Reflective LCD signs for restaurants, cafes & entertainment venues
Printed menus have been the restaurant standard for centuries, likely even dating back to the advents of pulped papyrus and thin-sliced bread. Serving as a guide for patrons to compare prices and food descriptions, many restaurants post their menu outside as a way of enticing passersby to choose their restaurant for their next meal. Menus have also been an effective advertising space for showcasing coupons, sales, or even services from local businesses. While printed menus have worked well for centuries, they are becoming somewhat outdated as restaurants try to satisfy consumers' ever-growing demands for technologies that offer more dynamic information.
Menu items change frequently with the seasons, as produce and local ingredients become available. Pricing or daily specials can also change with little notice. The last thing restaurant owners want to do is disappoint their customers who are anticipating a featured meal that is no longer available. Outdoor printed menus take a beating from the elements. Sunlight, moisture, and wind can quickly fade, discolor and batter printed paper menus risking a negative impression from the public. For all of these reasons, printed menus need to be re-printed, replaced, or printed with several versions. These simple changes can demand tremendous time, energy, and expense for restaurants relying on outdoor paper advertising.
Switching from paper signage to digital signage is becoming a common trend for many restaurants.
The emergence of digital signage offers restaurants a way to avoid some of the issues associated with traditional printed menus. Digital signage can dynamically display menu items, prices, and daily specials. They can be easily and quickly updated as often as necessary to reflect the most current information. Short animations can be included to highlight featured dishes, which adds more value to the user interface than static images. Video advertisements and updates can be incorporated periodically to reach more of the dining crowd without diverting attention from the menu selections. Some software solutions even allow for customers to login or interact with the displays without touching them directly. Here they can download menu items or play short videos to see more about the food item they wish to order, all of which is simply not possible with a printed paper display. All of these features create a more personal and engaging experience for patrons, increasing the likelihood they'll return and maybe even bring new customers into your business.
Outdoor digital signage becomes even more significant in the way that it assists restaurants expand their business. For example, many Dunkin Donuts locations have adopted outdoor digital displays for their drive thru pick-up service. In addition to the benefit of changeable featured content, these displays are designed to resist harsh weather and be capable of interacting with customers, both of which were previously not possible with printed menus. With the newest advancements in online ordering, customers can even connect their mobile device to the restaurant’s digital display and access the same menu items on their phones, including ordering and paying for their meal remotely. In another example, one of McDonalds challenges has been informing its customers about when the breakfast menu is finished and the traditional menu is offered. Different locations could have different times and the policies were often regionally enforced. By upgrading to digital signage, not only could individual menu items be updated, entire menus could be replaced in a fraction of a second. By using multiple screens, McDonalds and other fast food companies can showcase menu items, explain which menus are available, and even show the customer their current order in real time, all within a single, convenient experience.
Why are more and more restaurants and entertainment venues using
digital signage?
Sunlight is a major challenge for outdoor digital signage.
To be objective, there were some initial challenges for implementing digital signage, as there are with incorporating any new idea or technology. When it comes to viewing any digital images in an outdoor environment, bright sunlight can make it difficult to see the image on the display clearly. In addition, this same bright light can cause devices to heat up quickly and even fail if proper precautions are not followed. Obviously, this is undesirable for any user and a concern for business owners who don’t want to see their investments only be subject to risk and failure. For a long while, the only solution was to have the display “outshine” the sun, cranking up the brightness on the device in an effort to power through the ambient sunlight. In some ways, this can be effective, as the saying going, “The brightest stars are seen at night.” But this method also comes at a high cost. First, it takes a lot of energy to try to beat the sun when it comes to emitting light and even if capable, that energy comes with a price tag that is ever consuming, unless the sun were to stop shining. At that point, digital displays would become the lowest of anyone’s worry. Second, this energy output also creates heat of its own and is another amount of energy that needs to be dissipated before damaging the device. Additional Anti-Reflective coatings and AC fans or water-cooling systems need to be used to pull heat away, adding to the overall energy usage and cost of operating the display. Last, by using the High Brightness mode, the LCD and back lights themselves would degrade more quickly, reducing the overall lifespan of the display before it would need to be fully replaced. So while a display may be able show a brighter image in bright conditions, it is important to understand what it takes to achieve that result.
Sun Vision Display signs use reflective LCD technology to turn sunlight into a solution.
The best aspect of technology is how quickly it advances. Just as printed paper menus are being upgraded to digital displays, so is the digital signage industry constantly upgrading itself. For instance, Sun Vision Display approaches the issue of sunlight differently, turning what was considered a problem into a solution. By using reflective technology, the same sunlight that other display panels compete with now becomes the exact light that illuminates the LCD panel. In this way, there is no need to “outshine” the sun or consume extreme of energy to do so. In fact, the brighter the sunlight, the better the images appear to the viewer, resulting in true sunlight readability.
The key to this technology is to replace the back light with a mirror-like reflective layer, eliminating the high energy component and cleverly converting interfering light energy into a useful asset. Though the physical mechanics of how this works may require several advanced degrees, the concept is actually quite simple and is what makes reflective displays truly a brilliant solution to an otherwise universal difficulty. As a result of this “small” change, many other benefits also arise. The energy required to operate the display is reduced up to 95% and in addition to removing the back light, saves overall cost every time it is turned on. The display welcomes bright light and is not subject to the same high heat degradation of other displays, increasing its overall lifespan and again reducing energy costs to cool the unit. Each factor that previously worked against the user now each benefit from the reflective technology and create a solution that is much more than the sum of its parts. This is the brilliance behind the way in which reflective technology has advanced the idea of using digital displays instead of printed paper menus.
Digital signage is helping restaurants advertise more effectively.
While it is important to see how technology has advanced, it is just as important to see how it impacts everyday life. In order to do so, one must look at how that technology is being used and how well it works in each application. The use of digital signage by restaurants for drive-thru services or outdoor dining space has been trending rapidly upward. One interesting example is how food trucks have also been able to incorporate mobile displays into their always-moving vehicles. It makes logical sense that a food truck owner who can easily be making lunch items in the center of Time Square, NY, likes the idea that she can also move her truck to Boston for dinner and late-night options. Similarly, she would like the idea that the content of her menu and specials can change as often as she pleases. Digital signage simply makes sense in this case and offers many wonderful advantages over paper menus and displays.
Sun Vision Display reflective LCD signs can be a great option for your restaurant's outdoor digital signage needs.
In the above food truck example, reflective displays could work very well for a number of reasons. The low power requirements make it easy to operate in a setting with limited resources. Also, reflective displays are designed to handle nearly any weather-related conditions that may hit. For example, SVD displays have an operating temperature between -20C and 70C, making them suitable for many outdoor climates. They can also be sealed behind toughened glass and ruggedized to an IP65 rating which will help withstand weather and the jostling conditions of a moving vehicle.
If you are interested in learning more about outdoor displays, especially as they are being used by the Food and Entertainment industry, please feel free to reach out to one of our representatives today. SVD currently offers signage in a 32” diagonal size, with 43" and 55” options in development. These displays can also be tiled together in 2x2 or 3x3 arrangements to scale for larger needs. No matter what size you need, there is a good solution available to you that will help upgrade your business and increase your sales. Please contact us today with any questions!
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Sun Vision Display
25 S. Grove Ave., Suite 401, Elgin, Illinois 60120
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Phone: +1-224-268-3343
Email: sales@sunvisiondisplay.com
Sun Vision Display is a trademarked brand of New Vision Display.
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