Message Centers Education 101

Changeable electronics signs are referred to as: Message Centers, Message Boards, Reader Boards, Electronic Signs and probably a few other names that didn’t come to my mind. No matter what we call them, the good news is that the price of this type sign is coming down. There has been a 25% change in price over the past 5 years. This is mostly due to competition and education of the public. The internal workings of an electronic message center may seem like rocket science to many, but when its broken down to its components, it not much more complicated than a desk top PC which many of us have built on our own. The brain of an electronic message board is a small PC inside of the main cabinet that is about the size of a Smartphone. The computer inside of the message center gets it information from an external computer, usually a notebook PC. The external PC can be up to 1/4 mile away from the message center sign and still communicate with the sign. This remote communication is made possible by a Nano Transmitter mounted near the external PC and Nano Receiver mounted near the message center sign. On a small scale, this works like a microwave tower. The commands are “beamed” from the external PC to the Nano Receiver which is connected to the signs internal computer.  Written by Ken Kelsey