The following klip is submitted by Saori from Narita airport in Japan.
It shows a collage of large screens aligned together to create a long digital signage display.

Thanks Saori for sharing your klip with us.

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Category: Digital Signage Klips

Tags: Digital Collage, digital signage, klip, Narita Airport, Narita Japan, Saori, screens

In one of our previous blogs http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/2009/11/24/shopping-centres-battle-of-the-big-screens/, we talked about the largest screens in shopping centres and apparently we saw another one the other day in the Parramatta Westfields centre. continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Tags: Advertisements, Blogs, Energizer, led screen, Parramatta Westfield, Parramatta Westfields, Screen Test, screens, Shopping Centres, Test Message, weather

This week’s klip is sent in by Jenny, from Sapporo Japan. Japan is one of the most technologically advanced country and apparently digital signage is everywhere. continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Klips

Tags: digital signage, email, First Image, Japan Japan, Jenny, klip, Many Thanks, Photo, Railway Station, Railway Timetable, Sapporo Japan

I came across an interesting article on TheAustralian.com.au website (I was reading the article from my Blackberry via RSS) and I wanted to share  this with everyone – especially after we posted an article on the weekend talking about the Microsoft Surface. What makes this article interesting is the fact that there may be a rival system (application is called Focus) to the Microsoft Surface. According to the article the application uses cameras to interpret gestures and movements made across a table to control an onscreen computer interface. In this case it can be a table like the Microsoft Surface. What’s more interesting is that the hardware costs less than $5000 (consists of a projector, a laptop, a motion sensor and a table) and it integrates with the Apple iPhone.

This may be a good opportunity for us to interview these students if we get a chance since they are local students.

Have a read of the article here and there’s also a video explaining how the system works.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Tags: Apple Iphone, blackberry, Cameras, Computer Interface, Control, Focus, Gestures, iphone, Laptop, microsoft, microsoft surface, Motion Sensor, Opportunity, Poll Id, Projector, Rival, System Application, Uni Students

Due to the hype coming from the media in the last couple of weeks, we decided to further research about the Microsoft Surface. The unit was first announced in May 2007 and the first unit was sold in Australia this month. Apparently the unit costs $20,000 (ouch).

The  Microsoft Surface is a table-like display that is multi-touch. Basically responds to touch, natural hand gestures and placement of real-world objects which includes digital cameras, mobile phones and even business cards (I’m not sure how it would work with the business card).

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Weekend Fun

Tags: australia, Business Card, Business Cards, Digital Cameras, Fun, Further Research, Hype, Love, microsoft, Microsoft Research, microsoft surface, mobile phones, Natural Hand Gestures, Real World, Surface Research

This week’s klip is sent in by Frank, who works for a company called Arcoiris TV network. They own a digital signage network inside supermarkets in Miami, Florida, USA.

As you can see from the pictures, the screens are located at the checkout. Obviously, this is the most ideal location as you have customers waiting in line to be served.

Thanks Frank for sharing this with our readers.

Digital Signage Supermarket in Miami Florida USA

Digital Signage Supermarket Miami Florida USA

If you have klips you would like to share with the rest of our readers let us know by sending an email to info@digitalsignageblog.com

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Category: Digital Signage Klips

Tags: Checkout, digital signage, digital signage network, email, klip, Klips, Miami Florida, Miami Florida Usa, screens, supermarket, Supermarkets, Tv Network, Waiting In Line

This weekend I decided to play around with the google search features and stumbled across the “Wonder Wheel”. So what I did was I typed the search term “digital signage” in the google search bar. Google displayed the most relevant websites related to this search term, in Australia our advertise me and Digital Signage portal are on the 1st page and we’re pretty happy about this result.

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Weekend Fun

Tags: advertise, australia, Blogs, Curiosity, digital signage, digital signage player, Digital Signage Software, Digital Signage Solutions, Freeware Software, Fun, Google, Google Search Bar, Jobs, Left Hand Corner, Outdoor Signage, Poll Id, portal, Relevant Websites, Search Features, Search Google, Search Result, Wheel, Wonder Wheel

For those techies out there or for someone who has already tried this, does a DVI to VGA converter work with a VGA extender.

So as an example, we have a digital signage player or PC that has a DVI port ONLY. We plug a DVI to VGA extender, so the output is VGA. We then use a pair of VGA to CAT5E or CAT6 extenders and connect the other end to the monitor that is VGA. Does this work?

We would like to hear other techies out there what the result would be or whether this is technically possible.

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Category: Digital Signage Techie

Tags: Cat5e, Cat6, digital signage player, Dvi To Vga, Dvi To Vga Converter, Dvi To Vga Convertor, Poll Id, Techies, Vga Extender

If you’ve seen the movie Avatar then you should know that I’m refeering to when I mention about 3D. Yes, 3D technology is now becoming more affordable but importantly its catching the attention of the digital signage industry. Various screen manufacturers have released 3D screens that do not require the use of 3D glasses. As more of these screens are being installed in retails stores or corporate offices, businesses will need 3D content to place on these screens.

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Tags: 3d Animation, 3d Glasses, 3d Logo, 3d Modelling, 3d Renderings, 3d Screens, 3d Technology, Accurate Production, advertise, advertising agencies, Animation Movies, Creative Juices, Creative Services, digital signage, European Excellence, Film Cinema, Logos, Pleasure, Poll Id, Product Visualization, Professional Team, screens, Signage Industry, Special Effects, Transformation, Virtual Environments, Visual Effects Production, Warsaw Poland

We were clearing up some of our documents and stumbled across one of our very first digital signage proposals and we thought we’d share some of this with you all. Just keep in mind that this was one of our very first proposal…

In today’s day and age, the Internet and email technology has revolutionised the way we communicate with people all over the world. Both of these technologies are critical and vital to the operations of any business. Without these technologies, your employees and company will come to a standstill.

Moving forward with technology, digital signage is a new form of digital medium for corporate businesses with multiple offices around the world to deliver dynamic messages to its employees. It is a proven fact that dynamic images and information attract more attention than static images such as posters or billboards by a factor of 10.

XXX  is a large global organisation and it can embrace this technology by keeping its local and remote employees up to date with; business events (National Sales Conferences, annual Christmas party), corporate headlines (the launch of new xxx products or systems) and local business effecting announcements (building renovations, Information Technology business interruptions).

What is digital signage?

Digital signage is the method of displaying multimedia content on a display unit such as a LCD screen, a plasma display panel, a monitor, a video wall composed of a number of screens to deliver informative and entertaining content to employees, visitors, captive audiences and passers by.

As opposed to still images, multimedia content is the new standard of digital communication. The information presented to your viewers will not only be exciting but also captivating.

Benefits

XXX can use the digital signage technology to impress both its visitors and employees. Imagine the following scenarios:

Your visitors are standing at your reception desk signing the visitor’s book. They look up and their eyes are caught by a large LCD screen. A message is displayed “Welcome to XXX.” The message fades and the next message appears “Dear visitor, please ensure your visitors badge is visible at all times whilst on XXX premises. Please also remember to sign out before leaving. Thank you and enjoy your visit.” The system can also be used to display Training timetable information (training name, time and locations) and help guide your visitors to the training rooms.

Your employees walk into the office and their eyes are caught by the LCD screen. There is a message on the screen “Reminder: Flash Presentation at 11:00 AM”. In this particular scenario, the system is being used as a bulletin board to efficiently remind staff of particular events.

Your employees are eating in the cafeteria, the LCD screen displays the message at all sites with the following “advertise me Christmas countdown: 2 days to go. Visit http://www.advertiseme.com.au for more information.” Staff members are updated with important company information.

There are infinite possibilities and scenarios where your business can benefit from this evolving digital signage technology. Take the step now and you will notice the difference.

Just by simply introducing the digital signage technology to XXX’s corporate environment, Advertise Me can guarantee the business can achieve the following:

• Promote new products to its employees
• Increase awareness of critical business projects to employees
• Improve business image to visitors and the public
• Achieve recognition from competitors by being the first YYY company to use this technology
• Keep employees informed with information with eye catching presentations

Proposal

A typical digital signage network consists of a small form factor Personal Computer, a 32 inch LCD TV (inclusive of a mounting bracket) and the digital signage software.  Our proposal for XXX is slightly different and is as follows:

• XXX will supply Advertise Me with a PC which meets our technical specifications. This will ensure that the PC has been qualified by a XXX employee and conforms to the XXX standards.
• We will supply XXX with a 32 inch LCD TV as a minimum or for an additional cost, upgrade to a larger screen size LCD.
• We will install, configure and support the software on any PC that is connected to a stand.
• Provide basic training to either IT staff or XXX employees who will manage the system
• Provide on-site maintenance for the equipment and software

XXX has the option to have the digital network set up on its own private network or on the Advertise Me network. Our preference is to have the PC’s on our network so that we can monitor and remotely manage each stand. We will provide Internet access points at each stand and set up VPN (Virtual Private Network) tunnels with the highest security back to our network. We will then provide XXX with access to the players via our network.

There are ZZZ XXX offices based in Australia; [locations]. At each location we propose to have an stand at the reception desk, and one in the cafeteria/lunch area. At XXX we can additionally add another stand in the Hub.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Tags: Business Events, Business Interruptions, Captive Audiences, Christmas Party, Corporate Businesses, Corporate Headlines, Digital Communication, Digital Medium, digital signage, Dynamic Images, Dynamic Messages, Global Organisation, Images Multimedia, Information Technology Business, lcd screen, Multimedia Content, Plasma Display Panel, Proposal, Reception Desk, Standstill, Static Images, Still Images, video wall

This week’s klip is sent in by Christine, a regular commuter to work by train in Sydney, one day notices that the destination board has failed.

Being an everyday commuter, luckily she is able to just follow the path she walks everyday and get to the correct platform. But for others, it may be a nightmare.

Thanks Christine for sharing.

Christine from Sydney, a regular commuter on the public train network snaps an unpleasant surprise to start her day

Cityrail destination board gone wrong

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Category: Digital Signage Klips

Tags: cityrail, Correct Platform, digital signage, klip, Klips, Nightmare, Public Train, Sydney, Train Network, Unpleasant Surprise

This weeks digital signage Klip is from Nikki and it’s about a video klip of an innovative and unique digital wayfinding signage on board a the Oasis of the Sea ship.

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Klips

Tags: digital signage, Nikki, Oasis, Video Klip, Wayfinding Signage

advertise me has been in the digital signage industry since its infancy in Australia and we’ve experienced the convergence of the Information Technology and Audio Visual industry. Both are now becoming so dependent on each other that professionals in the IT industry are learning skills from the audio visual industry and vice versa.

What are the main reasons behind this and which industry does digital signage fit in?

In this particular post I will attempt to explore these areas and hopefully others can follow and join me with sharing their thoughts and ideas on this particular topic.

Let’s firstly look at the roles and responsibilities of both industries:

The IT industry

Information Technology Network equipment

Generally speaking, when someone uses the term IT (Information Technology), the first thing that comes to their mind is computers – basically this is what the majority of digital signage players are (embedded computers, laptops, desktops, Macs etc). One thing that needs to be clarified is that IT encompasses much more than computers, it covers broader areas such as software development, desktop management, server management (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc), network infrastructure, security and helpdesk support. All of these areas form the basic foundation of the IT backbone and digital signage is one of those technologies which have a great dependency on the IT framework. The design, stability of the overall IT infrastructure needs to work in order for the digital signage network to also be reliable and efficient.

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Featured Post

Tags: Audio Visual Equipment, Backbone, Basic Foundation, Convergence, Convergence Technology, Desktop Management, Development Desktop, digital signage network, digital signage networks, Etc Network, Firewalls, Infancy, Information technology, Information Technology Network, Infrastructure Security, Local Area Networks, Management Server, Network Infrastructure, Roles And Responsibilities, Server Management, Signage Industry, Simplicity, Software Development, Switchers, Thoughts And Ideas, Transverse, Wide Area Networks

For those of you who didn’t know, there are quite a number of digital signage players in the market that are using Mozilla Firefox on the Linux platform as their default browser to play content. To the viewer, this does not become apparent since the developers cleverly designed the application to run in full screen so when content is played you don’t see the tool and menu bars.

One of the many reasons why most digital signage companies are using Firefox compared to Internet Explorer is due to the fact Firefox is open source and comes with many add-ons. One of these add-ons is the ability to run the application in Kiosk or Digital Signage mode. The other obvious point is that it’s free and comes packaged with many Unix based OSes.

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Tags: Appearance, Caption, Developers, Digital Signage Software, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Kiosk Mode, Linux, Linux Platform, Loading Web, Measurements, Memory Leak, Menu Bars, Menus, Mozilla, Open Source, Oses, Poll Id, Poster Frames, Signage Companies, Software Companies, Software Update, Task Manager, Tool Bars, unix, Web Pages, Which Allow Users, Windows Xp

Besides the hot and then rainy weather in Sydney Australia, we thought we’d do something crazy and clean up our spammed comments since it was taking up a considerable amount of space in our database. We had 23,123 comments marked as spam since the beginning of last year and most of them were not relating to digital signage. The process of cleaning up this spammed comments in Wordpress isn’t as straight forward as I thought it would be. Under the Edit Comments section there is a button called “Empty Spam”. Obviously I want to empty  these comments so when I click on the button the process seems to time out… probably due to the number of spam comments. I basically end up getting a white page after about 40 seconds. When I logged back in to see how many spam comments were removed, the system somehow managed to remove about 1000 comments before it timed out – that’s what I’m guessing happened. If you do the maths, I had to do this about 20 times and I also just calculated that the ratio of the number of post to the number of spam comments  is approximately 1:107 – this is a large number?

So, to avoid this in future we will aim to remove spam comments on a monthly basis and please… don’t spam our digital signage blog. We have noticed several businesses adding their website links in their comments, although we don’t prevent you from doing so or added a plugin feature to automatically remove these, it does look a “bit” obvious on what you’re trying to do.

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Category: Digital Signage Weekend Fun

Tags: Aim, blog, Comments Section, digital signage, Fun, Hot, Maths, Rainy Weather, Remove Spam, Time Out, Weather In Sydney, Weather In Sydney Australia, White Page

We received several short video klips from Hiro in Japan. The videos gives us a good idea of how digital signage has been implemented in  Japan both in stores and also outdoors. This helps everyone understand how digital signage has been implemented in other countries and we look forward to receiving more Klips from other parts of the world. You can send them to us via email info@digitalsignageblog.com – for more information read the following post http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/2009/12/04/klips-share-your-digital-signage-snap/.

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Category: Digital Signage Klips

Tags: digital signage, Digital Video, Good Understanding, Hiro, Japan Video, Klips, Random, Snap, Video Klips, Videos

It’s nice to see several members of the digital signage portal taking advantage of the myBlog feature. For those of you who haven’t used this feature before it basically allows registered members to create their own blog entries and share this with the rest of the digital signage community. We realised that some of you don’t have a business blog or don’t have either the technical expertise or knowledge to set one up. So we’ve done most of the hard work for you. All you have to do now is just post your entries. All you need to do is register and post away. If you need help read this F.A.Q.

To view the latest myBlog entries visit http://www.digitalsignageportal.com/myBlog/

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Tags: Advantage, digital signage, members, Myblog, portal, Technical Expertise

There seems to be quite a hype about Intels latest technology and I can see why. Have a look at this video and read some of the comments.

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Category: Digital Signage Weekend Fun

Tags: Acting, digital signage, Fun, Hype, Intel, Latest Technology

You may be quite disappointed when you read this but I’m quite sad to say that since the start of my professional career in the digital signage industry I do not believe there is a “perfect” digital signage player in the market. Like everything else in this world nothing is perfect and depending on our perception of what perfect is, we may not be able to find one.

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Tags: Amp, Budget, digital signage player, Integrator, Perception, Professional Career, Pros And Cons, Rca Connectors, Signage Industry, Word Perfect

At the end of last year we asked our readers (http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/2009/12/04/klips-share-your-digital-signage-snap/) to send us digital signage Klips so we can share with the rest of the world. We decided to kick off the year with our own Klips that we’ve taken whilst being out and about. You can view these here http://tweetphoto.com/user/advertisemeAU and make sure you follow us in twitter (http://www.twitter.com/advertisemeAU) so you can receive our latest updates. Let’s review some of these digital signage Klips and implementations:

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Klips

Tags: Advertisements, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Tree, Cinema Digital, Cinema Room, digital signage, Implementations, iphone, Kiosk, kiosks, Lightboxes, Portrait Mode, Reading Cinema, Rest Of The World, Screen Caption, screens, Surroundings, Touchscreen, Unique Design, Victoria, video wall, Waiting In Line

First of all, Happy New Year to all our readers – we hope you had a relaxing break and are energised for another year of digital signage. To kick off the year, we decided to engage our techie community and discuss about the importance of NTP.

NTP stands for Network Time Protocol and is commonly used to synchronise a computer’s/digital signage player’s date and time with a specific time source server. It can be a hardware based  GPS time source server from Symmetricon which I’ve used in the past, an Internet NTP server – see ntp.org for more information, or even your local Windows Active Directory Server can be used as a time server. The most challenging part when using NTP is ensuring that your actual source server has the correct date and time.

Most digital signage businesses should know what I’m talking about since ensuring the Content Management Server and digital signage player’s date and time are all in synch is crucial for any large digital signage network especially when used for scheduling content.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Tags: Active Directory, Computers, Content Management Server, Content Portal, digital signage, digital signage network, digital signage player, Directory Server, Happy New Year, Internet Server, Network Time Protocol, new year, Ntp, Ntp Server, Poll Id, portal, Symmetricon, Time Server, Time Source, Time Source Server

advertise me would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

To all our clients and business partners thank you for your support and we look forward to catching up with you all next year.

To our readers, we hope you’ve enjoyed reading our blog posts and don’t forget to send us your klips so we can share it with the rest of the world.

We are excited and look forward to 2010 as we anticipate this to be a BIG year for us.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Tags: advertise, blog, Business Partners, christmas, Happy New Year, Klips, Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year, Merry Christmas And Happy New Year, new year, Rest Of The World

In the busy city of Adelaide (in South Australia) lies the popular stretch of shops in Rundle Mall. There is no other perfect place for this large piece of real estate to impress than to be suspended high up in full view of passers-by. Perfect for the festive season and Christmas shopping, this large LED screen creates entertainment for all.

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Klips

Tags: Business Name, Busy City, Caption, christmas, Christmas Shopping, City Of Adelaide, digital signage, Entertainment, Festive Season, klip, led screen, Real Estate, Rundle Mall, South Australia

Christmas is fast approaching and we decided to review a product before the end of this year. It has taken us a while to complete this review as it involved using a video camera and editing the video but from this experience we can hopefully improve our processes and review more products next year.

AS7 Audio Tripper

Reviewed By: Advertise Me

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Reviews

Tags: 1918, advertise, Amount Of Time, Aud, Audio Input, Audio Inputs, Audio Signal, Audio Switcher, blackberry, Blue Pony, Caption, Cd Player, christmas, Default Input, Delay Control, digital signage, digital signage player, email, Initial State, Input Output, Input Sources, iphone, John Mayer, lcd screen, Mobile Phone, Multi Cd, nokia, Nokia N95, playlist, Pow, Sketch, Sound 3, Tripper, Video Camera

Blackberry Storm v5

For those of you with a Blackberry in Australia did you notice the Blackberry App World icon and v5 of the OS? On Saturday morning I restarted by blackberry and whilst browsing the icons on the home menu I noticed an new icon…. it was the App World Icon. To be honest I initially didn’t know what it was but after pressing on this icon, my jaws dropped. I then checked the Blackberry Desktop Manager and noticed v5 was available – this is where i jumped out of my seat and did the “dance of joy”.

I spend the next hour or so installing and browsing through the applications available on the App World and upgrading to v5. I was surprised to see most of the applications were FREE. I ended up installing and testing some of these applications and found some to be very useful.  I was however disappointed to the number of applications, in particular the number of games available.

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Weekend Fun

Tags: 30 Minutes, Applications, australia, Blackberry Desktop Manager, Brick, Caption, Clock, Contact Lists, Dance Of Joy, Fun World, Games, Home Menu, Improvements, Interface, Jaws, Messenger, New Icon, Progress Bar, Proxy, Running, Saturday Morning, Sms Messages, Sos Messages, vodafone, World Icon

Thanks to all who have sent in their klips to us this week.

This weeks chosen klip is yet again another snap from the airport. This is a magnificent snap of digital signage in great use.

This weeks klip is from Joe from Squeak waiting at Sydney’s domestic airport.
The large LED screen lights up the entrance hall as you walk in through the check gate.

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Klips

Tags: digital signage, Entrance Hall, klip, Klips, led screen, Magnificent Snap, Screen Caption, Snap, Squeak, Sydney Airport, Sydney Domestic Airport

This weekend we thought we’d further connect with the social community and added the Gigya toolbar. What this means is that our readers will now be able to use the toolbar to share our posts on their Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Myspace, Email and more.

The toolbar looks like this and you will notice it at the end of the page:

Gigya Toolbar

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Category: Digital Signage Weekend Fun

Tags: email, Gigya, Myspace, Poll Id, Toolbar, twitter, What This Means, Yahoo

Here we would like to introduce a new section called Klips. This allows anybody anywhere in the world to share their digital signage moment with the rest of our readers.

If you would like to share your digital signage snap with us and the digital signage community, please send in your klips to info@digitalsignageblog.com with a brief of your snap, including location where it was taken, your name and/or business name.

At the end of each week we will select a few interesting klips and post them here. So keep an eye out, and get snapping!

continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Klips, Featured Post

Tags: blog, Business Name, Caption, Damages, Digital Id, digital signage, domestic terminal, Image Submissions, Images, klip, Photo, Snap, Submitter, Sydney Airport, T2, Wee Hours

When it comes to protecting your investment, physical security should be considered for any digital signage installation. Whether its for outdoor or indoor purposes, enclosures are the best form of physical protection. We previously touched upon some of the other security considerations in two of our previous posts called “How secure is your digital signage solution?” and “Secure your digital signage solution – here’s why“.

Enclosures are primarily designed to protect the display screens from:

• the environment – direct sunlight or extreme weather can cause damage to the screen
• theft – fortunately we haven’t come across this situation but I’m sure others around the world have experience this
• physical damage – vandalism is quite common in public areas continue reading »

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Tags: digital signage, Extreme Weather, Investment, Photos, Physical Security, Prevention, Public Areas, screens, Secure Digital, Security Considerations, Shopping Centre, Signage Installation, Signage Solution, Strange, Sunlight, Vandalism