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

advertise me is your one stop shop for all your digital signage needs and solutions. Whether you need a digital menu board or an enterprise digital signage system, Advertise Me will be able to deliver a solution that will meets your budget and needs.
Advertise Me is a leading digital signage solutions provider and are able to supply digital signage displays from leading manufacturers, lcd/plasma/led screens, video walls, touch screens, digital signage players, digital signage software, digital signage servers, digital signage interactivity, digital signage hardware and accessories such as video extenders.
Advertise Me has completed digital signage installations at the major capital cities (Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne) and can pretty much cover all the states in Australia.
So for your next digital signage solution, contact Advertise Me on 1300 880 005 or contact info@advertiseme.com.au or click here to request a quote.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Written by Guest Blogger: Bryan Cochand

Communication is crucial to any type of business, but choosing the right way to communicate can be challenging. digital signage — a term for publicly displaying important information and announcements on a large plasma, LED, or LCD screen — is a cutting-edge method for businesses or organizations to get their message out to their consumers in an economical and flexible way. Catching up to all the advantages of this method can be an easy and very lucrative improvement. So if you are looking for new methods to increase the exposure of your company or organization, it may be worthwhile to check out the benefits of using digital signage.

continue reading »

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Guest Posts

The title of this post may lead you to believe that I’ll be writing about a movie but I decided to share with our readers my thoughts on the digital signage screens/hardware in the current market. This is divided between the Beauty and the Beast.

Let me explain. The Beauty are those devices that look very expensive and pleasing to the eye but functionally, the system behind it is useless. It may catch your attention at first but then when you get to know the ins and outs of the device, you’ll just put it to the side and wished you never purchased it. Then you have the Beast, which I classify as devices that look weird, ugly and cheap but is sturdy and the overall system is exactly what you want. So which one are you currently using at the moment?

In the years that I’ve been in the digital signage industry, I’ve seen so many Beauties and Beasts. We constantly receive emails from overseas businesses showcasing their products and to be honest there’s never been one that just stood out. Maybe it could be time for us to start developing our own system.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Wirespring is currently running an interesting survey called: How much should digital signage cost and I’ve just completed it. The survey basically looks at how much different digital signage hardware and services cost – now I assumed that the survey was in US$ and not local AU$.

Bill Gerba explains in his post that participating in this survey is worthwhile because:

1.  demand-driven pricing estimate is a great way to check the accuracy of all of the supply-driven pricing estimates out there.

2. it’s easier than voting with your wallet: by choosing the fair-value price for each item, you get to (anonymously) tell everybody who receives the survey data what’s on your mind.

So let’s get to it, complete the survey here. I’m very interested to see what the results are but we’ll have to wait until the end of August when the survey ends.

How much should digital signage cost?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News

This week we were lucky enough to speak with Steve from Symon and here’ s the interview:

Symon Iphone

advertise me:	Hi Steve, thanks for joining us for this interview – I know you’re a hard man to catch with your busy schedule.
Steve:	I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you.
Advertise Me:	Firstly, how did you hear about our digitalsignageblog.com?
Steve:	We monitor a wide range of resources and thought leaders in the industry and Digitalsignageblog is one of those that we monitor.
Advertise Me:	Now, please tell us a little bit about how Symon started with digital signage, and what was the inspiration behind the business?
Steve:	Symon is visual communications solutions company. We have been creating systems for managing the delivery of digital content to electronic displays for almost 30 years. We started by providing real-time system statistics to LED boards in data centers, then evolved into providing real-time agent activity statistics to displays in contact centers, then evolved to providing employee information to displays in corporations (e.g. conference rooms, cafeterias), then expanded into hospitality, health care, education, etc. The inspiration behind the company was to build the systems that would deliver information to people in a way that is easy to understand and then intuitive to act upon.
Advertise Me:	What kind of solutions does your company provide?
Steve:	We provide the hardware, software, services and content for supporting an end-to-end visual communications deployment. We like to say that we power the visual communications eco-system, which we classify as many solution-types (e.g. digital signage, kiosks, wayfinders, video walls, etc) combined to work in harmony for the purpose of creating a clear and measurable value proposition for our clients.
Advertise Me:	What makes Symon‘s products and solutions so different from other companies?
Steve:	The thing that makes us different is that we design, develop and produce all components of a solution. All of the content management/delivery hardware and software are of Symon‘s creation and we take accountability for the customer’s entire ownership experience. This means our customers have one company to hold responsible for all products and services within a deployment. We design it, produce it, sell it, install it and support it. If anything breaks or doesn’t work, our customers have “one neck to chock.”
Advertise Me:	In one of our recent digitalsignageblog.com post, we talked about “Using your Iphone as a mobile digital signage player?”. We understand that Symon has recently released such a product. Tell us a bit about this product and why your company decided to release such a product.
Steve:	Our product is InView Mobile. InView Mobile is a media play application for smartphones that retrieves and plays interactive, multi-media content that is based upon the location of the user. The purpose of InView Mobile is to provide digital signage viewers with additional information in a fashion that cannot be obtained through a traditional digital signage viewing experience. In the InView Mobile-enhanced experience, Viewers are encouraged to download and launch the InView Mobile application. Once launched, InView Mobile queries a Symon-hosted content management system to acquire and deliver a mobile version of the show currently playing on the screen. InView Mobile goes one step further in that it presents an interactive, touchscreen version of the big screen’s non-interactive show. All of this is managed through one content management system. We chose to create this product because digital signage has one big problem: It can’t quantify what people do once they’ve looked at a screen. InView Mobile gives us a platform to begin addressing this. Symon InView
Advertise Me:	There are quite a number of people who believe that the Iphone should not be used a digital signage player, what do think about this? Are people not realising the true benefit of mobile marketing and mobile interactivity?
Steve:	Our customers sure think it’s a good idea and that’s all that matters to me.
Advertise Me:	Can you please share with us one of Symon‘s latest digital signage deployments/projects?
Steve:	Each month, Symon signs many new accounts. These new accounts represent marquee brands in corporate, hospitality, education, gaming, health care, etc. We have almost 8,000 customers representing 80% of the Fortune 100 and almost 70% of the Fortune 500. Look at almost any large company and there is a good chance that they will have a Symon system somewhere.
Advertise Me:	Do you have any advice for people who are planning to start a business in the digital signage industry?
Steve:	Don’t, unless they have a compelling angle that someone hasn’t thought of already (and please don’t let it be some new idea for an ad model). The competition is too great. The start ups can’t compete on the big deals and its tough to make a living off of a lot of little deals. In the five years I’ve been associated with this business, I’ve seen too many companies fail and there aren’t a whole lot of the survivors that are making money. The big guys will thrive, the little guys will have a tough go of it. I could write a book on this subject, but suffice it to say, you’ve got to have scale to win and a startup does not typically have enough resources to get scale.
Advertise Me:	This is our final question. What do you see as the next “BIG THING” in digital signage?
Steve:	Mobility. Interactivity.
Advertise Me:	Steve, thanks for taking part in this interview and we hope to speak to you again in the near future.

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

About Symon

Symon Communications is a 29 year provider of in-venue visual communications solutions to over 7,500 customers globally, including 80% of the Fortune 100.

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.

Category: Digital Signage Interview, Featured Post