US Manufacturer of Indoor and Outdoor ALPHA LED Display Signs for Over 30 Years

About LED Display Technology

What is an LED?
LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. Basically semiconductor chips that produce light, LEDs are much different and far more efficient than incandescent light bulbs. They consume far less electricity, requiring only 1/10 to 1/40 the energy of incandescent bulbs. While light bulbs burn out relatively quickly, LEDs can last for more than 100,000 hours.

What is a Pixel?
A pixel is a cluster of two or more LEDs, each delivering a single point of light or color. Monochrome signs use pixels that are clusters of single colored LEDs. A pixel in a color sign combines red, green, and blue LEDs (which is why color displays are sometimes referred to as RGB displays). Arranged in rows and columns, thousands of pixels go into every LED sign.

What does "pitch" mean?
The pitch of an LED sign is the distance between each pixel. If a pitch is 16mm, that means that each pixel (or LED cluster) is 16 millimeters apart. Smaller numbers mean a "tighter pitch".

The closer the pixels (or the tighter the pitch), the crisper and more realistic your image appears, especially when viewed from shorter distances.

LEDs and Viewing Angle
Viewing Angle refers to the angle from which an LED display is seen by passers-by. When you look at an LED straight on, it is at full brightness. As you view the LED from different directions, the brightness changes and the image becomes less clear. This is typical for all LED signs, but some have a wider viewing angle, allowing you to see more of the image.

Is there an advantage to selecting a Color or Monochrome LED display?
Commonly available with either red or amber LEDs, monochrome message centers are especially well suited for text-based messages. Some monochrome displays can also display shaded graphics or short animations.

Color LED signs can do everything that monochrome signs can, but in literally millions of eye-catching colors. Because they have more LEDs per pixel (3 vs. 1), they're pricier than monochrome displays, but offer much more versatility and visibility.

How can LED signage help your business?
Outdoor digital signage can make a big difference to your bottom dollar by cutting through the crowd and capturing today's mobile customers; visit our Why EMCs? page for a rundown of the many benefits of electronic message centers.

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