Top 4 reasons why brightness and viewing angles are so important

If you’re considering an LED screen for your business, there are many technical aspects to weigh up – but brightness and viewing angles are arguably two of the most vital. These characteristics directly affect how effectively a screen performs in public-facing environments. Whether you’re installing it outdoors on a bustling high street or indoors in a large public venue (and thousands of our screens have been installed in both), a screen’s performance in brightness and its ability to maintain clarity from multiple angles directly shapes how your audience experiences the content. Here are the top four reasons why these features deserve careful consideration.

Bright screens improve visibility in daylight

We might as well start with an obvious one! Commercial displays must overcome the challenge of ambient light, especially direct sunlight. If you want your screen to stand out clearly during peak daylight hours, it needs to have appropriately high brightness to match. This enables your display to cut through environmental glare and ensures your content is prominent and legible in real-world conditions.

Outdoor screens, in particular, face harsh lighting – direct glare, shifting shadows, and competing light sources from traffic, shopfronts and skylight. You’ll typically need brightness levels of 4,000 to 6,000 nits for outdoor use, though some locations require even higher output. (In case you’re wondering, nits is the standard unit for measuring screen brightness.) If you’re placing a display near roads, transport routes or pedestrian walkways, it also has to grab attention without being visually aggressive.

High brightness ensures content remains legible

You don’t need to be an expert to know that clear, readable content defines the value of a screen. High brightness boosts contrast, which enables your text and graphics to stay crisp and easy to read, even when lighting conditions are poor or changing quickly.

This becomes even more important when you’re using detailed visuals or dynamic layouts. Subtle shading, thin lines, and intricate designs require sharp definition. When your screen has enough brightness, these elements appear clearly – helping your audience take in information faster and more comfortably. In places like stadiums, shopping centres or exhibition halls, that clarity directly influences how your message is received.

If you’re running any time-sensitive content that changes throughout the day – such as real-time offers, live updates or event schedules – brightness is a major consideration, as it ensures that all your messages are visible exactly when you need them to be.

Wide angles maximise audience reach

So that’s brightness – now onto the angles. In any public setting, screens are viewed from a wide range of positions. Strong angle performance enables your display to deliver bright, vibrant content across a broad field of vision. Whether someone sees your screen while approaching from the side or glancing up from below, they still get the full visual impact.

This is particularly important in fast-paced or crowded environments where people are constantly on the move – such as airports, retail arcades or busy lobbies. As well as capturing attention, wide angles enhance visibility across physical space and help you reach more people from more positions.

You can also be more flexible in how and where you position your display. Whether you’re wrapping it around a column, mounting it above an entrance, or embedding it into a feature wall, a wide viewing angle gives you the freedom to install the screen in the most effective location for impact and coverage.

Broad viewing angles support consistent messaging

Screens with broad viewing angles maintain a strong, uniform presentation across all perspectives. This means your colours, contrast, and image detail remain consistent for every viewer, regardless of where they’re standing.

That level of consistency strengthens communication and visual recognition. As well as presenting branded visuals, campaign messaging or public information clearly, the screen supports a polished and deliberate image in every environment.

If you’re managing a signage network, hosting large-scale events, or delivering real-time updates, ideally every member of your audience should receive the same visual experience. That’s one key example of when broad angle performance is so important – ensuring that your content remains powerful, precise and clearly delivered from every viewpoint.

Those are just a couple of the most vital advantages off the cuff – you may well be able to think of several of your own! Whatever the case, if you’re looking at how to incorporate digital signage into a particular environment or application, that’s exactly where we can help here at Scanlite. We tailor each of our solutions to the specific requirements of the project. With more than 40 years of experience behind us, we know our digital signage inside out, including the many ways in which it can be used to achieve your goals as a health organisation.

To find out more how we can help you, feel free to give us a call today on 01253 302723, or email us. Let’s kickstart your success this year!