In recent years, large-scale digital signs have become one of most popular forms of advertising and communication. This is largely due to the fact that these signs seem to be an incredibly effective way of reaching consumers. By using large electronic screens, advertisers and businesses are able to quickly and efficiently send messages to passersby walking on the street or driving in the cars. Not only that, but these signs also allow businesses to send targeted messages to consumers at specific locations and times. Clearly, the benefits of large-scale digital signs are endless. Yet, their seemingly complicated nature may cause you to be hesitant about constructing one of your own. However, the truth is creating such a sign is far less complicated than you might think. In fact, you don’t even need construction management experience to get a sign up and running and start attracting more customers to your store.

What is large-scale digital signage?

Large-scale digital signage is a form of large electronic display (usually a LCD, LED or plasma screen) that shows information and other messages to those in the general vicinity. The signs can be used in various environments, from retail stores to corporate offices, and are used to send messages to certain audiences at specific times.

According to Sensagent, what makes digital signs better than static signs is that “the content can be exchanged more easily, animations can be shown and the signs can adapt to the context and audience, even interactively.” As a result, those whose digital signs are often able to effectively reach their target audience as well as many others, allowing them to often wind with a considerable return on their investment.

The history of large-scale digital signage

Large-scale digital signage was created first by a company called Scala back in 1987. The software used to create these signs was originally developed for cable TV, and was called Commodore Amigas. By 1997 Scala multimedia had gained quite a bit of notoriety, and won the “ Gold Award” for their cutting-edge technology. Over the next few years, an increasing number of businesses and advertisers began demanding digital signs.

As a result, the company began to look to the future, by creating a platform that could process high definition quality graphics and videos and focusing their attention on the global market place. The success experienced by Scala lead them to celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2007. Ironically, at this time much of the industry was just beginning to adopt the technology to Scala had been using to create large-scale digital signage for years.

Today large-scale digital signage is part of modern society. It is how the media, public works and many other businesses involved in communications get the attention of the public. In fact, major companies such as McDonald’s, T-Mobile, Virgin Mega Store, Burger King, Shell and Warner Bros all utilize large-scale digital signage to reach out to their customers.

Construction of large-scale digital signage

Creating large-scale digital signage having an LED display (or some other type of large screen), a media player and a server that sends out the communication and Internet access. The most important part of constructing a large-scale digital sign is making sure that the media player you are using and the content you wish to display are connected or are all part of one device.

If these three things are located separately, then it is likely that you will have to run A/V wiring between the display, media player and the server. You will also need DVI, HDMI or VGA component cords to make this connection. However, if you already have these supplies, then you can begin construction on your large-scale digital signage. Ideally, you should consult with a professional when setting your sign up, but it is not essential. If you think you are capable of setting up your sign on your own, you certainly will be able to save yourself a lot of money.

Clearly, large-scale digital signage will continue to be a large part of the future of consumer communication. Not only do these signs reach a variety of audiences with ease, but they also have the capability of sending targeted messages to consumers, which is an important marketing strategy for any business.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: advertisers, Audiences, Cars, Construction Management Experience, Consumers, Dictionary, digital signage, Digital Signs, Drake, Electronic Display, Electronic Screens, Environments, Large Scale, Lt, Macdonald, Nbsp, plasma screen, retail stores, Scala, Target Audience, Truth, Vicinity

So today, I decided to investigate what do some of these labels mean; some are self explanatory and you don’t need to be a genius to figure out what they mean but then there are some that seem unusual.

Let’s have a look at the images (note:I have provided my interpretation of what they mean – if it’s incorrect then let me know):

	The first image means to always have two people to lift the box since its approximately 40kg – this is normally a OHS requirement so whatever you do and now matter how strong you are don’t lift the screens by yourself. The middle image shows you to remove the plastic clips at the bottom of the box which is used to hold the top and bottom sections of the box. The last image, gives you a breakdown of all the components you need to remove in order to get to the screen.
	The top left corner image means not to stack anything on top of the box. The top right hand corner image means to keep the box upright i.e this way up. The bottom left image is a picture of a glass which obviously means that the item inside is fragile and there’s glass inside the box so take care when transporting the box. There’s also an additional message on the side of the box stating “As a glass product, treat it with extreme care.”. The bottom right image gives you an indication that the weight of the box is 40kg and it’s heavy.
	The first image means not to transport the box  laying flat and to make sure it’s in the upright position (middle image). Also make sure you don’t drop the box because there’s glass in there. Once again, there’s the message “As a glass product, treat it with extreme care.” and the Caution message: “Transport only in upright position”.
	The first two images are the same as above. The last two images indicate how to best clamp the box.

I wonder how many courier or freight companies transporting these goods actually understand these label mean and adhere to the instructions. I have seen some couriers take down the screens and had them in a vertical position… ouch. Fortunately the screen still worked but it’s best to follow the guidelines provided on the boxes.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Bottom Sections, Boxes, Caution, Corner Image, Desk, Extreme Care, First Image, Freight Companies, Genius, Glass Product, Images, lcd screen, Left Image, Message Transport, Middle Image, Packaging Labels, Plasma Lcd, plasma screen, plasma screens

Lesson learnt, use a bracket and a professional to mount a LCD or Plasma screen. Once the screen is dropped…. it will never be the same.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: Fun, Funny Video, lcd screen, Plasma Lcd, plasma screen, Video Lesson, Video Title, video wall, Youtube Video

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:

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.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: 28 January, Air Fire, Audio Speakers, Community Respect, Content Types, Core Values, Dell Pc, digital signage, digital signage player, Digital Signage Software, Digital Speakers, Doors, High Schools, Inception, Initial Template, Jan Marshall, Keyboard Mouse, Kindergarten, Logitec Speakers, Mainstream Classes, Pads Software, Panasonic 50 Plasma, Parents And Teachers, plasma screen, School Motto, Sherwood, Sherwood Ridge, Signage Project, Signage Solution, Software Panasonic, Sporting Houses, Standalone Solution, Technical Support, Template Creation, Video Configuration, Year 6

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: 3d Display, Guess, Hd, Implementations, panasonic, Panasonic Australia, Plasma Display, plasma screen, screens

So in this situation, should the store owner have paid the extra money and went with sunlight readable screens? Did the installer mention this to the store manager? Was there a site survey conducted and did someone analyse the environmental constraints?

I guess these are some of the questions you need to ask yourself or the installer before proceeding with purchasing a screen.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Constraints, Extra Money, Glare, Light Screens, plasma screen, plasma screens, Proceeding, screens, Site Survey, Store Owner, Sun Light, Sun Screens, Sunlight, Sunny Day

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.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Consumers, Contrast Ratio, Conversion, Decisions, Designers, digital signage, digital signage player, Dilemma, Fit, General Technology, Incoming Signal, Input Signal, Input Signals, Large Scale, lcd screen, marketing, Match, Maximum Resolution, Native Resolution, Physical Dimensions, pixels, plasma, Plasma Lcd, plasma screen, Screen Resolution, screens, Sharpness, Signal Resolution

Whilst walking around the Sydney Opera house, I was stopped by one of my relatives and he said “What is that?”. I turned around and I saw a large portrait plasma screen showing “What’s on” information and local advertisements. Here’s a couple of pictures of what we were looking at (click on the images to make them bigger):

“Ah!” I thought to myself, this is a great opportunity to talk about my business “Advertise Me“, so I started talking about digital signage (actually it was more like giving him a sales pitch). But before I could finish, he stopped me and he said, “No, that’s not what I meant. What’s that annoying text doing in the background”.

At that stage I didn’t really know what he was talking about, so I carefully looked at the screen again and I couldn’t believe that I didn’t notice it the first time. *Have a look at the images again and see if you can spot it* If you haven’t figured it out yet, click on these two images below:

He was basically referring to the burns on the plasma screen. Now, because I’ve seen this before on other plasma screens I started telling him how it could have potentially got there – the WHITE text was too bright and the text being displayed on the same area was too frequent.

This screen definitely needs to be “burnt” and replaced – no one likes looking at a screen with noticeable burns as it can distract the viewers from looking at the messages the business is trying to convey.

With the cost of LCD screens coming down, plasma screens are becoming obsolete, but if you’re still using plasma screens  you may want to our forum post called “Guidelines to prevent plasma burns” on the digital signage portal.

Our question:
Has your plasma screens ever experienced the burn in effect or have you ever seen any screens with noticable burns?

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2008. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: advertise me, mobile phones, opera house, optus, plasma screen, screen burns, telstra