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

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

I thought I’d bring this up again since I just saw a video of a digital signage presentation that I believe breached several legal aspects. I want our readers to understand this clearly before they take the next step further.

The first legal area is about copyright. Yes, it’s something we all know about but the Internet provides us with so much as information, images and videos that we sometimes forget how easily the content can be easily re-used. So for those creating content, don’t be tempted to just use content that you find on the Internet. There are many companies out there that is able to provide stock images, videos, templates etc. Most importantly, in the video I noticed that there was an option to add an RSS news feed from CNN news. Even thought the video was a demonstration of a digital signage system, I believe there was a breach in the RSS terms and conditions. The CNN website clearly mentions that the use of the RSS is for non-commercial purposes. We previously talked about breacking RSS copyright laws in the post titled: Are you breaching RSS copyright laws? By the way, in that post we mentioned that we were getting 100 RSS feeds per day(statistics from early 2009 and as of today, we receive over 1000 feeds per day).

The second legal area is about overlaying RSS text or advertisements or any other type of content over live TV feeds. We also talked about this in one of our previous posts titled Embedding live video content in digital signage. Is this a breach of copyright in Australia? For example, if you were showing a live feed of a soccer match and you overlayed an RSS feed at the bottom of the actual feed then you’re breaching some of the broadcasters terms and conditions. Besides all the legal jargon that you will find on the broadcasters websites, I believe the main reasons why commercial businesses are not allowed to do this is for the following reasons:

1. It costs big money to broadcast video content and they make the majority of their money by displaying advertisements during the ad breaks. By you displaying other content such as ads then the broadcasters are not making money from you and they obviously want to avoid this.

2. The broadcasters do not want to give the viewers the impression and confusion that the other content on the live TV feed is actually displayed from them. They don’t want the affiliation simply because they are unable to control what is displayed on the screen. Just image you’re displaying live TV of a news channel and all of a sudden you display an overlay RSS feed of the CNN news. Now, that will be confusing.

I simply want to make our readers, system integrators or digital signage users aware of some of these legal issues because I don’t want you to be in a legal battle – I’d rather you spend the time rolling out digital signage solutions than sitting in a court case. I also thought that our readers needed to be better educated on how to best use the features in a digital signage system and  not breach any laws.

Has these laws changed? If not, then think twice before you use some of the advanced features in a digital signage system and don’t blame the solution provider or manufacturer for giving you the functionality to do this!

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

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

This is a great video of a Ray-Ban interactive shop window, the digital signage system allows the user to try on virtual ray ban glasses and then lets you take a photo… check it out:

Have you seen any other interesting digital signage implementations?

Category: Digital Signage Blog Video

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 is now becoming more popular in retail stores and now it’s a good time to install one in yours. Whether you’re a small retail store or a large retail chain, we’ve done it all. We’ve helped and provided our customers with simple and standalone digital signage solution for a single store to building a digital signage network for a large corporate retail chain.
There are many, many digital signage products in the market and what we do different is to provide our clients with a cost effective solution that meets their needs. We have tested many solutions and we basically recommend the most effective solution that meets our clients requirements. Whether its a digital signage player, an all in one digital signage system, a display screen or content, we can help businesses in the retail industry.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info

The socceroos didn’t it make it to the next round but have a look at these LED screens in Darling Harbour which is being used as part of the FIFA FAN FEST in Sydney Darling Harbour. During the day it’s just a notice board (seem like it only being used to display the timetable for the day) but at night it becomes a massive TV. It would have been good if it was also showing the latest results and some highlights – basically use it as a digital signage system. In any case who wouldn’t want to watch a soccer game on these screens?

fifa world cup led screens darling harbour 2

Who would have thought that both Italy and France wouldn’t make it to the next round.!.!?!

Category: Digital Signage Klips

How can GPS be integrated with digital signage?

The simple answer is that it can be use to trigger information. Here’s a typical example of how it can be used: you’re in a tour bus, a large LCD Screen in located at the front of the bus. The bus drives past the Sydney Opera house, the digital signage system detects the current location of the bus and triggers information about the Opera House. The bus then drives over the Sydney Harbour bridge and this triggers historical information about how the bridge was built.

Basically, digital signage that is integrated with GPS can be used to display useful information relating to it’s surroundings.

At Advertise Me, we have a good understanding on how Digital Signage can be integrated with various systems so why not talk to us and see what we can do for you.Visit www.advertiseme.com.au

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

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

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

If you haven’t heard, in Australia the Federal Government is planning to spend 43 billion dollars to upgrade the Australian network infrastructure. What’s been interesting is the fact that the government did not award this project to any of the major Telcos – it will all be in house. Well this may potentially mean the infrastructure will not be monopolised by any of the Telcos. This is definitely a good thing for consumers.
Now if you’re a digital signage company you may be wondering how this may impact you. The first thing that popped into my mind was “more bandwidth…. means more bandwidth intensive applications can be used on the digital signage system”.

Here’s a list of things that popped into my mind when this was announced:

• stream or cache high definition videos to the screens – this includes live TV,  Foxtel, and even live events (Youtube has already introduced the Live Events program)
• develop real time applications on the digital signage systems
• shorter waiting times for content synchronisations
• integrate the digital signage system with wireless hotspots
• integrate with the upcoming digital radio services
• develop interactive applications that require low latency and high bandwidth
• real time monitoring of digital signage networks and quicker troubleshooting/response times

Seeing several opportunities, advertise me will hopefully launch several innovative solutions in the next couple of years so watch this space.

What innovative digital signage applications do you see taking advantage of high speed networks?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News