Sun-readable hardware
Food trucks, drive-thrus, forecourts, patios, and exterior walls get brightness and enclosure specs matched to the site.
Outdoor / Exterior
Outdoor digital signage that stays readable.
Weather-ready outdoor displays for drive-thru menus, food trucks, forecourts, storefronts, and venue entrances. CrownTV handles visibility planning, mounting, electrical coordination, content scheduling, and nationwide installation as one turnkey digital signage service.
- 4,000–7,500 nits
- IP65 weatherproof
- –22°F to 122°F
- Commercial LED
sun-readable weather-ready turnkey install
What CrownTV handles outside
Outdoor signage is a site project, not a screen order.
Outdoor buyers need brightness, weather protection, mounting, electrical coordination, content control, and service access figured out before hardware ships. CrownTV scopes the outdoor display, media player, mount, installation, Dashboard setup, and support together.
- 01 Exposure
- 02 Brightness
- 03 Mounting
- 04 Service
01 What CrownTV provides
Weather-ready install
Mounting surface, wind, water, service access, cable path, and display angle are part of the quote, not afterthoughts.
Dashboard scheduling
Menus, promos, fuel/forecourt messages, venue notices, and brand loops update from the CrownTV Dashboard.
No fake flat price
Outdoor quotes depend on brightness, enclosure, mount, power, permit needs, lift access, and rollout timing.
02 Clear path to launch
Send the site
Photos, sun direction, mounting surface, existing power, customer viewing distance, and exposure conditions.
We spec the risk
Brightness, weather rating, enclosure, mount, cable path, media player, and service access are planned together.
Install and support
Field crew mounts, commissions, loads content, trains staff, and keeps a service path open after launch.
Sun-readable outdoor projects need real brightness.
Rain, heat, dust, and service access are planned.
Hardware, mount, player, install, setup, support.
What outdoor digital signage actually means
An outdoor LED display built to run outside unattended, in full sun, full rain, 122°F asphalt heat or –22°F winter, 24 hours a day, for years.
Outdoor digital signage uses a sealed enclosure (IP65 rated against dust and water jets), a direct-view LED or high-brightness LCD panel rated 4,000–7,500 nits to fight midday sun, integrated heating and fanless cooling for the temperature swings, and anti-vandal glass for street-front and forecourt placements. It's the category that lives on gas station canopies, drive-thru menu boards, fast-food order points, fast-food walk-ups, and outdoor patio menus — surfaces that consumer TVs and indoor commercial displays both fail at within weeks. CrownTV is a turnkey digital signage provider helping brands digitize their physical spaces. We bundle three things most vendors split apart: the CrownTV Dashboard (our digital signage software), commercial-grade high-brightness outdoor displays and portrait enclosures, and a nationwide installation team. We run the whole stack — site survey, hardware, install, content management, ongoing support — under one contract.
Built for asphalt
7,500 NITS
25× brighter than your living-room TV. Engineered to stay legible under direct midday forecourt sun.
The brightness story, told in nits
Why your competitor's TV-on-an-extension-cord washes out by 11 a.m.
Brightness is measured in nits. Indoor categories live below 500. Outdoor LED starts where indoor ends — and goes 15× higher.
- 300Consumer TVLiving-room baseline
- 500Indoor commercialLobby + back-of-house
- 3,000Window displayStorefront, indirect sun
- 7,500Outdoor LED canopyDirect midday sun, IP65
What IP65 actually defends against
Five weather threats. One sealed panel.
IP65 isn't a marketing badge — it's a tested rating against dust, water, freeze, heat, and impact. Here's what the panel survives, unattended, for years.
Rain & jets
IP65 water-jet rated
Dust & insects
Dust-tight enclosure
−22°F freeze
Integrated heater + defrost
122°F heat
Fanless convection cooling
Impact & strikes
IK10 anti-vandal glass
Where outdoor LED ships
Four placements on the lot. Each one a different brightness tier.
Same product family, different spec per placement. We pick the panel by the sun, not the catalog.
- 01
Forecourt canopy / pump-island headline
Spec: 6,500-nit outdoor LED · IP-rated front / rear · landscape strip mount
Regular/plus/premium pricing live across the canopy. C-store promos, loyalty enrollment, and weather-dayparted creative — when it rains, the headline flips to the wash bay.
Canopy mount 6,500 nits Pump-island - 02
QSR drive-thru menu board
Spec: 4,000-nit outdoor menu display · IP-rated · portrait or landscape · double-sided variant
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner dayparts roll on schedule. Promotions, service notices, and local menu changes are managed from the CrownTV Dashboard.
Drive-thru Dayparted 4,000 nits - 03
Fast-food walk-up / outdoor order window
Spec: 3,500-nit outdoor order display · IP-rated · 55″–75″ portrait · low-glare matte glass
Queue-ordering screens with combo upsells, calorie disclosures, and a branded countdown to the next drop. Matte AR glass keeps it readable in side-lit dawn and dusk.
Walk-up Anti-vandal 3,500 nits - 04
Outdoor patio menu / storefront marquee
Spec: Direct-view LED · 1.5–2.5mm pitch · 5,500 nits · custom canvas
Seasonal cocktail menu, full-bleed brand reels, live event boards, weather-trigger swap (rain pushes the indoor menu). One canvas, every shift's content.
Marquee Heated Weather-aware
Outdoor placements, in daylight
What sun-readable actually looks like.
Storefront high-bright portrait enclosures, drive-thru menu boards, food-truck menus, and window-facing displays — the placements outdoor digital signage is built for, photographed in the light it has to beat.
Spec sheet — outdoor LED display systems
Engineered for the surfaces that punish screens.
Outdoor LED is a different category, not a brighter version of the indoor panel. Here's what's actually different — and why the consumer-TV-on-an-extension-cord setup outside your competitor's store will be dead within a season.
7,500 nits
IP65 sealed
−22°F to 122°F
Anti-vandal glass
Fanless cooling
Heated panel
Canopy mount
24/7 outdoor
- Brightness
- 4,000 nits (canopy) → 7,500 nits (full-sun storefront). Auto-dimming sensor to match ambient.
- Resolution
- UHD 3840×2160 on high-brightness outdoor LCD; native pitch 1.5–4mm on direct-view LED.
- Ingress protection
- IP56 front / IP54 rear standard; full IP65 sealing on direct-view LED systems.
- Operating temperature
- –22°F to 122°F (–30°C to 50°C). Internal heater + fanless cooling envelope.
- Glass
- Anti-vandal tempered cover glass; anti-reflective AR coating; IK10 impact rating.
- Cooling
- Fanless convection on high-brightness LCD; sealed direct-view LED modules — no exposed fan path for dust or insects.
- Heating
- Integrated panel + glass heater. Defrost cycle keeps screen legible at –22°F.
- Duty cycle
- 24/7 continuous operation, 50,000+ hour panel rating.
- Mounting
- Wall, pole, canopy strip, or freestanding pylon. Wind-load engineered to ASCE 7 / IBC.
- Content
- HDMI input from the CrownTV media player. CrownTV Dashboard schedules + dayparts everything.
- Warranty
- 3-year commercial against weather-related failure. CrownTV layers a 48-hour swap during active service.
We size the panel to the placement, not the brochure. Send us photos of the lot and the proposed mount — we'll come back with brightness, pitch, and IP-rating recommendations within 24 hours.
Why turnkey, not DIY
Three things outdoor LED gets wrong when it's not turnkey.
-
Engineered for weather, not "weather-resistant"
Every panel ships with a real IP rating, real wind-load math, and a real corrosion-resistant mount kit. We don't bolt indoor displays into outdoor enclosures and hope. The category is different — the procurement is too.
-
Structural mount engineering, stamped where required
Canopy and rooftop installs come with engineer-stamped drawings, AHJ permit filing, and bonded mounting hardware. We coordinate with your GC or run it end-to-end. No "we just hung the screen" — outdoor LED is structural.
-
Content scheduled by daypart, sun, and weather
Auto-brightness against the ambient sensor, rain-trigger creative swaps, and sunset-driven daypart changes keep outdoor content legible and timely. The CrownTV Dashboard manages the schedule without a content manager touching the screen.
Verticals shipping outdoor LED
Built mostly for two industries — same product, different content.
Pair the panel
Outdoor LED ships with the player and the CMS — same as every other panel we install.
Every outdoor digital signage install is the panel plus the CrownTV media player plus the CrownTV Dashboard CMS plus the engineered mount plus the dedicated electrical. Pick the matching child product for deeper specs.
- Commercial displays — the lineup Indoor 4K, high-brightness window, weather-ready outdoor, and bezel-thin video wall displays — mapped to the four jobs they're built for. See all four display types →
- High-brightness window displays 2,500–3,000+ nits, anti-glare finish, and thermal management for sun-readable storefronts behind glass. See the window-display product →
- CrownTV media players The hardened Android player that drives every outdoor LED display we ship. See the player →
- CrownTV Dashboard CMS The signage software that schedules, monitors, and pushes content to every outdoor screen. See the dashboard →
- Turnkey deployment Hardware + install + electrical + content + CMS in one quote, one project manager, one number to call. See turnkey →
- Per-screen pricing Outdoor IP56 / IP65 panels at $6,500–$12,500 installed; direct-view outdoor LED canvases at $15,000–$120,000+. See pricing →
Read more
Frequently asked
Outdoor digital signage — questions we get every week
What is outdoor digital signage?
Outdoor digital signage is a high-brightness outdoor LED display engineered to operate in direct sunlight, rain, and temperature extremes. Panels are sealed to IP65 (dust-tight, water-jet resistant), rated 4,000–7,500 nits to stay readable under midday sun, and built with anti-vandal glass plus integrated heating and fanless cooling for unattended 24/7 operation. Common installs of outdoor LED signage: gas station canopies, drive-thru menu boards, fast-food order points, fast-food walk-ups, and outdoor patio menus. The CrownTV-built playbook ships the panel, the structural mount, the dedicated electrical, the permits, the content commissioning, and the CMS subscription as one quote.
How much does outdoor digital signage cost?
Two tiers. High-brightness outdoor LCD displays (2,500–4,000 nits, IP-rated enclosure, 43″–75″) run $6,500–$12,500 installed per screen — panel, enclosure or high-bright portrait totem, mount, media player, install, and first year of software. Direct-view outdoor LED canvases (custom size, 1.5–4mm pitch) run $15,000–$120,000+ per install depending on square footage, brightness tier, and structural work. Both tiers are quoted after a site survey; multi-location rollouts get programmatic pricing.
Can I use an outdoor TV instead of outdoor digital signage?
Patio-grade outdoor TVs top out around 700–1,500 nits and are built for a covered residential deck, not unattended commercial duty. They wash out in direct sun, lack IP-rated sealing against dust and water jets, carry consumer warranties that exclude commercial use, and have no fleet content control. For a shaded bar patio playing live TV they can work; for menus, promos, and storefront messaging that has to stay readable and on-message all day, commercial outdoor digital signage is the correct category.
How bright does outdoor LED need to be?
A west-facing forecourt in summer hits roughly 100,000 lux of ambient light — 200x what an indoor TV is engineered for. To stay legible you need 2,500 nits at minimum for shaded canopy installs, 4,000–5,000 nits for partially shaded drive-thru menu boards, and 6,500–7,500 nits for full-sun storefront and rooftop placements. Anything under 2,500 nits washes out the moment direct sun hits the glass.
What's the lifespan of outdoor LED panels in weather?
Commercial outdoor LED panels are rated for 50,000+ operational hours — about 5.7 years of continuous 24/7 use, or 11–13 years on a typical 12-hours-on schedule. The panel ships with commercial warranty coverage against weather-related failure such as corrosion, water ingress, and thermal cycling. CrownTV's service contract layers a 48-hour replacement-player promise on top.
Do you handle the structural mounting and permits?
Yes. Outdoor LED is a structural job, not a wall mount. Each install gets engineered drawings stamped where the AHJ requires them, wind-load math against the local code (ASCE 7 / IBC), bonded mounting hardware, and permit filing. We coordinate with your GC if you have one or run it end-to-end if you don't. Canopy and rooftop installs always get a structural review before the panel ships.
How does outdoor LED content get updated?
Content is driven by the CrownTV media player connected to the panel via HDMI. The CrownTV Dashboard handles scheduling, dayparting, and playlist swaps, so menu content, promos, brand reels, and service notices can be managed the same way as any indoor display.
How long does outdoor LED installation take?
From signed order to live screen: 4–8 weeks for a single canopy display, 6–10 weeks for a multi-panel forecourt or drive-thru rebuild. Lead time breaks down as: 1–2 weeks site survey + structural drawings, 2–4 weeks panel + structural hardware procurement, 1 week permit window (varies by AHJ), and 1–3 days on-site install + content load. Multi-location rollouts run in parallel — we've shipped 12-site programs in under 90 days.
Ready when you are
Send us the lot. We'll spec the screen.
Photos of the canopy, the drive-thru, or the storefront elevation — that's all we need. Brightness, IP rating, mounting, and quote back within 24 hours.
No commitment. No hard sell.