Exterior Digital Signage Blues

I spotted this 4 screen digital signage tower in Kingston, Ontario last week...

The execution is quite professional and it must have cost a pretty penny....  There are 4 screens mounted in weatherproof (and vandal proof) enclosures.  The enclosures are ventilated (you can hear the fans as you get closer to the structure).  The entire unit looks really sturdy.

The location is perfect. It's in a high traffic area, right next to a busy waterfront park and marina.

So what's wrong?

Well as you can probably tell from this picture, you can't see anything.  This was taken during an overcast day and the content on each screen was practically unreadable.  There is a lot of reflection coming off the enclosure's surface and I noticed a dark film which seemed to be applied to each screen's surface.  Not sure the purpose of this film but as a result you can't see the content during the day.  Even from up close.

I haven't visited the area at night so I can only assume it's a lot more readable but this is practically useless during the day. You would think having the screens mounted behind a protective glass in a thick enclosure would help with contrast but it doesn't work here.

There are really bright LCD and LED screens that are visible in full sunlight. I can only guess as to why they weren't used in this application (probably a cost issue).

This installation could have been designed and executed so it would work all day but someone decided to cut corners and this is the result.  Why would anyone go through all this expense and not use the right display  technology?

If you don't have the budget that can support 4 daytime readable screens, install 3.  Better to scale back and spend the money where it's needed.  Otherwise you end up with something that does half a job.

It's still possible to go in and retrofit better displays but you would think this could have been done right the first time.  Time will tell if this eventually works out.