Digital signage is a relatively new innovation. Using flat screen TVs for out of home advertising has, despite its massive growth only been around for the last decade and day by day the industry is changing.
In planning any digital signage campaign it is important to remember to ensure the system you install is both flexible and scalable as with such a fast paced and changing industry, ensuring you can move with the times is vital.
Content Distribution
Perhaps the most important reason that the digital signage system should be as scalable as possible is the need to continually change content. Any content delivery system has to be flexible because whatever is being displayed on the digital signage screens could be subject to change as prices, offers and deals change.
It’s also one of the strengths of digital signage that the content can be tailored to particular times of the day or to a particular audience so the content delivery system should be able to cope with such scalability.
There are really two different methods for delivering content to a digital signage display: You can use a media player installed inside the screen/LCD enclosure where content can be uploaded manually but a far more preferable system is to network the screens together and to a central media playing hub where the content can be automatically uploaded and changed at a central location.
Repair/Maintenance
All signage screens are vulnerable to failure no matter how well protected they are. Most LCD TVs have a life expectancy but even before that expires, things can and do go wrong so it is important to be able to get your displays back up and running as soon as possible.
Many LCD enclosures particularly in the outdoor digital signage market are manufactured to take standard screen which enables them to be replaced very easily. Some commercial digital signage displays, whilst manufactured specifically for the purpose can often be less flexible in what type of enclosure they can be fitted into so choosing an LCD enclosure with standardised internal mountings such as VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) – so a quick replacement of the screen can be achieved.
