Articles and reviews
Why can I not see a picture on the TV screen in daylight in a storefront window?
Mar
How to attract customers’ attention?
Store owners strive to attract passersby to their store in a variety of ways through a combination of marketing, psychological and visual techniques. The face of any store that attracts visitors is the storefront. How the storefront is designed and how attractive it is depends on whether passersby will pay attention to it or pass it by.
One of the popular ways of attracting attention is a bright and dynamic video content shown on a video screen installed in the showcase. And the first thing that comes to the mind of the store owner is to install a TV set in the window, which he usually uses at home.
Why can’t you see anything?
But what happens when the TV is bought in the neighboring home appliance store and took the honorable central place in the window? On a bright sunny day, when the sun makes people squint and put on sunglasses, it turns out that on the TV screen almost nothing can be seen. Why is this the case when you can see everything on the shelf in the store and at home?
It’s all about ambient light
Illuminance is measured in lux. In summer, on a clear sunny day, the illumination on the street can exceed 100 thousand lux, while in cloudy weather, gloomy fall or winter, this figure barely reaches 1-3 thousand lux. At dusk illuminance decreases to 10-50 lux. Illumination on the street in the full moon is about 0.2 lux. Illumination in the sales area of the store usually does not exceed 700 lux, and in the living room is not more than 300 lux.
Household televisions sold in ordinary stores usually have a brightness of 300-500 nits (candela per square meter, cd/m²). To keep the picture clearly visible, the ambient light level must be well below the brightness of the screen. This is why, when you watch TV at home or in a store in low light conditions, the image on the screen is clearly visible.
- Indoors with normal lighting (~100 – 300 lux) – the picture on the TV is perfectly visible.
- Outdoors in the shade or in cloudy weather (~1000 – 5000 lux) – the picture remains readable, but loses contrast significantly.
- In bright daylight, but without direct sun (~10,000 – 25,000 lux) – the image becomes poorly recognizable.
- Under direct sunlight (~50,000 – 100,000 lux) – the TV screen is practically invisible.
What to do?
For good visibility of a household TV screen, ambient light levels should not exceed 2000 lux. If the light level is higher, you should either shield the screen from the light or use brighter professional displays, specially designed for showcases and having increased brightness of 3000 – 4000+ nits.
When it’s hot
In addition to light, the sun also produces a huge amount of heat, which warms objects under its rays. An ordinary TV set at room temperature of 22 – 25 °C will heat up to 40 °C during operation, but in an outdoor display, heat from the sun is added to this temperature, the rays of which can heat up the screen to 60 – 80 °C.
Consumer TVs are usually designed to operate at temperatures of 0 – 40°C and this is enough to work reliably at home. But when working in a store window, at elevated temperatures above 50-60°C, the plastic housing of the TV may deform, and at 80-90°C the processor may overheat and the device may fail. LCD matrixes at overheating (80-90°C) may start to change color, spots and unrecoverable artifacts may appear on the screen. Such defects are not covered by the manufacturer’s warranty and such a TV set has to be simply discarded.
How to reduce heating?
You can, for example, move the screen to the interior of the store, protecting it from sunlight, use a canopy, cover the TV screen with a special sun protection film, provide good ventilation and air conditioning of the space where the screen is installed. All this turns the use of the TV into too costly and unpleasant occupation with questionable results. And it seems that this is not what you wanted.
What is the solution?
Use screens with high operating temperatures, such as professional displays designed to operate at temperatures from 0 to 50 °C and above. Showcase professional displays have an efficient active cooling and heat dissipation system, a special screen coating prevents the LCD matrix from overheating, and the housing is made of steel.
Glare
Bright glare from surrounding objects on the glossy surface of the screen, hiding important details, is another enemy of quality perception of the image, and consequently, and to the loss of interest, passing by, a potential customer. The size of the proposed discount may be hidden behind a bright spot of light. That is why the screen of the street professional display is covered with a special polarizing layer, and the image on the screen is clearly visible even with sunglasses.
Reasonable choice
Using an ordinary household TV in a store window is a surefire solution that will lead to wasted money and disappointment.
❌ You can’t see anything on the screen during the day – because of its low brightness (300-500 nits), it simply gets lost in the sunlight. Passersby won’t see your content, which means the screen won’t attract customers.
❌ Glare and reflections kill the image – window glass and screen create a mirror effect, making the picture illegible.
❌ Overheating kills your TV – sunlight heats up the TV to 70-90°C, leading to matrix burn-in, processor failure and shorter life.
❌ Unreliable – Household TVs are not designed to operate in extreme conditions, and their warranty does not cover commercial use.
✅ A professional window display is the only sensible choice! It provides high brightness of 1000-4000 nits, has an anti-reflective screen coating and is resistant to overheating. Such a screen can work around the clock, effectively attracting attention and converting passers-by into buyers.
Do you want your display to really sell? Then an everyday TV is not your option. Choose professional window displays and get the most out of your advertising!
Get in touch!
Our catalog features a large selection of ultra-bright displays designed specifically for use in outdoor storefronts. Contact us now to get a favorable offer and an effective marketing tool to attract attention.
