Guest Posts
Guest Post: Why You Would Need Digital Signage
Written by Guest Blogger: Nadia Jones
Every sign has a purpose. Of course, some have more than others. The trend of using digital signage has become so rampant these days that many businesses and institutions, in my opinion, are getting them before even considering why they need them. Digital signs are awesome. But there’s nothing more cringe-inducing or face-palming than seeing a digital sign that offers no more variation or usability than a sign composed of a piece of paper and a Sharpee.
Schedules, Updates, and More Schedules
This should go without saying, but any sign or outpost that contains many schedules that are updated daily would be a perfect use of digital signage. Buildings with good numbers of conferences and institutions that hold a lot of meetings (such as universities) are prime candidates for digital signage. For conferences and lectures in particular, these digital signs can be helpful not only in updating time and locations of events, but also in providing descriptions and advertising for these types of events.
Of course any public transportation company or service should and probably is using digital signs; not using this technology in a field or situation that relies on relaying constant updates to customers is simply inexcusable. Maybe five years ago that sort of thing would be ok, but not this decade.
Pretty Pictures, Even Videos!
If you feel like your signs could have a lot of digital media to offer, be them pictures or especially video, digital signage would work absolutely perfectly for your needs. For pictures and graphics, digital signage works great because it gives you an excellent quality image that you can then reuse or change without having to pay extra printing fees like you would for physical prints. Dollar for dollar, when you take into account long term costs of high quality prints, digital signage will always be cheaper and usually look better too.
For video, the need for digital signage is obvious. Frankly put, there is simply no other way to convey video through a sign without digital signage. Now, audio can get a bit more complicated, but it all depends on what you’re using to host the media for the sign.
Touch Media, Oh My!
While this technology is still pretty new and therefore expensive, touch signs can be a godsend for your digital signage needs. Particularly if you intend the sign to be used for information-getting and navigational purposes, having a touch-screen sign makes it so that you can offer a lot of information in one place without having it all cluttered and bunched together. Touch screen is definitely the future of digital signage.
About the Guest Blogger:
This is a guest post by Nadia Jones who blogs at online college about education, college, student, teacher, money saving, movie related topics.
Signs outside of always-changing meeting rooms would be a really great utilization of digital signs
Nice plus points and features of a digital signage!!
i would like to add one!
Say for instance, if the whole country is absorbed and engulfed in final match of Cricket World cup, then everyone would love to watch every single shot of that Match. Under this situation, Digital Signage installed in highly-trafficked areas; can facilitate thousands of pedestrians to watch uninterrupted live match and enjoy this digital experience.
Interesting to read however it seems that digital signage technology is progressing but slowly.
I recall producing one of the first interactive kiosks for the Harvey museum in 1995 and thinking ‘this will set the world alight’. That said, at least flat screens and cheaper, lighter display technology is moving it on at a better pace now; plus the ability to update and download video and display content remotely and across multiple networks.
Great post, but do you really think touch screen is the future? even with the release of kinect inspired technologies that enables gesture based interaction which can potentially be cheaper, easier to maintain and encourage more interactivity since multiple users can be using it at the same time.
Great post! It really is exciting seeing the functionality of DS. The future is now and its only getting better. Did you get a chance to go to Infocomm 2011? It was awesome.
Have an awesome day!
D