Have you ever wondered how some billboards change from advertising an event to showing a news broadcast in the blink of an eye? These billboards no longer require workers to ride on scaffolding to tear down tarpaulin prints in the middle of the night. They instead rely on digital signage software. To understand what digital signage software is, we first have to understand digital signage.
Digital signage is whenever glass display cases of posters and other printed media are replaced with LCD screens. These screens are connected to digital signage players, computers that tell them what to display and when, and these players in turn can be controlled remotely through digital signage software.
There are many features a digital signage software can have, and which features a buyer looks for depends on what they’re displaying and where.
For example, in the case of billboard-sized digital signage, the sign is made of many smaller screens installed side by side. The digital signage software would then have to be able to crop what needs to be displayed into segments relative to the proportion of each screen, send the images out, and—especially in the case of video—synchronize the playback of each piece of media.
Billboards are on the extreme side, however, and digital signage software can come in less specialized commercial versions. The software used to show movie schedules and previews at a theatre can be the same software that a clothing store uses to have their storefront show children’s clothing when school lets out and professional wear during evening rush hour.
There are several components a prospective user might look for.
One is connectivity. Smaller businesses might need digital signage software that works within the closed network of their on-site computers, where an image could be sent either to a printer or the front desk display. Large operations such as municipal departments however might want cloud-based digital signage software so a central office can manage digital signage located on subway walls, across the front of City Hall, and on the sides of bus stops.
Another component would be the format. Video requires more robust digital signage software than simply showing static images. Touchscreens, such as in mall directories, require software that’s made with those features in mind. The software could also have content scheduling as previously mentioned in the case of clothing stores, which would require a worker to only need to spend an hour or two every few days to apply changes to the schedule.
Finally, responsivity is another factor. Look up “bluescreen road signs” on a search engine for an example of why digital signage needs to be responsive. If the digital signage software being used doesn’t have a way of monitoring the screens it’s connected to, businesses would have to rely on customers reporting the issue to floor staff, wasting time before it gets to the right department. Thus, some digital signage software can respond through either basic status indicators or more complex monitoring systems with thumbnails of what each digital signage is currently displaying.
Though simple enough that we see examples of digital signage software being used in our daily lives, some care and research are needed to find software that fits the needs of each situation.
