic message center would absolutely have to factor in where the sign would be installed and what typical viewing distances would be. It would be a gigantic waste of money to install a 48' X 14' LED billboard with a tight 8mm pitch next to an Interstate highway. It's costly overkill. Such a billboard can achieve continuous tone viewing with a 20mm pitch or even as coarse as 23mm.
LED-based electronic variable message centers can be pretty expensive. So lots of business owners will often install LED message centers that are too small and/or too coarse in pixel pitch to be effective.
These message centers also happen to be very powerful advertising tools. They're especially powerful when properly implemented and properly used. One thing is certain: they're not going away any time soon.
quote:
Previously, there used to be plain, old letterboard signs. Somebody would stick up the letters and that was it. But, more and more, business are using these LED signs. I think they are stupid as hell!
Tell that to someone freezing his ass off on a windy winter day while trying to arrange plastic Zip Change letters on a flat changeable copy sign. When businesses can afford to do so they gladly switch to the LED-based message centers.
You know what's really stupid as hell? Any business wasting a bunch of money on a shotgun advertising approach, shelling out countless thousands of dollars on TV commercials, newspaper ads and other approaches while neglecting to invest properly in their "store front personality." The store front sign is by far the most powerful advertising tool for any business that depends on customers physically visiting that property.
quote: Randy Stankey
1) You can't read the whole sign. You have to wait for it to scroll along to read the whole message.
That's a problem of end user error. Not at all a fault of LED message center technology itself.
quote: Randy Stankey
2) There's too much flashing and blinking to be able to make out the words.
Again. User error. Any effects like flashing must be previewed by the customer and objectively judged on readability. Some people do this while others do not.
quote: Randy Stankey
3) It takes so long to read the message on the sign, people driving by will never be able to read it.
Again, improper use. Anyone who knows at least a little about outdoor advertising knows to keep any messages very short. It doesn't matter if it is a printed phrase on a static billboard, a brand name on a sign or a movie title on a marquee. If someone writes out some stupidly long sentence he'll eventually realize motorists will read only a fraction of the message.
quote: Randy Stankey
4) There are so many of them that they are easy to ignore. Where once they were a novelty they are now boring.
I would only agree with this if I was in a town that had nothing but little tiny monochrome message centers with business owners who didn't know how to use the message centers properly.
quote: Randy Stankey
As far as I am concerned, they are useless. The only people who benefit from them are the ones who sell them.
You're entitled to your opinion. But I disagree with it at a full out absolute level. Electronic message centers are proven to attract more attention and do bring more customers to a business.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 12-23-2009 10:30 PM
IMHO, a great deal of business owners (or the people making the ad decisions for them) are making the mistake of treating every different mode of advertising like a damned phone book ad. WRONG.
I can read a phone book ad at my leisure once I'm able to find the stupid thing. Don't get me started about how business categories are organized in a phone book. That makes a lot of people insane. If you have a big ad in a phone book you can cram all sorts of bullet points, product photos and other crap in there. The viewer is just sitting on his couch, channel surfing. He can look at the big phone number on the ad and then dial. Or he can inspect the ad further.
You can't do any of that crap with an outdoor sign or billboard. The messages sure as hell don't need to be composed like that.
Just the point of including phone numbers on a sign or billboard annoys the shit out of me. Most phone numbers are nothing more than an extremely easy to forget assembly of random-ass numerals. If I meet a pretty lady and want to meet her some more, I don't just attempt to commit her phone number to memory. I write down those digits! Because I am going to forget them otherwise and that's a phone number I really want to remember! I couldn't give the first rat's ass about a phone number listed on a sign. When I need that I'll pick up a damned phone book or search it on the Internet. And I'll use the company's NAME not its phone number for the search string. Unfortunately these days many business owners will say "people have cell phones in their cars." Yeah, but they don't need to be making phone calls while they're driving and risking the lives of others on the street!
quote: Randy Stankey
People forget the golden rule of outdoor advertising: The "Three Second Rule."
The three second rule is good, but I have one tougher than that called "The Glance Test." Any sign or billboard should be able to communicate at least its central core message at an instantaneous glance. That rule stresses to an extreme the virtues of keeping the message simple. And that includes the "logo" some small businesses dream up. Hoo boy! I can recognize a McDonalds sign from 3 miles. Many small businesses come up with self-authored logos that function more like complicated municipal seals or graphical illustrations. Reduce it to 8 point size on a sheet of paper. You can still recognize the golden arches, but the small business logo as illustration turns into a mottled blob of ink. The same effect occurs in long distance viewing outdoors. The more simple the message, the farther in the distance it will reach.
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