Digital Signage: What is RS-232 and do I need it?

Saturday, March 8th, 2008 at 8:35 pm by DigitalSignageBlog, 0 Comments »

Did you know that many digital signage players and display screens support RS-232?

You’ve probably come across this terminology before but you most likely ignored it because you didn’t know what it meant.

RS-232 (Recommended Standard 232) is a standard for transmitting serial binary signals between devices. It is most commonly used in computer serial ports and has 9 pins on one end. For those of you who have used the good old Serial Mouses – that uses RS-232.

The main purpose of using the RS-232 port on a digital signage player is to control another device like an LCD/Plasma Screen, touch screen or projector (the unit must support RS-232). For example, with RS-232 the digital signage player is able to send a signal to switch the LCD screen on or off – this means you have full remote control of the screen.

Below is an image of a digital signage player (SMP-WEB3) which has a COM port (2) for RS-232 connectivity. For more information about this player visit our online shop.

Do I need it?

Well, it all depends on your requirements. If you need to remotely control your screens or send serial data from one device to another then YES, you definitely need it. If not, it is always good to have this option just in case down the track you do decide to use it.

To discuss more about this technology go to our digital signage forum.

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