Routine maintenance is a critical task for all digital signage operators but how often should you do this and what type of maintenance tasks would you perform?

Some of the maintenance tasks that I could think of are:

Digital Signage Players

• Rebooting the digital signage players so that memory and running system files are flushed – this should be performed at least once a day to ensure smooth operation of the players. Some players can be scheduled to perform this task automatically at a predefined schedule. However, make sure you at least monitor the players to ensure they are still operating after a reboot
• Depending on the location of the digital signage players you should also physically wipe down any dust or clean the fans once a year. If it’s located in a rack with adequate ventilation then you won’t probably need to do this that often but it would be good to check.
• Sometimes we forget to delete old content that we store on these players, so depending on the size of your storage space then you should at least once a week just go through and delete any old content that you may no longer use. The only thing you should be careful with is not to delete any content that may be used reused in the future. There are several tools that can be used to manage the content better by setting expiration periods.

Display Screens

• The instruction manuals that are packaged with these screens have quite detailed information about how to maintain the screens. Sometimes we forget to realise  how important it is to ensure screens are operating and maintained for full optimum usage especially if your viewers are looking at these.
• Some of the tasks would be to physically clean the screens, who likes to look at a dirty screen and this may potentially will reflect back on your company.
• To remove or reduce screen burns try to avoid using bright colours and run some of the functions built in to the screen.

Can you think of any other tasks?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

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Category: Digital Signage Techie

Today I had a breakthrough with trying to get my blackberry to connect to any computer and use it as a storage device. My dilemma was that I could not connect my blackberry to any PC for transferring files to/from unless I installed the Blackberry Software + the Media Manager.

See where I’m coming from… wouldn’t it be just great to connect the Blackberry to any PC using the USB cable and just transfer the files? We’ll after a bit of researching I found out the solution. It seems like many of the Blackberry users had this problem.

Here’s the step by step instructions on how to get this working:

On the Blackberry

1. Go to Option
2. Go to Memory
3. Make sure you have the following (this is what I have set up on mine):

Media Card Support: On
Encryption: None
Media Transfer Protocol: On
Mass Storage Mode Support: On
Auto Enable Mass Storage Mode when connected: Prompt

Save these setting.

Now you will need to download some software which I found from pinstack.com (registration is required)

1. Open the file using winrar

2. Extract the files to your computer

3. Execute the file called BB storage Activation new.bat

4. A DOS window will come up and it will start Connecting to the Blackberry to upload an image to the rom. Let this run until you see the pause prompt and it will ask you to press any key. Close this window by pressing the x on the top right hand corner. Pressing any butting will cause the application to upload the image again.

Make sure you wait for the blackberry to completely boot.

Once its done connect the blackberry to the computer and you it will start installing drivers and if you open up windows explorer you will see a drive for the blackberry.

Done. Wish I knew about this earlier… it’s been almost a year since I had the unit!!!!

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News

It’s been a while since we last distributed our digital signage newsletter but our excuse is… we’ve been busy. I know it’s a lame excuse but we’ve been seriously inundated with businesses contacting us for quotes, responding to emails and we’ve also been involved in digital signage installations.

We recently posted in our forum what people wanted to see in our newsletter and one of our digital signage portal members suggested we should discuss about issues installers face during digital signage rollouts. So thanks to Jon for your feedback, we always value everyones feedback but more importantly we take action!

Lets quickly summarise some of these issues and recommendations:

Physical Security – we have talked about this in the past in one of our blog entries titled Does your digital signage solution pass our security checklist? point number 7 – If you can’t recall what was discussed you can read the article and refresh your memory. Just make sure you physically lock your monitors to prevent thieves from stealing the units.

Use smaller pipes/brackets for monitors -Jon advises the following: “when hanging monitors from ceiling joints, that some companies are using very heavy pipes to hold the monitors. The monitors are getting lighter and lighter and a pipe that is heavier than the monitor is not necessary. Cutting back the size/weight of the pipes can still hold the monitors, reduce costs for shipping and cutting them to length is much easier as well”.

Use pre made Cat5E cables – it makes it easier for installers. “That way you can just connect to the box in the ceiling and to the back of the monitor instead of having one long cable that runs from the PC or rack straight to the monitor. This also helps with replacement of cables, so you don’t have to run an entirely new cable, just replace the bad one and drop it thru the pipe.”

Be green – try to help the environment and try to use equipment that does not need power. For example, there are several Video extenders in the market that do not require power. Some are hard to find but let us know if you run into trouble.

Backup plans – always have a backup plan and NEVER rely on just 1 single supplier. Make sure you have a backup plan for everything, otherwise if you hit a wall during your installation you will still be able to get the job done.

Costings – From jon’s professional experience: “One of the cost saving measures I use for my clients is flat rate billing. It includes travel, time on the job and materials used. There is a little more cost if there is a concrete ceiling as opposed to a tiled or drop ceiling. This way everyone involved knows the costs up front and there are no suprises on the back end for the client” Once again Jon, thanks for your tips. We have created a forum thread on the digital signage portal forum, so that you can all discuss this further. Click here to continue the discussion.

To read past newsletters click here.

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Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

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