One Zone or Two?

What is a Zone?

Think of a Zone as a dedicated lane on a ticker where information travels across the display from one end to the other.

Why It Matters

In its simplest configuration, a ticker uses a single zone to stream data. However, most modern tickers can be reconfigured as a dual zone ticker. Single zone tickers maximize resolution and viewing distance while dual zone tickers maximize the amount of data that can be shown over a given time.

The screen captures below of a 96 pixel tall ticker configured as a single zone ticker and a dual zone ticker, respectively, illustrate the advantage of each configuration.

Single Zone, 96 Pixel Tall, 1554 Pixel Wide Ticker

Dual Zone, 96 Pixel Tall, 1554 Pixel Wide Ticker (64 Pixels on top, 32 Pixels on Bottom)

Key Considerations in choosing a single or dual zone ticker configuration are:

1. Viewing Distance

Text height dictates readability. A single zone maximizes the distance from which the ticker can be read. Although, if the text on the ticker feels "overwhelming" or too large for the size of the room, switching to a dual zone setup will scale the content down to a more comfortable size.

2. Resolution / Image Quality

Switching to a dual zone configuration decreases overall viewing distance, resolution and image quality. In the ticker screen captures above, it can be seen that the text and graphics on the single zone ticker looks better than on the dual zone ticker. Although, the decrease in resolution and image quality can be mitigated with a tighter dot-pitch display.

3. Information Density

Over the same time period, a dual zone ticker displays more content than a single zone. The text height on a dual zone ticker is smaller than that of a single zone ticker and increases information density in two ways:

• As the text height decreases, the width of each character decreases allowing more characters to be displayed horizontally

• Smaller text also allows more rows of content to be displayed on the ticker making the dual zone ticker a "multitasker"

The Takeaway

There is no 'right" answer as to whether a ticker with one zone or two would work best for your application and the decision is often a matter of preference.

Approximately 20% of our clients reconfigure their ticker from one zone to two (or vice versa) after the first week or two of use

Common reasons clients switch include:

• To Dual Zone: The original text felt too large for the room, or they wanted a dedicated line for custom messaging.

• To Single Zone: The Dual Zone felt too "busy" or cluttered, or they preferred high-resolution text and graphics.

Most modern tickers can dynamically be configured with one zone or two, but some cannot. If the flexibility to switch ticker formats after installation is important to you and you're not sure if the display you are considering supports this capability please reach out and we can help you check.