Digital signage has gained a fair amount of popularity in the past few years. Almost everybody seems to be using it, but unless you’re familiar with this rising marketing medium, you might not know what it’s all about. This makes it hard to grasp whether it’s the right fit for your organization. However, worry not!
After reading this article, you will understand not only what digital signage is, but also the technical specifications and what purpose it fulfills. This knowledge will allow you to make an informed decision and not make a decision that Michael Kelso would make from That 70s Show. He wasn’t the sharpest pencil in the drawer! You do not want to do what he would in just about any situation! Let’s begin.
Digital Signage: What is it?
That’s probably the main question you have in mind. A digital sign is nothing more than a video display showcasing changeable, dynamic content. Updating this content is possible via a hard-wired or wireless network. However, digital signs should not be confused with a regular TV display with scrolling presentations or images – they’re much more, being comprised of a centrally controlled system of displays relaying a particular message to the target audience at opportune moments.
Difference with Traditional Signs: Compared to static designs, the digital ones enable you to alter the content as per your convenience from anywhere. This allows you to do away with buying and printing new signs.
How Digital Signs Help: No longer do you have to be content with displaying just your company information or advertisements. Promoting your brand in unique ways becomes possible with digital signs. Your content not only garners more attention from consumers but also the right sort of attention.
Technical Specifications
Digital signage varies in terms of technical complexity, but most of them feature the following components:
- Display
- Media player
- Content Management System (CMS)
- Cables
- Mounting system
- Fans and printers (Touchscreen versions only)
- Kiosk components (Touchscreen versions only)
Among these, the display, the CMS, and the media player are the most significant components, available in every digital signage. Find more information on each of them below:
- Display: Digital signage offers various display options, including LCD, LED, and plasma screens. The majority of LED and LCD screens attain a maximum size of 50 to 60 inches, but some plasma screens measure 120 inches. Despite the size advantage, plasma screens are used less often due to the higher cost and greater energy usage. In contrast, LCD screens are a lot more lightweight and capable of handling static content with greater efficiency. LCD screens also last longer.
- CMS: CMS applications are meant to help you schedule, monitor, and launch content across your digital signage network. You can launch CMS either on your desktop or your Internet-enabled mobile device. Managing content becomes simpler with CMS, but more advanced systems are capable of assigning and managing different roles to different classes of users. Aside from these content features, CMS is used to implement data analysis tools, log file auditing tools, and supports audience profiling.
- Media Player: In digital signage, the media player is an external, box-like device that remains connected to the display via HDMI cables and to the Internet. The media player powers the content and decides where and when to display said content. The size of a media player can be as small as a USB drive to as large as a desktop computer.
Which Businesses Employ Digital Signage?
Digital signage caters to some industries and assists them with various activities.
Retail stores: Digital signage helps retail stores display their products in a clearer, more informative manner, build better customer relationships through loyalty programs, and promote new sales and deals using interactive coupons.
Restaurants: Restaurants can use digital signage to display their menus, promote special dishes, and change offerings based on what day or week it is. Real and perceived wait times are also considerably reduced.
Healthcare: Digital signs help entertain patients in waiting rooms, relay important information to staff and patients, improve navigation in larger facilities, and display event or fundraising details.
Hospitality: The hospitality industry employs digital signage to highlight events in the location, display news, traffic, and weather updates, provide directions, and entertain customers in lobbies.
Education: The education sectors benefits from digital signage by using its capabilities to promote student organizations and event schedules, deliver vital campus announcements, offer campus directions, recognize faculty and student achievements, and improve recruitment efforts.
Banks: Banks use digital signage to offer staff and employee training, improve brand experience, and promote bank services.
Digital signage could seem like an unnecessary expense in some very minute way, but when used effectively, it can greatly benefit your business, improving customer satisfaction and experience and helping to draw new clients and/or customers. Digital signage is sagacious move on any business’s, entity’s, or department’s part for a number of reasons, some of them are even hard to put into words.
Investing in this type of marketing cannot only help out your customers and help move merchandise, they can help the customer and the business/entity come closer together. Make the call now! Order one today!
