What to know about digital signage in Surprise
Drive-through menu boards are class I monument signs
Surprise treats a drive-through menu sign, which has a loudspeaker and microphone, as a class I monument sign. It may be no more than 8 feet above the drive-through lane and 50 square feet, must not be audible from residential zoning, hotel rooms or overnight medical rooms, and may not be within 100 feet of a residential district or use.
Source: City of Surprise, Land Development Ordinance Chapter 109 (Signs)
Preview boards are class II
A class II monument sign, the preview board, has no speaker, shares the 8-foot and 50-square-foot limits, and may carry Level 2 electronic messaging. Level 2 can be monochrome or full color and change no more often than every eight seconds, with no scroll, fade, dissolve, animation or video.
Source: City of Surprise, Land Development Ordinance Chapter 109 (Signs)
Window signs top out at 40 percent of the pane
Window signs may cover no more than 40 percent of each pane. Sunscreen material may cover the whole pane, but any mural or graphics on it are capped at 40 percent. A window sign that is electrically connected to the building is not exempt from a construction permit.
Source: City of Surprise, Land Development Ordinance Chapter 109 (Signs)
Sign lighting has night rules
A sign within 100 feet of and visible from single-family zoning can't be lit between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. other than by ambient lighting. Sign lighting must be shielded, not glare, and have no flashing, blinking or chasing lights.
Source: City of Surprise, Land Development Ordinance Chapter 109 (Signs)
Interior screens and storefront screens
Screens inside your business, such as a menu board over a counter, a promo screen in a lobby or a queue display, are a design job. A screen that faces out a window is closer to a sign, and Surprise's sign definition reaches anything visible from a right-of-way or other property. The code doesn't name TVs in windows, so we ask Planning before we hang a screen that faces out.
Menu boards that staff can update
A menu board is a display, a small media player behind it and software you open in a browser. Change a price or a special and every board updates. You can schedule breakfast, lunch and happy hour menus ahead of time, so nobody swaps files on the day.
We mount boards where lighting and glare are controlled and route power and network inside the wall.
- Commercial displays rated for long daily hours.
- Brightness matched to the room, or to sun on a window.
- Menus that fall back to a default if the network drops.
Drive-through displays
The 8-foot height and 50-square-foot limits shape the display size. The speaker must not be audible from residential zoning, so we set speaker levels and aim with that in mind. We also keep the 100-foot distance from residential uses in the plan from the first drawing. Level 2 electronic messaging on a preview board means static images, changing at most every eight seconds.
Permits and timing
Surprise requires a construction permit for signs regulated by Chapter 109, with exemptions for temporary signs and for window signs that aren't electrically connected to the building. The city's fee schedule lists a building or fire permit at $100 per permit plus $6 per $1,000 of valuation. We did not find a separate sign permit fee line, so confirm the amount with Community Development at 623-222-3000. The city's permit report lists sign and communication equipment as one permit category on Bell Road and Prasada Parkway.
Content, updates and service
We set up the software, build the first layouts with you and show staff how to change them. We can connect screens you already own when they still work. If a player or screen fails, service calls run Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM.
Screens and networks that go with it
Signage often shares a job with TV and video distribution and LED video walls, and it runs on the network that structured cabling and WiFi provide. More on Enzo in Surprise.
