Free Webinar on Digital Signage: Pathways to Adoption

Kontron America, a world leader in embedded computing technology, created a free webinar on digital signage technology entitled “The Digital Signage Revolution: Key Advancements That Are Accelerating Deployment”.  The free webinar discusses how digital signage advancements fuel the future of different industries and the impact of digital signage on information consumption and media.  The free webinar describes the innovations and advancements in digital signage integration.  The digital signage whitepaper is available here.

More and more companies are using digital signage technology to advance their businesses.  Advances in technology and improved cost effectiveness have increased the use of digital signage. Companies appreciate the fact that they can change their signs frequently and inexpensively, making it easier to engage their customers.  Digital signage using project images, plasma displays, and LED/LCD technology is increasingly seen in restaurants, hospitals, retail stores, churches, hotels, corporate buildings and more.  Currently, videos on digital signs are seen by more consumers than on websites.  It is estimated that by the year 2015, digital signage will be on more than 10 million players and over 22 million screens.

Digital signs are utilized for a variety of purposes.  The most common use for digital signage is for advertising.  Digital signage can display public information such as news and weather.  These products can also broadcast corporate news and internal messages.  Inside retail stores, they build the brand identity and promote the brand.  In museums, they can provide a more interactive experience for the visitor through maps and visual aids.  In restaurants, they can show photos of food, ingredients, pricing and nutritional facts.

"This is going to become more and more of a pervasive, human-to-machine interface between digital signage and our normal everyday lives," Ed Stock, a platform system architect for digital signage at Intel, said.  "I think that's the biggest area, is just to enhance our experience and get us moving through our purchases, and (showing) advertising quicker and more relevant to us."

In the past, several factors have affected the adoption of digital signage as a public medium.  The cost of deploying digital signage used to be high while the return on investment (ROI) was relatively low.  Installing a large outdoor screen or even installing small screens in each store nationwide was very cost-prohibitive and did not produce results dramatic enough to justify the cost.  But now, with cheaper signs built around LCD technology, the ROI on installing these signs is increasing.  Studies show that digital signage is very effective in getting customers to remember display information.   The important thing is to calculate the ROI upfront and set tangible goals and objectives for the signage.  For example, the digital signage can be used to build brand awareness, increase sales or generate leads.

Integrators and suppliers have also encountered many difficulties regarding digital signage.  Digital signage software lack a common communication protocol and are usually proprietary systems.  It is a challenge coordinating licenses and software just to create new content for digital signage.  Compared to other media such as the internet and television, it is challenging advertising through different digital signage networks that use different solutions.  This makes digital signage systems hard to expand and expensive to build.  Now, organizations such as Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) and Point of Purchase Advertising Internation (POPAI) are creating open standards so different vendors can communicate across digital signage networks.  This interoperability increases digital signage vendors which in turn lowers cost.

A digital signage network involves installation, management software, network connectivity, bandwidth, media player, project planning, field service, content creation, advertising sales, display and more which requires coordination with the different vendors.  Now, digital signage vendors have teamed up to create consolidated solutions such as content design agencies that also support hardware or display units that have built-in media players.

In the past, some companies did not understand how to use digital signs to ensure success.  Improper location of screens, poor content, and incorrect choice of sign can cause many problems. Now, conferences, trade shows and other training sessions demonstrate effective uses of digital signage.  Products are also more user-friendly so companies can focus on creating content.

Digital signage is becoming smarter as technology advances.  Facial recognition technology can help display content relevant to the viewer. Technologies such as multi-touch, NFC and gesture are also helping bring digital signage to the next level.  There are also digital signage solutions that work with tablets and smartphone applications.  Advances in hardware such as processors with integrated graphics and cooler, faster and smaller CPUS, as well as 4G and 4G LTE connectivity also help.

About Kontron America:

Kontron America (http://us.kontron.com/) specializes in embedded computing technology.  They have more than 30% of their employees in research and development, creating solutions and standards for embedded computing platforms.  They help customers with their embedded application ready platforms so that customers can focus on their businesses.

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