Mohawk I/O Cable in Digital Signage Applications

In a retail environment where consumers are constantly bombarded with ads and information from their phones to the radio, Tanger Outlets was looking to catch the attention of it's customers once they arrived at the outlet center in an innovative way. Coupled with a desire for cost-effective marketing that provided engaging content, Tanger Outlets began a digital signage pilot program at the Riverhead, New York location.

The pilot program was a success and Tanger began slowly rolling out digital signage to food courts and eventually began incorporating it into outdoor areas within its centers. Not long after the roll out began, Tanger Outlets began construction on its new center in Myrtle Beach, South Caroline and Tanger’s Senior Vice President of Operations Joe Nehmen planned to utilize the new digital technology. He was determined to save installation costs related to the project’s cabling needs. Challenges for related to cabling included the distance between signage and ensuring the cable could handle both indoor/outdoor environments, which traditional low skew cable could not.

When Tanger Outlets reached out to Mohawk, Mohawk took the challenges into account and provided the design solution needed through a variation of the low skew cable similar to Mohawk’s VersaLAN Indoor/Outdoor Category 5e and 6 cables. Like the standard Spectrum Low Skew cable for digital signage, Spectrum Indoor/Outdoor cable offers a proven alternative to RGB (Red, Green, Blue) video applications. It begins with the Spectrum four pair UTP design under one jacket and is enhanced with a water blocked design and finished with a water resistant jacket. The benefit of this design is it can be installed in flood prone indoor locations, outdoor duct locations, and with the Tanger location, indoor to outdoor to indoor installation. There is no additional cost when installing connectivity since it can be terminated with standard Category 5e connectors.

Since Spectrum Indoor/Outdoor can transmit strong and consistent signals up to 2000 feet, it also solved distance issues with the Myrtle Beach location. The cable allows high speed scrolling messages in a digital signage network of an internet access, a media player (computers that play content using software), a distribution network to the displays, and a network management component.

To find out more about how Mohawk was able to save Tanger Outlets time and money as it expand its use of the digital signage, please download the case study below:

You can also learn more about new Mohawk launches and product information on the Mohawk website. For more information on how Mohawk's cabling can support digital signage solutions, or to learn more about Mohawk's products across different applications, contact your local Accu-Tech representative today.