How to install digital signage without breaking the green bank
October 25th, 2010Stop Press - here’s a sneak preview of a magazine article we were asked to submit. As you can see, we strayed off the point a little!
Do you think digital signage will continue to grow as a market in the UK and will it ever become cost effective for large format applications, such as billboards?
The digital outdoor market is growing fast, for one simple reason: advertisers love it.
Continued growth is assured as barriers tumble - hardware prices will fall, content provision will standardise and creativity will blossom. Many of the most premium sites are set to go digital in the next few years.
There is however, an elephant in the digital room - energy consumption. A typical digital billboard consumes 5 x more power and generates 5 x more carbon than a conventional backlit billboard.
Naturally, advertisers want to reduce their environmental impact without reducing their impact on consumers so how can a commitment to carbon reduction be reconciled with the expansion of digital billboards?
The media world is already asking some logical questions:
* Should we be investing energy to illuminate advertising displays?
* If so, are these displays as environmentally responsible as they could be?
* How can we drive down the carbon footprint of large format advertising?
The industry has recognised that providing good answers to the second and third questions is the best way to prevent the first question from dominating the debate.
The solution could lie in technology. If premium digital sites are using more energy, could this be offset by reducing the energy consumed by conventional illuminated billboards?
The simplest way to cut the power consumption of a backlit billboard is to install LED lighting technology in place of fluorescents. Power reductions of up to 60% are possible together with improved quality and the almost complete elimination of maintenance.
The maths is straightforward - retrofitting the tubes with LEDs in 5 backlit displays offsets the increased carbon generation of a single digital display. Adding lighting control to the LED system can stretch that figure further.
It turns out that, by taking a wider view of the problem, there’s a solution that improves the whole installed base of displays.
The result: premium digital sites, better backlit billboards and a clear , visible commitment to energy saving.
Getting over the first hurdle
August 3rd, 2010So .. we’ve demonstrated fantastic energy savings, we’ve convinced you that maintenance will drop to practically zero, you’ve calculated that the carbon savings will be substantial and (crucially) you’ve calculated an ROI of less than 3 years. Next step is to issue a PO right? But wait, there’s nothing in the budget and you’ll need to wait months to get started.
This is frustrating for everyone but now we have a solution - our new financing plan. Put simply, we fund the purchase, calculate the energy savings and set the repayments below the savings. This means that you save money as soon as you throw the switch on your new LED system. We can usually structure this as a service and keep it off the balance sheet.
The usual small print applies - there’s a credit check and the minimum loan value is £25,000.
Find out more by downloading a brochure (on the economic case page) or pick up the phone.
Latest News
July 6th, 2010New Bright Green Panel installed at Florence Nightingale museum. Read more..
Latest News
March 8th, 2010See how our Bright Green Matrix has been used to down light a sign fascia - read more
Spot the LED difference
September 17th, 2009Take a look at these pictures.
It’s a 6 sheet scroller, originally fitted with 5 x T5s (top left) which we replaced with our Bright Green Matrix system. Not only does it look great - there are no stripes - but it’s maintenance free, 200kg of carbon per box is saved every year and there’s a 2 year ROI. It’s hard to see how tubes can compete with this.
News
July 6th, 2009Bright Green Matrix has been chosen for garage parking retro fit sign project in Chicago - read more in the news section
House of Commons discusses LED lighting
March 24th, 2009 A recent article in LEDs Magazine highlighted a discussion in the House of Commons recently when the merits of LEDs were discussed for their energy saving properties. This is what was said: “Joan Ruddock, Under-Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, was asked if there had been discussions between her department and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on the effect on electricity consumption and CO2 emissions of the installation and use of LED lighting. Ruddock replied that “the Government certainly recognize the potential energy savings that ultra-efficient lighting technologies such as LEDs can offer. We continue to work to stimulate development and take-up, and officials in the two Departments have worked, and will continue to work, together on this issue.” The full article is here:http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/6/3/6Ultra - efficient lighting technologies (their words not ours!) are clearly moving up the political agenda. Some kind of legislation looks inevitable; power is getting cheaper (hence more demand) and the CO2 targets aren’t going away - especially with the new ‘Obama’ effect. Energy use is notably uncontrolled right now - is this the next frontier for our legislation addicted politicians?UK Distribution Deal
March 13th, 2009When you launch a new product that you really believe in - there is always a small part of you that worries if your potential customers will feel the same way, however much field testing and research has been undertaken.
So as Head of Product for Bright Green Technology I was delighted when we secured our first major distribution deal in the UK with the Bright Green Matrix TM only a few months old.
Our distributor, The Robert Horne Group, really believe in LEDs as an alternative to traditional forms of lighting for signs - in fact they have a dedicated Product Manager devoted solely to helping sign companies and the sales team understand and select the right product for the job in hand.
The cost associated with cost effectively backlighting large signs, display and billboards is now less of a challenge and increasingly we are having conversations with multi-site retailers prepared to invest in the benefits of reduced energy and carbon consumption. Return on investment can typically be between 2 and 3 years and with energy savings of between 60-80% when compared to fluorescent tubes it’s making a lot decision makers sit up and take notice. Not only that the headache and cost of replacing failed tubes can be eliminated once and for all.
Site additions
January 5th, 2009We’ve added a lot of new information to our site in the last few weeks - here’s a handy guide to’what’s new’.
- New case study from our work in Grand Central Terminal, New York
- New case study from our recent project at the Imperial War Museum
- Several new press releases
- A new management team page
- A new Bright Green Matrix page and downloadable brochure
- New images of our latest work in the image gallery
Please take a look!
Sending the right message
December 18th, 2008I recently saw a large backlit billboard promoting the environmental efforts of a major oil company. We all know companies are jumping on the green band wagon in their advertising to customers and we are delighted when their actions confirm their messages; but they do need to be very careful how these messages reach their green aware customers. There are plenty of people ready to cry foul and worse if a company is not seen to be living its environmental claims. This poster was backlit with fluorescent lights - unnecessarily burning masses of energy and creating a recycling and disposal issue for its owners. No doubt the bulbs will break on a regular basis and a van will be sent to sort the problem out. More carbon, more wastage. Had the brand insisted on a low energy lighting solution (like ours) then up to 80% of the energy would have been saved, and there would have been no maintenance costs. Their claims would then have been consistent with their actions, and they’d have avoided potential and reasonable criticism. Oh, and the media site owner would have also saved money. Green aware companies really should dump the fluorescents.