Watchfire Digital Outdoor (watchfiredigitaloutdoor.com), the digital billboard division of Time-O-Matic Inc., announced it has received orders for two 19mm 12'4" by 25' digital outdoor billboards from Drury Southwest Signs (DSW Signs) of Cape Girardeau, Mo.  The company also released the results of a study showing Watchfire Digital Outdoor signs have an industry-leading 99.9 percent uptime.

DSW Signs' new digital billboards will replace two tri-message boards and will be located on surface streets in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

According to Jeff Bohnert, president of DSW Signs, the digital signs will provide advertisers what they are asking for: greater flexibility, easy updates and the ability to change messages frequently.  Since digital signs can be updated remotely in minutes using software and a high-speed Internet connection, advertisers will have the ability to run specific messages coinciding with the time of day or special events.  For example, a restaurant can advertise breakfast sandwiches in the morning and dinner specials during the evening drive time.

DSW Signs selected billboards from Watchfire Digital Outdoor because of their rugged design and industry-wide reputation for producing a high quality product.

Watchfire Digital Outdoor produces the industry's only 19mm pitch billboard, which is capable of producing 281 trillion colors, the most in the industry.  All Watchfire billboards feature 140-degree viewing angle LEDs.  In addition, Watchfire provides a web cam for real-time monitoring of billboards, automatic diagnostic monitoring via email and log files for proof of performance.

Industry-leading Uptime
In a study of 334 Watchfire digital signs, the company found that these signs had an average uptime of more than 99.9 percent.

According to Darrin Friskney, Director of Watchfire Digital Outdoor, Watchfire signs are reliable for several reasons.  Watchfire uses only Tier 1 suppliers for LEDs and other components, and has the only fully encapsulated LED boards in the industry.  All LED boards are encapsulated with silicone gel to protect them from moisture and other weather elements.

During the Watchfire manufacturing process, every LED board passes through an automated optical scanner prior to going into a sign.  The optical scanner inspects the boards for optimal performance and eliminates every inconsistency possible.  In addition, Watchfire LED boards are engineered with a minimal number of connections—just two per board—the fewest in the industry.  Fewer connections mean fewer failures, as the number of connection points is one of the most reliable predictors of service failure.

Watchfire cabinets are designed to protect LED boards.  All Watchfire cabinets are built with seamless aluminum extrusions, not sheet metal, and are solid welded, instead of pop riveted.  This makes the cabinets both lightweight and durable.

Watchfire Digital Outdoor produced a documentary of a billboard installation as a guide for outdoor advertisers who want to learn more about digital billboards.  A free DVD of the documentary is available at http://www.watchfiredigitaloutdoor.com/freeDVD1 or by calling 866-949-9282.

About Watchfire Digital Outdoor

Watchfire Digital Outdoor engineers and manufactures the best looking and most durable digital billboards available anywhere. It is the digital billboard division of Watchfire by Time-O-Matic, which has been manufacturing outdoor electric signs for more than 75 years, has been manufacturing LED signs for 10 years, and has more than 12,000 outdoor LED signs in daily operation throughout North America. Watchfire Digital Outdoor is located in Danville, Ill. with marketing and sales operations in Indianapolis. For more information, go to http://www.watchfiredigitaloutdoor.com.

For information contact:

Mara Conklin, 847.816.9411
mconklin@teamclarus.com

Linda Muskin, 847.432.7300
lmuskin@teamclarus.com