There are two basic  free tools that we use to remotely manage our digital signage solution – (this is when we use the Microsoft Windows Operating System), Remote Desktop and VNC:

Microsoft Remote Desktop

The first tool is the built in Microsoft Remote Desktop. This needs to be enabled in your Operating System by going to Control Panel – System – Remote Tab and click “Allow Connections from Computers running any version of Remote Desktop” for less secure connections or “Allow Connections only from computer running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication” for more secure connections.

We generally use this tool on the server. The advantages of using this is that it’s slightly faster than the second tool. There is also an option to connect your local drives to your remote pc which is great for transferring files.

VNC

There are several flavours of VNC (http://www.realvnc.com/) This software tool provides remote control of your digital signage player and basically allows you to see and interact with your digital signage software across any network. The one we use is called tightvnc (http://www.tightvnc.com/) and it is free for personal and commercial use. For managing the players, we recommend using this tool rather than remote desktop since it does not lock the remote PC.

For both tools, you’ll need to make sure you have the relevant ports enabled on your firewall.

With VNC there seems to be a limit to 8 characters for the password but either way both tools are highly recommended.

Category: Digital Signage Techie

We recently helped one of our clients with implementing digital signage at their exhibition booth. As part of our digital signage exhibition package we included the following:

• Hardware rental of the LCD Screen, Stand and Digital Signage player
• Transportation of the goods to and from the exhibition hall
• Installation of the system and removal at the end of the event
• Template Design
• Management and Monitoring of the digital signage solution – we were able to monitor the system remotely and make the relevant changes if required

During this exhibition, we introduced an innovative way for the exhibitor to manually switch content with a push of a button. The idea was that on quiet periods, the exhibitor will push a button and the screen will display specials to draw more attention to their booth.

In addition, we also integrated Social Media (Facebook) with digital signage. The company’s Facebook page with the number of Fans was displayed.

We know how stressful attending and participating in exhibitions are, so let us take care of your digital signage needs whilst you take care of more the important taks.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Case Study

Does your digital signage player allow you to automatically power on when it’s connected to power?
Have you been in this situation: Your digital signage players are powered on and are happily running the content on the screens. Then your building has a power outage and all of digital signage players lose power and end up being switched off.When the power comes back on and all the digital signage players are still switched off. You then have to walk around to all the players and switch them back on.What a waste of time right?

Now if you had the Wake On LAN feature enabled on your players you may be able to switch them back on using this feature but what happens if your using wireless? Wireless doesn’t have this feature. One alternative is to use the PowerOn Function Feature “Restore on AC Power Loss” in the BIOS. This feature basically turns on the player when it detects there is power.

Obviously your digital signage player needs to support this feature in the BIOS. If it does, follow these instructions to turn the feature on:

1. Turn on the player and press the DELETE button (or the relevant button to get into the BIOS) and go to the Advanced Tab.

2. Select Power Management Configuration

3. Enable the PowerOn Function

4. Select Retore on AC Power Loss

5. Make sure the Restore on AC Power Loss is selected to Power On

Category: Digital Signage Techie

Have you been in this situation:

1. You’ve installed a digital signage player and want to remotely manage the unit

2. You don’t want to install a telephone or ADSL line because the costs are too high

3. You only need the Internet connection for a short perid of time i.e. 1-2 months

4. You don’t care about the speeds and bandwidth

5. You need the player to connect to the Internet

After months of researching I have found the solution in Australia….. (drum roll) Virgin 3G prepaid modem  – YES can you believe it Virgin!!! is the only provider that allows Internet inbound connections. Most other providers only allow you to do this if you’re on a contract (post pay). There are several items or checklists to consider before purchasing any 3G modem and these are:

1. Is your digital signage hardware compatible and be able to support the 3G modem?

2. Is there coverage in the location where you intend to use the 3G modem?

3. Does your player have the ability to automatically connect to the Internet in the event of coverage dropouts? If not, we would recommend you use a 3G Modem router that has the ability to automatically connect to the Internet.

The APN information that you will need to use is Virgin.Internet

Good luck and let us know if you find any other prepaid providers that uses a Public IP Address and allows inbound connections from the Internet.

Category: Digital Signage Techie

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to update the firmware on your Cayin digital signage player. It is web based so it’s pretty easy and straight forward.

In this particular example, we’re upgrading the Cayin player model WEB4 from version 1.0 to 1.5 (U11436). This new firmware version introduces several new features such as the ability to disable the annoying scroll bars for html templates, abitility to add HTML/flash regions in the skin editor templates, upgrades some of the built in software packages and also the support of 3G and GPS.

However, with any major upgrade sometimes it does introduce new problems and we’ve already experienced this. This patch has an issue with image transitions and some of the backend logic which causes the background to appear during the transitions (1-2 seconds). Cayin are currently working on a fix. But in any case this tutorial was created before we discovered the issue and it’s just meant to demonstrate how to upgrade the player and here’s the link:

http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/cayin web4 firmware update.htm

We’ll provide an update when we hear from the manufacturer.

Category: Digital Signage Tutorials

Just for laughs, here is a picture of what you can do to cool down a FANLESS digital signage embedded player – you add an external FAN:

On a serious note, we did notice that temperature had an impact on CPU performance on a FANLESS embedded player so although there are some advantages of using a fanless system you may want to check whether CPU performance is more important for your requirements.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products

This week we were up to no good and opened up two digital signage players to have a look to see what is inside the unit. Here’s some pictures of what we discovered:

Digital Signage player 1	Digital Signage Player 2

As you can see from the picture, these players have the same components as a computer – basically it is a computer. It has a CPU, Motherboard, PSU (Power Supply Unit), Graphics chip, HHD, Memory, Storage Drive and heat sinks/FANs.

Most of the digital signage players that we have seen have an Intel Central Processor Unit chip. The CPU requirements will depend on type of content and software you intent to use the player for. For example, if you just intent to display images and text an Intel ATOM CPU will suffice but if you need to display High Definition videos with flash and images, then a Dual Core CPU will be required.

Digital Signage Player Intel CPU

In addition, the Graphics chip is also a crucial component when determining what digital signage player is required. In particular, there are different types of Graphics chips and cards that has many useful features e.g multiple video outputs (HDMI, VGA, DVI), extended or clone video (the ability to duplicate or extend the content to multiple screens)

If you intent to display lots of Videos as content, then the bigger the HHD the better. SATA is generally faster than IDE. These days, HD Videos can take up as much as Gigabytes of storage, and given that storage is quite affordable then why not have the large storage space.

Digital Signage Player HHD

RAM (Random Access Memory) is temporary storage that loads much faster than a HHD. Memory is also cheap, so the bigger the memory the better. Obviously, costs is always a deciding factor when purchasing any type of product but before you do decide to make that final purchasing decision, make sure you thoroughly review and test the unit.

Digital Signage Player Memory

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Reviews

Does anyone know or have seen a small digital signage player that is able to support HD (dual core) videos and can fit between the screen and the wall?

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products

Last year we noticed a number of companies launching their audience measurements tools as part of their digital signage solution. The solution normally consists of a digital screen, server, digital signage player and a webcam. By using the webcam, the software tool detects and counts the number of people who are looking at the screen. For some solutions, it can even go beyond just tracking this number and determine what gender and age the person that looked at the screen was.
You may be asking yourself, “Do I really need this solution?”. If you’re a marketing or advertising company then yes, this information is critical. Using raw data and number to present to your advertisers will make a compelling reason why they should advertise on your screens.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Digital menu boards are becoming the greatest marketing tool for Restaurants and food outlets. Why? Because food can be more engaging and enticing if there’s motion and if information can be updated based on time schedules.

One of the main advantages of using digital signage is the fact that if you own multiple stores at different locations, you can centrally manage all of these from the head office.

Traditionally, one of the most time consuming component of a menu board is changing the prices and images of the food items. With a digital menu board this task has become so much easier. For some digital signage solutions, all you need to do is update the prices in an image editing tool or edit a text file.

For those of you who are interested in a digital menu board visit advertise me – they are offering a packaged digital menu board solution which includes the following (click here to view their offerings and pricing):

• 40″ Commercial Grade LCD FHD display screen
• (Other screen sizes also available)
• Built-in Digital Signage player
• Creation and design of your menu board (preview some of our designs)
• 1 Year Commercial Warranty
• Operations/Training Manual
• Installation Guide
• Delivery

So take the step now and GO DIGITAL and contact Advertise Me to discuss your digital menu board solution.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

This month, we successfully completed a digital signage project for Sherwood Public High School. Firstly, here’s a little history of the school:

Sherwood Ridge Public School opened its doors to students for the first time on 28 January 2004. At this time the school had 8 mainstream classes between Kindergarten and Year 6 and 2 support classes.

The founding Principal of Sherwood Ridge is Mrs Jan Marshall.

In the weeks following the school’s inception, students, parents and teachers came together to give birth to: four sporting houses – Air, Fire, Earth and Water; three core values – community, respect and learning; and the school motto “From Each Their Best”.

Requirements

The requirements for this project was quite straight forward and these were:

• Installation of 50” commercial grade screen in the Administration foyer
• A digital signage player to display a range of content types including images, videos and text
• The installation and configuration of  the screen, bracket, cabling and digital signage player
• Audio Speakers in the Administration foyer
• Initial template creation
• Onsite Training
• Technical Support

The Solution

The solution we provided the school consisted of the following:

• Dell PC with dual VGA output
• PADS Digital Signage Software
• Panasonic 50″ Plasma screen
• Venturi wall bracket
• 2-Port USB KVM to control two PC’s by using the same keyboard, mouse  and monitor
• Logitec Speakers
• VGA extension cable

We provided the school with a standalone solution that enabled them to use the same PC to control, schedule and display the content and at the same time share the keyboard,mouse and monitor. Since the PC had two VGA outputs, one was connected to the local screen (used for managing and scheduling content) and the extended second output to the Panasonic screen (display the content). This setup is quite complex because the video configuration of the second output was setup as an  extended screen. This meant that the PADS Viewer (a component of the PADS software) which displays content had to automatically launch on this extended screen. How did we do this? It was simple, the PADS application allows you to enter the X and Y co-ordinates of where the viewer will be launched. Here’s an example, the horizontal position of the viewer screen is 1440 (since the horizontal size of the primary screen is 1440) :

As a result, the digital signage solution was used as a tool to communicate messages with kids, teachers and parents through images and information. Below is a few pictures of the install:

[Show as slideshow]

Digital Signage in the Education sector in Australia is now becoming more popular and more affordable so why not talk to us so we can show you how you can achieve your digital signage goals.

Category: Digital Signage Case Study

I stumbled across this job advertisement on elance.com and it appears a company is planning to development their own digital signage player/system. Based on the description below it looks ordinary – ie. there’s already quite a number of players that does exactly what they want so why spend more time developing your own?

I guess the main reason why anyone would develop their own system would be for flexability and satisfaction. By developing your own custom application you can design and build it the way you want it and eventually customise parts that need improvements. There’s also the satisfaction factor, knowing people are using your application gives you joy and satisfaction. Below is the job that was advertised on the elance website:

Network Distributed Media Player

The SIGNWAVE DIGITAL MEDIA PLAYER will be able to playback full screen 1920 x 1080 compressed video in the .MOV/M4V format. The user-friendly playlists can be managed by any web browser on the network. The playlist duration will be 24 hours. Scheduled spots will have the ability to playback at pre-defined times within the 24 hour schedule. All playlists are based on a 1 hour schedule. For instance if a specific spot needs to play back at 9:50am the base schedule can be interrupted to play the unique scheduled spot. Once the spot has played the original playlist will resume normal playback. Playlists can be auto-populated by selecting how many times per hour a spot will play. When a schedule is getting close to 1 hour the remaining time can be filled with content from a fill directory that contains appropriate fill content until the next hour starts. A system may consist of many playback devices (Mac Mini). The management software will have the…

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Undoubtedly the smallest digital signage player we’ve seen on the market – the size is 105(W) x 26(H) x 83(D) mm
. The Spinetix [pronounced as "spenetix" or something like that] player is one great little unit and we’re currently testing and reviewing the product so watch this space. Apparently the unit has lifetime warranty!!!

Here’s some pictures of the unit.

Digital signage player spinetix front

Digital signage player spinetix back

Here’s the specs of the unit:

Digital Display Compatibility
Aspect ratio 16:9, 16:10, 4:3 (horizontal & vertical)
Video output 50/60 Hz: 720p (1280×720), XGA (1024×768), WSVGA
(1024×640), WVGA (768×480), 576p (720×576), 480p
(720×480), SVGA (800×600), VGA (640×480), EDID
24/25 Hz: 1080p (1920×1080; only for semistatic content)
Video connectors HDMI (incl. digital audio), DVI via adapter. VGA (DB15 HD
connector). Simultaneous use of HDMI and VGA possible
Media Format
Description language SVG Tiny 1.2+ (Scalable Vector Graphics)
Media synchronization SMIL 2.1 (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language)
Still image formats JPEG, PNG, GIF, SVG
Supported video codecs Up to SD resolution: MPEG-4 ASP, MPEG-2, MPEG-1,
H.264, MJPEG, Microsoft VC-1 (Windows Media Video 9)
Supported audio codecs MPEG audio layer 1/2/3 (MP3), ITU G.711, G.722,
G.729,PCM, Microsoft WMA, Real Audio
Media container formats AVI, WMV/WMA, VOB, AIFF, OGG, WAV, MOV (Quicktime)
Streaming media protocol MMS, RTSP, RTP, SDP, HTTP; Uni- & multicast
Import filters provided for Flash 9, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, BMP, TIFF,
XPM, WBMP, PNM bitmaps
Scripting language PHP5, JavaScript, ECMAScript
Content scheduling iCalendar (RFC2445)
Graphic Effects Engine
Graphic effects language SVG Tiny 1.2+
Vector graphics primitives Rectangles, polygons, paths with lines, elliptical arcs and
Bezier curves, text areas, linear and radial gradients
International text support Unicode standard compliant with bidirectional text support
Font file formats TrueType and OpenType
Animation capabilities Color, gradients, transparency level, audio volume, motion
along a path, translation, scaling, rotation, clipping
Animation modes Discrete, linear, paced and spline interpolation
Specialized Applications
Kiosk applications Touch screen, keyboard/joysticks/gamepads/mouse, HID
I/O devices via USB 2.0 or user defined serial port, with
touch screen calibration
Event management Real-time event communication for triggering content
changes on-demand
Time synchronized Millisecond accuracy, for unconstrained
video wall configurations
Streaming Video and audio streaming compatibility, including
live TV streamers
Network
Connectivity Ethernet 10/100 Mbit/s (RJ-45), IEEE 802.3u, 802.3x
3G connectivity through USB modem stick;
Protocols DHCP or fixed address; IPv4; IPv6;
Remote configuration HTTP(S) configuration server, password protected
Content administration WebDAV server, password protected
Other protocols SNMPv1/v2c, NTP, Zeroconf
Content updates Pull mode, push mode, server based

Storage
Internal storage 2GB solid state
External storage Flash drives and hard disks via USB 2.0 port

Physical Specification
Size 105(W) x 26(H) x 83(D) mm
4.13’(W) x 1.02’(H) x 3.27’(D)
Weight 190g / 6.7 oz
Power supply 5V DC, typ. 0.4A (2W)
Power supply input 100-240V 50-60 Hz, max input current 0.6A
Operating temperature 0-40ºC / 32-104ºF; 10-90% RH
Storage temperature -25ºC to 45ºC / -13ºF to 113ºF; 10% to 90% RH
Real time clock Min. accuracy 1 minute/month free running, battery
backed
Serial RS232, up to 115200 bauds, mini-jack 3.5mm
Analog audio output Line level, stereo, mini-jack 3.5mm

Category: Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Reviews

There are a number of ways to connect your digital signage player to the Internet and to your local network. The most basic method of connecting your digital signage player to the network is via a Network Interface Card on the player.  But what happens when you don’t have a local network setup or when there is no CAT5/6 cabling in place for your digital signage player?

If you’re in this situation then most likely you’ll either use a wireless network card or a 3G modem. In this post I want to focus on providing basic steps in setting up your digital signage player with a 3G modem. I will be assuming that your player does not have a SIM slot and does not support 3G modems so your only option would be to use a 3G modem router. You will need the following items:

• digital signage player
• USB 3G Modem – we used a pre-paid Vodafone modem
• 3G modem router – there are many brands and manufacturers but the one we used was a TP-LINK 3G/3.75G Wireless N router (Model TL-MR3420)

The first thing to do is setup the network settings on your digital signage player to use DHCP. This means that when it is connected to the network it will obtain a Dynamic IP address. If it’s a new digital signage player, it will most likely already be configured for DHCP but if not then simply change it’s network settings. Once you physically connect the digital signage player to the router via a standard network cable, it will automatically assign an IP address.

Now, before buying a 3G modem router you need to make sure it supports the actual 3G modem you’re planning to use. If it does, then once it’s plugged in the router, it will automatically use the correct modem drivers. If not either change the router or constantly check the manufacturer website to see whether the drivers has been released.

On the 3G modem router, you will need to setup the APN and Dial Number. An example is below:

Generally, the 3G Modem router will have preselected ISP settings but for us we spent a few hours trying to figure out why our Vodafone USB 3G modem would not connect to the Internet. After  researching and troubleshooting for almost 1 hour, we found the cause of the problem.  The 3G Modem router has predefined Mobile ISP settings e.g Vodafone (Australia) configured, but what we discovered was that since we were using a Vodafone Prepaid modem we actually needed to use vfprepaymbb as the APN value rather than using the standard value of vfinternet. After changing that value the router immediately connected to the Internet. That’s a gotcha!! So be careful with this. Once connected you should see something like this:

The best way to test to see if your digital signage player is connected to the network is to simply add a URL to your playlist item and display a website. That’s it, your digital signage player is now connected to the Internet  via 3G. One issue that I found is the inability to connect to the digital signage player from the Internet. I was not able to do so because either the ISP has a firewall and is blocking inbound connections or the ISP is using a proxy server for browsing. If someone has figured out a way to overcome this please let us know.

Category: Digital Signage Techie

One of the challenges with splitting your VGA signal is the ability to maintain the video quality and aspect ratio of the original video source. There are a number of ways to split your VGA signal and the main purpose of doing so it to display the same video content across to multiple screens. This basically means a cost savings as you will only need to purchase 1 PC/digital signage player rather than having multiple players for each screen. The only limitation is distance, the VGA video quality degrades for longer distances.

Here, we will look at 3 ways of splitting up the VGA signal (assuming you just want to split 1 video signal to 2 screens):

For implementations of more than 2 screens then you will need to get a splitter that caters for more video output ports, there are many brands and model in the market but just make sure you test it before installing it at your clients sites.

Are there any other methods people have used to split the VGA signal?

Category: Digital Signage Techie

I think it’s time for an upgrade if you’re still using a LCD screen with a DVD player. I noticed this whilst waiting at a queue at a bank. I couldn’t help myself and just take a quick snapshot of this implementation. Althought most of these have been replaced with a larger screen and a digital signage player, I found it quite effective having audio playing in the background. It actually caught my attention!!

digital signage with audio

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Being authorised resellers of the Cayin product, we want to take this opportunity to review their latest product – the SMP-WEB4.

The SMP-WEB4 was only recently launched in Australia and we were fortunate enough to get our hands on this unit.

continue reading »

Category: Digital Signage Reviews, Featured Post

digital signage is one of the most cost effective ways to market your restaurant or store. We were recently engaged to provide and install a cost effective solution for Thai Riffic (obviously a Thai restaurant) based in Randwick Australia.

Although the requirements were very simple (to display images with transition effects) we delivered a solution that was simple and easy to use but most importantly one that had value added benefits.

Uploading content to the player is easy. The store owner needs to open up a locked compartment on the side of the screen and plugs a USB dongle into the port. The player automatically synchronises the content from the USB port to a CF card. Once the synchronisation completes, the store owner just removes the USB dongle and closes the compartment. Yes it’s that easy!!!

continue reading »

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

digital signage is now becoming more popular in retail stores and now it’s a good time to install one in yours. Whether you’re a small retail store or a large retail chain, we’ve done it all. We’ve helped and provided our customers with simple and standalone digital signage solution for a single store to building a digital signage network for a large corporate retail chain.
There are many, many digital signage products in the market and what we do different is to provide our clients with a cost effective solution that meets their needs. We have tested many solutions and we basically recommend the most effective solution that meets our clients requirements. Whether its a digital signage player, an all in one digital signage system, a display screen or content, we can help businesses in the retail industry.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

This weekend I decided to play around with the google search features and stumbled across the “Wonder Wheel”. So what I did was I typed the search term “digital signage” in the google search bar. Google displayed the most relevant websites related to this search term, in Australia our advertise me and Digital Signage portal are on the 1st page and we’re pretty happy about this result.

continue reading »

Category: Digital Signage Weekend Fun

For those techies out there or for someone who has already tried this, does a DVI to VGA converter work with a VGA extender.

So as an example, we have a digital signage player or PC that has a DVI port ONLY. We plug a DVI to VGA extender, so the output is VGA. We then use a pair of VGA to CAT5E or CAT6 extenders and connect the other end to the monitor that is VGA. Does this work?

We would like to hear other techies out there what the result would be or whether this is technically possible.

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Category: Digital Signage Techie

You may be quite disappointed when you read this but I’m quite sad to say that since the start of my professional career in the digital signage industry I do not believe there is a “perfect” digital signage player in the market. Like everything else in this world nothing is perfect and depending on our perception of what perfect is, we may not be able to find one.

continue reading »

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

First of all, Happy New Year to all our readers – we hope you had a relaxing break and are energised for another year of digital signage. To kick off the year, we decided to engage our techie community and discuss about the importance of NTP.

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.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Christmas is fast approaching and we decided to review a product before the end of this year. It has taken us a while to complete this review as it involved using a video camera and editing the video but from this experience we can hopefully improve our processes and review more products next year.

AS7 Audio Tripper

Reviewed By: Advertise Me

continue reading »

Category: Digital Signage Reviews

This is a questions for all those techies out there: How does the operating temperature effect the digital signage player and what is the recommended operating temperature?

Digital Signage Rack Fans

Category: Digital Signage Techie

This seems to be a common dilemma amongst a number of LCD/Plasma decisions in a lot of tender projects and client requirements. Do clients really know what they are asking for, and how important is screen resolution for digital signage rollouts?

Let’s clear a few things up first.

Native resolution is the fixed number of pixels on the screen. For example, if your screen has a native resolution of 1280×720 pixels, this means your screen is physically made up of 1280 pixels wide and 720 pixels high.

Maximum resolution is the highest resolution that the screen is capbable to display.

When an incoming signal to the screen does not match the native resolution, that signal must be converted (or scaled) to be displayed correctly on the screen. So lets use the same screen above, it has a native resolution of 1280×720. If an incoming signal is 1920×1080, the screen will scale this resolution down so that it can fit on the physical dimensions of 1280×720. Likewise if an incoming signal is 1024×768, then the screen will up-scale this resolution to fit 1280×720.

This process is possible because the screen has been programmed to recognise different input signals and to convert them as such. More often than not you will have a list of all the supported input signal resolution sizes, and the highest supported resolution is your Maximum resolution.

Now that we have that out of the way, lets talk about how important is screen resolution in digital signage?

In all my digital signage years until now, I have not had to focus on optimising the quality of the display in regards to picture sharpness and contrast ratio. The general technology of the Plasma/LCD screen makes up for this. What comes out of the digital signage player is just right for the display quality. The general conversation would be on how to most effectively capture consumers attention with the type of content and how it is designed.

However recently in Australia, digital broadcasting of TV networks have become more prominent and consumers are now well aware of terms like HDTV. This presence of high definition television has entered many homes and now the retail store fronts want to show this off also. Because consumers are already aware of such technology, there is an expectation on store owners to provide this service to them.

The question comes back to client requirements. Do most clients have the proper knowledge to determine what screens they want based on what they know or what they have been told? Is it important to match the right resolution of what is coming from the digital receiver into the digital signage player, and out to the screen?

We’d like to hear your point of view on this topic. There is no right or wrong answer, as each requirements are different, but we would like to hear your thoughts.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Techie, Featured Post

It’s the weekend and thought I’d share an exciting and fun video clip – you’ll be also surprised as well.

We previously talked about how the iPhone can be used as a digital signage player (there’s already a few companies out there who have created an application on the iPhone) but now how would you like to be served by a humanoid robot with an iPhone attached to it’s head? Watch the funky video and we’ll discuss later:

In the examples in the video, the humanoid robot with the iPhone attached as it’s head, can be used to:

• wake you up – morning!!! maybe even give you a hug or a slap
• entertain – it’s a dance machine…shake it’s robo booty
• teach it new tricks and moves – next thing you know it will start imitating your moves
• and if you’re nice to it… it might even make you a coffee (just kidding – ummmm may be it is possible)

BUT more importantly it can interact with YOU – think about it from a sales and marketing perspective and you’ll start realising that this robot can be used to attract more customers into your store and even possibly serve it’s customers (stick your own photo image as it’s head ). The screen itself can be used even to promote sales, products and specials whilst it’s dancing around entertaining it’s customers (yes it’s  digital signage after all). And yes…. I’ve said it before… the possibilities seem to be endless with the future of mobile phones as digital signage players.

So that’s our weekend fun for this week and we all hope you’re having a great weekend.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Blog Video, Digital Signage Ideas, Digital Signage Weekend Fun

Today’s great news is that Google is planning to release it’s own OS called Google

Image source: www.google.com

Chrome OS and will compete against the almighty Microsoft Enterprise. We believe this is great news for the digital signage community because of the following reasons:

1. It’s Open Source and will be free. Moving towards an open source OS, will provide a significant savings to you and your clients.

2. According to Google, the Chrome O.S is fast and efficient. This is perfect for digital signage.

3. It’s lightweight – you will be able to install this on a netbook and run your digital signage application.

4. Its secure – like the Google Chrome browser, Google has designed the security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. This means spending less time patching!!!

5. Designed for the web – since most companies are now moving towards SaaS then this is a perfect match.

We look forward to testing various digital signage software on the Google Chrome and we can’t wait to get our hands dirty.

And a final note: Thanks google for making our life easier and cheaper for everyone!

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News, Featured Post

Image Source: www.apple.com

This may sound a bit ridiculous but has anyone thought about using your Iphone as a mobile digital signage player? I mean lets think about this, if people can use the Iphone to watch movies and video clips why can’t it be used as an integrated digital signage player. The unit can be easily connected to the Internet and it also has a touch screen so really its perfect for interacting with your intended audience. With the sheer number of Iphone users out there, setting a digital signage network can be easily established.

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

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products

Just recently I read an article about the upcoming Microsoft Xbox Motion Sensor that allows the users to control games with our bodies. Unlike the Wii, this means that you do not have to hold anything to interact with the console and game.

This new product is being called “Project Natal” and is basically a sensor for the Xbox 360 which tracks movement, listens and executes commands from the console… don’t know what I’m refeering to? then watch this trailer from Youtube:

If you’re from the digital signage industry you’re thinking to yourself “The future of Digital Signage interaction?”. If you’re like me, when something catches your attention you start brainstorming on how this can be applied to the digital signage industry.  If I was working for Microsoft I would recommend and provide directions to the management team to push this product out to businesses to use as a digital signage console…. and not just a gaming console. Let’s think about this, most digital signage players out there in the market are using desktop PC’s, embedded PCs or some form of a PC – fundamentally that’s what the Xbox 360 is – and soon it will have a sensor. In my eyes,  I can potentially see this used as a digital signage player and not just a gaming console.

In the past, many top digital signage gurus predicted that the next “big thing” in digital signage was going to be interaction and guess what…. they were right.

Lets imagine this scenario:

• You walk into a clothing store and you’re having trouble picking a dress for the night out with the girls.
• Now like in the example in the trailer, you walk up to the dsx (digital signage xbox) and you contact your best friend to get advice on which dress you should wear.
• In the application, you have the virtual product catalog of all the dresses available in the store.
• The application takes a picture of you (measuring your body size, height etc) and you start trying out the different dresses (virtually).
• Along the way you and your friend discuss whether the dress is suitable or not.
• When you found some of the dresses both of you like  you add it to you’re favourite list.
• You then press the “TRY” button or say “Let me try these” and the shop assistant brings in the dresses for you to try.
• All the transactions and  information end up being recorded online so that the next time you visit a store that has the dsx you can retrieve this previous information.

This is one of the many applications I can see working for the digital signage industry and I can’t wait till we trial one of these units.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Blog Video