Richard N Williams

Timetabling and the concept of trains running on time is perhaps a British obsession. When the railways rose to prominence during the nineteenth century, train scheduling and timetables became an essential part of life. So much so, the first national timescale was developed, known as Railway Time, which eventually became Greenwich Meantime. Keeping railway customers […]

Signage in public spaces such as libraries, museums and galleries, plays an integral role in communication and improving the experience of customers. Finding your way around a museum, or learning about upcoming events at a gallery is an essential aspect of the whole experience and increasingly, more and more of these public buildings are implementing […]

A PYE television, one of the first commercial televisions ever produced, is still operating after 65 years. TV collector Steve Farley, is still using the television, which has, in its lifetime, shown events such as Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, the moon landings and the assassination of JFK. Cathode Ray Tube televisions (CRTs) like this, while bulky […]

The UK has Government has announced new rules affecting outdoor advertisers, including outdoor digital signage, effectively banning sexually provocative content and restricting outdoor content placed close to schools. The new rules, aimed at combating the sexualisation of children, means that any outdoor advertisement placed within 100 yards of a school will have to adhere to […]

When using outdoor screens for outdoor digital signage or information, once choice that requires some thought is the orientation of the screen. When using television at home to watch regular programming or DVDs, the screen is in landscape mode, with most screens implementing widescreen to provide a 16:9 aspect ratio (16 units wide, 9 high)

With the falling cost of LCD screens and the ease and practicality of LCD enclosures, outdoor digital signage is no longer only for big businesses and advertisers. More and more smaller companies and institutions are installing outdoor screens for communication, branding, providing information or advertising.

Thousands of different televisions are on the market. From varying screen sizes, different technologies such as plasma and LCD, and they come in a wide variety of costs brackets. For outdoor digital signage, commercial grade screens provide a longer-lasting solution but there are also two other technologies that are essential for using a screen outdoors.

Digital signage sued to be a complicated business, anybody wanting to install signs around a retail store required half a dozen experts to install, network, generate content and maintain the screens. Now, with the falling cost of LCD displays and an increase in manufacturers, now installing a digital signage system can be incredibly simple. All-in-one […]

Since the rise of the tablet PC, touch screens have become increasingly common. A recent report suggests that by 2015, half of all computers purchased for children will implement touch screen rather than keyboard. Touch screens with, therefore, be as familiar to the next generation of computer users, as keyboards are for today’s computer users. […]

In such a fast-paced world, people want to be kept informed. In the service industry, when people are forced to wait it leads to complaints and disgruntled customers. Transport companies have long known this and have always tried to keep customers up-to-date of the latest developments. Knowing about train delays, timetable changes and cancellations is […]