LED Signage

If your message is fixed, a light box or channel letters is enough and economical. If you want to show frequently changing campaigns, prices, or video, a full-color LED screen is the fit. We listen to your need and recommend the right one.

Modern LEDs consume markedly less than old neon/fluorescent solutions. Total consumption depends on sign size and brightness.

On scrolling text and LED screens, content can be updated by the method we show you (remote, app, or computer connection). We explain how at handover and leave a short usage note if needed.

Illuminated sign is the wider term and covers anything with light inside it. An LED sign is the type where that light comes from LEDs, and today when people say illuminated sign this is almost always what they mean. The old fluorescent boxes gave way to LEDs because LEDs draw less power and last longer. So when you ask for an illuminated sign, what we recommend will most likely be an LED one.

Businesses that stay open into the evening and need to be noticed by passing traffic. Grocers, corner shops, bakeries, patisseries, butchers and greengrocers ask for it most. The first question from anyone enquiring about shop signage is the electricity bill, and the same question comes up for bakery and butcher signage, because those businesses are open from early morning until late. Consumption is low, so it does not push up running costs even where the sign stays lit for long hours.

Anything on a facade that reads by its own light after dark. Illuminated boxes, channel letters, scrolling text, LED screens and neon-look applications all sit inside it. Most businesses asking for illuminated advertising do not need to know the names of the types, describing the need is enough. If you tell us you want to be seen at night by passing traffic, we recommend the right type for your facade and your budget.

Pixel pitch is the distance between two light points on the screen, written with a P. As the number gets smaller the points sit closer together, the image sharpens and the cost rises. The one thing that decides the choice is viewing distance. A shop-window screen looked at from close up needs a tight pitch, otherwise the image reads as dots. A screen beside a road, viewed from far away, works fine with a wider pitch because distance merges the points anyway. Buying an expensive tight-pitch panel for a long viewing distance is money wasted, and we say so plainly.

It can, and this is a serious point. Daytime readability under sun needs high brightness, but that same brightness dazzles at night and disturbs the neighbours opposite. The answer is automatic brightness. A sensor on the screen measures ambient light and lowers the output by itself. That setting removes the complaint risk, cuts consumption and extends the life of the panel. Screens installed without a sensor can be adjusted by hand, but in practice nobody changes the setting every evening.

Usually it can, and it is one of the jobs we are asked for most in the area. If the housing is sound it stays, the fluorescent tubes and ballasts come out and LED modules go in. The face is either cleaned or renewed depending on its condition. The gain runs both ways. Consumption drops noticeably and the constant business of replacing failed tubes ends. If the housing has rusted or lets water in we do not recommend conversion, and a new box is the better answer. We say that openly during the survey.

Faults on an LED sign are usually local rather than total. On scrolling text a single module can go dark and that module is renewed. On a full-colour screen the panels are fitted square by square, so a failed panel can be taken out and replaced on its own. The most common source of failure is actually not the LEDs but the power supply, since that is the part running and heating constantly. Keeping a spare power supply makes sense on larger screens, so a fault does not sit for days. We explain all of this at handover.

The most common problem after buying a screen is running out of content. The panel is there but the same message has been on it for months. We prepare the content, and this pattern works. One fixed brand frame, one changing campaign frame and one seasonal frame. The three rotate and the campaign frame is refreshed monthly. Text has to be short and the type large. Someone passing has a few seconds of reading time, and long sentences do not get read in that window. If video is used it has to be short and silent.

Not if the right class is specified. A panel destined for outdoor use has a different sealing rating from an indoor one, and that is the most critical item in the selection. Hanging a cheap indoor panel outside ends in a fault within months. On the heat side, ventilation matters. LEDs squeezed into a sealed housing shorten their own life through summer heat. We leave room for airflow at installation. These are invisible details, but they are exactly what decides how many years the sign lasts.