Don't be Left Out in the Cold

Before purchasing an LED sign, check with you local building department to make sure you will not break any city ordinance or zoning policies in your preferred location. Also consider your LED sign requirements and compare them to sign regulations set by your local government. Many communities set restrictions on the size and appearance of signs.You can find out how property is zoned by contacting your local building department, or use the state and local search engine to find if your city or county has zoning ordinances online. If you need any assistance, LED Sign Authority can help you select the right sign for your location. Here are a few questions you may want to ask your local building department:

• How many square feet of signage is allowed?
• Is there a minimum or maximum height restriction? What is it?
• Are there set back requirements? Minimum distance from the roadway or sidewalk?
• Are you allowed an LED Moving Message Sign? Can it move and scroll, or must it stay static?
• Can anyone pull a permit or is a license necessary?
• Can your organization install the sign themselves or is a Sign Specialist required?

If you need asssitance in for assistance in interpreting your local municipal sign codes and regulations please call or email LED Sign Authority. We are here to help.

On Site Certification

Don't end up pulling your hair out because your Outdoor LED Sign was not installed properly or you are not familiar with the sign software.



LED Sign Authority's On-site Certification Service provides the following on site activities on our outdoor LED displays.

• Unpack systems and components.
• Verify receipt and condition of all boxes and components.
• Verify the availability of customer-provided physical site and power.
• Verify product serial numbers match packing list.
• Check and make sure that the voltage setting is correct before powering up the system.
• Test all accessories for correct operation
• Install software and configure sign to work seamlessly within your network.
• Subject to time availability, our consultant will provide you as much Customer Orientation in using your LED Sign and software as is possible within the 8-Hour onsite service.

LED Sign Authority offers an optional On-site Certification Service and Customer Orientation that is hassle free and affordable. For businesses, it provides comforting reassurance that their installer has done the job correctly. As an added benefit, customers also receive orientation and software training saving valuable time and money by increasing the amount of hands-on personal learning.

At the conclusion of the Customer Orientation you should have gained an overall greater knowledge and appreciation of your new LED Sign. On-site Orientation is the perfect choice for companies that need to train groups of employees. You get a maximum number of employees trained in a minimal amount of time for one flat fee. They receive the same message at the same time, creating synergy to the learning experience that gets everyone “on the same page”. LED Sign Authority can ensure that the sign setup is tailored to your specific needs and make recommendations for improvement. Investing in the installation of your LED Sign is extremely important and LED Sign Authority understands that.

ROI Numbers are Tough to Ignore

The Big Question for any business owner thinking of  investing in an LED Sign is "will a LED Sign really increase my buiness?" We know the answer is a resounding YES, but don't take our word for it. The Small Business Administraion has found the addition of a LED sign typically results in a 15 to 150% percent increase in business. What will be your expected return on investment (ROI) with the purchase of an outdoor LED sign? Lets take a typical LED display purchase and determine how long it would take to pay for itself using conservative numbers.

Proposed Sign Price: $8,000

Annual Gross Revenues: $150,000

Assumed Increase in Annual Gross Revenue: 15%

Take the annual gross revenues and multiply it by the assumed increase (in this case we will assume a minimal increase of 15%). Take the result of that calculation and divide it by the sign price. That gives you the number of times in a year the new sign would pay for itself. Then take the number of days in a year and divide it by the number of times it would pay for itself in a year. This gives the number of days it will take for the proposed sign to pay for itself in increased gross revenue.

$150,000 X 0.15 = $22,500 = estimated annual gross revenue increase from adding a LED Sign.

$22,500/$8,000 = 2.81 = the number of times the LED sign will pay for itself in one year.

365/2.81 = 130 days = the number of days it will take for the LED sign to pay for itself (in gross revenue).

So the new LED display pays for itself in 130 days. Less than 6 months after the LED sign is installed, the buisness would be in the black. Plug in your numbers to this simple formula and calculate your ROI.  Can your busines afford to ignore the numbers?

LED Sign Viewing Distance

At what distance will your LED sign be viewed? And at what angle? This will help you determine the correct message display character height and minimum pitch required to produce an image that is crisp and lifelike. Longer distances require less resolution and shorter distances require more resolution. If you are traveling 55mph on a freeway and the LED message sign is 600 feet away at a truck stop, the LED message text letters must be at least 20 inches tall to be legible. If you are standing 60 feet away from a LED sign, the message letters need only be 2 inches tall to be legible.

Resolution is the most important factor affecting the cost of your LED sign. More resolution means more diodes and more circuits, which usually means higher cost. How do you determine the resolution of an LED sign? Pitch is the distance between one diode and another. The SMALLER the pitch the HIGHER the resolution. You are probably not a sign expert, but we can give you the knowledge you need on distance and angle to ensure your site and LED sign match up correctly.

Why do I need an Outdoor LED Sign

You say "I already have a sign". An Outdoor LED sign or electronic message center offers a unique way to capture the attention of passers-by. A LED sign allows you to communicate more effectively with the typical person passing by at a particular time day by changing the message and graphic of your sign to match the profile on the street. Outdoor electronic LED moving message centers have proven to increase business 15%-150% (Small Business Administration) at 10% the cost of TV, Radio and Newspaper advertising.

You say "my customers already know where I am". Consider the public - your existing and potential customers - is on the move, both literally and figuratively, and sometimes catching their attention is like hitting a moving target. Approximately 85% of customers live within an 5 mile radius of most businesses and 18.6% of Americans move every year. Potentially that is a loss of 18.5% of your current customer base. Add to that the fact that 15-35% of the traffic on a given street is "just passing through" (vacation travelers and such), and you can see the great potential for stops by those unfamiliar with the area.

We no longer live in a 9-to-5 society, and people will drive past your business location 24 hours a day. With a lighted LED Electronic Message Center sign, you have an opportunity to communicate with your existing and potential customer, even when your business is closed and you are at home enjoying your family.

What is a pixel on a LED display?

A light emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits visible light when current passes through it. A pixel on a LED display can be composed of one or more LEDs. A pixel is the smallest individual component of an image. For example 16mm, 20mm, 25mm LED displays can utilize 1 LED per pixel for monochrome signs and 3 LED per pixel for full color LED displays (1-red, 1-green, 1-blue). Whereas a 32 mm LED signs can have have 4 LEDs per pixel for monochrome LED signs, and 5 LEDs per pixel for full color (2-red, 1-green, 1-blue). When determining the quality of the display, the number of LEDs per pixel is not as important as the overall brightness of the LEDs. High grade LEDs exceed 5000 NITs. Some LED display manufacturers try to overcome inferior LEDs by adding more LEDs of the same color to each pixel. This makes the pixel larger, which increases the viewing distance, but it also increases energy consumption.