What is digital signage

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What is Digital Signage?

Digital signage is the display of multimedia content on electronically controlled displays. Digital signage has a number of benefits over traditional static signs. The most important of which include:

Signage can be updated on the fly through a digital signage network without having to interact with the signs physically.
Unlike the content on static signs the multimedia dimension offered by digital signage makes content more engaging, more informative and more targeted.
Digital signage can be interactive through touch screen technology and other interactive technologies.
Digital signage has been shown in a number of studies to offer a better ROI.

Mediacaster is designed to give you the tools you need to take advantage of the benefits of digital signage. Find out how here.

Digital Signage Networks

Digital signage networks are used to deliver targeted promotional and informational content to a largely captive audience. This includes people waiting for service at banks, restaurants or government facilities. The network can be a combination of interactive kiosk-like devices and standard broadcast and narrow-cast displays.

The graphic below represents the Mediacaster infrastructure in a typical digital signage network:

Mediacaster's media network is designed to work with a variety of of different technologies, to offer the most flexible solution for out of home advertising. Click here to find out how.

Digital Signage Content

There is a great deal of content you can add, collectively or individually to a digital display. You can add the following elements:

Images
Video Clips
Flash movies and applications
RSS Feeds
Dynamic tickers/crawls
PowerPoint files
Website URL’s
Live Video Capture (DVD, Web Cams, CCTV etc.)
Live analogue and digital television
XML, text files and ODBC data text feeds

A typical digital display is broken down into a number of different zones. This is illustrated below, where we can clearly see one potential layout for a typical display.

Zone 1 can be used for video, Zone 2 for still images and Zone 3 for a text ticker. This simple layout combines the impact of full-motion video and sound, single or rotating branded images as well as information rich message-loops in a single footprint. Add to this the ability to change all content easily and quickly across a digital network and the power of digital signage becomes apparent.

Digital signage is used for many different purposes and there is no definitive list. Most uses fall into the following broad categories:

Advertise: Sell digital screen time to third-party advertisers
Market: In-store promotions and product cross-selling and up-selling
Educate: Distributed training and education for institutions and organisations
Entertain: Reduce boredom at in-store queuing points
Inform: Broadcast up-to-date news, events calendars and location sensitive information to highly targeted audiences
Alert: Send emergency messages to those people who need it most