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The challenge. Share up to the minute information with employees, students, customers or the public. The solution. Digital signage systems make it easy to disseminate key information to people within your facilities. The most successful systems display your messages when and where your audience is most receptive. Viewers may be sitting in a break room, waiting in a lobby, perhaps waiting in line. We see increasingly sophisticated systems at the mall, the bank and the grocery store. Yet “this kind of system has been around for 20 years or more,” says Jack Rebert, manager of CTI’s Decatur, Illinois branch. “And it’s important to realize that you don’t necessarily need the most expensive bells and whistles to get an effective message out to your staff or customers.” In its most basic implementation, a digital signage system uses a computer to show still or motion images on one or more monitors. But today, many systems connect a media player, controller and multiple plasma or LCD displays to the organization’s internal network or the Internet. The use of network devices ensures crisp images and accurate control. It can also save a lot of cost, as there’s no longer a need to run expensive coax or VGA cabling throughout your facility. Bandwidth is an issue that must always be addressed, particularly if you’ll be transmitting large video or Flash content. Fortunately, it’s rarely a problem for the types of messages used in a corporate or school environment. Signage systems typically include content management software, which helps schedule delivery of messages and verify that they have played properly. The content management package may include message authoring, but whether it does or not, it should accept the content you create in standard formats such as PowerPoint, Flash, MPEG and QuickTime. Content creation is, of course, the most critical component of your system. Whatever the level of sophistication and automation, the quality of the content will most determine whether your system will accomplish its goals. Thus the most important decision you’ll need to make is who will be responsible for content development and how much time they’ll be able to devote.
Jennifer Fisher of the Digital Signage Group, a distributor who supplies equipment to CTI and other integrators, says automation is a big concern of many system managers. “How can you minimize the drain your human resources, whether that’s programming time or the work of administrative assistants?” Fisher sees a trend in designing content management systems to interface with the organization’s databases and the Internet. There should be no need for someone to re-enter information that already exists within the organization’s computers. Examples include schedules, news information, stock prices, and class or seminar registrations that may form the basis of your messages. This type of automation typically requires custom programming, but it can be well worth the investment. Fisher also sees interactivity as a growing trend. “Some retailers are experimenting with systems where customers swipe their loyalty cards and then see special offers tailored to their buying patterns,” she says. Managers of less sophisticated systems should still think in these terms. For example, a community college may attract students to a new course via a message on the electronic sign board, then place terminals nearby where they can get online and register. Smaller retailers can place advertising displays at the point of purchase. Corporations can make it clear, on each message, who to call or where to go to act on the information presented. Industry standards “The biggest question I’m asked,” Fisher says, “is ‘what are the product standards?’” There are so many choices for displays, media players, authoring programs, content management systems and all-in-one packages that it can be quite confusing for someone new to the field. “Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of cohesiveness in our industry,” Fisher says. “For that reason, it really helps to work with an integrator who can help you sort through the various hardware and software packages available.” Conference Technologies, of course, has been working in this field for many years. We hope you’ll allow us to help you. Printable version of this article |
Automation and interactivity
Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Illinois uses a small system to post the day’s schedule and information about the hospital in the lobby of their Forum Conference Center. Hutchison School in Memphis continuously sends daily calendars and news to four flat panel monitors, keeping students informed on current events and happenings at the school. The Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign uses an automated system to post the day’s events at each of 13 meeting rooms. A Fortune 500 insurance company uses CTI to install and maintain a nationwide signage network. They use the same displays to swtich between local and national company news, televised programming from CNN and a weather channel and presentations by staff and management. Learn more about each of these organizations and how they use digital signage |
CTI installs some very complex signage networks, but for many of our customers, a simplified approach is best. For example... 