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

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

I just stumbled across an image of a bike with digital screens. Is this real or is it fake?

Here’s the picture:

If it is real, here’s a list of my concerns:

• theft – now it gives thieves more of a reason to steal your bike… they now will get a free screen
• what happens if it rain? is it a waterproof screen?
• what happens if there’s a strong wind? will the bike fall?
• will pedalling generate more electricity for the battery to run the screens?
• safety – if the screens draw too much attention to drivers will it cause accidents?

I must give it to the company or engineers that came up with this idea… but to be honest this digital signage implementation is not my cup of tea.

Category: Digital Signage Weekend Fun

Dell in North America is looking to fill an Inside Sales Account Management position at their North America. The Scope of the position is as follows: Individual contributors responsible for selling Dell’s printer, projector and digital signage solutions, to new and existing customers in Federal. I didn’t realise that Dell had their own digital signag solution but I’m guessing they must be refeering to their display screens or all in one PCs.

Based on the qualifications required, the position doesn’t look like it’s that difficult to get if you have the right skills:

• Minimum 2 years relationship sales and Federal experience

• ISR-AE class completion or field experience equivalent

• Strong organizational/time management skills

• Highly energetic

• Support of your manager and RSM

If you’re looking at applying for this job here’s the link: https://dell.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?job=11000UD9&src=JB-10007

Good luck to those that are applying.

Category: Digital Signage Jobs

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

I’m not sure whether most of you have seen this tender before but I thought I’d better share it with you all. It appears a Utility company (Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited) is looking for a company to supply a digital signage system for several of their power stations. The date of the submission will be open on the 21st April 2011.

There’s not much detail about the number of screens or what they are looking for and good luck to those that are applying for the tender. Here’s the link to the tender information. http://www.hellotrade.com/tenders/details/328898614/

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

Take away stores are fast adopting the use of digital menu boards rather than static poster or light boxes. The advantages of moving to digital is quite obvious but let me summarise them again:

• You can quickly and easily update prices on a digital board rather than spending more money to print the posters
• Use animation to grab attention. A video clip of the food is more enticing than a static image.
• Schedule the food menu based on the time of the day. E.g. Breakfast for the morning, lunchtime for the afternoon and dinner for the evening.
• Easily manage and update the content yourself rather than relying on a designer. Once you have the template designed, all you need to do is just update the content. The process of changing the content has now become so much easier.
• It’s now more affordable!!!!

Now this week, we assisted a Pizza Take away store with the implementation of a digital signage solution.3 screens were installed behind the front counter and 1 near the front. The front screen is used for specials whereas the 3 behind the counter is used to display the menu. The solution is simple but most importantly affordable – this was the main criteria for the business owner.

Below are a few pictures of the implementation:

Digital menu boards can be implemented with the most simplest solution e.g. using a Screen with a built in player or for a large retail chain it can be a network of digital signage players with Content Management Servers.

It’s only a matter of time before we will see all menu boards going digital. So if you’re interested in a digital menu board have a look at this special package.

Category: Digital Signage Case Study, Featured Post

Our showroom screens

Last week I had a brief discussion with one of my colleagues about the confusion between Landscape vs Portrait content and the extra effort required to maintain content on these two types of layouts. In a digital signage network with screens in both landscape and portrait orientations, it can be quite confusing for the content creator who maintains a large network of screens. On a landscape screen you create landscape designs and for portrait screens you create portrait designs. Well, I mentioned to him that most administrators of the digital signage network may not be able to easily distinguish the difference especially if the network group of a digital signage screens are a mix and do the clients really understand the extra effort (may even cost) required.

There are some digital signage solutions that are just able to automatically rotate and crop the content so that it fits on the screen no matter if it’s landscape or portrait but in the case where your digital signage system doesn’t have this feature, what do you do? To solve this issue you need to have two sets of designs or templates – one in landscape and then one in portrait.Then, when scheduling the content the administrator needs to work out which screens will use the landscape content and which ones will use the portrait content. If you have more than 20 screens with a mix of landscape and portrait screen this can be a very tedious task. I guess if you have setup your screens to be within a group e.g Landscape screens, Portrait screens then this task may be easier but at the end of the day does your network require both screen orientations? If not, I would say stick with one type of screen orientation to minimise administration and design efforts.

As digital signage solution providers we provide consultancy services and help them understand the benefits and pitfalls of maintaining a digital signage solution.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Products

Here’s an example of why it is important to invest in a good screen and I’ll give two examples I saw at Darling Harbour in Sydney Australia. The first example is an LCD screen in Sydney Wildlife World that was relocated from the inside of the reception area to the front. I think the company realised that the location of the screen is important and that visitors walking past did not notice the screens when it was located at the back of the reception area. It is now located at the front closer to were most of the traffic is. Besides one set of the screens being too low (I think this is an OH&S issue – I could almost touch the bottom of the screen with my head) the quality of the screen was pretty bad – have a look at the below picture. I could hardly see the content on the screen even when standing right in front of the screen. I think it’s time for a replacement – please call us if you’re reading this and want it replaced.

The second example is from Sydney Aquarium, which is just around the corner from the Sydney Wildlife. They recently installed multiple digital signage screens at the front of their reception area. From far away, you can clearly see the content of the screen. The colours on the screen is bright compared to the previous example. It’s eye catching and that’s what most digital signage installers need to think about i.e how can I make my screens get noticed. In total they had 5 screens, 4 in landscape and 1 in portrait. My suggestion would be to use a digital menu board at their food counter.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Klips

Have you ever tried to install a screen at a specific location and had to go through the hassle of installing a power point and video cables? Apparently you will no longer run into this issue in the next few years as manufacturers will be releasing wireless monitors that charges the power and also transmit video using wireless technology.

There are many benefits in using this technology and some of these are:

• Reduce installation costs for both power and video cabling – no more cables dangling from the screen
• Ability to install screen in any given location and have the freedom to change the location

I dont know how the quality of  the video is going to be like since there are a number of factors that affect the quality such as interference and distance. But from the video it appears that you need a wireless USB dongle to be attached to the laptop.

Have a look at the Fujitsu screen which was showcased during the CeBIT 2011 and it might available in 5 to 10 years (you may need the infrastructure to run the wireless power):

Category: Digital Signage Blog Products

This week we received klips of a digital signage implementation at the University of Technology in Sydney Australia. The setup included several video walls in the main building of the university. This is one of the main high traffic areas so it does make sense to install digital signage there. The most interesting and unique factor of this implementation (besides using 6 screens for the wall) is the way the screen were installed on the pillars. There is an additional partition that seems to be angled rather than just flush mounted against the wall. Why? My guess is to increase the viewing angle for the students walking past and also to hide the equipment at the back of the screens.
This university has adopted digital signage quite well and also incorporated the use of projectors near the front of the entrance. Well done!

[Show as slideshow]

Category: Digital Signage Klips

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

At a recent digital signage implementation at Liverpool Hospital, we installed a digital screen at two areas of the hospital, one was at the student lobby and the other was at the training area theater. The digital signage system is used as a communication tool for staff and students.

One of the screens was installed in front of the training area theater that has a high traffic area. When we finished installing the screen, one of the training sessions also ended and within just a few minutes some of the visitors walked up to the screen and made some interesting comments. Most of asked us if they can take the screen home and how much it would cost. We responded that the screen was commercial and it wasn’t something they would want for their home.

The other interesting comment was can they watch TV. Being a commercial grade screen it didn’t come with a TV Tuner, so simply the answer was NO… and once again it’s a commercial grade screen. I guess from this, we realised how most people are not educated about the difference between residential and commercial grade screen. But what was more interesting is the fact that quite a number of people noticed the screen… it actually grabbed the visitors attention.

Now this was the same case when we installed the second screen at the student lobby area. Most of them were students and they too asked whether they can watch TV on this screen, unfortunately NO. What we did notice is that after 30 minutes of installing the screens students gathered around the digital signage screen and talked about some of the images that were displaying… that’s the power of digital signage and how it can be used to grab peoples attention and it really works.

digital signage student area

student area watching after 30 minutes of the install

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Today I stumbled across a video from CyberTouchAV at the digital signage Expo 2011. This video showcased the Mitsubishi touchscreen panels – we’re actually resellers of the Mitsubishi screens so we’re more than happy to showcase this video. Single and multi-touch panels are now becoming more affordable and easier to implement. Here’s the video:

If there’s any other videos from the Digital Signage Expo let us know and we’re more than happy to share this with our readers.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Video

We were proud and honoured to have been involved with the implementation of a digital signage solution for Bach Real Estate.

About Bach Real Estate

Bach Real Estate was established by Le and Nina Bach in a quest to provide a personalised and genuine level of service to vendors, buyers, landlords and tenants alike in the residential property industry.

After years of running their own successful businesses, it has always been Le and Nina’s intention to get into the property industry. Through their own experiences in dealing with various real estate agents in buying and selling properties, they saw that there was great room for improvement in the standard of delivering property services.

After a few light discussions on the ordinary services provided by real estate agents, serious research was conducted to establish if there was such a gap in the industry. This was the driving force that led the establishment of Bach Real Estate – to fill the gap in the quality of services that exist.

Bach Real Estate’s mission is to provide integrity in their services – that is being Committed in doing what they say. In working with their clients, they are Determined to understand the needs and achieving the Results that the clients want.

The requirements

Being a young and innovative business, Bach Real Estate wanted to stand out from their competitors and use the latest digital technology to their advantage whilst being very conscious on the environment. Instead of using the traditional static paper based property listings at the front of their office, Bach Real Estate engaged advertise me to install a digital signage solution that would engage and attract attention from people walking past. The solution needed to display property listings, advertisements and marketing materials.

The solution

The solution we provided is simple, affordable and scalable. Two 46″ LED screens with a built in ad player was installed at the front of their office and this solution allows the business to eventually expand to an enterprise network down the track.

The ad player allows the business to play videos, text and images in zones or as a full screen. What makes this solution different is the ability to have PIP (Picture in Picture) as one of the zones and also gives the ability for an external video source (using HDMI, VGA, Svideo) to be connected to the screen.

In addition, the ceiling poles were customised to suit the location of the screens.

We wish Bach Real Estate all the best with their business and their future ventures.

Here’s some fun and interesting images of the opening day:

Category: Digital Signage Case Study

What a great start to 2011. This month we will be working with clients in different industries; one is a large government agency with a roll out of 17 screens and players. Another one is in the real estate industry and the last one is a University. We will blog more about each project in the next couple of weeks.
digital signage is constantly growing and becoming more popular in Australia. Let advertise me help your business realise the benefits of digital signage and digital technology.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

In Australia, we love our Bunnings and we noticed how they are using small digital signage screens in their warehouse. I guess the idea is to show product video and information to people interested in the product.

Category: Digital Signage Klips

Christmas is just around the corner and retail stores should take the opportunity to install a digital signage signage for their business during this festive season. The benefits are simple:

1. draw more customers into your stores with a christmas theme on the screens

2. showcase special christmas products on the screens

3. announcements and greeting your customers e.g “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”

4. make more money… don’t worry about the ROI you’ll certainly make you’re money back within the first 2 years.

5. stand out from your competitors

If your store needs to stand out then digital signage is the most cost effective solution.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

I always get disappointed and frustrated when I see a residential screen installed in a retail store or restaurant. But more importantly I always wonder whether the store owner had any idea of what they were getting themselves into when they decided to purchase a residential screen (yes… it’s obviously cheaper!!!) but can you really use it in a commercial environment?

What most people don’t know is that if a residential screen is installed in a commercial environment the warranty may become void. So check the warranty before installing residential screens. Another big difference between Commercial and Residential Screens is that most commercial grade screens do not have internal TV tuner cards – you’ll generally need to purchase this as an additional module or item. What I find most interesting is that most restaurants with screens just display live TV rather than promote their products or menu items. This could be a reason why these types of businesses would want to use retail screens or maybe they don’t realise what they can use this real estate for.

As I mentioned before retail screens are cheaper. Most businesses use price to make their final purchasing decision so when submitting your next proposal keep in mind that your competitor’s prices could be cheaper than yours. Commercial screens are designed to be left on for long periods of time and will last longer.

I also believe there is a myth that using retails screens means you can install the screen yourself and that for commercial screens you need a skilled and professional installer. Both are equally the same and if can install a retail screen then you will most likely be able to install a commercial screen but we highly recommend you have a skilled professional install the screens.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

DNLA Certified logo - www.dnla.org

I was doing some research about the upcoming release of the HTC Desire HD – what an impressive little mobile phone!!!… anyways I was reading the technical specifications of the unit and came across the terminology DLNA i.e “Share videos, photos, or music from your phone to your TV via DLNA®” and I asked myself what the heck is DNLA? After a bit of research I found out that DNLA stands for Digital Living Network Alliance and it’s a non profit organisation with 245 member companies. All the major screen manufacturers are members of the DNLA and the goal of the organisation is to use a specific standard based technology to make it easier for consumers to use, share digital photos, music and videos. That’s when it hit me and I started thinking on how digital signage systems could easily fall into this category. Does anyone know of any Digital Signage system manufacturer that is DNLA certified? At advertise me, we are not a digital signage manufacturer but if we were, we would spend the time and money to become DLNA certified so that our digital signage system can be easily integrated with other DLNA certified devices  like Panasonic screen or even other Digital Signage players.

If your interested in learning more on how to become DNLA certified or know more about DNLA then visit http://www.dlna.org

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

For those of you who have watched the facebook movie, “The Social Network” did you notice the video wall at the scene when facebook reached past the 1 millionth member? Although the video wall was just displaying the countdown, it did show us how screens can be used in corporate environments to show information to the wider audience. So, I was wondering whether any company or business has integrated facebook to their digital signage system?

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

I came across a video on youtube called “??? digital signage Sinagawa Station Tokyo” – I don’t know what the first 3 Japanese Characters are but I think they spelt the name of the station incorrectly…

Anyways, the first 1 1/2 minute of the video is quite boring so if you are going to watch the video make sure you start from 1:30. From there it get’s interesting and I was amazed to see the number of screen located in the tunnel. I did a quick count and if my maths is correct there was 44 screens just in the tunnel – geezzz that’s a lot of screens in the space of a few meters. Keep in mind that this must be a high traffic area so there’s $$$$$ revenue for advertising. Great work for whoever came up with this implementation.

Oh and he’s the video if you want to watch it… the end is quite boring as well.

Category: Digital Signage Weekend Fun

I was walking past one of the most popular locations in Sydney Australia and noticed the first digital menu board for EasyWay.  There were three large screens on the back wall and each had a different menu listing or image displayed. Digital Menu boards are now becoming more popular for take away stores and outlets.

Category: Digital Signage Klips

digital signage is becoming quite popular for the real estate industry. I’ve seen quite a number of digital signage implementations from various companies and they all to appear quite effective. Some also includes touchscreens but what I found quite amusing was that people still don’t really know how to use these. I saw a lady last week trying to interact with the screen and she couldn’t browse through the properties … if only I had a video camera. I could tell she was quite frustrated with it and just walked away after a few minutes.

Lesson learnt #1: If you are deciding to use a touch screen, make sure you target users that don’t know how to use computers and technology.

Lesson learnt #2: Maybe schedule the screen to be turned off if the office is not open. I don’t see the point in having the screens turned on if the potential buyer can’t talk to someone about it.

digital signage real estate

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

We noticed a problem on a particular screen and took a quick snapshot of it- hence the bad quality. But if you look closely you’ll notice the error. Can you see it?

If you look closely you’ll notice scroll bars on the screen located on the left hand side. The content that was being played was a video and the player that was actually used was realplayer.

Here’s a picture of where the scroll bars was located:

digital signage error revealed

So really, my guess is that the device connected to these screens was a PC with generic and standard software installed. For some retail stores, this setup is pretty common as it all comes down to budget and costings.

Category: Digital Signage Klips

Multitouch whiteboards are now becoming quite popular in schools and meeting rooms. In particular, having the ability to share content, collaborate information with others at the same time is something of the past. Being authorised resellers of Panasonic we want to introduce our readers the latest multitouch whiteboard UB-T880 (77″) from panasonic. This unit was launched in Australia last month and they have been available in the US and other parts of the country for a while. The cost for one of this unit is RRP $2,869 but we’ll be able to hopefully reduce this price. For those that want bigger screens you can get the UB-T781W – obviously for a higher cost.

Multitouch Whiteboard Panaboard UB-T880

Below is a video demonstration from Panasonic. As you can clearly see from the video there are many uses and industries this whiteboard can be used in. If you think about it, this can also be used for digital signage implementations…

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Reviews

This month, Panasonic Australia announced the largest full HD 3D plasma display screen (103-inch commercial grade screen) that will be launched in 2011 along with the 85-inch 3D display. For some of the features read this post. My guess is that 3D will be quite popular in 2011 which means the traditional Plasma or LCD 2D screens will become more affordable – this equates to more digital signage implementations for everyone.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

This weekend every australia citizen had to vote for a new government. When I attended my local voting centre I noticed how digital signage was not there. There was a lot of the traditional papers being distributed as well as posters but there was no signs of screens or audio systems. I was disappointed when I saw this and want the politicians to know how digital signage can be utilised at election events. Here are my thoughts:

1. Communicate and engage the public – many of us don’t know who we are voting for and why we should vote for someone or for their party. I honestly didn’t have a clue who was an the ballot. I did see the ads on TV from both parties but I’m pretty sure most of us don’t have time to watch the ads so we wouldn’t have most likely have seen the ads. Engaging the public at an election event is very critical and obviously both parties want any vote that they can get. So what better way to engage the people through a digital signage system. The set up would be very simple or complex. The same marketing concept ‘making a purchasing decision at the counter’ will still apply here. If the politicians engaged the audience through a video to explain their promises to the community then at the last minute the voters may be swayed to vote for them. I believe its quite important to do this especially before the voters make their final decision.

2. Instructions – I found that there were no clear instructions for voters who were not able to understand English. My guess most of these people had a blank vote. It would have been good if there was a kiosk or screen explaining what to do in English. Even maybe an iphone app.

3. Digital voting screen – I still don’t understand why we can’t vote online or through a digital system like a touchscreen or kiosk. We should use technology at our own advantage so why not do it at these events. I wasted half an hour on the weekend just because I had to physically visit a voting centre.

4. Think of the environment – too much paper and ink was wasted at this election. Although most of this was recycled I believe it could have been replace by a digital system. The initial cost could have been expensive but the equipment could have been rented and possibly donated to the school.

For those of you who don’t know australia has a hung parliment.

Did anyone see any digital signage at their voting Centres?

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

I was walking past the ING building in Sydney Australia and saw a video wall made up of 18 NEC screens. The content seemed pretty static and the bezel was quite noticible but we all know that the smaller the bezel the higher the cost of the screen.

ING VIDEO WALL

Category: Digital Signage Klips

Screens, whether they are a plasma, LED, LCD or even a projector – these are one of the most critical components in any digital signage project. At advertise me we always recommend our clients to install a commercial screen rather than a residential screen but that’s going to be a different topic all together. So today,  I decided to take a photo of some of the packaged screens we store and post it on this blog. Below is the image.

Advertise Me is a reseller of many of the large screen companies such as Panasonic, Samsung, NEC, Sony, Phillips, Acer, Asus, Viewsonic, LG and Mitsubishi. So before purchasing your next screen for your upcoming project, make sure you  from us and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed (Australian Companies only).

screens screens screens for digital signage projects

Category: Digital Signage Blog News