Digital signage replaces the paper poster with a screen that shows moving content, updates remotely and can be read from metres away. At LEDLEMON we manufacture, install and support LED screens across Spain, and a large part of what we build is exactly that: digital signage displays for shop windows, totems, meeting rooms and façades.
Here we explain what digital signage is, what types exist, how it beats print, how each sector makes the most of it and what it takes to roll it out. If what interests you is its effect on the shopper, we develop that in our article on how digital signage influences the buying decision.
What digital signage is
Digital signage is a visual communication system that uses electronic screens —usually LED screens— to display messages, promotions, prices or video in a physical space. It is the screen-based form of signage: signs and posters, but on a display instead of vinyl or paper.
Unlike a poster printed once, a digital signage display plays dynamic content —images in sequence, video, animated text— and can be changed in seconds without reprinting anything. On an LED screen it also gains in brightness (visible in full sunlight), in scale (from a totem to an entire façade) and in durability for continuous use.
Types of digital signage with LED screens
There is no single format: the digital signage display is chosen according to where it goes, how far away the audience looks and whether it is indoor or outdoor. These are the types we install most:
- Indoor digital signage: LED screens for shops, receptions, restaurants or offices, with a fine pixel pitch for a sharp image at close range. It is the backbone of nearly all indoor digital signage.
- Outdoor digital signage: high-brightness, weatherproof displays for façades, entrances and public spaces, visible in full sunlight.
- LED totems and city panels: vertical LED-screen columns, free-standing or anchored, for retail corridors, lobbies or street furniture. We group them in our range of LED totems and city panels.
- Videowalls: LED modules with no frame between them, forming a single continuous screen for large-format impact in lobbies, stages or brand spaces.
- Shop window and LED curtain: screens facing outward from inside the premises, or lightweight, semi-transparent curtains that dress the glass without closing it off.
Digital signage versus printed signage
The comparison with paper is the most common question. These are the real advantages of digital signage over the printed poster:
- Dynamic content: video, animation and several creatives rotating on a single display. A printed poster only says one thing.
- Remote updates: you change the message, the price or the campaign from a computer or your phone, instantly and across every screen at once. No reprinting and no going location by location.
- Long-term cost: there is an initial investment in the screen, but after that the recurring printing, the mounting of each poster and the waste all disappear. The more you change the content, the more it pays off.
- Impact and visibility: movement and brightness capture attention far better than a static surface, in daylight too.
- Context-based scheduling: different content depending on the time, the day or the season, automatically.
Not everything has to be digital by default: for a single message that will not change in years, a printed sign still makes sense. Digital signage wins when the content changes, when there are several messages or when visual impact is part of the goal.
Uses of digital signage by sector
Digital signage fits almost any space with an audience. These are the sectors where we most often see it work:
Retail and fashion
In retail, the flagship display is the shop window: a screen facing the street that draws in passers-by and reinforces the brand. At El Ganso (Madrid) we gave the main shop window a digital makeover with a P2.6 indoor LED screen of 1×2 m in portrait, so the image reads sharp at glass distance. Inside the store, digital signage shows the catalogue and promotions and guides customers through the sections.
Hospitality
Restaurants, bars and leisure venues use digital signage to set the mood of the space and display the menu, offers or brand content. At the Bora Bora restaurant (Málaga) we installed a large-format indoor LED screen of 3×1.5 m with high pixel density, to set the ambience of the venue with imagery viewed at close range.
Corporate
In company lobbies and meeting rooms, digital signage communicates indicators, welcome messages, internal wayfinding and brand content. Here the videowall and the totem are the usual formats.
Transport and smart city
In street furniture, digital signage informs and organises. In Arganda del Rey (Madrid), as part of a smart city project, we deployed informative —non-touch— outdoor LED city panels of 0.96×1.6 m with a P3.91 pixel pitch, at pedestrian entrances and avenues to deliver municipal information at street level.
How to implement digital signage: screen, player and content
A digital signage system is always made up of three pieces:
- The screen: the LED display, chosen according to location, reading distance and indoor or outdoor use. It is the decision that sets the result.
- The player and the CMS: a small device (media player) connected to the screen and managed from CMS software —the content manager— to upload campaigns, schedule time slots and update every screen remotely.
- The content: the creatives (images, video, animations) that the audience sees. It has to be kept alive for the display to perform.
The piece that conditions everything else is the screen, and there the key is the pixel pitch: the distance between points of light. The closer the audience looks, the finer the pitch needs to be. For indoor use and a close audience we install high-definition P2.6 screens; for outdoor use and long distances, high-brightness P3.91, which is visible in full sunlight. Before we quote, we check distance, ambient light and content so we don't charge you for a resolution that can't be appreciated at that distance.
Why implement your digital signage with LEDLEMON
At LEDLEMON we don't just sell the screen: we manufacture it, install it and support it. The digital signage we build arrives calibrated, properly anchored and with someone behind it when needed. We handle both fixed installation —indoor, outdoor, custom— and rental for one-off events, with transport, assembly, video processor and technician included.
If you are considering moving your posters to screen, tell us what space you want to cover, whether it is indoor or outdoor, the approximate dimensions and what content you plan to show. We'll propose the right format and pixel pitch and a fixed price. Ask us for a quote with no obligation and we'll implement it from start to finish.