Digital Signage Blog » Advertisements

Guest Post: Wireless Internet and Digital Signage

DigitalSignageBlog — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:30:38 +0000

Written by Guest Blogger: Heather McDaniels

When you see a message scrolling or flashing across a billboard, or a video advertisement on the side of a stadium, or even short videos streamed on scoreboards at ballgames, you are seeing products of what is known as the digital signage industry. You are of course familiar with the concepts of advertisement and entertainment in public places, designed to meet a large audience; the digital signage industry is essentially an extension of these ideas, by which the same advertisement and entertainment are brought to the public through digital media. Now, thanks to the spread and usefulness of wireless internet, digital signage seems to be expanding even more, to the point that it will likely soon be surprising to see a billboard that does not change periodically, or a message that does not scroll endlessly.

Already, it is a bit strange to think back just a few years to when digital signage was a far smaller industry. Billboards used to always be solid, painted, and unchanging, and television screens in public areas (such as airports or the hallways at large stadiums) could sometimes only display one message. Now, it is extremely common to see billboards that can change their messages several times per minute (vastly expanding the number of advertisements they can display in a given amount of time), or screens scrolling messages that used to have to be posted one at a time, or one per screen. This is how far the digital signage industry has come just in the last few years, and, again, with the spread of wireless Internet, the industry will continue to grow.

Just like anything else that can use a wireless connection, the absence of cables and physical connections essentially signals a massive increase in speed and convenience. Not so long ago, you had to connect your computer by a cable reaching to a phone jack in the wall in order to access the Internet; now, you need only connect wirelessly to the nearest available network to enjoy high-speed, reliable Internet access. It is the same with the digital signage industry. Advertisers and entertainers are now able to mount television screens and other media display mechanisms just about anywhere they want, and can remotely, wirelessly cause messages to run across them. This is just another way that wireless Internet has improved the clarity, scope, and efficiency with which we do things – and the networks and speeds involved are only getting bigger and faster.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Advertisements, Airports, Amount Of Time, Ballgames, Balmat, billboard, Billboards, Cables, digital signage, Ginger, Hallways, Heather, Internet Digital, Massive Increase, Mcdaniels, Physical Connections, Public Areas, Scoreboards, Several Times, Signage Industry, Stadiums, Television Screens, Video Advertisement, Wireless Internet

DOOH = Digital Out Of Home vs Digital Signage – who cares

DigitalSignageBlog — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:59:06 +0000

Before we first started our company advertise me – we didn’t have a clue what the industry was called and the different terminologies that was used to describe this booming industry. Back then, the idea of having advertisements or content such as menus, images, videos, weather feeds, and text displayed on digital screens was still at its infancy. Commercial plasma screens was becoming more popular and with the introduction of LCD screens, prices of plasmas was becoming more affordable. If you look at the below image of google trends for the term digital signage, you’ll notice that this term became more popular (from google’s search perspective) in 2007. I tried trending the term digital out of home and dooh but google responsed with “do not have enough search volume to show graphs.”

One of the terminologies that we were unfamiliar with was DOOH – to date we still don’t use this term that often since it has been replaced by Digital Signage. Now to me, the two terms DOOH and Digital Signage can be used interchaneably and I don’t care if there is a difference. One might say that DOOH (since it’s not at home) is a screen network in a public area and that digital signage can be located in a corporate building to display internal communications. To me, both are the same but Digital Signage sounds shorter and easier to say so we’ll stick with this.

If you have a different opinion let us know.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Advertisements, Clue, digital signage, Google, Google Trends, Graphs, Image, Images, Infancy, Internal Communications, lcd screens, Menus, Perspective, plasma screens, Search Volume, Sounds, Terminologies, weather

Legal Aspects for Digital Signage 101

DigitalSignageBlog — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:08:57 +0000

I thought I’d bring this up again since I just saw a video of a digital signage presentation that I believe breached several legal aspects. I want our readers to understand this clearly before they take the next step further.

The first legal area is about copyright. Yes, it’s something we all know about but the Internet provides us with so much as information, images and videos that we sometimes forget how easily the content can be easily re-used. So for those creating content, don’t be tempted to just use content that you find on the Internet. There are many companies out there that is able to provide stock images, videos, templates etc. Most importantly, in the video I noticed that there was an option to add an RSS news feed from CNN news. Even thought the video was a demonstration of a digital signage system, I believe there was a breach in the RSS terms and conditions. The CNN website clearly mentions that the use of the RSS is for non-commercial purposes. We previously talked about breacking RSS copyright laws in the post titled: Are you breaching RSS copyright laws? By the way, in that post we mentioned that we were getting 100 RSS feeds per day(statistics from early 2009 and as of today, we receive over 1000 feeds per day).

The second legal area is about overlaying RSS text or advertisements or any other type of content over live TV feeds. We also talked about this in one of our previous posts titled Embedding live video content in digital signage. Is this a breach of copyright in Australia? For example, if you were showing a live feed of a soccer match and you overlayed an RSS feed at the bottom of the actual feed then you’re breaching some of the broadcasters terms and conditions. Besides all the legal jargon that you will find on the broadcasters websites, I believe the main reasons why commercial businesses are not allowed to do this is for the following reasons:

1. It costs big money to broadcast video content and they make the majority of their money by displaying advertisements during the ad breaks. By you displaying other content such as ads then the broadcasters are not making money from you and they obviously want to avoid this.

2. The broadcasters do not want to give the viewers the impression and confusion that the other content on the live TV feed is actually displayed from them. They don’t want the affiliation simply because they are unable to control what is displayed on the screen. Just image you’re displaying live TV of a news channel and all of a sudden you display an overlay RSS feed of the CNN news. Now, that will be confusing.

I simply want to make our readers, system integrators or digital signage users aware of some of these legal issues because I don’t want you to be in a legal battle – I’d rather you spend the time rolling out digital signage solutions than sitting in a court case. I also thought that our readers needed to be better educated on how to best use the features in a digital signage system and not breach any laws.

Has these laws changed? If not, then think twice before you use some of the advanced features in a digital signage system and don’t blame the solution provider or manufacturer for giving you the functionality to do this!

Embedding live video content in digital signage. Is this a breach of copyright in Australia?Ebedding live video

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Advertisements, Breach Of Copyright, Broadcasters, Cnn, Cnn News, Cnn Website, Commercial Businesses, Commercial Purposes, Copyright Laws, Demonstration, digital signage, Information Images, Legal Aspects, Legal Jargon, Live Feed, live tv, Match, Rss News Feed, Signage System, Stock Images, Video Content

Successful Digital Signage at Bach Real Estate

DigitalSignageBlog — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 04:00:18 +0000

We were proud and honoured to have been involved with the implementation of a digital signage solution for Bach Real Estate.

About Bach Real Estate

Bach Real Estate was established by Le and Nina Bach in a quest to provide a personalised and genuine level of service to vendors, buyers, landlords and tenants alike in the residential property industry.

After years of running their own successful businesses, it has always been Le and Nina’s intention to get into the property industry. Through their own experiences in dealing with various real estate agents in buying and selling properties, they saw that there was great room for improvement in the standard of delivering property services.

After a few light discussions on the ordinary services provided by real estate agents, serious research was conducted to establish if there was such a gap in the industry. This was the driving force that led the establishment of Bach Real Estate – to fill the gap in the quality of services that exist.

Bach Real Estate’s mission is to provide integrity in their services – that is being Committed in doing what they say. In working with their clients, they are Determined to understand the needs and achieving the Results that the clients want.

The requirements

Being a young and innovative business, Bach Real Estate wanted to stand out from their competitors and use the latest digital technology to their advantage whilst being very conscious on the environment. Instead of using the traditional static paper based property listings at the front of their office, Bach Real Estate engaged advertise me to install a digital signage solution that would engage and attract attention from people walking past. The solution needed to display property listings, advertisements and marketing materials.

The solution

The solution we provided is simple, affordable and scalable. Two 46″ LED screens with a built in ad player was installed at the front of their office and this solution allows the business to eventually expand to an enterprise network down the track.

The ad player allows the business to play videos, text and images in zones or as a full screen. What makes this solution different is the ability to have PIP (Picture in Picture) as one of the zones and also gives the ability for an external video source (using HDMI, VGA, Svideo) to be connected to the screen.

In addition, the ceiling poles were customised to suit the location of the screens.

We wish Bach Real Estate all the best with their business and their future ventures.

Here’s some fun and interesting images of the opening day:

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: Advertisements, Bach, Buying And Selling Properties, Consciouns, Crowd, digital signage, Digital Technology, Driving Force, Enterprise Network, Experiences, Gap, Implementation, Innovative Business, Integrity, Intention, Landlords And Tenants, Latest Technology, Led Screens, Marketing Materials, Nina, Real Estate, Real Estate Agents, Residential Property, Running, screens, Serious Research, Signage Solution, Solu, Solutio

Guest Bloggers on the digital signage blog

DigitalSignageBlog — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:45:38 +0000

It’s official, after many years of blogging we have decided to open our doors and accept guest bloggers. After some discussions we decided to invite digital signage industry experts from all over the world to help us share their industry experiences and insights with the rest of the digital signage community.
It is an open invitation, however, we are selective on the content.

There are some guidelines that need to be taken into thought when producing each post.
We will NOT be accepting:

Advertisements about your company
We will include a short description about who you are and your company but we will not accept a post that is solely focused on advertising your company or your products.
PRs that get splatted across the internet
We want unique content so if it’s a PR that has already been submitted on the internet we will not accept it.
Duplicate blog posts
Please do not copy and paste content from your current blog, Unique content is what makes the digital signage blog different and we would like to keep it this way
Posts that indemnify or scrutinise other people or companies
As the title suggests, this part is pretty much self-explanatory. Please keep your content professional.

We will be limiting to publish 1 post per guest blogger a week.
We are looking for guest bloggers that have a passion about digital signage and are not purely looking for an avenue to advertise their company – we have a paid advertising section for this! So if you think you fit in this criteria and are interested to become a guest blogger for the digital signage blog then send us an email at info@digitalsignageblog.com with a short description on what you can offer to this blog and we’ll get back to you.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments |
Post tags: Advertisements, Advertising Company, Amount Of People, blog, Blogger, Bloggers, Blogging, Copy And Paste, Current, digital signage, Doors, email, Golden Rule, Industry Experience, Industry Experiences, Industry Experts, Industry News, Insights, Internet World, Main Goals, Nbsp, Open Invitation, Passion, Paste Content, Peace And Harmony, Prs, Rule Of Thumb, Share Industry, Short Description, Signage Industry, Spam

First digital signage magazine in Australia

DigitalSignageBlog — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 03:00:54 +0000

We recently received the first digital signage magazine published by an Australia company (alchemedia publishing) and this is really a good sign of the growth of digital signage in Australia.
The great thing about the magazine was the case studies of digital signage implementations of local business in Australia. There is also the traditional advertisements of digital signage companies and manufacturers and this is really good to have as a local directory. We look forward to receiving future magazines and hope to eventually feature in an article.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Advertisements, australia, Australia Company, Business In Australia, Caption, Case Studies, Digital Id, digital signage, Implementations, Local Directory, Magazines, Signage Companies

Top 10 reasons why you should use digital signage

DigitalSignageBlog — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:25:30 +0000

This week, advertise me decided to put together our own TOP 10 reasons why you should use digital signage and here’s our list in no particular order:

The “wow” factor, if you want to stand out from your competitors, digital signage attracts attention and it’s definitely a way to attract customers into your store
Because the other guy down the road has it – this may sound childish but it’s human nature to feel as though you need it because someone else has it
For large shopping centres, digital signage is a revenue driving tool to generate money from advertisers. Digital signage can also used as a tool for notifying customers of information/sales/events to get more customers coming into the shopping centre
It helps engage the customers at the point of sale – sales have increased with this approach (you can easily find proof of this from case studies that can be found on the Internet)
Eliminates the cost and waiting time compared to printing. Content can be updated at any time and almost instantly
Digital Signage gives the user the ability to run campaigns at certain time blocks during the day, and switching over to show relevant information depending on the time of the day. That means you’re in control of what is displayed to your audience
Digital Signage can be used as a tool to interact with your customers. At times this can act as an extra sales person when all staff are busy – it definitely keeps customers entertained rather than waiting to be served. Especially something for the blokes while they wait for their partners trying on countless clothes, it keeps everyone happy
It’s cool and makes the environment more “livelier”. If done correctly it creates a unique atmosphere
You will be able to display different types of content (advertisements, live TV, images, news, weather, basically whatever you want) on the same screen
It helps your marketing team effectively and efficiently communicate messages with your customers, clients and employees

Do you agree or disagree with some of these reasons? Let us know of any other reasons why you should use digital signage.

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: advertise, Advertisements, advertisers, Atmosphere, Blokes, Bys, Cambria, Campaigns, Case Studies, Centre Management, Charset, Clothes, digital signage, Div, Family Auto, Font Definitions, Footer, Guy Down, Human Nature, Information Sales, Initiator, Lt, Marketing Team, Math, money, Mso, Orphan, Paper Source, Pitch, Point Of Sale, Printing Content, Priority, Proof, Props, Sales Person, Sans Serif, Shopping Centre, Shopping Centres, Signature, Store Messages, Style Definitions, Style Type, Theme Font, Time Blocks, Time Of The Day, Times New Roman, Tv Images, Waiting Time, weather, Wow

Parramatta Westfield LED Screen

DigitalSignageBlog — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:05:31 +0000

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.

The screen initially had a test message:

This week we later saw advertisements and the weather:

So what’s the biggest screen you’ve seen? Let us know in the comments.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 17 comments |
Post tags: Advertisements, Blogs, Energizer, led screen, Parramatta Westfield, Parramatta Westfields, Screen Test, screens, Shopping Centres, Test Message, weather

Digital Signage Klips: Advertise Me snaps for 2010

DigitalSignageBlog — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:00:54 +0000

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:

	I noticed this whilst waiting in line at the cinemas. The screen in portrait mode was next to other static lightboxes which nicely blended in with the surroundings. The screen was positioned right in front of the exit door which should have captured the attention of people exiting the cinema room but I noticed that not even one person looked at the screen. The screen was also right next to the bin which I think was strategic. From what I could observe, only the people standing in line waiting to enter the cinema room noticed the screen.
	This got my attention as soon as I walked past the window. The screen was installed in an enclosure that looked exactly like an iPhone and was surrounded by Christmas decorations that looked like a Christmas tree. Was very effective but it would have been better if it was a touchscreen so that it could simulate a real iphone.
	This was quite an innovative and unique design. Unfortunately, the video wall which had 8 screens were all turned off. There were also other screens displaying advertisements located in that structure.
	The virgin kiosks were different, in a sense that there were screens located at the top of the kiosk which was displaying the same content as the kiosk screen. I like the idea that you could purchase and download music files to your USB stick.
	I noticed this Britney Spears perfume stall when I was in Myers. Quite a number of people were just taking photos of this and hence the reason it was brought to my attention. I somehow managed to take a photo of the screen at the exact time when the digital content was the same as the static poster. Try to spot where the screen is located.

So there you have it. We’ve started the year with various digital signage Klips and implementations and we look forward to receiving more digital signage Klips from our readers – email the images to info@digitalsignageblog.com. Please note due to the large number of Klips we receive, we cannot post all of these so we would also like to apologise in advance.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | One comment |
Post 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

Digital Signage Marketing 101 – Pleasure and Pain

DigitalSignageBlog — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:28:02 +0000

digital signage is one of the fastest growing digital mediums to help businesses market and advertise their products and services. For those who have been in the industry already know what I’m talking about. Just recently, a friend of mine shared some basic 101 marketing information which I found very useful and thought I’d “pay it forward” and share this with everyone. Basically, he heard this from one of Anthony Robbin’s seminars about associating advertisements with Pain and Pleasure. From what I could understand from his explanation it went something like this:

We tend to avoid pain but we are attracted to pleasure.
Use pleasure and pain in advertisements as a call to action.
There was an example given for a telephone company advertisement. This advertisement showed how a son hasn’t called his mother in a while (this is associating pain) and it showed a picture of the mother being quite sad. Obviously the son was feeling guilty and by simply calling his mother, it made her happier (this is associating pleasure).

When we develop our digital signage content, do we use this marketing strategy?

Here’s an inspirational quote from Anthony Robbins:

My definition of success is to live your life in a way that causes you to feel a ton of pleasure and very little pain – and because of your lifestyle, have the people around you feel a lot more pleasure than they do pain.
- Anthony Robbins

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: advertise, Advertisements, Anthony Robbin, Anthony Robbins, Company Advertisement, Digital Marketing, Digital Mediums, digital signage, Inspirational Quote, Lifestyle, Lot, Marketing 101, Marketing Information, Marketing Strategy, Pain And Pleasure, Pain Pleasure, Pay It Forward, Pleasure And Pain, Seminars, Telephone Company

Advertise Me Interviews Concerto Digital Signage

Danny Hsueh — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:30:29 +0000

advertise me:	Hi Brian, thanks for joining us for this interview. We’re quite excited to speak to someone such as yourself about Open Source applications for digital signage.
Brian:	Thanks for interviewing me! We built Concerto as students at one of America’s great tech universities because it addressed an unmet need that we saw on our campus, and we didn’t expect when we initiated the project to see it become a topic of interest for people all over the world.

Advertise Me:	Let’s start with the basics – could you please explain what Open Source is, and is it really free?
Brian:	Sure. Open source software is free for anyone to obtain and use, as well as modify – provided that they make their modifications open-source as well.

Advertise Me:	Thank you for clearing that up. So let’s talk about your Open Source application for Digital Signage called Concerto. How did you come up with that name and what is it exactly?
Brian:	First things first: Concerto is a free digital signage platform for sharing flyers, alerts, and other messages with other people by showing them on flat panel televisions and other types of screens. It’s a broadcast medium that makes it simple to make a flyer and get it out to many people quickly, but it also allows screens to show a custom mix of messages based on predefined preferences. The name Concerto pertains to this key function. A musical concerto emphasizes one musical instrument amidst an entire orchestra, and with our digital signage product, users can emphasize one type of message amidst an entire orchestra of different types of advertising. For example, at we launched Concerto at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI for short). At RPI, the management school has a big screen with a special zone for graphical messages. With Concerto, they just specify the types of advertisements they want to highlight, and which types they wish to exclude. So messages about management lectures might be shuffled in more frequently than student entertainment flyers and sports notices. In this way, the management school can tailor their Concerto display for the audience they hope to attract without impacting how others on campus use Concerto.

Advertise Me:	Out of curiosity, how did the Concerto concept and idea start?
Brian:	We started Concerto with a purpose: to improve communication within our campus community. There were already ways to tell the RPI campus community about events and other happenings before Concerto: student groups, academic departments, or individuals could print out and tape up a lot of flyers, or even put their messages on the campus cable television system. It took a lot of time and money to print out and put up lots of paper signage. The cable television system was managed by a very small group of people who had many other responsibilities aside from approving messages for cable. More importantly, that system was designed with a bureaucratic, almost corporate mindset in mind, one meant to keep control of the network regulated to only the smallest group of elite users. So we designed Concerto from the ground up to be accessible to every computer user at our school. Now we have students, staff, and faculty working together to help maintain the network. It really gives people a reason to pay attention to Concerto – they become a part of campus communication, instead of just being forced to see it.

Advertise Me:	Why should someone use Concerto and what are some of the benefits?
Brian:	Members of any community where events and information are often overlooked should find Concerto’s unique design to be particularly attractive. We designed Concerto first for colleges and universities, but its benefits can extend to any community looking to spread and share messages about events and other activities. Here are some core benefits of using Concerto: Concerto allows one type of message to be highlighted amongst a huge pool of different messages. Messages are organized into categories called feeds, which can be mixed and matched differently on each separate Concerto display to cater to distinct locations and audiences. Because Concerto lives on the World Wide Web, any device that can be connected to the Internet can potentially display Concerto. That means that flat panel televisions, mobile phones, personal screensavers, and other websites can all serve as hosts for your announcements. The software is fully open source, so you can use and deploy it for free. With Concerto’s flexible architecture, many different organizations (with different budgets) can help grow your Concerto network.

Advertise Me:	Since the application is free, are businesses permitted to resell this product to their clients?
Brian:	Under the terms of our license, the GNU Public License (v2), our software may be resold. But this distinction is key: no company can restrict the rights associated with a copy of Concerto by denying their users access to the source code. I’ll also add that if you make a modification to our source code, you must give back those changes to the larger community. Companies may provide for-pay support and consultation packages to get our software up and running for others, but the source code must always remain free to everyone.

Advertise Me:	Can Concerto be classified as a Software as a Service (SaaS)?
Brian:	I guess it could be considered SaaS, but that’s not how we think most people will use it. We have our Concerto server software running on a powerful machine at RPI that serves out the content for all of the client machines across our Troy, New York campus. This server could theoretically be located somewhere off-campus, in which case every client unit would receive content over the Web. But for most administrators who wish to launch a Concerto network at a school, in a town, or elsewhere, it probably makes the most sense to locate that server somewhere nearby. I should also mention that most users of Concerto are everyday people who just want to find and share messages of interest – since they just visit Concerto in a Web browser and never see its nuts and bolts, it looks like a service that could be hosted many miles away from them.

Advertise Me:	Could you please briefly explain what would be involved (hardware & software) in setting up a digital signage solution using Concerto?
Brian:	Concerto is designed from the ground up to work perfectly with inexpensive, commodity hardware that anyone can purchase from websites such as Newegg.com. There’s a central server, as I already described, which is simply a computer that stores content and distributes it to each Concerto screen. The first step to deploy Concerto is to download our software at http://www.concerto-signage.com and install it on the computer that will act as the content server. Once that’s set up, you’ll need some other computers to drive the different displays on your fledgling Concerto network. The system requirements for these units are much lower – we’ve been successful with $500 small form factor computers that have 2 GB of RAM, Intel Celeron M CPU, Ethernet connection, CompactFlash card, and DVI connection that can then be adapted for HDMI output to flat panel televisions. These client units use the Concerto player software, which can be run as a live CD or installed directly to a storage device such as a hard drive or memory card. They must be able to connect to your network and receive power. Then each one of those computers will drive the front end Concerto display on everything from a 19-inch computer monitor to a massive 108-inch flat panel television. The display hardware is completely up to you, as long as it can receive display input from a DVI or VGA port (which can be done using an adapter). For more information about how to deploy Concerto, please see the page at http://www.concerto-signage.com/view/deploy.

Advertise Me:	How long has it taken to develop the Concerto framework and application?
Brian:	We started to develop Concerto in October 2007, and launched it in March of 2008. We were all students at the time in our undergraduate studies at RPI. Since our RPI launch in March 2008, we’ve updated the core software over ten times, adding new features and addressing bugs in response to feedback from our more than 1,000 RPI-based users.

Advertise Me:	What makes Concerto so different from all the other Open Source applications in the market?
Brian:	Concerto first sets itself apart from many more traditional digital signage networks by being completely based on the World Wide Web. Older signage platforms were often based on coaxial cable lines. Concerto runs over standard Ethernet cable and wireless Internet, which makes it far more versatile for many places that now have more Internet jacks than coaxial hook-ups. More importantly, Concerto displays can show content that is completely specific to a location and/or audience. Finally, Concerto is designed from the ground up to encourage hundreds or potentially thousands of users to get involved in the process of sharing messages about events and other information.

Advertise Me:	What has been the most successful Concerto project thus far?
Brian:	Our first and most successful network is still at RPI, but we just released the source code under our public open source license in July, so we are also working with several groups from around America to launch Concerto in their own communities. While I can’t talk specifics yet, we’ve received inquiries from companies, libraries, and other universities.

Advertise Me:	Do you have any advice for people who are planning to start a business in the digital signage industry?
Brian:	I would suggest that the digital signage space is ready for some new ideas. Digital signage software has traditionally been proprietary and expensive. Concerto is a free alternative that provides, for the most part, the core digital signage package. In order for future companies to be successful in this space, I think they need to do more than continue to provide the same types of products and services that we can now give away for free. The bar needs to be raised, with offerings that provide an even greater value proposition than before.

Advertise Me:	Are there any plans to monetize Concerto? How are you guys going to make money, or is this a hidden secret?
Brian:	Concerto started as a volunteer project, and we decided early in the game that we would not attempt to monetize the software itself. We have no hidden agendas or secrets when it comes to that. While some of our team may consider becoming digital signage consultants in the future, we will never charge for the code.

Advertise Me:	This is our final question that we normally ask all of the people we interview. What do you see as the next “BIG THING” in digital signage?
Brian:	We have built a platform with Concerto to enable the core features and functionality of what I like to call a “twentieth century digital signage platform.” People can buy inexpensive commodity computer hardware, connect them to small or large monitors or television displays, and build a Web-based communication network in virtually any place where there’s easy access to an Internet connection. It’s a framework of functionality that nobody has to build anymore. Instead, they can focus on what they can add to Concerto to make digital signage more effective for new audiences. Nowadays, people are looking for new ways to interact with the information that’s being spread around the world. Social networking really put the focus back on the end user, and we feel that digital signage can be made more effective by providing more ways for users to interact with the advertising they see. One of the ideas that we’re exploring with Concerto is how we can allow direct user interaction with digital signage. As the first and simplest way of enabling this kind of exchange, we’re adding pause and rewind buttons to our screens that will allow people to stop on specific messages and roll back to what they may have missed earlier. But what I think we’re really aiming to build is a full-blown kiosk mode that gives users new abilities to find out more about specific messages and other location-based information relevant to the Concerto display and its location. For example, let’s say that I’m looking at messages playing on a Concerto screen in the lobby of a hospital. When I move close to the screen, a web cam detects my presence and the display changes to show a smaller version of the same advertisements, as well as a building map and other hospital information. I think that a new and greater push for designing experiences that combine advertising with interaction can help us to create a new type of digital signage.

Advertise Me:	Brian, thanks for taking part in this interview and we hope to speak to you again in the near future. Good luck with the Concerto project and we wish you all the best.

To read more interviews click here: http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/category/digital-signage-interview/

About Concerto:

Concerto is a free, Web-based broadcast medium for digital announcements that just works. Using Concerto, it’s easy to engage large communities of people with graphical and text-based flyers, alerts, and other messages. The open source project was initiated by undergraduate students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2008. The code can be downloaded for free at http://www.concerto-signage.com. The Concerto Project is open to developers from around the world and aims to provide a free platform for digital signage today and in the future.

Credit: Kris Qua/RPI

About Advertise Me:

Advertise Me is a privately owned Australian company specialising in all aspects of digital signage solutions.

Our team of highly skilled professionals is able to introduce innovative ways for businesses to communicate with their intended audiences for a variety of purposes including informing, educating, entertaining and selling.

You can expect us to:

offer the most affordable and cost effective solutions tailored to your specific business needs.
provide you with concise and accurate information and will ensure that you understand and are comfortable with our proposals.
strive to make our clients happy and successful.

We have partnered with a number of key reputable organisations and will continue to build further partnerships to deliver the most effective solutions for our customers.

Visit our website at www.advertiseme.com.au for more information.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: advertise, Advertisements, Broadcast Medium, Concerto, digital signage, Flat Panel Televisions, Flyers, Interviews, Management Lectures, Management School, Musical Instrument, Open Source Application, Open Source Applications, Open Source Software, Predefined, Product Users, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rpi, screens, Special Zone, Universities, Unmet Need

Experience the digital signage world at the ABC Bondi Shop

DigitalSignageBlog — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:30:34 +0000

digital signage At Its Best!!!

In the past two months advertise me has been busy providing the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) with an innovative digital signage solution for their new concept shop in Westfield’s Bondi Junction.

The new ABC shop opened its doors on 15 May 2009 with a fresh new look but more importantly it introduced digital signage.

The three main reasons for introducing digital signage to the ABC shop were:

to draw additional customers into the store;
to increase overall sales; and
to showcase some of the other broadcasting services that the ABC provides e.g. ABC news, ABC TV, ABC radio and the ABC website.

Advertise Me understood the significance of what the ABC wanted to achieve and ensured that the digital signage solution that we provided was not only able to meet the requirements of the ABC but could also be easily adapted to other ABC shops.

The Digital Signage Solution

From a visual perspective this is what the Advertise Me’s digital signage solution looks like:

But to really understand how the digital signage solution was tailored to the ABC requirements is to understand the audio and content challenges faced in the integration of digital signage with ABC’s audio and visual equipment. This is because providing a digital signage solution is more than just connecting a PC to a display screen.

The Audio Challenge

The ABC required that the digital signage solution enable it to switch audio between songs, store announcements, advertisements, ABC radio and audio from live ABC news.

This meant that the Advertise Me’s audio solution would require the overhead speaker system to be connected to an audio switching tool that allowed the switching between the CD player, the digital signage player and the set top box.

The result was a digital signage solution that ensured that live ABC news, product videos, advertisements, announcements, music and much more was heard in the ABC shop.

The Content Challenge

The ABC required that the digital signage solution to easily manage content from one central location.

This meant that the Advertise Me’s content solution would require a dedicated Content Management Server to house the content and playlists.

The result was a digital signage solution that ensured that all content scheduling was performed at ABC’s head office with the use of a PC software tool to schedule the playlists in a calendar view so that staff could easily manage the content. The digital signage solution also ensured the ability to display live ABC TV, in store advertisements, RSS news and products by using zoning.

In addition, the digital signage solution enabled the ABC marketing staff to update content, schedule items to display on the screens and manage the overall solution from one central location without having to physically be onsite.

Results

Advertise Me’s digital signage solution met the ABC’s technical requirements and has already resulted in an increase in the number of customers walking into the store and an increase in overall sales.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Abc News, Abc Radio, Abc Shop, Abc Shops, Abc Tv, Advertisements, Audio Solution, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Bondi Junction, Broadcasting Services, digital signage, New Abc, News Abc, Overhead Speaker, Signage Solution, Speaker System, Store Announcements, Ticketer, Visual Perspective, Westfield

Digital Signage is everywhere

DigitalSignageBlog — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:20:03 +0000

We’ve been pretty busy working on a project and slacked off in posting blog entries. We’ll hopefully post information about the project that we are working on at a later stage but we thought we’d mention how digital signage is everywhere. We recently walked in the busy streets of Bondi junction Australia and noticed how common it was for businesses to have display screens in their stores. The majority of these shop were displaying content from a DVD player, or showing live TV whilst others were actually displaying in house advertisements.

One thing that I noticed was that even thought Mothers day was approaching, not many businesses had any relevant messages relating to this event. Even today, being mothers day, businesses were not using digital signage to their advantage. Oh well maybe its just Australia… My thinking is that maybe one day, businesses will be educated and skilled in the digital signage technology to update and stay connected with their audience.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Advantage, Advertisements, Audience, australia, Bondi Junction, digital signage, Digital Technology, Dvd Player, live tv, Mothers Day, Relevant Messages, screens