What to use for a TV in a shop window

For a TV in a shop window, use a sign with three or four large words, a screen that turns itself off after closing, and a TV you have looked at from the pavement in daylight. An ordinary television will look washed out in direct sun; window displays made for sunlight are brighter and cost more. A browser tab on a TV you already own is the cheapest way to test the idea before you spend money on glass, mounting and brightness.

Few words, read from the street

Someone walking past gives the window two or three seconds. That is enough for a price, a product name, an opening time or one instruction.

• One line that matters. "Open until 8", "Sale ends Sunday", "Fresh bread daily".
• Large text and high contrast. Dark background with a light color, or the reverse. Mid greys disappear in daylight.
• No paragraphs. Large text display makes a short message fill the screen.
• Motion only if it helps. Scrolling text suits a message that changes, such as a phone number or a queue position, and it is harder to read than a still sign. Test it from across the road before you keep it.

Sunlight is the real limit

An ordinary TV is bright enough for a living room and dim enough to lose a fight with a shop window at midday. Sunlight falls directly on the panel, the glass in front of it reflects the street, and what is left is a grey rectangle with a faint message on it. That is why shops buy window displays built for sunlight: they are brighter, and they cost more than a television of the same size.

We are not going to quote brightness figures, because the right number depends on your window, your glass and which way it faces. Instead, do the test: put the TV in the window, show a sign, stand outside at the brightest hour of the day and read it. If you cannot read it without squinting, moving the screen back from the glass or fitting a hood will often help more than a bigger screen. If the window takes direct afternoon sun, plan for a brighter display from the start.

Turn it off after hours

A window screen that shows the daytime offer all night gives passers-by nothing new to read. With Pro, a live screen can follow a schedule: show the daytime sign from opening, then switch to an after-hours message such as your opening times. To save power overnight, use the TV's own off timer as well; on most TVs a black screen still keeps the backlight on. The schedule uses the time zone you choose, so it keeps the right hours when the clocks change.

Schedules need Pro, which is US$14.99 a month or US$149.90 a year for up to five live screens. Starter, at US$4.99 a month or US$49.90 a year for one live screen, covers phone edits without a schedule. Every plan starts with a 2-day free trial, and an after-hours test is a fair way to spend it.

OpenFresh bread daily

Make a sign free

Get the mounting and the glass right

A TV facing a street is a TV facing heat, dust and, in winter, condensation. Keep it out of direct sun where you can, leave space behind it for air, and clean the inside of the window as often as the outside, because every smudge sits between the viewer and the sign.

Check what the screen looks like from a car as well as from the pavement. Reflections change with the time of day, so look at it in the morning and again in the afternoon before you decide the position is final.

Where OwnScreen fits

The editor and every display link are free and need no account. The whole sign lives in the link, so a window TV shows it with no app, no player box and no login on the shop computer. When you want to change the window from the counter phone, save the sign, press Go live and open that link on the TV; a visible, connected screen picks up the change within a few seconds.

What OwnScreen does not do: no video, no product catalogue feeds and no brightness. The screen and the window still decide how the sign looks from the street, and that is where the money goes.