What is Digital Signage?
July 08, 2024
Whether you’re using a screen for your restaurant or an LED advertising display in your store, digital signage has revolutionized the way businesses communicate with their customers. In this guide to digital signage, we will explore everything you need to know about this technology to help you make informed decisions and create impactful digital signage solutions for your business.
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Digital Signage Defined
At its core, digital signage is simply a digital screen such as an LCD monitor or TV that can be used as a sign in place of analog signs such as billboards, banners, menu boards, and wayfinding maps. Digital signage can be found in a variety of industries, public spaces, and commercial environments, including manufacturing facilities, hospitals, retail stores, restaurants, airports, train stations, corporate offices, stadiums, and outdoor advertising displays, with content including images, videos, text, and animations.
Content for signage can reside on individual media players or servers located at the screen site or can be hosted and managed remotely via the cloud. With cloud-based digital signage, all content and data are stored, processed, and accessed through online servers, simplifying the process of managing, delivering, and updating what’s displayed on the screen.
Types of digital signage:
A digital signage solution encompasses various types of displays and applications, each serving specific purposes and catering to different environments and audiences. For example:
- Wayfinding: Digital wayfinding can incorporate maps, directories, ads, announcements, and more all in one screen.
- Information: Digital screens installed indoors in places such as retail stores, corporate offices, lobbies, waiting areas, conference rooms, and restaurants can be used for advertising, informational displays, wayfinding, employee communication, and entertainment.
- DOOH: Digital out-of-home, or outdoor digital signage, is designed to withstand harsh weather conditions and provide visibility in outdoor environments. Those displays are commonly used for advertising, public information displays, digital billboards, and transportation signage.
- Menu boards: Digital menu boards are used in restaurants, cafes, fast-food chains, and other food service establishments to display menus, promotions, pricing, nutritional information, and high-quality food imagery.
- Video walls: Video walls consist of multiple screens tiled together to create a larger, seamless display surface. They are used for impactful visual presentations, advertising, branding, and immersive experiences in high-traffic areas such as shopping malls, airports, stadiums, and trade shows.
- Billboards: Unlike static signs, digital billboards can display multiple messages, cycling through each every few seconds. In addition, the brightness of digital billboards and their ability to incorporate full-motion graphics makes them more engaging than traditional billboards.
Common Applications for Digital Signage by Industry
What technologies are commonly used in digital signage? Common technologies used in digital signage include LED and LCD screens for high-resolution displays, media players, and content management software to manage and schedule visual content. Additionally, cloud-based platforms and IoT connectivity are often utilized to enable real-time data updates and remote management of digital signage networks.
Some of the most popular applications for digital signage include:
How Digital Signage Works
Digital signage solutions work by combining hardware, software, and content to deliver multimedia messages to a target audience. Digital content is managed and organized using a digital signage content management system (CMS) that allows users to upload, schedule, and distribute content to one or multiple digital signage displays via a browser-based player. Users can organize content into playlists, schedule playback times, and specify display settings.
Content creation through a CMS:
The process of displaying information on a digital screen begins with the creation of digital content, which may include images, videos, text, animations, and interactive elements. Content can be created using various software tools such as graphic design software, video editing software, and content creation platforms.
The Canvas module that is part of the Samsung VXT CMS, for example, includes creative tools that enable anyone to create content effortlessly and intuitively with support for various templates, widgets, and partner content. Users can create original content with custom and company fonts, as well as with templates and images.
Controlling hardware through remote management:
Digital signage systems typically require network connectivity to communicate with the CMS and retrieve content updates. Displays and browser-based players connect to the internet via wired Ethernet connections, Wi-Fi, or cellular networks. This allows for remote management and monitoring of the digital signage network from any network-connected device.
Samsung VXT’s digital signage remote management features support screen management features, including power on/off, software updating, and more. Additionally, security controls can be applied to lock the USB, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and network unless permitted.
Choosing Your Digital Signage Solution
The first step in choosing digital signage involves clearly defining your goals and objectives, whether they are increasing brand awareness, driving sales, improving communication, enhancing customer experience, or all of the above. Determine your budget, including both upfront costs and ongoing expenses such as content creation, software licenses, maintenance, and support.
Choosing digital signage software involves a similar process. Evaluate the features and functionality offered by the digital signage software to ensure it meets your specific needs. Consider features such as content scheduling and management, remote monitoring and management, analytics and reporting, and integration with third-party applications and platforms.
Hardware
Choosing the right displays for your digital signage is crucial for ensuring optimal performance and effectiveness. The main types of display technologies available are LCD, LED, Business TV, and Hospitality TV. Each type has its own set of features.
- LCD displays are commonly used for indoor applications involving multiple screens due to their affordability and versatility.
- LED displays are preferred for outdoor and large-scale installations due to their brightness, durability, and visibility in daylight.
- Business TVs are designed for small business owners as a user-friendly screen to communicate information to potential customers.
- Hospitality TVs provide entertainment to visitors in spaces including hotel lobbies and guest rooms
As for size, the ideal display size for digital signage depends on factors, including the distance between the viewer and the screen, mounting height, and local codes regarding display brightness and content limitations. Standard 42-inch displays may be appropriate for deployments such as retail stores or restaurants, where the viewer is relatively close to the screen. Large displays or video walls might be required in situations where the screens are mounted much higher, such as in a sports arena, or when the goal is to engage viewers from a distance, such as in a sidewalk-facing window. Digital billboards, of course, can be the same size as traditional billboards.
In terms of screen resolution, 1080p is the most common, although displays with 4K resolution are becoming increasingly popular. Ultimately, the types of displays a deployer chooses will depend on the project's needs, goals, and budget.
Software
When considering a digital signage company for software, considerations include the number of screens involved, their location, and the type of content to be displayed. The cloud-based structure of Samsung VXT CMS, for example, enables businesses to deploy and update content without the need to visit each display location. The Canvas module in Samsung VXT enables anyone with the right permissions to create content effortlessly using custom and company fonts, as well as templates and images pre-loaded on the system. Samsung VXT allows administrators to manage and troubleshoot multiple displays and control security settings, all from a central location.
Consider Price
The question of how much a digital signage solution costs depends in large part on the screen size, resolution, and installation cost, along with a host of other considerations. If the network is to be part of a historic building, for example, installation costs will likely be much higher than one located in a shopping mall, and very large displays will cost significantly more than a standard 42-inch screen.
By considering all of these factors and conducting thorough research, you can choose the right digital signage software that meets your specific requirements and helps you achieve your digital signage goals.
Check out our popular plans for digital signage. Click here to start your free trial of Samsung VXT CMS and see what it can do for you!
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