We hardly hear about the smaller companies launching their unique and innovative digital signage solutions and this year we want to recognise the quiet achievers. So if you’re a small business, let us know about your digital signage project so we can share this with the rest of the digital signage industry.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Developers, digital signage network, Digital Signage Solutions, Digital Solutions, Quiet Achievers, Signage Industry, Signage Project, Small Business, Smaller Companies

• There were two 47″ LG screens hanging from the ceiling.
• There was an LG player the back of the first screen
• Connected to the player there was a Telstra USB 3G modem – I’m assuming this was needed for Internet connectivity
• There was also a VGA splitter that connected the Video output to the second screen

Now, in terms of content and what was displayed on the screen seemed quite disappointing. There was only two ads displayed on the screen. One was the company’s own advertisement and the other was just an image.

My initial thoughts were, “How is the company making money?” and “Are the network owners already struggling to find advertisers?”

I believe this is a common issue for digital signage network startups. Most believe that having a network means that they can easily generate advertising revenue but that’s not always the case. Finding advertisers is the biggest challange easpecially if the network only has a handful of screens. Its a numbers game -most of the advertisers want exposure and they are willing to pay for it if the exposure is high.

So before jumping at the chance of setting up a digital signage network make sure you have advertisers ready to buy your advertising space…. and good luck.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments |
Post tags: Advertisement, advertisers, Advertising Revenue, Challange, digital signage network, digital signage networks, good luck, Handful, Initial Thoughts, Making Money, Modem, Numbers Game, screens, Shopping Centre, Startups, telstra, Vga Splitter, Video Output

With DVRs giving us the ability to skip TV commercials, newspaper readership declining and a feeling of bombardment from online ads, advertisers are getting creative. Communities around the country are finding a fresh, new way to target potential customers through digital signage network advertising. This medium is more targeted, effective and cheaper than many traditional forms of advertisement. It targets consumers when they are out and about and in some cases, at the point of sale.

The digital signage network connects communities with screens in key locations and ads from non-competing businesses. Independent marketing companies choose key community locations where large amounts of people gather to eat, shop or play. Some marketing companies will even offer to set up a screen in a business for free if the business owner will allow other businesses to advertise on their screen.

The perk for the screen-hosting business is that they can advertise their own products and services at the point of sale. While people are waiting to be seated at a restaurant, they see advertisements for new menu items or specials. Stores in the mall can advertise current sales to shoppers who are already in the mall, ready to shop. In addition to the screen-hosting business’ advertisements, other community businesses’ advertisements are also displayed. The great part is that most network hosts will be careful not to allow competitors to advertise.

Joining a community’s digital signage network has boosted many companies’ sales because it targets the right people and is effective and affordable. Advertisers can choose at which locations they want their ads to appear and where their potential customers might be shopping or hanging out. Network host companies make it extremely easy for advertising businesses because they take care of everything for them such as contacting host businesses, designing ads and changing ads so they are up-to-date. These ads can be seen by thousands of community members each week.

As today’s potential customer is less inclined to pick up a paper, turn on the radio or watch television or internet advertisements, digital signage has become a great way to effectively grab their attention. Dynamic graphics capture people’s attention as they are walking through the mall, waiting at a restaurant or relaxing in a coffee shop. Research shows that people are 5 to 10 times more likely to pay attention to dynamic marketing on digital screens than traditional printed signs. If the screens were only used as a marketing tool, consumers would likely tune it out, but because trivia, local news, community event calendars, weather and entertainment messages are interspersed between ads, viewers are entertained while they are marketed to.

Unlike print advertisements, digital signage ads can be easily changed as often as the network host will allow, keeping content up-to-date and relevant. This is a cost-effective alternative for small businesses because newspaper, TV, and radio advertising can be costly, untargeted and can quickly go out of date. Even if businesses choose not to use traditional marketing channels and print their own flyers and posters, it can be expensive and wasteful.

Digital signage networks are invaluable to any size community because they connect advertisers with consumers in a unique and effective way. When visiting high traffic areas, community members receive information on community events and news while advertisers share current deals and promotions.

About the Author: Kelly Johnson is a freelance writer for Allstate Sign and Plaque. Their company has been selling parking, traffic and street signs for more than 50 years. On their site you can order anything from property signs to custom signs.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Bombardment, Business Advertisements, Business Owner, Community Businesses, Creative Communities, Current Sales, digital signage network, digital signage networks, Dvrs, Host Businesses, Host Companies, Independent Marketing, Kelly Johnson, Marketing Companies, Network Advertising, Network Host, Network Hosts, New Menu, Newspaper Readership, Point Of Sale, Tv Commercials

There are some digital signage solutions that are just able to automatically rotate and crop the content so that it fits on the screen no matter if it’s landscape or portrait but in the case where your digital signage system doesn’t have this feature, what do you do? To solve this issue you need to have two sets of designs or templates – one in landscape and then one in portrait.Then, when scheduling the content the administrator needs to work out which screens will use the landscape content and which ones will use the portrait content. If you have more than 20 screens with a mix of landscape and portrait screen this can be a very tedious task. I guess if you have setup your screens to be within a group e.g Landscape screens, Portrait screens then this task may be easier but at the end of the day does your network require both screen orientations? If not, I would say stick with one type of screen orientation to minimise administration and design efforts.

As digital signage solution providers we provide consultancy services and help them understand the benefits and pitfalls of maintaining a digital signage solution.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Colleagues, Confusion, Consultancy Services, Content Creator, Design Efforts, digital signage network, Digital Signage Solutions, Landscape Designs, Layouts, Network Group, Pitfalls, Screen Orientation, Screen Orientations, screens, Signage Solution, Signage System, Solution Providers, System Doesn, Tedious Task, Templates

“The latest updates and new components included with this version support the growing demand in digital signage for faster, better quality content with a focus on touch-screen interactive experiences. The newest multi-touch features, including the ability to slide, swipe and flick at all components on a screen, allow companies to do cooler things with digital signage, and do them more affordably and in significantly less time.”

“The demand for digital signage is growing so exponentially, that companies are struggling to keep up and continually improve on the content itself. Flypaper is working tirelessly to stay ahead of the curve and give digital signage network owners and operators more options for creating killer content,” said Don Pierson, founder and president of Flypaper. “Multi-touch is the latest functionality that everyone is looking to incorporate, and this latest version of Flypaper helps showcase it beautifully.”

Flypaper’s Version 3.3 has several new features and updates aimed at making the customer experience with digital signage more interactive. New components that are especially powerful for kiosk displays include a virtual keyboard, a timer that kicks in during periods of inactivity, and a print button. Gesture support has been added to all components so users can slide, swipe and flick the display, making it a more engaging experience. Developers can also now add in Media RSS feeds and scrollers, run video within text, and input real-time weather data. In total, Flypaper added nearly 40 new features, updates and enhancements to version 3.3.

“Just when we think we’ve reached the limit for a touch screen display, Flypaper brings in new elements that raise the bar even higher,” said Scott Mathews, CEO of MG Digital Media Network.

“They have done a great job of staying one step ahead of what the industry needs.”

Flypaper is revolutionizing the digital signage world by enabling the development of high-quality, affordable Flash content that is very fast to create and easy to edit. The Flypaper Flash Content Creation Platform is a licensed environment where companies can create and share vast amounts of digital signage content and motion graphics. Users benefit from hundreds of already available templates and components, or can create their own quickly and easily, with no prior development experience.

We managed to get a comprehensive list of the new features and enhancements in v3.3 and these are:

New and Enhanced Features
1.    Components
a.    Multi-Touch
i.  The ability to Pan, Zoom and Rotate Components using a multi-touch enabled monitor has been added to all visible Components (requires Flash 10.1).
ii. In addition, the ability to Swipe has been added to the Cube Gallery, Image Scroller and Revolver Components (requires Flash 10.1).
b.    New
i.  Clock: Displays the time in an analog, digital or text format clock. Choose time zone and day light savings time.
ii. Close Presentation Button: Closes the running Flypaper presentation.
iii. MRSS Feed: Provides a list of MRSS messages and images associated with each message. You can choose a predefined MRSS feed, or define a custom one of your own. Messages are displayed in the RSS Viewer Component and images are displayed in the Image Viewer Component.
iv. MRSS Scroller: Displays the contents of an MRSS feed in a scrolling text box, including message and image. You can choose a predefined MRSS feed, or define a custom one of your own. Optionally, the MRSS image can be displayed in the Image Viewer Component.
v.  Print Button: Prints the visible contents of the screen (or just the visible Components you specify) at the time it is pressed.
vi. Video Feed: Streams video feeds from various news sources. In addition, you can specify your own FLV, MOV or MP4 feed.
vii. Video Text Mask: Displays the contents of a video file within the text characters of the Component.
viii. Virtual Keyboard: An on-screen keyboard which can be used to populate the contents of Components which accept key entry. The Virtual Keyboard can be accessed via touch, and can also be hidden when not in use.
c.     Updated
i.  CSV Component:
1. More Components can now display CSV data, including Big Text Mask, Zoom, Pan, and Pan & Zoom Components.
2. The Button Component can now select a specific row in the CSV Component’s data file, displaying the contents in associated Components.
ii. RSS Feed and RSS Scroller Components: New data formats available, including international date options.
iii. Timer Component: New “Kiosk Mode” activates timer after period of mouse inactivity.
iv. Image Viewer, Audio and Flash Components:
1. Ability to define remote resources via a URL.
2. Remote resources can be cached or refreshed on each access.
v. Image Scatter Component: Display speeds increased.
vi. Weather Component:
1. Can now display weather information fed from the CSV Component.
2. Ability to add custom SWF icons.
2.    Editing
a. Page Time and Timeline Duration are now synchronized. In addition, the option to update the page time when adding media files such as videos or audio files.
b. Maximum Project size of 4080×4080 (requires Flash 10).
c. AVI Video output option.
d. International Arial Font option including Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese.

General Improvements

1. Improved playback performance for Single SWF file output
2. File Recovery Improvements
3. Web Video Search enhancements
4. FlyPlayer performance upgrades

We are currently using an older version but we’re keen to test 3.3.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Customer Experience, digital signage network, Digital Signage Software, Don Pierson, Enhancements, Flick, Gesture, Inactivity, Interactive Experiences, Killer Content, Kiosk Displays, Mg Digital, New Features, Print Button, Quality Content, Scott Mathews, Swipe, Time Weather Data, touch screen, Virtual Keyboard

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Clients Requirements, Cost Effective Solution, digital signage network, digital signage player, Good Time, Retail Chain, Retail Digital Signage, Retail Industry, Retail Signage, Retail Store, retail stores, Signage Products, Signage Solution, Signage System, Single Store

We decided to poll the digital signage community and wanted to ask how many of you are displaying world cup results on your digital signage network.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Digital Id, digital signage network, poll, Poll Id, World Cup Fever, World Cup Results

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.

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

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Checkout, digital signage, digital signage network, email, klip, Klips, Miami Florida, Miami Florida Usa, screens, supermarket, Supermarkets, Tv Network, Waiting In Line

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

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.

Let’s look at a few of these areas starting with Network infrastructure. The network infrastructure covers equipment such as Routers, Switchers and Firewalls which allows information to transverse between computers and devices. From my shallow understanding and for simplicity purposes, switches are used to connect Local Area Networks and routers are devices which connect Wide Area Networks together or allow connectivity to the Internet. In most cases, digital signage networks will span across multiple WANs and LANs and is used to monitor, manage and schedule content to disperse sites. Firewalls are used to prevent unauthorized access to the network. These devices have access control lists which define who can connect to the network and what they can connect to.

Here’s a quick example of a typical digital signage network:

One of the most critical factors for having an efficient network is speed and bandwidth between end to end devices. This means that when deploying your digital signage solution you must analyse the requirements and determine what the minimum speed your network must support. If you’re looking at streaming your high resolution content to the digital signage players from your head office, I would suggest that you subscribe to the fastest speed available in your country – obviously all this comes with a price but you can leverage this by using additional services like VoIP, CCTV, wireless hotspots etc. If you’re a techie, you may consider implementing Quality of Service on your network especially if you’re streaming your content. This will allow you to prioritise and reserve enough bandwidth on your network so there are no streaming delays.

Let’s move on and talk about the Software component. No matter which type of solution you’re using, you’re definitely going to use a piece of software that a company has developed. The programming language and technology used to develop this software will vary but what is common between all the digital signage software tools is the ability for someone to manage and schedule content. From experience, there are quite a number of software tools out in the market and when determining which piece of software is best suited to your requirements ask yourself these questions:

1. What operating system will I be using? (Windows XP, Windows Embedded, Linux, Mac OS)
2. What are the minimum hardware requirements? (Memory, CPU, Video Card)
3. What features do I need e.g ability to support RSS feeds, Live TV, streaming video, display websites etc?
4. How much budget do I have?
5. Is there a cost for additional support and maintenance?
6. What is the frequency of software patches?
7. Can I easily obtain support from the company?
8. How intuitive is the system?

When dealing with the software company, make sure that they are able to provide you with the necessary support in the event a bug is found. You don’t want to wait around for a year for the software company to resolve the issue.

Let’s keep moving forward and talk about the digital signage hardware -indeed these can range from computers to laptops or from small embedded devices to high end servers. The current trend that I’ve seen when using digital signage players is that they are becoming smaller and more environmentally friendly. Here’s another set of questions you should ask yourself before making that final purchasing decision:

1. What technical specs do I require in order to run the digital signage software? (Operating System, Hardware requirements)
2. What types of video ports do I need to connect to my screen? (e.g S-Video, VGA, DVI, HDMI, Composite, Component)
3. What screen resolution will I be outputting to the screen?
4. How long is the warranty and what does it cover?
5. Does the hardware need to be mounted behind the screens or are they going into a rack?

So there you have it, that’s a brief summary of the IT industry.

The Audio Visual Industry

This industry has been around longer than the IT industry. Since the early days of the black and white televisions, the industry has grown exponentially. This industry is all about what we see and what we hear – its about tweaking and refining two of our sense (visual and audio). The visual component has now evolved to also provide the viewer with a means to interact with the medium by using technology such as touch screens.

Typically, the audio equipment consists of speakers, audio input devices (CD player, audio from a DVD player, digital signage, mobile phones) and an AMP (to amplify the audio). When installing any audio system you should consider the following:

• What will be the audio input device?
• What are the speaker requirements? 1 or 2 channels?
• How will the speakers be connected to the audio input device?
• Is an amplifier required?
• Is a zone control device required? (this is a device to switch audio to speakers located in different zones/areas).
• What type of wiring will be used? Avoid installing power cabling, audio and network cabling together as this may introduce noise
• Speaker layout – determine the best locations for installing speakers whether on the ceiling or against the wall

It is human nature to be attracted to beautiful and appealing images and the medium which presents these images must be able to leverage this requirement. There are various types of screen technologies in the current market and this includes, LCD, Plasma, LED, DID, projectors, touch screens and even steam. Generally the bigger the screens and the better the quality, the more expensive it gets. The only limitation we’ve come across is that the screen is only capable of display the resolution the player or connected device is outputting. This was talked about in a previous post called Screen Dilemma. When thinking about installing the screen, location is very important. We talked about this in previous post called Digital Signage: Location, Location, Location. Basically, the screen is more profitable when there are more people looking at the screen.

Before purchasing a display screen, you should consider the following:

• What types of video connectors does the digital signage support and does the screen support this? (e.g S-Video, VGA, DVI, HDMI, Composite, Component)
• What screen orientation do I need? (landscape or portrait)
• What screen resolution will I be outputting from the player and will the screen support this? NOTE: We have noticed that some residential screens do not support some of the screen resolutions we needed.
• What is the warranty period?
• Do I require speakers? (Some commercial screens do not come with speakers)
• Do I require the user to interact with the screen? (Touchscreen, sensors)
• Do I require power management features?
• Will the screen be installed in outdoor or indoor purposes?
• Will I need enclosures to protect the screen?

Avoid using residential screens and purchase commercial grade screens as these are designed for retail and commercial environments.

There are probably more points to consider and I look forward to hearing from all the visual and audio experts out there.

Digital Content

The majority of content that is produced will be created and edited by a computer. Also the application used to create or edit the content must have been developed by a computer to digitise the little bits (1’s and 0’s). In this day and age, everything is heading toward the digital world. Images, audio and video are now all in a digital format and this makes it easy for the content to be used for any digital signage installation. Having grown and seen these technological changes has been amazing. I still recall the days when scanners were first introduced in the market, and converting an image or document to a digital format was like pulling a rabbit out a hat – it was magic. And now, digital signage is riding this wave. The benefits of using digital signage are obvious and when the content can be easily supplied, created and moved across to different mediums.

There are several common tools used in the industry to create the digital content and these are:

• ASV4You – very affordable and easy to use tools for video, audio and image editing and for converting to different formats. We’ve actually used this software for most of our video and image editing.
  “Register once and work with AVS4YOU Package which includes 28 audio& video software. AVS4YOU Software are designed to meet your most various tasks: Convert between all key audio and video formats; Rip DVDs and videos; Edit home video and audio quickly; Apply effects, text and transitions to video and audio; Create video-DVDs with menus; Burn DVD/CD/Blu Ray; Copy videos to portables like iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zen, PS3, Xbox, Archos, phones, DVD/MPEG-4 players and portable media playes. All key video and audio formats are supported: HD Video (inc. AVCHD, MPEG-2 HD and WMV-HD), TOD, MOD, M2TS, AVI (DivX, XviD, etc.), MP4 (inc. Sony PSP and Apple iPod), WMV, 3GP, QuickTime (MOV, QT), SWF, DVD, VOB, VRO, MPEG 1, 2, 4, H.263, H.264, Real Video, DVR-MS, MKV, FLV; MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, AAC, Vorbis, MP2, VOX, AAC, M4A, AMR and others. Subscribe to AVS4YOU Package for $59/lifetime and get All-In-One Software Bundle.”
  It’s actually very affordable and they currently having a special on the Unlimited Subscription which you’ll be entitled to install all of their software package. Awesome bargain- order the Unlimited Subscription here: AVS4You Software

• Adobe Flash – create fancy animations
• Adobe Photoshop – create professional images
• 3D Max – create 3D animations
• Adobe Premier – used for video editing and productions

There’s quite a number of image and video editing application on the market and there are also some which may be open source as well – so before spending your hard earn dollars, I would recommend you test the open source applications first.

Project management

Both of these industries require the professional to be skilled in project management. To ensure the successful completion of either an IT or Audio Visual project, there are several tasks that is required from the professional. One of them is to have strong communication and writing skills but most importantly is being able to plan and assign tasks to your relevant resources. If the install is not planned correctly, it could potentially lead to scope creep.

Digital Signage

So after all that, which category should or does Digital Signage fall under… actually the way I see it, it covers both the IT and AV Industry. I don’t believe there is clear answer to this question but I’m more than happy to listen to your comments and maybe there is an answer out there.

The digital signage industry is a cut throat industry and people getting into the industry needs to be aware of all the areas that were covered above. Because of the scope and complexity of the digital signage industry, it is often best to partner with reliable and professional businesses – this is crucial if you want your business to survive and succeed. Good luck to those who are just starting out in this industry.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments |
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

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.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 5 comments |
Post 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

All we need now is a digital signage Iphone application… and my guess is that someone is already developing one.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments |
Post tags: apple, Audience, Caption, Digital Id, digital signage network, digital signage player, Guess, Integrated Digital, iphone, Mobile Digital, Poll Id, Sheer Number, touch screen, Video Clips, Watch Movies

Has anyone else thought about this approach or wanting to establish a digital signage network with other operators? If so, feel free to participate in the discussion forum.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2008. | Permalink | 11 comments |
Post tags: digital signage network, digital signage portal, world wide network