2nd May, 2008
Outdoor TV: What the standards do and don’t tell you
Brent Butterworth
For the integrator, the latest trend emerging in custom installation probably beats the profit potential of Blu-ray, Media Center PCs, and downloadable movies combined. That’s for a simple reason: When you turn a garden hose on a TV and the set keeps working, people instantly understand the benefit. And they want it.
The trend I’m talking about is, of course, outdoor TV, and it’s being pioneered most noisily by Runco, but also by Aquatic AV, Pantel TV, and SunBrightTV. The potential for integrators is huge. People are getting more into outdoor and backyard living, and having a TV out there simply makes sense.
But as wonderful as it is to watch House while sitting on your patio smoking a cigar, there’s danger in that there backyard. It can get nasty out there. It rains. It snows. It freezes. It bakes. It blows. And if the product fails—as ordinary TVs commonly do if used outdoors—you’ve got at best a service call, and worst a deeply disappointed customer telling all his neighbors that you suck.
Fortunately, outdoor TV is one of the few frontiers of the CE industry where some performance standards already exist. You don’t have to trust in a new vendor’s promise that his or her TVs can withstand rain, dust, and bugs. Just ask if the TV meets the IP56 standard.
The IP (or Ingress Protection) standards are governed in the U.S. by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in most other parts of the world. The two numbers after the IP refer to specific degrees of protection afforded by an electronics enclosure.
The first number refers to penetration of the enclosure by foreign objects. A device with a rating of 5 is impervious to penetration by a wire of 1mm diameter or larger. While a 5-rated product is not completely, absolutely sealed against dust, it’s designed in such a way that what little dust gets in cannot damage the device or impair operation.
The second number, 6, refers to a product that cannot be damaged by “powerful jetting water” sprayed from any direction—i.e., your garden hose can’t hurt it, even if you use a high-pressure nozzle.
It’s possible for TVs to achieve higher numbers. For example, Aquatic AV’s 17-inch waterproof TVs would appear to earn a rating of IP68, the 6 indicating that the product is sealed against dust, and the 8 indicating that it can withstand continuous immersion in water. (And it goes up from there, too—there are even explosion-survival standards for electronics enclosures.) But it seems IP56 will do for backyards.
What IP56 doesn’t tell you is the range of temperatures the device can withstand. That’s because IP56 is a standard for enclosures, not for the stuff that goes into them. It’s no great trick to make an enclosure that can take freezing temperatures or desert heat. But making an LCD panel that can operate in direct sunlight inside an enclosure with an internal temperature of 140 degrees? That’s tough. Making a panel that works after it’s been frozen? Also tough.
IP56 also tells you nothing about a TV’s ability to produce a watchable picture in a bright outdoor setting. It’d be nice to see someone set two standards here: one for use of a TV in bright ambient light, and one for situations where direct sunlight hits the TV.
While IP56 compliance should give you some comfort, it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about an outdoor TV. For now, at least, some things you’ll have to find out for yourself in the field or by word of mouth. The good news is, with nothing more than an IP56-rated TV and a garden hose, you can now do the most dramatic TV demos ever.
Posted at 6:21 pm |
On August 25, 2008 at 7:07 am Archi said:
August 25, 2008 at 7:07 am
Fascinating. I’ll surf you blog. How much time did you write a post?
On August 25, 2008 at 2:12 pm Brent Butterworth said:
August 25, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Thanks! I write a new column twice a month.