A method for measuring the light output of video advertising reproduced by LED billboards

Improving knowledge of the light output of digital billboards is important to better assess their effect on driver distraction when they are installed along roads. In this work the emission of an LED based billboard is measured when playing advertising video-clips. In particular the average and the maximum values of the luminance are evaluated. The same video-clips are also analyzed when shown on an LCD monitor, aiming at separating the variability of the videos and of the playing device. The results allow to evaluate an utilization factor of the billboard: the videos have an average luminance around 11% and a peak luminance of 35% of the maximum luminance obtainable from the billboard. The power consumption of the billboard is measured, aside the photometric analysis. The luminance of the device are found linearly dependent on both the power and the effective current absorbed by the device from the grid, with a discrepancy within 6%. It could be a useful information for billboard manufacturers to qualify their product when they do not own photometric instruments.