Commercial Digital Signage Systems for California Buildings

Lobby directories, menu boards, dashboards and video walls#

Telelink Business Services is a licensed C-7 Low Voltage Systems Contractor, CSLB License #472017, and we install digital signage displays, media players, signal distribution and the network infrastructure behind them. We do that work for offices and tenant improvements, schools and community colleges, clinics, public agency buildings, warehouses and campuses across California.

Signage belongs where the information changes and a printed sign would go stale. That is a narrower set of locations than most projects assume, and naming them early keeps the count honest.

Application	Orientation	What drives the specification
Lobby directory	Portrait, often two panels	Daylight brightness, reach range, tenant list length
Wayfinding at decision points	Portrait	Sight line distance, corridor mounting depth
Cafeteria and menu boards	Landscape, ganged in rows	Heat and grease, matched color across panels
Campus and corridor displays	Landscape	Runtime hours, network reach, mount security
Video wall	Landscape array	Bezel dimension, service access, structural backing
Production and warehouse dashboards	Landscape	Ambient light, viewing distance, live data source
Waiting room displays	Landscape	Audio policy, content refresh, sight lines from seating

Samsung, LG, BrightSign, Peerless-AV and Chief are among the manufacturers commonly specified on the California commercial projects we see, and we install to the specification. Where no specification exists we write one with the owner around the rooms, the content, and who is going to maintain it.

Choosing a display for duty cycle, brightness and orientation#

Four attributes decide whether a panel survives the installation it is put in.

Duty cycle. A screen in a lobby runs the length of the business day. A screen in a hospital corridor or a 24 hour operation runs continuously. Commercial panels are rated for a stated number of hours per day, and specifying a 16 hour panel into a 24 hour position is how a warranty claim gets denied in year two.

Brightness. A corridor display and a display facing a glass curtain wall are not the same product. Daylight positions need a high brightness panel with an anti glare treatment, and a display sitting behind glass in a millwork surround needs a high temperature rating and ventilation, because trapped heat is the most common cause of an early panel failure.

Orientation. Portrait mounting is a rating, not a preference. A panel rated for portrait moves heat correctly when rotated. A panel that is not rated for it cooks itself.

Physical fit. Mount depth, the recessed box behind the panel, the bezel width where displays are ganged, and the weight the wall has to carry all get decided before framing. Display mounting in circulation paths is designed to the California Building Code Chapter 11B protruding object requirements. That is a dimension we check against the architect’s plan rather than at install.

Exterior electrical signs and message centers are the work of a licensed C-45 sign contractor. Where a project carries both, we install the interior displays and the cabling and hand the pathway and the network drop to that contractor at the sign cabinet, coordinated on the same drawing.

Media players versus system on chip displays#

Both approaches run the same kind of content. They differ in what happens after year three.

	System on chip display	External media player
Hardware	Player built into the panel	Separate device at the display or the rack
Cabling	One data drop, one power outlet	Data drop plus a signal path to the panel
Content	Single zone playlists, images, basic video	Multi zone layouts, live data, higher bitrate video
Replacement	Replacing the player means replacing the panel	Player swapped without touching the display
Brand lock	Content platform tied to the panel maker	Display brand can change at refresh
Fits	Small deployments, simple loops	Campuses, dashboards, video walls, mixed brands

Where the player sits also matters. Behind a panel it is invisible and hard to service. At the rack it is easy to service and needs a signal run to the display, which is where HDBaseT over Cat6A carries the video, audio and control over one certified cable. We put players at the rack anywhere the display is above reach or behind millwork.

Content management and who updates the screens#

The content management system is the part the owner lives with. Hosted platforms are the common choice because they update themselves and reach screens across multiple sites without a VPN. On premises platforms still suit agencies and districts with a policy against hosted services, at the cost of a server to patch.

What to decide during design, not after:

• Who owns each screen group, by name and role, and what rights each of them gets
• Which templates exist, so staff fill in fields instead of designing layouts
• Whether dayparting is needed, for example a menu board that changes at 10:30 and a directory that shows an after hours message at close
• Where live data comes from: a spreadsheet, a scheduling system, a production line database, a transit feed
• What plays when the network or the data source is down, because a blank screen reads as a broken screen

Most platforms also offer an alert or takeover feature that pushes a full screen message ahead of the playlist, and we configure it when the owner asks. Treat it as one more surface the message reaches, alongside whatever the building already uses as its system of record.

Cabling, power, backing and coordination before drywall#

Every display position needs three things at the wall, and they come from three different trades.

From us: a Cat6A data drop terminated and certified like every other drop in the structured cabling package, plus an HDBaseT run over Cat6A where the player is remote, plus control cabling where the display is switched by a room system. Cat6A rather than Cat6, because HDBaseT is sensitive to the crosstalk that shorter data runs tolerate, and because the run needs headroom for the next resolution. Our guide to Cat6 and Cat6A in commercial buildings covers that tradeoff.

From the electrician: the power at the wall. Line voltage receptacles and circuits serving displays are provided by a licensed C-10 electrical contractor. The receptacle sits in a recessed box behind the panel so the plug does not hold the display off the wall.

From the general contractor: structural backing in the framing, sized for the panel and mount weight, at the exact height and centerline on the drawings.

All three land in the same coordination item, and the deadline is drywall. We mark display centerlines, box locations and backing extents on the coordination drawings, walk them with the superintendent, and confirm in the field before board goes up. A display position discovered after drywall means surface raceway, a patch, or a mount that is 4 inches off the centerline of the millwork.

Video walls, bezels and calibration#

A video wall is a different install from a row of displays.

The bezel to bezel dimension is the number that determines whether the array reads as one image. Panels built for video wall use publish that figure, and it is the first line of the submittal review. The mounting system needs micro adjustment in three axes and a pop out or front serviceable design, because a failed panel in the middle of a nine panel array has to come out without dismantling the array. The wall itself has to be flat and has to carry the load, which means backing designed for the total weight rather than for one panel.

Color and brightness drift between panels from the same production run, so the array is calibrated as a unit at commissioning and rechecked after burn in. Content is built to the canvas resolution of the whole array, not to a single panel, and static logos are avoided or moved on a schedule because a fixed element burns in on a wall that runs all day.

Network, VLAN and bandwidth planning#

Signage players are network devices, and the IT group needs the same answers they need for any other system.

Put players on their own VLAN with outbound access only to the content management service and the data sources. Reserve addresses so a player that reboots comes back where the monitoring expects it. Bandwidth is modest for scheduled content, because players cache and sync overnight, and it is not modest for live video streams, which multiply by the number of screens showing them. Where a live stream is in the design, size the uplink for the count and not for one screen.

Run players on wired connections wherever a drop can be pulled. Where a display sits somewhere a cable cannot reach, a wireless connection works with a dedicated SSID and a coverage check at the mount location, not at the floor. Set time from the same network source as the rest of the building so scheduled content changes at the same moment on every screen, and turn on the platform’s health reporting so facilities learn about a dark screen before a visitor does.

Next step#

Send the floor plans with display locations, the content each screen has to show, and the name of the person who will update it. Use request a bid to upload drawings and we will return a position by position bid with the electrical, backing and network handoffs drawn. General contractors can start at for general contractors for our prequalification packet and Division 27 scope letter.