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.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Amp, Colours, Company Realised, Darling Harbour, digital signage, Food Counter, Invest, Landscape, lcd screen, Menu Board, Nbsp Nbsp Nbsp Nbsp Nbsp, Reception Area, screens, Suggestion, Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Australia, touch screen, traffic, Wildlife World

“The latest updates and new components included with this version support the growing demand in digital signage for faster, better quality content with a focus on touch-screen interactive experiences. The newest multi-touch features, including the ability to slide, swipe and flick at all components on a screen, allow companies to do cooler things with digital signage, and do them more affordably and in significantly less time.”

“The demand for digital signage is growing so exponentially, that companies are struggling to keep up and continually improve on the content itself. Flypaper is working tirelessly to stay ahead of the curve and give digital signage network owners and operators more options for creating killer content,” said Don Pierson, founder and president of Flypaper. “Multi-touch is the latest functionality that everyone is looking to incorporate, and this latest version of Flypaper helps showcase it beautifully.”

Flypaper’s Version 3.3 has several new features and updates aimed at making the customer experience with digital signage more interactive. New components that are especially powerful for kiosk displays include a virtual keyboard, a timer that kicks in during periods of inactivity, and a print button. Gesture support has been added to all components so users can slide, swipe and flick the display, making it a more engaging experience. Developers can also now add in Media RSS feeds and scrollers, run video within text, and input real-time weather data. In total, Flypaper added nearly 40 new features, updates and enhancements to version 3.3.

“Just when we think we’ve reached the limit for a touch screen display, Flypaper brings in new elements that raise the bar even higher,” said Scott Mathews, CEO of MG Digital Media Network.

“They have done a great job of staying one step ahead of what the industry needs.”

Flypaper is revolutionizing the digital signage world by enabling the development of high-quality, affordable Flash content that is very fast to create and easy to edit. The Flypaper Flash Content Creation Platform is a licensed environment where companies can create and share vast amounts of digital signage content and motion graphics. Users benefit from hundreds of already available templates and components, or can create their own quickly and easily, with no prior development experience.

We managed to get a comprehensive list of the new features and enhancements in v3.3 and these are:

New and Enhanced Features
1.    Components
a.    Multi-Touch
i.  The ability to Pan, Zoom and Rotate Components using a multi-touch enabled monitor has been added to all visible Components (requires Flash 10.1).
ii. In addition, the ability to Swipe has been added to the Cube Gallery, Image Scroller and Revolver Components (requires Flash 10.1).
b.    New
i.  Clock: Displays the time in an analog, digital or text format clock. Choose time zone and day light savings time.
ii. Close Presentation Button: Closes the running Flypaper presentation.
iii. MRSS Feed: Provides a list of MRSS messages and images associated with each message. You can choose a predefined MRSS feed, or define a custom one of your own. Messages are displayed in the RSS Viewer Component and images are displayed in the Image Viewer Component.
iv. MRSS Scroller: Displays the contents of an MRSS feed in a scrolling text box, including message and image. You can choose a predefined MRSS feed, or define a custom one of your own. Optionally, the MRSS image can be displayed in the Image Viewer Component.
v.  Print Button: Prints the visible contents of the screen (or just the visible Components you specify) at the time it is pressed.
vi. Video Feed: Streams video feeds from various news sources. In addition, you can specify your own FLV, MOV or MP4 feed.
vii. Video Text Mask: Displays the contents of a video file within the text characters of the Component.
viii. Virtual Keyboard: An on-screen keyboard which can be used to populate the contents of Components which accept key entry. The Virtual Keyboard can be accessed via touch, and can also be hidden when not in use.
c.     Updated
i.  CSV Component:
1. More Components can now display CSV data, including Big Text Mask, Zoom, Pan, and Pan & Zoom Components.
2. The Button Component can now select a specific row in the CSV Component’s data file, displaying the contents in associated Components.
ii. RSS Feed and RSS Scroller Components: New data formats available, including international date options.
iii. Timer Component: New “Kiosk Mode” activates timer after period of mouse inactivity.
iv. Image Viewer, Audio and Flash Components:
1. Ability to define remote resources via a URL.
2. Remote resources can be cached or refreshed on each access.
v. Image Scatter Component: Display speeds increased.
vi. Weather Component:
1. Can now display weather information fed from the CSV Component.
2. Ability to add custom SWF icons.
2.    Editing
a. Page Time and Timeline Duration are now synchronized. In addition, the option to update the page time when adding media files such as videos or audio files.
b. Maximum Project size of 4080×4080 (requires Flash 10).
c. AVI Video output option.
d. International Arial Font option including Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese.

General Improvements

1. Improved playback performance for Single SWF file output
2. File Recovery Improvements
3. Web Video Search enhancements
4. FlyPlayer performance upgrades

We are currently using an older version but we’re keen to test 3.3.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Customer Experience, digital signage network, Digital Signage Software, Don Pierson, Enhancements, Flick, Gesture, Inactivity, Interactive Experiences, Killer Content, Kiosk Displays, Mg Digital, New Features, Print Button, Quality Content, Scott Mathews, Swipe, Time Weather Data, touch screen, Virtual Keyboard

I would be very interested to see how the inside of the kiosk looks like. My guess is that these systems are centrally managed by a content management server at head office and whenever there’s a new release the server pushed this out to each of the kiosks. The kiosk probably has an internet connection and a DVD burner which burns the movies onto the DVD. It might even have a DVD printer to print the covers. This is a quite interesting and innovative kiosk and digital signage solution.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Content Management Server, Credit Card, Digital Id, Digital Movies, digital signage, Dvd Movies, Guess, Internet Connection, Kiosk, kiosks, Klips, Late Fees, New Release, Petrol Station, Renting, Signage Solution, touch screen

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.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: digital signage, Few Minutes, Implementations, Real Estate, Real Estates, screens, Technology Lesson, touch screen, Video Camera

I really haven’t seen it in action so the above is just a guess based on what I saw. Has anyone else seen any innovative kiosk or digital signage solutions?

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Business Hours, Canberra Australia, Cleaning Business, Clothes, Convenience, Digital Id, Digital Signage Solutions, Digital Solutions, Dry Cleaners, Dry Cleaning, Hanger, Kiosk, Receipt Number, Shaft, Signage Solution, touch screen

After all digital signage is a communication tool and what better way to communicate with each other by using Skype. Here’s an example of what needs to be done and can be achieved:

1. Install a digital touch screen at a booth (maybe at a busy shopping centre)

2. Install the advertise me digital signage solution

3. Design the relevant templates and content

4. Install a web cam and connect this to your digital signage solution

5. Install the skype application

6. Install an internet connection

7. Develop the digital signage application which lists companies customer call centres

How to use it?

8. You look for Advertise Me (for example) in the directory list because you want to speak to a sales representative about a product you are about to purchase

9. You touch the “call Advertise Me” button and the system starts establishing a skype session to Advertise Me

10. A representative at Advertise Me receives the call and you have a video conference and start chatting away about the products. The Advertise Me representative may even show you how the product can be used etc and directs you to the nearest retail store.

11. Once you end the session, the digital signage application plays relevant content (product info, sales, discounts) from company you just dialed. Or this can also be displayed during the video call.

12. After a certain idle period of time, the digital signage application defaults back to a playlist displaying ads etc.

So there you go, that’s an idea I just came up with. Maybe if we have time we can actually make this happen, or if you want it straight away we can make this happen for you.Obviously we’ll need to get permission from Skype but I’m sure they too would want this to happen as well.

What do you think about this idea?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Application Defaults, Call Centres, Communication Tool, Computer Application, Content Product, Digital Communication, digital signage, Integrating Digital, Internet Connection, Period Of Time, playlist, Plays, Retail Store, Sales Representative, Shopping Centre, Signage Design, Signage Solution, Skype, Templates, touch screen, Video Call, Video Conference, Web Cam

All we need now is a digital signage Iphone application… and my guess is that someone is already developing one.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments |
Post tags: apple, Audience, Caption, Digital Id, digital signage network, digital signage player, Guess, Integrated Digital, iphone, Mobile Digital, Poll Id, Sheer Number, touch screen, Video Clips, Watch Movies

I’m always on the lookout for digital signage so this was a great opportunity for me to understand how Oceanworld implemented their system and if any, recommend ways to improve their setup. At each of the tanks, there was a 15-17 inch LCD screen displaying information about the fish or animal inside the tanks. This was located above each of the tanks and it eliminated the need to have a static board with this information.

Here’s an image of the screen:

I noticed that some of the screens had one static slide (I’m assuming that the system was using powerpoint), however there were other screens which had pictures of each of the different types of fishes in the tank at the bottom of the screen. This however wasn’t initially obvious to me or to the people I asked as the time it took to rotate to the next slide was several minutes – I wasn’t going to stand around and wait for several minutes just to find out more information about each of the different types of fish in the tank. Overall, the solution was quite average and may need to be reviewed. Here is our recommendation of things that may need to be improved:

1. LCD screen location – to view the screen, one would need to step away from the tank and tilt your head slightly up.  I think the screens could have been strategically better located so the visitors would actually see the information whilst looking at the fishes in the tank. Just as a thought, maybe install a waterproof screen at the back wall of the tank??? We talked about strategically positioning your screens in one of our previous posts called “Location, location, location“.

You’re probably thinking “waterproof screens????”… yep here’s a video from youtube to prove it that it does exist.

For more digital signage videos visit the Digital Signage Portal.

2. Use touch screen technology to enable the visitors to interact with the fish tank. Currently, visitors like myself would not be standing around to wait for the next slide so why not get the visitor to initiate the slide change. Otherwise, decrease the time it takes for each slide to rotate and also place a reference on the screen stating that “The below fishes can be found in the tank”. Make the image of the fish at the bottom of the screen that the information is referring to more noticeable – either fade the other images or highlight the current image. We talked about touch screen technology in one of the previous posts called “To touch or not to touch – that is the question“.

3. I also found that the solution installed was using the Windows XP operating system. How did I know this? We that was easy because there was that typical windows notification balloon at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Maybe disable all Windows XP notification messages.

4. On another screen there was also a notification that it found the Wireless network. This is definitely a security issue as the SSID of the wireless network was clearly visible to the public. We talked about digital signage security issues in two of our previous posts called “How secure is your digital signage solution?” and “Secure your digital signage solution – here’s why“.

Well that’s my recommendation based on what I saw and I apologise in advance if I misrepresented the solution and setup but I hope our readers can learn something from this post.

Do you have any digital signage experiences you would like to share with us?
Send us an email to info@digitalsignageblog.com or feel free to comment here.

P.S: For those who are interested in going to visit Oceanworld, there is a 15% discount if you enter after 3:30pm. Overall, the kid had fun and we will most likely visit Oceanworld again in the near future.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: digital signage, fish, interaction, location, manly, oceanworld, security, touch screen, waterproof, windows, wireless, xp

In this current day and age, quite a number of technologies are now using touch screens.  For example, gaming consoles such as the Nintendo DS, Mobile phones (iphone, blackberry storm, various PDA’s) are all using some form of touch screen technology to further increase the interaction between the user and the device.

Why interact with digital signage?

The main reason why businesses would want to interact with their customers through digital signage are:

• To provide targeted and specific information to the viewer e.g. Medical surveys whilst conducting eye sight tests.

• Traffic analytics – to understand how many people interact with the system. One system that I could think of is a Health Checking system. A weight scale connected to a digital signage system could potentially be setup to perform the following:

- The system will request for the persons age and then it will measure and display their weight

- Based on the information gathered, the system will then display the recommended weight and potential health related problems associated to the persons weight.

- Obviously at the same time, there will be an area for advertising and this space can be sold to businesses in the health industry.

• Any form of relationship requires a two way communication – to connect and build a strong relationship with your customers or clients you need to basically involve them in the decision making process. So if it’s to buy a new car, a digital signage signage solution at the car dealership should have the ability for the potential buyer to modify the colour or shape of the car as this can influence their purchasing decision.

So now the question is whether you should use touch screens in your current digital signage deployments. We cannot provide you with the answer to this question but what is important is to understand what the clients requirements are and then to assess whether a touch screen meets these requirements, but most importantly if you are planning to use touch screen technology in your digital signage solution, make sure you thoroughly look into the system usability i.e how can people interact with the system. Here are some examples from a youtube user that shows unusable touch screen systems – she refers to them as the “Usability Hall of Shame”:

For more Digital Signage videos visit the Digital Signage Portal.

My prediction is that touch screens will become part of the standard deployment for any future digital signage projects as we have seen touch screens mainly used for way finding, product catalogs, directories and gaming but is this all digital signage touch screens can be used for?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2008. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: blackberry, directories, gaming, interaction, iphone, medical, mobile phones, nintendo ds, product catalogs, touch screen, usability, way finding