Watchfire recently announced a ten-year uniformity guarantee and replacement parts warranty on their MX Class digital billboards. You can read the press release here. I interviewed Darrin Friskney, Vice President of Digital Outdoor and Marketing to learn more. Darrin’s contact info is: [email protected], (317) 650-7301
1. Darrin, tell us a little about Watchfire first. We’ve been in business for more than 80 years and have always designed, manufactured and supported our products in Danville, IL. We’ve built more than 50,000 LEDs signs of all shapes and sizes and have more than 400 billboard customers, ranging from the world’s very largest out-of-home operators, to regional operators, to independent operators with a few hundred boards, to first-time operators putting digital on their one and only structure. We love the billboard business and being exposed to such a broad range of customers allows us to help just about everyone.
2. How is the MX Class billboard different from previous Watchfire billboards? The MX Class billboard is guaranteed to be 7,500 nits and perfectly uniform after ten years of operation. It never loses brightness and is guaranteed to never be “quilted” or “tiled. The reason the guaranteed longevity of the product is such breakthrough is that for the first time, an operator can have complete assurance that their investment has an absolute, iron clad lifespan. This allows operators to better forecast future expenses and make plans to invest capital in new locations rather than replacements.
3. What does the ten-year guarantee cover? It includes a ten-year brightness guarantee of 7,500 nits, a ten-year uniformity guarantee, and a ten-year replacement parts warranty. We are so confident in the Watchfire MX Class that if we fall short for any reason, we’ll issue a cash refund.
4. The industry rule of thumb is that a digital billboard will last 100,000 hours or about 11.5 years. What are your expectations for the Watchfire MX Class billboards? You are right about an LED’s “useful life” being 100,000 hours, but what that number doesn’t quite capture is that 100,000 hours is the approximate “half-life” of the LED. In other words, if the LEDs were being pushed to their full brightness, after 100,000 hours, they would be half as bright as they were on day one. The difference with the MX Class is that Watchfire guarantees that the brightness will be 7,500 nits after ten years — the brightness doesn’t drop. This extends the lifespan of an MX Class display significantly.
5. What is the range of costs for a MX Class 14 by 48 billboard? The MX Class is a premium product priced at a premium. The benefit is the long-term, absolute certainty of performance and the positive implications that has on an operator’s ability to forecast and invest. Prices vary by size. For more information contact Watchfire at (800) 637-2645.
