digital signage is starting to appear in many mobile applications such as Taxi’s, Buses, Trains, Trams, Cars or any moving unit to display information and advertising material to passengers. As we all know, in order to remotely update content to the digital signage players we generally have these connected to the Internet. For those of you who are not technically savvy you may be asking yourself “How do I connect the digital signage player to the Internet whilst the vehicle is moving?”.

With the advancement of technology, this is possible by using mobile communications technology such as 3G or 3.5G. Your mobile phone is probably using 3G. Basically, 3G is the third generation of mobile phone standards and technology. It uses cellular telephone networks which provide high-speed Internet access. For more information about the 3G technology visit wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G

In Australia, there are several Telecommunications companies (Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Three) which are selling 3G modems. There are different types of 3G modem available on the market and you need to ensure you purchase a product that is compatible with your digital signage player.

In summary, the different types of 3G modems available in Australia are:

3G Broadband USB

These generally are very simple to configure and install. However, you will need a digital signage player that has a USB port and supports the proprietary software that comes with the modem (Windows OS).

Product examples:

3G Broadband PCMCIA

These are mainly used in laptops which support PCMCIA cards or in 3G Broadband routers. Most digital signage players do not have PCMCIA slots so you wouldn’t generally purchase these unless you intend to use it in a 3G Broadband router.

Product examples:

3G Broadband Routers

This is a special router which allows you to insert a 3G PCMICA card or a 3G sim card (same as a mobile sim card but is enabled with 3G) and share the Internet connection with multiple computers and laptops via a cable or wireless. With this device, multiple digital signage players are able to be connected to the Internet and if your digital signage player supports wireless (which most of them currently do), you will eliminate the need to install network cables and hence reduce the total cost of the digital signage project.

Product examples:

Depending on the digital signage solution, you will need to purchase the most suitable 3G product available and we suggest you keep the following points in mind:

• a monthly subscription plan needs to be purchased along with the product. Just ensure you subscribe to a data plan that meets your content and data usage. Low data plans can generally end up being more expensive in the long run. So work out how much download (content) will be distributed to the digital signage players and then determine which data plan meets the your content requirements.
• there are several telecommunication companies which offer free modems depending on which plan is purchased. Keep an eye out for these.
• like with everything else you purchase, read the fine print.

Three is offering the following special, which includes a free usb modem:

For more information about any of the above 3G products and broadband price plans, visit one of the following websites:

• Vodafone
• Optus
• Three
• Telstra

Now if you prefer to purchase an all-in-one digital signage product with a built in cellular network connection there is one company that I’m only aware of that supports this – Media Tile.

To discuss more about this technology or to introduce your business to the online digital signage community visit our forum here.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Products

Here is an interesting video from ZDNet of the much anticipated Microsoft product called Surface. http://www.zdnet.com.au/video/play/22438819

“At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, ZDNet director Josh Taylor looks at Microsoft’s new surface computing platform, which includes applications for drawing, interacting with media, and manipulating photos that are instantly taken from a digital camera.”

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Products

We have seen more and more Digital Photo frames pop up in front of retail window stores and we are starting to wonder whether this type of technology can be considered as digital signage. According to Wikipedia, the term digital signage refers to ” a form of out-of-home advertising in which content and messages displayed on an electronic screen, or digital sign…”. Digital Photo frames are actually using LCD (electronic screens) and can vary from 9″ to almost 17″, so yes, technically they are a form of digital signage. They are generally used at home to display family photos, however there has now been a trend of using these photo frames to display retail products.

The main advantages of using this technology are:

• affordability – they are cheap (one can be purchased for less than $100)
• compact – can be easily installed and located almost anywhere. All that it requires is a power point
• user-friendly and intuitive – very simple to use. All that is required is create the content, save it as a image file on a media storage device and plug the storage device to the photo frame.
• innovative – some photo frames support wireless connectivity so that they can be remotely managed

The drawbacks are that they do not support the same features as a “true” digital signage player ie zoning, scheduling etc.

For a small, single retail businesses this type of technology might be their best option but they need to keep in mind that it is very limited in the functions it can provide in order to draw the customer’s attention to the store.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Keeping with tradition, many people are currently putting together their 2008 New Year’s resolutions, so we thought we joined in the spirit and jotted down our business goals for 2008:

• The launch of our own digital signage player (beta phase)
• The launch of several innovative websites (confidential to what they are at the moment)
• Our first community based digital signage network in a selected location in Australia
• Reach 100 registered users on our digital signage portal (http://www.digitalsignageportal.com)
• Obtain advertising sponsorship from one major digital signage company

Let’s see what challenges and outcomes 2008 will bring.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Europe’s biggest ever event for digital signage will be on the 5th and 6th of February 2008 in Olympia London. For information about this event click here.

We also stumbled across this marketing video for this event and we found it very humorous and clever so we wanted to share this with our readers. Click here to view the video.

The video concept is very similar to the Apple vs Microsoft’s video but it clearly emphasises the difference between the traditional posters and digital signage. Apparently there will be another 3 videos that will be coming out so it will be interesting to see what they come up with.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Events