Infographics Worth 1000's Of Words

While your customers might not dwell long enough to delve into graphically rich information displayed on your digital sign, a well designed infographic can draw your attention and explain complex information quickly and easily through the use of graphics and visuals instead of lots and lots of text. A treasure trove of examples have been archived by the folks at Good Magazine on Flickr here. And the grandfather of the infographic Richard Saul Wurman published a great compilation from industry leading designers called Understanding USA.

Digital Sign Networks Step #2 Content Content Content

A couple of mantras to consider posting on your creative directors wall or better yet, anybody's wall who develops your digital signage content or thinks they now how to design effective and compelling content for Digital Signage networks:

- "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler," Albert Einstein

- "Simplicity is the key to happiness in the modern world," the Dalai Lam

- "Less is more," Mies van der Rohe

Read why simplcty is the key for outdoor creative competing for the attention of today's time starved consumer.

Digital Sign Networks Step #1 Location Location Location

Whether you want to install a digital signage network that is supported by advertising or fo in-store merchandising and messaging be sure to study layout and customer flow (in addition to installation considerations). Locating a digital sign in the correct location will help increase impulse purchases at point-of-sale, reduce perceived wait time, spread word-of-mouth, increase recall, and improve overall customer in-store experience.

Scalable Vector Graphics To The Digital Signage Rescue?

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), is a language that describes a drawing based on the points and shapes that compose them so they can be displayed in any resolution as clearly as possible. Compared to pixel graphics like clipart using BMP or JPEG formats, SVG is typically a smaller files size and requires less CPU power for play back. It is also royalty free and an open standard. Developers can build and add functionality to an SVG file. Programming (scripting and event support) can be used as a platform to build graphically rich applications and user interfaces. SpinetiX, based in Switzerland, has done this with a new digital signage solution. In the process they have created one of the smallest hardware players in the industry along with one of the best warranties, lifetime. Their tiny Hyper Media Player (HMP) come with a Win PC authoring tool (The Hyper Media Director, HMD) so you do not need to be an SVG programming wiz to create content to distribute to your HMP (using either internet or a removable thumb drive). In a marketplace where many solutions are available and similar, SpinetiX is a breath of fresh air, an innovative and exciting new solution. XML & Javascript gurus of the world: sign-up now for your free trial version.

Infocomm 2009: Digital Signage Recap

Attendance was down and exhibitors scaled back (like every show this year), but digital signage is growing. The Digital Signage showcase area of the expo floor is taking up more and more space at this annual show, the premier event for the Professional AV industry, with more and more affordable solutions. My quick take:
1. Still a lot of companies. There are a lot of digital signage companies competing for market share. Differentiation is the key. When will attrition and or the mergers begin?
2. Say hello to Atom. The new Intel Atom processor is now appearing in commercial-grade media players for digital signage in the $500 price range.  Atom based consumer-grade netbooks with more then adequate video output capabilities are already available for $250.
3. Easy content creation for networked signage. FrameMedia has been offering the FrameChannel content management service for wireless photo frame owners for over 3 years now. With SignChannel, a $15/month business solution, hundreds of channels of content (news, weather, sports, financial data, etc) along with editable templates for professional looking content on your digital sign is now affordable and easy to do.
4. Do you want live TV content with your signage? Roku/BrightSign had several new product announcements. In particular, a live video module that connects to a BrightSign player lets you display live TV in a predefined zone. The total price for this solution will be less than $1,000, a new and more affordable low.

The Barrier To Entry Has Been Removed

Having spent many years in digital signage growing channel distribution and strategic partnerships for a tier 1 global LCD manufacturing leader, going after the millions of small business owners with affordable solutions was never priority #1, going after opportunities that could lead to thousands of units was. Perhaps that makes sense for a huge corporation, developing one for many opportunites instead of many for one. However I have since moved on and continue to be amazed at how inexpensive the investment is for a small business owner to get a digital signage solution. This was one of the compelling reasons why I started consulting in this area. As I head off to InfoComm this week, the professional AV industry premier event of the year, I expect to see more product offerings with more advanced capabilities at more affordable prices for small business owners to consider. My next post will talk about some of the specifics I found of interest.

Digital Signage & The Great White Way

New York City is a great barometer of established and emerging trends. A walk around Time Square and then towards the Empire State Building reveals that Digital Signage in foodservice has taken hold. Flat panel displays can be found in many restaurants as enitre menu boards, in hybrid menu boards (combining static menus with a flat panel display), or as promotional signage in portrait mode advertising daily specials. The entire menu board array is quite impressive and in some cases incorporates automatic changes based on inventory, environmental or price control triggers. Still pretty much state-of-theart stuff. Short term however a simple mpg/jpg player and inexpensive flat panel display is a way to benefit from some of the same advantages the state-of-the-art solution offers (improved efficiency, sales revenue, customer experience, brand impression, etc) but a much less cost.