Just recently, the NSW Bus transport department launched an SMS service for it commuters to receive up-to-the-minute information about when the next Sydney Buses service will arrive at their stop. All you have to do is simply SMS your bus stop number to 0488 TXT BUS (0488 898 287) for up-to-the-minute timetable information about when the next Sydney Buses service will arrive at your stop. The stop number can be found on the bus sign. Now I catch public transport (both bus and trains) and when I was waiting at the bus stop I was thinking to myself why don’t they convert your ordinary bus signs with a digital signage screen and display the location of the bus on a map. That way commuters exactly know where the bus is and how long before it will arrive. At the same time, the screen can be used to provide advertising and other useful information such as scheduled outages. If you have a smartphone then an application can be developed to provide this service to the general public. One that can be faced with having such an implementation is that buses can be target by terrorist or stalkers.

The screen can also be interactive so that commuters waiting at the bus stop can interact with the screen. Here’s a good example:

Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby from Obscura Digital on Vimeo.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News

Looks like there is another job posting for the digital signage industry. This job is based in Denver Colorado and its for a Senior Product Line Manager. According to the website getdigitaljobs.com the employer is Harris Digital Signage and this is the job post: (If you’re interested visit the website here)

Harris Digital Signage is looking for an experienced and technical Senior Product Line Manager to manage Harris? Digital Signage solution and products. In this role, you will be a member of a dynamic team with a start-up mentality to innovate and drive the direction of the Harris Digital Signage Solution for Digital-Out-of-Home networks. If you are a highly motivated individual with a proven track record and looking to bring innovative solutions to the market, you don?t want to miss this great opportunity. 

While managing a team of two product managers, gather, prioritize, and document solution requirements and validate value proposition 
Lead cross-functional team in concept development, new product introduction and lifecycle management for Harris? Digital Signage solution 
Communicate and refine solution requirements with development team, and successfully guide product design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. 
Analyze market and business trends, and develop solution requirements and roadmap plans to deliver to future market needs across a variable set of target verticals 
Manage cross-functional relationships for the development of new products – including working with engineering, manufacturing, finance, and operations. 
Participate on relevant standards committees and help to ensure product compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements 
Accountable for program metrics, including roadmap development, schedule, cost analysis, pricing analysis, product forecasting, product quality, and customer satisfaction 
Present technology, product, and roadmap to key audiences, including customers, partners, and internal groups. 

Qualifications: 
* Undergraduate degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field. 
* 5+ years of technical Product Management and/or technology marketing experience with 2+ years in a supervisory capacity 
* 5+ years of expereince hiring, managing and developing a great team 
* 5+ years of expereince in delivering products and services in a high growth environment 
* 5+ years of expereince with technical concepts, managing tradeoffs and evaluating opportunistic new ideas with internal and external partners 

Preferred Additional Skills: 
* MBA and/or advanced degree highly desirable 
* Proven analytical and quantitative skills; ability to use hard data and metrics to back up assumptions, recommendations, and drive actions 
* Strengths in problem solving, issue-resolution, ability to work in a deadline-driven work environment, attention to detail, and ability to multitask 
* Ability to work cross-functionally across many internal teams 
* Prior experience in Digital Signage, DOOH is preferred

Category: Digital Signage Jobs

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

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