I’ve been stumbling across a couple of articles relating to SLIM digital signage players and to be honest I didn’t have a clue what SLIM was so I decided to dwelve a little further into this topic.

According to a-smil.org they describe SMIL as:

SMIL (pronounced “smile”) stands for “Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language” and defines scheduling (“Synchronized”), video, audio, images, text (“Multimedia”), multi-zone screen layout (“Integration”) in an XML-based text file format (“Language”). It is an open specification (royalty-free to use) created by the World-Wide Web Consortium, the same organization responsible for defining the HTML language, an open standard for the Internet. Products that utilize SMIL are available from leading companies such as Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, and Real Networks.

Digital signage deals with scheduling multimedia files for playback on digital displays connected on an IP network. The industry has roots tracing back for a few decades, but has recently expanded rapidly due to the proliferation of low-cost flat panel displays that are easy to install and maintain in public space. As the market expands out of the “emerging” status, mainstream customers demand compatibility and interoperability among products from different vendors. SMIL appears to be an ideal technology to answer the needs of the industry.

So basically, SLIM digital signage players are small form factor PCs that use this open standard. The purpose of using SLIM is compatability and the ability to reuse playlists and information across digital signage networks with different brands/model.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Last week I was at my local shopping centre and noticed that they installed digital signage. The setup was as follows:

• 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.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Written by Guest Blogger: Kelly Johnson

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.

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Category: Digital Signage Guest Posts

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.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Featured Post

If you haven’t heard, in Australia the Federal Government is planning to spend 43 billion dollars to upgrade the Australian network infrastructure. What’s been interesting is the fact that the government did not award this project to any of the major Telcos – it will all be in house. Well this may potentially mean the infrastructure will not be monopolised by any of the Telcos. This is definitely a good thing for consumers.
Now if you’re a digital signage company you may be wondering how this may impact you. The first thing that popped into my mind was “more bandwidth…. means more bandwidth intensive applications can be used on the digital signage system”.

Here’s a list of things that popped into my mind when this was announced:

• stream or cache high definition videos to the screens – this includes live TV,  Foxtel, and even live events (Youtube has already introduced the Live Events program)
• develop real time applications on the digital signage systems
• shorter waiting times for content synchronisations
• integrate the digital signage system with wireless hotspots
• integrate with the upcoming digital radio services
• develop interactive applications that require low latency and high bandwidth
• real time monitoring of digital signage networks and quicker troubleshooting/response times

Seeing several opportunities, advertise me will hopefully launch several innovative solutions in the next couple of years so watch this space.

What innovative digital signage applications do you see taking advantage of high speed networks?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News

Have you registered for the upcoming Content Best Practices for Digital Signage Networks Webinar? We have included this event on our digital signage portal events. If you have any upcoming events (exhibitions, seminar, webinars, etc) feel free to add them to the events (note registration is required).

Here’s the Meeting Description and details that was sent to us. We will try our best to join this webinar but because of the time difference, it will be 4AM in Australia and I’m normally in bed. Hopefully the hosts will be able to record this webinar and share it with the rest of the digital signage community:

Date:  Thu, Jan 29, 2009
Time:  12:00 PM EST
Duration:  1 hour
Host:  Digital Signage Association

Join us for a very special webinar where members of the Digital Signage Association Content Best Practices Committee will present a methodology that delivers the highest possible viewer impact, influence and response for digital signage networks. The presenters will discuss the critical DO’s and DON’Ts for creating content and programming schedules.

1. How to create powerful content that drives results
2. How to structure playlists to achieve maximum effect; loop times, day parts and update frequency
3. Adding elements that create additional viewer interest such as weather, news and subscription services
4. Understanding environmental issues such as display placement, location, and traffic

Do you have an upcoming digital signage event? Let us know or add it to the digital signage portal events calendar.

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Events, Digital Signage Blog News