There are several aspects to digital signage that warrant consideration for commercial integrators. Issues like scale and scope, timeliness, and messages’ switching speed all merit attention.

Also, consider who is going to assist in facilitating initial setup of digital signage templates, and who is going to train the administrators at the job site. Depending on the scope of the project, a simple display and SD card setup just isn’t going to make the grade.

Here are three common digital signage installation hang-ups and simple resolutions.

Trip-Up: One Size Does Not Fit All

Tip: Scale and scope of the job refers to where the signage needs to be, what audience is going to view it, and more. A single LCD or plasma display with a slot-loaded SD card and PowerPoint presentation playing can be considered digital signage. In some instances, that’s all your customers might say they need.

However, it’s difficult to sync multiple displays showing the same message off of that PowerPoint slide. Imagine a hotel lobby with multiple entry points — it certainly would make sense to have a digital sign near each entry indicating the day’s events, plus where and when those events take place. A more sophisticated system that can operate off the Internet would allow the user to easily update bulletins as needed, without walking to each display and inserting an SD card.

Trip-Up: The IT Guy Really Doesn’t Care

Tip: Along that line of scale and scope, having a digital signage system that is easy to manage for the end-user is vital. As a rule, the task of maintaining the signage does not fall to the highly paid IT professional; rather, it’s delegated to the administrative assistant. If the system is one that strikes fear into the heart of the administrator, you will not have a happy customer.

Having a program that allows the administrator to set up events on a clock/calendar basis makes sense as well. Our hypothetical hotel may choose to publicize the breakfast buffet from 6 to 10 a.m., then change to display the lunch menu until 2:30 p.m., then happy hour specials, dinner, and finally late-night drink deals. Not having to re-enter the program before each time span is a valuable feature.

Trip-Up: You’re Not Very Well Connected

Tip: In instances where a single bulletin is serving multiple monitors, consider what connectivity is required. As a rule, I tend to prefer VGA or a high-definition QAM channel over HDMI due to reliability issues, especially on larger-scale projects. Use a simple distribution amp for the VGA signal, or one of the newer modulators on the market that outputs a QAM channel, and you can feed multiple displays simultaneously.

In larger-scale applications, server topology makes more sense. Essentially, there is one point of contact for the administrator, and the ability to deliver multiple separate bulletins to displays simultaneously. In our hotel example, we may want the overall look to be the same, but have a restaurant bulletin, several meeting room bulletins to address particular guests, something at the health club to denote its hours, and more. The central server allows the myriad signs to be served off of the web or off of the LAN, with remote players attached to each display.

About the author

Fred Harding

Fred Harding handles technical sales and design at Capitol Sales.

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