Written by Guest Blogger: Heather McDaniels
When you see a message scrolling or flashing across a billboard, or a video advertisement on the side of a stadium, or even short videos streamed on scoreboards at ballgames, you are seeing products of what is known as the digital signage industry. You are of course familiar with the concepts of advertisement and entertainment in public places, designed to meet a large audience; the digital signage industry is essentially an extension of these ideas, by which the same advertisement and entertainment are brought to the public through digital media. Now, thanks to the spread and usefulness of wireless internet, digital signage seems to be expanding even more, to the point that it will likely soon be surprising to see a billboard that does not change periodically, or a message that does not scroll endlessly.
Already, it is a bit strange to think back just a few years to when digital signage was a far smaller industry. Billboards used to always be solid, painted, and unchanging, and television screens in public areas (such as airports or the hallways at large stadiums) could sometimes only display one message. Now, it is extremely common to see billboards that can change their messages several times per minute (vastly expanding the number of advertisements they can display in a given amount of time), or screens scrolling messages that used to have to be posted one at a time, or one per screen. This is how far the digital signage industry has come just in the last few years, and, again, with the spread of wireless Internet, the industry will continue to grow.
Just like anything else that can use a wireless connection, the absence of cables and physical connections essentially signals a massive increase in speed and convenience. Not so long ago, you had to connect your computer by a cable reaching to a phone jack in the wall in order to access the Internet; now, you need only connect wirelessly to the nearest available network to enjoy high-speed, reliable Internet access. It is the same with the digital signage industry. Advertisers and entertainers are now able to mount television screens and other media display mechanisms just about anywhere they want, and can remotely, wirelessly cause messages to run across them. This is just another way that wireless Internet has improved the clarity, scope, and efficiency with which we do things – and the networks and speeds involved are only getting bigger and faster.
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