Digital Signage Blog Archives
Posts Tagged ‘screens’
No digital signage at voting centres Australian Election 2010
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
Digital Signage Klips: ING video wall
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, screens screens, preparation for the next digital signage projects
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
Digital Signage for Shop Fitouts
The best time you should install digital signage would be during a shop fitout. Why you may ask? Here’s a few simple reasons:
1. cost savings for running cables and power. If planned correctly then during the electrical fitout, you can install and run cables (this includes audio, video, and data) to the various screens locations before the walls are put up. Trust me, it’s must cheaper than having to install these at a later stage
2. structural support – during a fitout you’ll be able to easily plan where the screens will be located and hence you’ll be able to install structural support for the screen brackets
3. Use digital signage for opening specials and to attract more customers into the store
4. Generally, the installation of the screens are very minimal compared to the overall cost of the shop fitout
5. Bring your store to life – if done correctly, you’ll be able to use engaging content and differentiate your store from your competitors
There may be more reasons and in my point of view, digital signage should definitely be considered when you plan to refit your shop. So if you’re in the process of renovating or opening up a new shop, make sure you contact Advertise Me so we can demonstrate how you can use digital signage to your advantage.
What do you think?
Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.
Category: Digital Signage Blog Info
Digital Signage Klips: Panasonic screen at Sydney Airport
This week’s digital signage klip is from a well know location – Sydney Airport. The picture is of a large Panasonic screen located in the International Arrival Department (near the C gates). I don’t have the full details but as you can see there are also two smaller screens showing a map of Australia.
Panasonic Screen Sydney Airport
Thanks to Wendy for the photo.
If you have klips you would like to share with the rest of our readers let us know by sending an email to info@digitalsignageblog.com
Category: Digital Signage Klips
Techie Question: Do you need to use a UPS for digital signage?
Coming from an IT background I know how important it is to ensure your system is shut down gracefully otherwise you’ll end up damaging your operating system and application. This is where a UPS may come in handy. UPS stands for Uninterruptible power supply and is used as an emergency power source. It is typically used to protect computers, or equipment in data centres or other electrical equipment where an unexpected power disruption could cause injuries, fatalities, serious business disruption and/or data loss. Depending on the size of the UPS battery they generally provide about 5-10 minutes of power.
So my question to those techies out there is, do you need to use a UPS for digital signage? Are any companies out there using a UPS for their digital signage players or screens?
Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.
Category: Digital Signage Techie
Sunlight readable screens – do you need it?
I was walking past several shops the other day and noticed that most of them had a plasma screen at the front of their shop – facing out on the street. Now if you asked me what was displaying on these screens I would not be able to answer this because it was a sunny day and there was too much glare on the screen.
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.
Category: Digital Signage Blog Info
Digital Signage Klips: Easter Show Homebush Sydney Australia
This weeks klips are pictures we took at the Easter Show Homebush Sydney Australia. This is actually the first time I attended the show and I couldn’t believe how many people where there and how big the show area was. I only spent a few hours there and only covered 1/4 of all the events. continue reading »
Category: Digital Signage Klips
Techie Question: How often should you perform maintainance tasks on your digital signage system?
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.
Category: Digital Signage Techie
Digital Signage Klip: Rare error in Japan?
When you think of anything digital, from technology to electronics, robotics, and large screens, you would normally think of one place that has it all – Japan.
It is one of the leading countries in the world in technology, and at the forefront of digital advertising it is noticed by the whole world.
So it is a rare sight to see this next klip showing a large digital signage board made up of 9 tiles go wrong. Unfortunate enough, the digital signage board remained unattended to throughout the whole night until the next morning.
Thanks to Andrew who is a long time reader of the digital signage blog and currently resides in Japan for this klip.
Category: Digital Signage Klips
Digital Signage Klip: Narita Airport collage
The following klip is submitted by Saori from Narita airport in Japan.
It shows a collage of large screens aligned together to create a long digital signage display.
Thanks Saori for sharing your klip with us.
Category: Digital Signage Klips
Parramatta Westfield LED Screen
In one of our previous blogs http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/2009/11/24/shopping-centres-battle-of-the-big-screens/, we talked about the largest screens in shopping centres and apparently we saw another one the other day in the Parramatta Westfields centre. continue reading »
Category: Digital Signage Blog News
Digital Signage Klips: Supermarket in Miami Florida
This week’s klip is sent in by Frank, who works for a company called Arcoiris TV network. They own a digital signage network inside supermarkets in Miami, Florida, USA.
As you can see from the pictures, the screens are located at the checkout. Obviously, this is the most ideal location as you have customers waiting in line to be served.
Thanks Frank for sharing this with our readers.
Digital Signage Supermarket in Miami Florida USA
Digital Signage Supermarket Miami Florida USA
If you have klips you would like to share with the rest of our readers let us know by sending an email to info@digitalsignageblog.com
Category: Digital Signage Klips
3D modelling and animation – content for digital signage
If you’ve seen the movie Avatar then you should know that I’m refeering to when I mention about 3D. Yes, 3D technology is now becoming more affordable but importantly its catching the attention of the digital signage industry. Various screen manufacturers have released 3D screens that do not require the use of 3D glasses. As more of these screens are being installed in retails stores or corporate offices, businesses will need 3D content to place on these screens.
Category: Digital Signage Blog News
Digital Signage Klips: Advertise Me snaps for 2010
At the end of last year we asked our readers (http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/2009/12/04/klips-share-your-digital-signage-snap/) to send us digital signage Klips so we can share with the rest of the world. We decided to kick off the year with our own Klips that we’ve taken whilst being out and about. You can view these here http://tweetphoto.com/user/advertisemeAU and make sure you follow us in twitter (http://www.twitter.com/advertisemeAU) so you can receive our latest updates. Let’s review some of these digital signage Klips and implementations:
Category: Digital Signage Klips
Display enclosures – protect your investment
When it comes to protecting your investment, physical security should be considered for any digital signage installation. Whether its for outdoor or indoor purposes, enclosures are the best form of physical protection. We previously touched upon some of the other security considerations in two of our previous posts called “How secure is your digital signage solution?” and “Secure your digital signage solution – here’s why“.
Enclosures are primarily designed to protect the display screens from:
- the environment – direct sunlight or extreme weather can cause damage to the screen
- theft – fortunately we haven’t come across this situation but I’m sure others around the world have experience this
- physical damage – vandalism is quite common in public areas continue reading »
Category: Digital Signage Blog Info
Weekend Fun or NOT: Displaying incorrect Facebook Events date
This weekend we almost missed an important event that was created and organised through the facebook events application. For some reason, the event displayed the correct date on the Facebook website, but on the iphone and the blackberry it showed the incorrect date (using the mobile application) – the reminders were not triggered because of this issue. My guess is that there is probably an issue related to the timezone (ie Australia). Does anyone else have the same issue?
If you’re integrating facebook with your digital signage application and are displaying events just make sure you check and test that the dates are displaying correctly before publishing this to the screens.
Category: Digital Signage Blog News
Digital Signage – Brisbane Casino
During one of our business trips to Brisbane Australia, we visited the Brisbane casino. When a colleague of mine told me the building I was looking at was the casino, I didn’t believe him. This is what I saw:
From the outside it looked like a museum, but it was not until we actually walked into the building that I couldn’t believe my eyes – it was a casino and most surprisingly digital signage was everywhere. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any photos of the screens but I noticed that each of the playing tables there was a screen displaying information. I was particularly intrigued about the roulette table, since the screen instantaneously displayed the winning number as soon as the ball landed. I stood there for a while trying to figure out how this was achieved and I came to the conclusion that the digital signage system included a sensor to determine where the number landed on the roulette table. Does anyone else know how this actually works? I also came up with the silly idea that someone watching through one of the cameras was typing this information in the system….
There were screen literally everywhere you looked; at the top of the teller stands, at the waiting areas, at the cafe, at each table and pretty much in every corner of the room. This got me thinking how maybe we should target and approach casinos with a good innovate digital signage system.
Category: Digital Signage Blog News
Digital Signage at Adelaide Airport
Several weeks ago I was in the Adelaide airport and I was surprised on how different the airport digital signage screens was being used and implemented there. This is what I saw:
Digital Signage At Adelaide Airport
If you look at the screen closely, you’ll notice that on the top right hand section there is a banner stating “Advertise Here…”. This is the first time I’ve seen an airport trying to promote advertising space which is great to see.
Digital Signage At Adelaide Airport
Category: Digital Signage Blog Info
Screen Dilemma: Native vs Maximum resolution
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
Advertise Me Interviews Concerto Digital Signage
| advertise me: | Hi Brian, thanks for joining us for this interview. We’re quite excited to speak to someone such as yourself about Open Source applications for digital signage. |
| Brian: | Thanks for interviewing me! We built Concerto as students at one of America’s great tech universities because it addressed an unmet need that we saw on our campus, and we didn’t expect when we initiated the project to see it become a topic of interest for people all over the world. |
| Advertise Me: | Let’s start with the basics – could you please explain what Open Source is, and is it really free? |
| Brian: | Sure. Open source software is free for anyone to obtain and use, as well as modify – provided that they make their modifications open-source as well. |
| Advertise Me: | Thank you for clearing that up. So let’s talk about your Open Source application for Digital Signage called Concerto. How did you come up with that name and what is it exactly? |
| Brian: | First things first: Concerto is a free digital signage platform for sharing flyers, alerts, and other messages with other people by showing them on flat panel televisions and other types of screens. It’s a broadcast medium that makes it simple to make a flyer and get it out to many people quickly, but it also allows screens to show a custom mix of messages based on predefined preferences.
The name Concerto pertains to this key function. A musical concerto emphasizes one musical instrument amidst an entire orchestra, and with our digital signage product, users can emphasize one type of message amidst an entire orchestra of different types of advertising. For example, at we launched Concerto at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI for short). At RPI, the management school has a big screen with a special zone for graphical messages. With Concerto, they just specify the types of advertisements they want to highlight, and which types they wish to exclude. So messages about management lectures might be shuffled in more frequently than student entertainment flyers and sports notices. In this way, the management school can tailor their Concerto display for the audience they hope to attract without impacting how others on campus use Concerto. |
| Advertise Me: | Out of curiosity, how did the Concerto concept and idea start? |
| Brian: | We started Concerto with a purpose: to improve communication within our campus community. There were already ways to tell the RPI campus community about events and other happenings before Concerto: student groups, academic departments, or individuals could print out and tape up a lot of flyers, or even put their messages on the campus cable television system. It took a lot of time and money to print out and put up lots of paper signage. The cable television system was managed by a very small group of people who had many other responsibilities aside from approving messages for cable. More importantly, that system was designed with a bureaucratic, almost corporate mindset in mind, one meant to keep control of the network regulated to only the smallest group of elite users. So we designed Concerto from the ground up to be accessible to every computer user at our school. Now we have students, staff, and faculty working together to help maintain the network. It really gives people a reason to pay attention to Concerto – they become a part of campus communication, instead of just being forced to see it. |
| Advertise Me: | Why should someone use Concerto and what are some of the benefits? |
| Brian: | Members of any community where events and information are often overlooked should find Concerto’s unique design to be particularly attractive. We designed Concerto first for colleges and universities, but its benefits can extend to any community looking to spread and share messages about events and other activities.
Here are some core benefits of using Concerto:
|
| Advertise Me: | Since the application is free, are businesses permitted to resell this product to their clients? |
| Brian: | Under the terms of our license, the GNU Public License (v2), our software may be resold. But this distinction is key: no company can restrict the rights associated with a copy of Concerto by denying their users access to the source code. I’ll also add that if you make a modification to our source code, you must give back those changes to the larger community. Companies may provide for-pay support and consultation packages to get our software up and running for others, but the source code must always remain free to everyone.
|
| Advertise Me: | Can Concerto be classified as a Software as a Service (SaaS)? |
| Brian: | I guess it could be considered SaaS, but that’s not how we think most people will use it. We have our Concerto server software running on a powerful machine at RPI that serves out the content for all of the client machines across our Troy, New York campus. This server could theoretically be located somewhere off-campus, in which case every client unit would receive content over the Web. But for most administrators who wish to launch a Concerto network at a school, in a town, or elsewhere, it probably makes the most sense to locate that server somewhere nearby. I should also mention that most users of Concerto are everyday people who just want to find and share messages of interest – since they just visit Concerto in a Web browser and never see its nuts and bolts, it looks like a service that could be hosted many miles away from them. |
| Advertise Me: | Could you please briefly explain what would be involved (hardware & software) in setting up a digital signage solution using Concerto? |
| Brian: | Concerto is designed from the ground up to work perfectly with inexpensive, commodity hardware that anyone can purchase from websites such as Newegg.com. There’s a central server, as I already described, which is simply a computer that stores content and distributes it to each Concerto screen. The first step to deploy Concerto is to download our software at http://www.concerto-signage.com and install it on the computer that will act as the content server.
Once that’s set up, you’ll need some other computers to drive the different displays on your fledgling Concerto network. The system requirements for these units are much lower – we’ve been successful with $500 small form factor computers that have 2 GB of RAM, Intel Celeron M CPU, Ethernet connection, CompactFlash card, and DVI connection that can then be adapted for HDMI output to flat panel televisions. These client units use the Concerto player software, which can be run as a live CD or installed directly to a storage device such as a hard drive or memory card. They must be able to connect to your network and receive power. For more information about how to deploy Concerto, please see the page at http://www.concerto-signage.com/view/deploy. |
| Advertise Me: | How long has it taken to develop the Concerto framework and application? |
| Brian: | We started to develop Concerto in October 2007, and launched it in March of 2008. We were all students at the time in our undergraduate studies at RPI. Since our RPI launch in March 2008, we’ve updated the core software over ten times, adding new features and addressing bugs in response to feedback from our more than 1,000 RPI-based users. |
| Advertise Me: | What makes Concerto so different from all the other Open Source applications in the market? |
| Brian: | Concerto first sets itself apart from many more traditional digital signage networks by being completely based on the World Wide Web. Older signage platforms were often based on coaxial cable lines. Concerto runs over standard Ethernet cable and wireless Internet, which makes it far more versatile for many places that now have more Internet jacks than coaxial hook-ups. More importantly, Concerto displays can show content that is completely specific to a location and/or audience. Finally, Concerto is designed from the ground up to encourage hundreds or potentially thousands of users to get involved in the process of sharing messages about events and other information. |
| Advertise Me: | What has been the most successful Concerto project thus far? |
| Brian: | Our first and most successful network is still at RPI, but we just released the source code under our public open source license in July, so we are also working with several groups from around America to launch Concerto in their own communities. While I can’t talk specifics yet, we’ve received inquiries from companies, libraries, and other universities. |
| Advertise Me: | Do you have any advice for people who are planning to start a business in the digital signage industry? |
| Brian: | I would suggest that the digital signage space is ready for some new ideas. Digital signage software has traditionally been proprietary and expensive. Concerto is a free alternative that provides, for the most part, the core digital signage package. In order for future companies to be successful in this space, I think they need to do more than continue to provide the same types of products and services that we can now give away for free. The bar needs to be raised, with offerings that provide an even greater value proposition than before. |
| Advertise Me: | Are there any plans to monetize Concerto? How are you guys going to make money, or is this a hidden secret? |
| Brian: | Concerto started as a volunteer project, and we decided early in the game that we would not attempt to monetize the software itself. We have no hidden agendas or secrets when it comes to that. While some of our team may consider becoming digital signage consultants in the future, we will never charge for the code. |
| Advertise Me: | This is our final question that we normally ask all of the people we interview. What do you see as the next “BIG THING” in digital signage? |
| Brian: | We have built a platform with Concerto to enable the core features and functionality of what I like to call a “twentieth century digital signage platform.” People can buy inexpensive commodity computer hardware, connect them to small or large monitors or television displays, and build a Web-based communication network in virtually any place where there’s easy access to an Internet connection. It’s a framework of functionality that nobody has to build anymore. Instead, they can focus on what they can add to Concerto to make digital signage more effective for new audiences. Nowadays, people are looking for new ways to interact with the information that’s being spread around the world. Social networking really put the focus back on the end user, and we feel that digital signage can be made more effective by providing more ways for users to interact with the advertising they see.
One of the ideas that we’re exploring with Concerto is how we can allow direct user interaction with digital signage. As the first and simplest way of enabling this kind of exchange, we’re adding pause and rewind buttons to our screens that will allow people to stop on specific messages and roll back to what they may have missed earlier. But what I think we’re really aiming to build is a full-blown kiosk mode that gives users new abilities to find out more about specific messages and other location-based information relevant to the Concerto display and its location. For example, let’s say that I’m looking at messages playing on a Concerto screen in the lobby of a hospital. When I move close to the screen, a web cam detects my presence and the display changes to show a smaller version of the same advertisements, as well as a building map and other hospital information. I think that a new and greater push for designing experiences that combine advertising with interaction can help us to create a new type of digital signage. |
| Advertise Me: | Brian, thanks for taking part in this interview and we hope to speak to you again in the near future. Good luck with the Concerto project and we wish you all the best. |
To read more interviews click here: http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/category/digital-signage-interview/
About Concerto:
Concerto is a free, Web-based broadcast medium for digital announcements that just works. Using Concerto, it’s easy to engage large communities of people with graphical and text-based flyers, alerts, and other messages. The open source project was initiated by undergraduate students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2008. The code can be downloaded for free at http://www.concerto-signage.com. The Concerto Project is open to developers from around the world and aims to provide a free platform for digital signage today and in the future.
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
Interesting screen technology for the future
I came across this video and thought I’d share this with the rest of the digital signage community. It’s about an upcoming product from Nanolumens that will make screen installations a lot easier and potentially more affordable (I question this statement as most new technologies are generally more expensive).
Have a look at the technology yourself and let me know what you think.
If you had one of these screens, where would you install it?
Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.
Category: Digital Signage Blog Products, Featured Post
Digital Signage is everywhere
We’ve been pretty busy working on a project and slacked off in posting blog entries. We’ll hopefully post information about the project that we are working on at a later stage but we thought we’d mention how digital signage is everywhere. We recently walked in the busy streets of Bondi junction Australia and noticed how common it was for businesses to have display screens in their stores. The majority of these shop were displaying content from a DVD player, or showing live TV whilst others were actually displaying in house advertisements.
One thing that I noticed was that even thought Mothers day was approaching, not many businesses had any relevant messages relating to this event. Even today, being mothers day, businesses were not using digital signage to their advantage. Oh well maybe its just Australia… My thinking is that maybe one day, businesses will be educated and skilled in the digital signage technology to update and stay connected with their audience.
Category: Digital Signage Blog Info
Integrating digital signage with Sharepoint
We were recently approached by an insurance company asking whether we had a solution that could easily integrate digital signage with their Sharepoint system, so we thought we might as well share this information with everyone.
Well, you may be thinking “What is Sharepoint?”. Sharepoint is actually a Microsoft Content Management System which allows business to collaborate and share information quickly and easily. Think of it as a website portal which can be used to store files, events, contacts, tasks, forms and most importantly information. Here’s a video tour of Sharepoint:
Now some companies may want to use digital signage as a communication tool and target information to staff and if this information is already centralised in the one location, SHAREPOINT, then how would you integrate your digital signage solution with this?
From our experience and based on products we have used in the past, if your digital signage player/software is able to display RSS compatible feeds then you have a system that is able to be integrated with Sharepoint – in particular the latest version 2007. With Sharepoint 2007, there is a neat feature which allows content, events, contacts, tasks and information to be displayed as an RSS feed. This is particularly useful as you don’t want to manually update the content on your digital signage player. Once you have the RSS feed, you can easily modify and display this information on the digital signage screens.
For the more advanced digital signage players and software, if your system is able to connect to the Microsoft SQL server that stores all the data, then your solution will be able to connect to the database and grab the relevant data to be displayed on the screen. As an example, if one of your clients used Sharepoint to schedule company outings and important company events then we would be able to deploy a digital signage solution which dynamically uses the RSS feed from the Sharepoint server and display this on the digital signage screen located in the main foyer. This will help remind employees of upcoming company events.
Hopefully this post has provided you with better ways on how to integrate existing systems with digital signage.
Have you seen any innovative digital signage integrations?
Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.
Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Products
How reliable is your digital signage solution?
This blog post will be purely about your feedback. We want to find out what you think makes a reliable digital signage solution. Is it ensuring having 24/7 power running to the screens and digital signage equipment? Is it making sure that the digital signage player is maintained on a monthly/weekly basis? Is it the operating system the digital signage software runs on?
Yes, we want to know what makes a digital signage solution reliable…
Loading ...What makes a digital signage solution reliable?
Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.
Category: Digital Signage Techie
Digital Signage: Does size matter?
In the past several years, there has been a significant growth in the digital signage industry and this growth has meant that large hardware and software organisations are making their mark in the Digital Signage industry. Large organisations such as Sony, NEC, Cisco, Google and Microsoft have already made their move and many other companies are following their footsteps. This sudden change has been a result in the technological advancement in digital media, computers, infrastructure and technology.
With the increasing demand for retail businesses to get noticed, it has meant screen companies are developing bigger and better screens.
NEC has recently launched their massive 65 inch MultiSync Full HD LCD Screen (LCD6520).
Sony also released their first 52-inch Full HD LCD Screen (GXD-L52H1) at a similar time.
For many digital signage network operators and advertisers, screen size does matter. The bigger the screens, the more your content will likely get noticed. The more your screen gets noticed, the more advertisers will be interested to add their content onto your network. More advertisers, means more money.
Now, whilst screen companies are building bigger screens, digital signage manufacturers are doing quite the opposite and are developing smaller players. There are many embedded players out in the market that are actually smaller than an A4 piece of paper. In this case, does size matter? For the majority of small retail shopfronts, “YES”, size does matter. The advantage of having a smaller sized player is that they can be located almost anywhere and won’t take up a lot of room. In some retails stores, having smaller sized digital signage players eleviate the issues of space, location, power costs and the likelihood of being noticed by thieves.
Category: Digital Signage Blog Info
Digital Signage Featured Links
Recent Posts
Featured Posts
- Product Review: Synrax Onyx Mini
- Introducing digitalsignagearticles.com
- Experience the digital signage world at the ABC Bondi Shop
- Will the Microsoft Xbox 360 take over the Digital Signage Industry?
- Subscribe to the digital signage blog
- Want to be featured on the digital signage portal newsletter?
- About Advertise Me
- Klips: Share your digital signage snap!
Most Viewed Posts
- Forum Post: World Wide Digital Signage Network - 16,002 views
- Digital Signage Portal Forum Post: CISCO Film Making Competition - 8,607 views
- Digital Signage Portal Forum Entry: Help with digital signage business plan - 7,136 views
- Points to consider for a Digital Signage Business Plan - 5,092 views
- How can the stimulus package help your businesses? - 4,574 views
Recent Comments:
- Clever Dry Cleaners Kiosk Digital Signage (1)
- digital signage: Great article.
- Announcement: Mitsubishi projector warranty increased to three years (1)
- digital signage: Shows the high level of confidence they have in their products if they’re offering a bigger...
- No digital signage at voting centres Australian Election 2010 (1)
- digital signage: Disappointed to see no digital signage being used. I thought a major event like the election would...
- Parramatta Westfield LED Screen (4)
- led lighting: Nice led screen. Very effective.
- Digital Signage For Retail (1)
- digital signage saas: I’ve noticed this as well. Seems to be everywhere now does digital signage.
Popular Tags used in our posts
advertise advertise me Advertisements advertising australia blackberry blog Caption case study Digital Id digital signage digital signage network digital signage player email Fun Google iphone klip Klips lcd screen led screen nec Photo Poll Id portal Screen Caption screens Signage Industry Signage Solution Signage System
Digital Signage Blog Categories
- Digital Signage Blog Events (28)
- Digital Signage Blog Info (118)
- Digital Signage Blog News (149)
- Digital Signage Blog Products (25)
- Digital Signage Blog Video (10)
- Digital Signage Case Study (5)
- Digital Signage Ideas (4)
- Digital Signage Interview (7)
- Digital Signage Klips (19)
- Digital Signage Newsletter (7)
- Digital Signage Polls (12)
- Digital Signage Reviews (6)
- Digital Signage Techie (18)
- Digital Signage Weekend Fun (21)
- Featured Post (34)