Guide · 6 min read
Last reviewed
LED Signage Buying Checklist: Mistakes to Avoid
The expensive errors are all made before anything is installed. This is the list we go through with customers at the site assessment.
- Manufacturer warranty
- GST invoice
- Pan-India delivery
- On-site service in Karnataka
- Transparent, published pricing
1. Overbuying pitch
The most common and most expensive mistake. A finer pitch sounds unambiguously better, so buyers take the upgrade — and then install a P2.5 above a shutter that nobody views from closer than six metres, where it looks identical to a P6 costing less than half as much. Measure the viewing distance before you discuss pitch at all.
2. Under-specifying outdoor brightness
The mirror-image error. A quote comes in attractively low because the panel is 3,500 nits, and at midday the screen is hard to read — badly so on an exposed, sun-facing frontage. Brightness is set at manufacture, so there is nothing to turn up afterwards. Five thousand nits is the floor outdoors, and 8,000 for direct sun.
3. Ignoring refresh rate
Refresh rate is almost never discussed and it largely decides whether your screen photographs well. Below 1,920 Hz, phone cameras commonly record dark rolling bands across the display. For a retail or jewellery frontage that customers photograph, or a wall that appears on video calls, specify 3,840 Hz — the panel hardware sets the ceiling, so this is a purchase decision.
4. Comparing quotes without parity
Two quotes for "8 × 4 ft P6 outdoor" can differ by 40% and both be honest, because they are different products. Insist that each quote states the LED chip brand, the actual brightness in nits, the cabinet material, the refresh rate, and the warranty duration and coverage. Once those are on paper, the cheaper quote either becomes reasonable or explains itself.
6. Not checking the power sanction
A large outdoor display can push a small commercial connection past its sanctioned load. Increasing the sanction, or getting a new meter, takes time and money. Check the display's power draw against your existing sanctioned load before ordering, not on installation day.
7. Treating content as an afterthought
The screen is a distribution channel. A ₹2 lakh display showing a stretched photograph and a phone number in Comic Sans returns nothing. Budget something for a proper set of creative templates, and decide who in your business is responsible for updating it — the installations that fail commercially almost always fail here rather than technically.
8. Not getting the warranty in writing
Verbal warranty assurances are worthless when a module fails in month fourteen. Get the duration, what is covered, whether it includes on-site labour, and the response time — in writing, on the quote.
The checklist itself
- Measured the actual viewing distance, and chosen pitch from it
- Brightness in nits stated on the quote, appropriate to the environment
- IP65 confirmed front and rear wherever the cabinet is not flat against a wall — a front rating says nothing about an exposed back
- Refresh rate stated — 3,840 Hz if it will be photographed
- LED chip brand named in writing
- Cabinet material stated, and service access decided
- All quotes itemised the same way, including structure, cabling and installation
- Municipal advertising permission checked — always for third-party ads, and for any illuminated board in Bengaluru
- Power sanction confirmed adequate
- Warranty duration, coverage and response time in writing
- Content plan agreed, and a named person responsible for updates