Every sign has a purpose. Of course, some have more than others. The trend of using digital signage has become so rampant these days that many businesses and institutions, in my opinion, are getting them before even considering why they need them. Digital signs are awesome. But there’s nothing more cringe-inducing or face-palming than seeing a digital sign that offers no more variation or usability than a sign composed of a piece of paper and a Sharpee.

Schedules, Updates, and More Schedules

This should go without saying, but any sign or outpost that contains many schedules that are updated daily would be a perfect use of digital signage. Buildings with good numbers of conferences and institutions that hold a lot of meetings (such as universities) are prime candidates for digital signage. For conferences and lectures in particular, these digital signs can be helpful not only in updating time and locations of events, but also in providing descriptions and advertising for these types of events.

Of course any public transportation company or service should and probably is using digital signs; not using this technology in a field or situation that relies on relaying constant updates to customers is simply inexcusable. Maybe five years ago that sort of thing would be ok, but not this decade.

Pretty Pictures, Even videos!

If you feel like your signs could have a lot of digital media to offer, be them pictures or especially video, digital signage would work absolutely perfectly for your needs. For pictures and graphics, digital signage works great because it gives you an excellent quality image that you can then reuse or change without having to pay extra printing fees like you would for physical prints. Dollar for dollar, when you take into account long term costs of high quality prints, digital signage will always be cheaper and usually look better too.

For video, the need for digital signage is obvious. Frankly put, there is simply no other way to convey video through a sign without digital signage. Now, audio can get a bit more complicated, but it all depends on what you’re using to host the media for the sign.

Touch Media, Oh My!

While this technology is still pretty new and therefore expensive, touch signs can be a godsend for your digital signage needs. Particularly if you intend the sign to be used for information-getting and navigational purposes, having a touch-screen sign makes it so that you can offer a lot of information in one place without having it all cluttered and bunched together. Touch screen is definitely the future of digital signage.

About the Guest Blogger:

This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at online college about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 6 comments |
Post tags: Conferences, Decade, digital signage, Digital Signs, High Quality, Institutions, Nadia, Outpost, Physical Prints, Piece Of Paper, Pretty Pictures, Prime Candidates, Printing Fees, Public Transportation, Quality Image, Quality Prints, Transportation Company, usability, Variation, Video Digital

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Post tags: Digital Cube, Digital Electronics, digital signage, Iframe, Lt, Monitors, Sharp Electronics, Video Digital, Video Fun, Youtube Video Player

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.

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Post tags: digital signage expo, Digital Video, Mitsubishi, Resellers, screens, Showcase, Touchscreen Panels, Video Digital, Video Expo, Videos

Some of the showcase included:

• Camera tracking technologies with facial, gender, height, and age recognition
• 3D digital signage
• Video walls, LED displays, Super slim panels
• Kiosks
• and many more

Not a great amount of visitors in my opinion, however speaking with some of the exhibitors they said it was more than they expected. The majority of feedback I have received from them is that the quality of visitors were all either in the buyers market or looking to create business relationships, with a handful just showing interest and wanting to know more about the technology.

Although I did not see many of the current operating businesses exhibiting, I am guessing being the first show, some of us are still scoping out what the response is like.
From the outcome of the show, I expect to see a lot more exhibitors and visitors next year.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: 3d Video, Added Bonus, Business Relationships, Camera Australia, Camera World, Caption, Dedicated Digital, digital signage expo, Digital Video, Exhibitors, Free Seminars, Game, Handful, Intel, led, Practical Experiences, Showcase, sony, Sydney Convention Centre, Video Digital, video wall, Video Walls, World Australia

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Post tags: Clothes, Colours, Consumers, digital signage, Fashion Shoes, Fukuoka Japan, Fun Video, Interactive Digital, Nike, Nike Shoes, Nikeid, Video Digital, Video Store

Now this discussion was organised/sponsored by Dynamax (thanks guys) and the companies involved included Dogobert, DigiCom, Stand Media, Imperative Group and Rocket Communications.

The main topic of the discussion was “Digital Out of Home is a multi channel multi touch-point communications medium. How should we design for the future to maximise viewer and user relevancy?”

The actual discussion was divided into several questions and there were:

PART 1 What do we mean by “multi touch-point” (devices/access points etc) in the context of Digital Out Of Home and what is it trying to achieve for viewers and/or users? (relevancy?)

PART 2 What does the existing Digital Out Of Home solution need to do more of to enhance the medium’s relationship with the end user? What – if anything – should we also stop doing?

PART 3 Does ‘multi touch-point’ mean ‘two-way’ communication? If so, how and where should this be designed into the medium to offer view & user value (however you choose to define that) when out of the home?

PART 4 How can multi touch-point digital media generate experiential value for users? Is this value easy to identify and reconcile commercially?

PART 5 What creative design elements are considered to be best of breed today and what trends are likely to emerge in the next 12 months?

PART 6 What physical design elements are considered to be best of breed today and what trends are likely to emerge in the next 12 months?

PART 7 What is the commercial challenge of delivering DOOH across multiple touch-points and how can this be best planned & managed?

Part 8 What challenges does the transactional nature of a multi touch-point model mean in terms of capturing, managing, storing and commercialising data?

PART 9 The collection of data means we can offer the viewer or the customer more value; what value does this offer?

PART 10 Which component parts of a multi touch-point proposition may offer the most commercial opportunities over the next 12 months and why?

PART 11 Does opening up the medium to users generating their own content necessarily make the medium more ‘relevant’?

Source: http://www.ddrmag.co.uk/links.php

Here’s the video of the first part of the discussion:

If you were present in the discussion, how would you have answer this question:
“What do we mean by “multi touch-point” (devices/access points etc) in the context of Digital Out Of Home and what is it trying to achieve for viewers and/or users? (relevancy?)”

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: 12 Months, Access Points, Amp, Commercial Challenge, Commercial Opportunities, Component Parts, Creative Design, Design Elements, digital signage, Digital Video, Dooh, Dynamax, Home Solution, Multi Media, Point Communications, Point Model, Relationship, Relevancy, Solution Need, Transactional Nature, Video Digital