What is digital signage?
Posted in News on May 18, 2022
Digital signage refers to the use of digital displays, such as LCD screens, LED panels, or projectors, to display multimedia content in various public or private settings. It is a form of visual communication that utilizes technology to present dynamic and interactive information.
Digital signage systems typically consist of three main components:
- Display Screens: These can vary in size and format, ranging from small screens mounted on walls to large-scale video walls. They are capable of displaying high-resolution images, videos, text, and animations.
- Content Management System (CMS): The CMS is the software platform that enables users to create, schedule, and manage the content to be displayed on the digital signage screens. It allows for centralized control over multiple screens or locations, making it easier to update content remotely.
- Media Players or Controllers: These devices are responsible for receiving and processing content from the CMS and delivering it to the display screens. They can be standalone units or integrated into the display screens themselves.
Digital signage can be found in various environments, including retail stores, airports, hotels, restaurants, corporate offices, educational institutions, healthcare facilities, and public spaces. It serves multiple purposes, such as advertising products and services, providing wayfinding information, promoting events, displaying real-time data, showcasing news and weather updates, and enhancing the overall customer experience.
The flexibility and dynamic nature of digital signage allow for engaging and targeted communication, as content can be updated in real time, tailored to specific locations or demographics, and synchronized with external data sources. This makes it a powerful tool for businesses and organizations to captivate their audience, convey information efficiently, and create immersive visual experiences.
Digital signage is a sub segment of signage. Digital signages use technologies such as LCD, LED and Projection to display content such as digital images, video, streaming media, and information. They can be found in public spaces, transportation systems, museums, stadiums, retail stores, hotels, restaurants, and corporate buildings etc., to provide wayfinding, exhibitions, marketing and outdoor advertising. Digital Signage market is expected to grow from USD $15 billion to over USD $24bn by 2020.
Digital contents
Traditionally content designs have been created by small, specialist firms. However they are often seen to be expensive and have uncertain ROI.[2] More recently, digital content is created easily and flexibly via a Content Management System. This means that new messages are created from a creative inventory of audio, video, image, graphics, words and phrases which assembled in different combinations and permutations to yield new messages in real-time.
Digital content displayed on the signage is presented in one of the following formats:
File: Digital sign dearborn.ogv
Video clip of a digital sign in Dearborn, MI, USA
Text - Scrolling text. Either scrolling text, or text dynamically updated via external Newsfeed source.
Images - Scrolling images, usually in the format of digital advertisement posters
Video - Usually in the format of commercial TV advertisements.
Interactive interfaces - Integration of signage with touch screen, beacons, sensors, RFID technologies, to allow for two-way communications with the users. Interactive digital signage helps to engage users and may also assist advertisers to gain insight in customer behavior.
Context-aware interfaces [3] - Integration of signage with cameras, sensors and software to monitor the ambient environment and audience, allowing signage to be updated according to the audience profile, weather conditions or some other relevant external factor.