The use of "digital signage" i.e. the presentation of digital screen content in public places, is increasing due to various factors including: reduced cost and high availability of large LCD and plasma screens, high return on investment when compared to non digital advertising, availability of purpose designed software and hardware devices and network ubiquity.

This market sector is likely to keep growing, embracing delivery over mobile networks using interactive media, new advanced ultra thin flexible displays, emerging standards for interoperability across diverse applications.

Nevertheless this is a complex area, often involving many different suppliers and stakeholders with the accompanying difficulties technical compatibilities and desirable marketing goals, without expensive expert assistance.

There are many companies who will supply part elements but rely on the end client to "fill-in" the missing links in providing the final solution. This can make the client appear as project manager and not enjoy the benefits of a full service provider.

A full service provider will deliver many of digital signage solutions as well as specialist disciplines as web marketing, ecommerce, kiosk systems all of which are very applicable to the digital signage market, and in many cases indistinguishable.

Typical digital signage scenarios

Scenario 1: Provision of a single or multiple touch screen technology displays (kiosks) within an exhibition stand environment or public domain i.e shopping centre information points.

Scenario 2: Installation of a touch screen within a clients own product i.e mechanical excavator/agricultural vehicle providing a complete interactive facility to potential customers. This typical installation would be powered via the vehicle battery from either 12v or 24v portable supply. Each screen could be networked with others via a central server either on-line or using local wireless facilities.

Scenario 3: Management of multiple screen installations nationwide with sales campaigns being presented simultaneously, and changed overnight or as required. Monitoring required at each display to ensure correct operation.

Solution components

The above scenarios epitomise the specific challenges in devising solutions to meet customer requirements that typically involve many variables.

Kiosk type applications (Scenario 1) will require an intelligent client device (computer) at each display. These client computers would be equipped with fast graphics and network interfaces. However no additional software would be necessary on these except a standard web browser, if the main application and content was delivered from a simple server, either locally (e.g a laptop with a wireless network interface) or from the internet. Additional innovative features may include static detectors that would alert each system when a user approached and triggered an appropriate greeting. In the future it may be possible to use holographic or 3D displays with the same system.

The custom application described in Scenario 2 above would represent a special case of the kiosk system. The physical hardware would be adjusted for the different environment, but the operation could be identical but using different content, served by the server and designed to deal with different inputs. If desirable the server and client computers could be one.

The general use of digital signature over a network of displays (Scenario 3) would also be addressed by the framework discussed above. Security would be important, and possibly maximised using "push" technology. Each client computer could be accessed from a central point if special attention was necessary. Simple scripts could be written to either report back to the central server from each client or poll each client from the server to determined proper operation. Campaign scheduling could be achieved by pushing content from the server or adding the campaign content to the server location from which the client is programmed to refresh content.