Watchfire Grows Presence in Puerto Rico
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
We’ve learned that, in Puerto Rico, close to 60% of all the digital billboards are manufactured by Danville, Illinois-based Watchfire, which only entered the Caribbean market two years ago.
The company has quickly gained support from independent billboard operators because Watchfire LED displays can withstand rugged weather conditions. It has installed digital billboards for no less that 17 independent operators in Puerto Rico.
Watchfire digital billboards are especially well suited to the harsh weather conditions that exist on the island and fared well during Hurricane Irene, which impacted Puerto Rico. None of the Watchfire billboards suffered any major damage and all were fully operational when power was returned to the island.
Along with Watchfire encapsulating its LED modules in a thick bed of silicone gel, enabling the modules to operate reliably even in the harshest conditions, Darrin Friskney, director of Watchfire Digital Outdoor says, “Watchfire boards don’t have calibration or flickering issues if power is lost. We have a fail-safe feature in which display modules will blank or clear themselves after one minute of inactivity by the controller. This means that when boards lose power due to storms, they don’t display old data once power is restored.”
Among the companies using Watchfire boards are:
- Showtime Outdoor Media, which has installed 13 Watchfire digital billboards in Puerto Rico. The billboards feature ads from both local and national advertisers, including beverage companies, telecom service providers, auto manufacturers and the lottery. Rafi Moreno, Showtime vice-president of sales and marketing, says that its advertisers like the Watchfire boards because their ads appear crisper, more vibrant and the colors are more accurate.
- Maz Media, which has installed six Watchfire digital billboards in Puerto Rico that feature ads from banks, auto companies, concerts and events, and retailers. “Most of our clients were requesting digital billboards because they enable advertisers to change ads quickly,” says Jose Rivera, Maz Media vice-president.
- B-Media Group, whch also has several Watchfire billboards, and has been pleased with the service received and product quality from Watchfire. Juanchi Casillas, president of B-Media Group, says, “Watchfire understands the digital billboard industry and the value it provides to our clients.”
Watchfire Digital Outdoor is the digital billboard division of Watchfire by Time-O-Matic, which has been manufacturing outdoor electric signs since 1932. Watchfire has been manufacturing LED signs since 1996 and has more than 35,000 outdoor LED signs in daily operation throughout North America.
March 6th, 2016 at 23:47 @032
Where exactly in Puerto Rico was the billboard in the picture for the article Published?