With digital signage players popping up in a variety of new markets, some think it’s as easy as installing the player and waiting for the extra dollars to roll in.

As simple as it may seem to plug and play digital signage content, there’s a lot more that goes into it, said Alan Brawn, principal at Brawn Consulting, during a recent webinar hosted by the Digital Signage Federation and Digital Signage Expo 2012. Watch the full presentation here.

“The number one reason it fails is poor planning up front,” Brawn said. “The real king of digital signage is the objective of the project.”

Opportunities And Challenges

After you understand the objective, you can determine the criteria of judgment. Is it return on investment? Return on the objective? How much time will you wait to measure the return, and what are the repercussions for meeting or not meeting those criteria?

To determine the digital signage needs, consider how many screens the client needs, the environment for the players, whether the display will run all day or just during business hours, whether it should be interactive, if Software as a Service is worthwhile, whether the client wants advertising, information or both on the DS players, the types of content that should be included, and who will control the network and where.

Integrators, Brawn said, can take the lead by helping clients create differentiated digital signage, “compelling solutions, not just displays.” By finding the right partners, he said, the display can become even more unique and effective.

Among the challenges installers face when trying to pitch digital signage is a lack of understanding by clients on what digital signage can do or how it works, as well as high costs of installation and scalability issues.

When it comes to digital signage, “you won’t achieve value” if you don’t solve a problem for a client, improve a client’s condition and give clients added capabilities, Brawn said.

Jeff Porter, executive vice president at Scala, has noticed a pronounced shift in digital signage from a tool that is included in more high-end installs to a piece of the solution in projects of all sizes and types.

“Until recently, digital signage hasn’t really been for the masses,” he said. “Today, there’s an opportunity for the small and medium-sized business owners who didn’t think they could do what the big boys do.”

It won’t be long, Porter said, before all digital signage screens will become IP-addressable, pointing to products such as the Comm Caddy used in some restaurants and bars on napkin holders and the HP Signage Player, which he said users turn on and enter a code to set up their accounts. Having support from HP, Intel and Microsoft gives digital signage “market validation,” he said.

“You’re really going to see an explosion in the digital signage market in the next few years,” Porter said.

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D. Craig MacCormack

Craig MacCormack is a veteran journalist with more than 15 years experience covering local and national news and sports as well as architecture and engineering. He joined Commercial Integrator in January 2011. Follow him on Twitter: @CraigMacCormack.

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