Digital signage is the most revolutionary form of advertising for businesses. It will increase your profits if used correctly. However, at the end of day, it is technology. That is, like every other technology, running a digital display has some technical requirements. But the beginners in the field don’t understand the nuances of any new technology easily.

The case is the same with these new age signage boards too. Businesses who do not understand this money-spinning field often get duped by companies. People are simply waiting to trick you with expensive solutions instead of offering cost-effective ones. And most individuals get duped when it comes to the switches.

In the olden days there were manual switch operators in the telecom companies to transfer your calls. The concept is the same for the signage boards too. There are switches to manage the display of information on the digital signage board.

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of switches available in this field: the networked managed ones and the unmanaged ones. Each one has its own pros and cons. These have to be weighed carefully before selecting the suitable switch.

As the name suggests, the unmanaged switches do not need to be managed. In other words, you have a plug and play option where you connect the cables and voila, you are good to go. You don’t need expert staff to manage the networks, security and other stuff. Though easy to use and implement, this version has its disadvantages too.

The unmanaged switches give you a limited range of options. As these are not connected to a network, you cannot remotely manage the information that goes on your digital signage. You also can’t do much about the service quality and security issues with an unmanaged switch.

And those are the exact problems which would be solved by the networked managed switches. These networked managed switches give you the power of networking. You can set up the virtual LANs (VLANs) and you can remotely control the information that goes on your signage board. Now you can have a total control over your service quality and security.

But here’s the down side of managed switches- these are expensive to set up. You need dedicated IT personnel to integrate the VLAN with your digital signage. You should employ dedicated staff to manage the switches. In other words, the networked managed switches are expensive to install and manage, when compared to the unmanaged ones.

So which one should you select- the managed or the unmanaged ones? Well, the answer lies in your requirements. If you have a small business with limited use of signage boards, then you would be better off with an unmanaged switch. The cost is less and it is easier to manage- this gives you the cost effectiveness for your business.

If you have a large corporation with security concerns and if you have to use technology in a grand manner, the networked managed switches are the thing for you. These give you flexibility, security as well as the option for maneuvering the switches the way you want.

So keep your requirements in mind while opting for the switches that control your digital signage display. And don’t let unscrupulous companies out there fool you with their glib talk about technology. Just be cautious when they tell that they know the best for you.

We live in the information age. Thanks to the internet and search engines like Google, any information we want to find is just about two seconds away. But for businesses, putting information out there in the internet and waiting for the customers to find it is a thing of the past. For those who want to succeed, they have to take the information to the customers rather than wait for them to discover it. And using the digital signage displays for this purpose is the most advantageous choice one can make.

But what exactly is digital display? Well, in lay man terms, it is any electronic display which can show content in the form of images, text, videos or any other form. It is most commonly used for out of home advertising or for internal corporate communications in large corporates. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The digital signage industry is still at a very nascent stage and there is a whole lot more you can do with it. It is especially useful for dishing out interactive advertisements which engage the users and help in brand building. It can also be used as dynamic public information display at the major centers in your city. Recently, it was even used in the times of disaster. The world was made aware of a major calamity and global support was asked for. A very good example of this is the Haiti disaster in Japan.

Right after the earthquake rocked the country, the signage was used in countries like the US and UK to raise awareness about the incident and to seek support from the people. And the campaign did pretty well with loads of people coming forward to help the country in distress. There is a whole lot more digital signage can be used for like on-the-go education, interactive retail campaigns, mobile commerce and a whole lot more.

All these portray how exactly digital display can be used. Now let’s get down to the details behind the digital display. To put it in short, it is a piece of technology. And like every other technology today, the signage board also needs a server, hardware, software, sockets, etc. The three basic components of this form of signage are a display screen, a content management server and a media player or software.

Each one of these digital signage display components is available in a variety of options. For the display screen, there are LEDs, OLEDs, plasmas, water screens, fog screens and a whole lot more. For the content management server, you have the option of using software- as a service model or as an on-premise model. Both these models come with advantages and disadvantages. So you must carefully weigh both before opting for one.

And when it comes to media players, there are basic as well as networked media players. While the basic media players can stream the JPG files and pre-loaded MPEG files, the networked ones can do a whole lot more.

Digital signage board is an information medium which is still being explored by businesses. There is a whole lot to be explored in terms of the resources available, the innovations one can make and the way the display can be used

Digital signage is the buzz word for out-of-home advertising and is growing very fast. The avenues and possibilities it offers to grab the attention of consumers on the move are simply immense. The driving force behind all these possibilities is digital signage software. It is responsible for the smooth functioning and the interactiveness of the digital displays that are fast becoming the talk of the town among marketers and developers.

Broadly speaking, software can be used in 3 different ways to engage the consumers by installing the digital display in different manners. The 3 ways digital signage software can be used to engage costumers are:

Point of Sale

This installation carries a display very close to where the consumers make their decision. Typically, the screen is placed inside a retail store, close to the counter or at the end of an aisle. The advantage of this kind of use of digital signage software is to effectively interact with the customers and the response is usually immediate. For this kind of usage, the content is usually informative for the consumer which can help the consumer in making a right decision about buying.

Point of Transit

This type of use of digital signage software involves catching the attention of consumers who are always on the move. It is usually located in places like metro stations, airports, railway stations and subways where there is always a crowd. This kind of use is especially meant for establishing a brand value among users. Major importance is given to the aesthetics of the content here, and it involves the use of several pictures, graphics and animations to grab the attention of the passersby. The software is used to give you content in short bursts which is little informative and a little interactive. As an example, a digital signage installed in an airport may display an ad followed by weather forecast within a span of 30 seconds.

Point of Wait

This use of digital signage software involves dishing out content to the consumers who are usually waiting for something. This approach is mainly used in supermarkets, hospitals, banks and government offices where people are usually standing in a queue waiting for their turn. This method is usually used to reduce the perceived waiting time for consumers and providing them with something informative and interesting to ponder upon. Brands cash in on the extra waiting time of the consumers to establish their brand identity and for any new products or service they may be launching.

Digital signage software offers lots of opportunities to use the above methods of engagement in a lot of different ways. Interactivity is the USP of the modern display boards and a good software can provide you with plenty of that USP. However, it is always vital to choose the software correctly. A badly chosen software always limits your capabilities but also prove to be a waste of time and money. Detailed talks and deliberation must be done before purchasing software, because it is the engine which drives a digital display.

The software forms the core of a digital display, naturally it is the most cost intensive too. In fact, installation of a digital signage is expensive because of the related costs involved in setting up the software, the server and other technical parts. However, businesses have a choice now, thanks to cloud computing.

Today, digital signage software is available as an on-premise product or an on-demand service. Both have their advantages as well as disadvantages. Both the purchasing models above offer something good as well as something bad to brands and compromises and adjustments must be done depending on the situation. For this you should understand the difference between the two. Following are the major differences between the two purchasing models of digital signage software.

Ownership

With an on-premise purchasing model, the software you purchase is installed on your in-house server. In other words, you purchase the product as a whole and you have full control over its functionality and capability. On the other hand, on-demand purchasing model of digital signage software does not provide you with full ownership of the product.

You buy the product as much as you want to and pay for the stuff you use. You do not have much control over the complete functionality of the product but only for the parts you own, thus limiting the potential to execute certain things.

The Cost factor

With an on-premise model, you need to pay the complete upfront cost for purchasing the product. This cost is often huge and very few small businesses can afford it. On the other hand, with an on demand model, you only pay for what you use. It is more like a rental scheme whereby you pay a monthly rent and not the complete cost of the property. This method is much more feasible for small and medium businesses who usually have limited resources.

The maintenance factor

With an on-premise model for the purchase of digital signage software, the onus of maintaining the server and the IT infrastructure rests on you. You have to set up VLANs, hire expert IT personnel and a whole lot more in order to ensure a smooth functioning. However, with an on-demand model, the responsibility for maintaining the server and the IT infrastructure rests on the third party on which the software is hosted, thus you do not worry about the maintenance costs.

As you can clearly see, each model for purchasing digital signage software has its pros as well as its cons. It really depends on an entity’s requirement and its long term plan to decide which the most feasible option of the lot is.

It is a question of what came first- the egg or the hen? Digital signage is a technology and it always needs hardware, software and a whole lot of other things to run smoothly and efficiently. Every component has individual importance and no component is better or more important than the other. However, most often than not, there are different manufacturers for digital display i.e. the hardware and the digital signage software.

In such a case, consumers are often confused: what to buy first- the hardware or the software? Well, unlike the egg and the hen question, this question is pretty simple to answer. You should always go for the software first except in exceptional cases. Software forms the core of the system and you should always buy it first and then go for compatible hardware.

Here are the reasons for doing it:

The cost factor

Hardware is always much cheaper than software. Therefore, at a later stage, if you feel that the hardware does not fit your requirements, you can always go for a suitable replacement without bearing any major expenses. However, software is labor intensive and always more expensive than hardware.

If you buy the hardware first and then digital signage software, chances are aplenty that the software may not suit the hardware. But since you have already installed everything, you have no alternative but to replace the software with a new one. Purchasing a software is always more expensive than purchasing hardware, any time, any day.

The complexity factor

Finding compatible software is a hard task more difficult than finding compatible hardware. Thus, if you make the mistake of buying the hardware first, you always lose precious time looking for compatible digital signage software. But again, since you have bought the hardware and spent money on installation, you can’t really go for a hardware change and a reinstallation.

On the other hand, if you buy the software first, finding the right hardware is easy and not a serious problem. Thus, you can save on your precious time and money.

The ease factor

Hardware is much simpler to change than the software. For changing software, you have to reconfigure the servers and the labor and cost part plays a major part in this whole process. This situation can happen when we choose the hardware first, install everything and then start looking for digital signage software. The wrong software means purchasing a new server, setting up of servers again and a whole lot more, which can lead to wasteful expenditure.

Software is an entity which needs technical prowess and expert manpower to handle it. For businesses which do not have in-house IT manpower, changing software can be a real challenge. So it is always better to buy the digital signage software first and then go for the hardware portion. This can certainly reduce your cost as well as time which can prove to be really beneficial.

Over the last couple of years, there has been a certain buzz around cloud computing. Businesses are steadily moving into it in order to save their IT maintenance costs and this concept hasn’t left the realm of digital signage software alone. We are well aware of the significance of software for running a modern digital display.

Traditionally, this software was available at a onetime cost with some extra money charged as annual maintenance charges. However, with the advent of cloud computing, things have changed slightly. Today, digital signage software is available as a service rather than a product. For the beginners or the not so tech savvy, that terminology can fly above one’s head. What exactly is software as a service model? Well, let’s take a close look.

When you purchase a product, you don’t make the payment for some parts and leave out the rest. You pay for the whole product, and that’s how digital signage software was offered until a couple of years back. Now, this software is sold as a product as well as service model. The service model allows you the option of only paying for the part that you use and leave out the rest.

To put that in lay man terms, in software as a service model, your digital signage software is not really with you but situated on a third party’s server. You provide the third party with your requirement and the third party allows you to use a certain portion of the software for a monthly fee. Therefore, you don’t have to pay for the entire product but only for the part that you use.

This type of usage can be beneficial especially for small and medium enterprises who are trying to cut cost. With your software sitting on a third party’s server, you don’t have to worry much about the maintenance or any other stuff. It can be termed as plug and play arrangement which is very much cost effective.

However, everything has drawbacks and the case is exactly the same with this one. The fact that you don’t have the complete software on your server but only a part of it limits you in a number of ways in the usage. There also arises the whole issue of security too, as a third party is hosting the software and you can never be sure who might hack into your data.

Another problem businesses face while using digital signage software as a service is the issue of quality. A server can crash anytime and since a third party is hosting it, you should always rely upon them to rectify the problem. With an in-house hosting, you depend only on yourself for quality and other technical issues and it can be taken care at your end itself.

Before using digital signage software as service, various factors like requirements, monthly costs etc. must be thoroughly evaluated. It has the advantages of price and easy maintenance but you are also compromising your security and your quality to a certain extent. Like everything else, this one too requires much thought before getting into any conclusion.

Digital signage software is the brain behind giving all the functionalities to your digital displays. It is the one responsible for pushing your content to the screen, for scheduling your content and everything else. Needless to say, it forms one of the most important components of digital signage and should be selected with utmost care. There is loads of software available in the market, and that includes the free ones too. But the question is- is a free software really worth it?

We do agree that there is free software which does a good job of running your digital displays. However, most of them are really a waste of time and money. They really lack some key features which are essential and which stop you from realizing the full potential of a digital display. We checked out a whole range of free software available out there and found the following features lacking in most them:

Ease of use

Easy and free seems to be an oxymoron as far as the present situation goes. Most of the features of free digital signage software are really hard to understand. They are also hard to install, hard to learn and hard to manage, which really puts you at a disadvantage. Would you like spending hours in front of a computer screen learning the technical stuff or would you like sitting at a round table discussing the best ways to leverage technology?

Compatibility

Most free software for running digital signage out there has compatibility issues. They are not compatible with all the other platforms in use, which makes them really a mess to use. In fact, some of them even do not support a lot of applications as well. Applications are a crucial part of the modern day digital dissplay as they lend a lot of interactivity to this out-of-home advertising medium. The incompatibility with these applications can really put you on a back foot.

Customer support

While there are a few free software which have many communities that are ready to help you out, but most free digital signage software don’t have customer support service. Finding a solution to a problem with free software can be a hard task. You need to go online, search for related communities and go through the whole ordeal of signing up, posting and waiting for a feedback. Lack of support can be really frustrating especially for small and medium businesses because they cannot afford to keep IT personnel to look into this matter as their resources are limited. And even if they do, they lose the initial advantage of buying software free of cost.

Network issues

Most of the digital signage software that we went through had major network problems. Either they didn’t have full network capability and encountered frequent network glitches while broadcasting across multiple screens. The whole USP of a digital signage is that you can run an entire out of home campaign across a city simultaneously. Most free software lack that feature and take that advantage away from you.

The advantage of a free digital signage software is only when you get the full range of features. Otherwise it is a total waste of time and energy.

Digital displays are becoming common and very popular now days. Any digital display needs good digital signage software to run. Without proper software, the flashy LCD or the LED is useless. It won’t be able to playback files of any kind. The software is the engine which makes it run and to perform different tasks. And therefore, choosing the right software is of paramount importance. However, that is easier said than done.

There is variety of software available out there, each with their own set of unique features and price tags which makes it really hard to choose from. One question that often consumers face is – how much should a digital signage software really cost? Well, although there are no fixed price points for that, you can of course take into consideration come common features between different software and accordingly make a decision.

The file playback capability

Different digital signage software has different levels of capability to playback various file formats. Some come with a capability to playback only a handful of file formats like JPG, MPEG and a few others. Others have the capability to playback a whole range of file formats, apart from the most common ones. The one which have more features of playback costs more, it is as simple as that.

The network factor

There are some digital signage softwares which support network capability while some which don’t. The network capability allows you to transmit your content across various screens placed at different locations simultaneously. Further, with a network, you can also manage the content for a digital display through a remote or a local location. An un-networked variety obviously doesn’t give you that advantage, and hence, it costs less compared to the networked variety. Software which lacks network capability only allows playback of pre-loaded content on a single screen.

Saas or On-premise

This is a very recent development, thanks to the advent of cloud computing. With the help of cloud, you can use software as a service, which means you pay only for the exact amount of your usage. Obviously, in this case, the digital signage software is placed on some other server and you don’t really have full access to the security and other issues. On the other hand, On-premise is the traditional variety. You buy the software, you pay for the full amount and the software is all yours for the taking. On-premise software gives you better control of the security and other issues. As far as the price goes, the former has little initial investment and a running cost involved while the latter has a huge initial investment and negligible running cost.

Those are the various price differentiators for digital signage software. The reputation of the company and provision of offering you annual maintenance or not also plays a big part in the cost of the software. It is difficult to sort out a price tag on the software but the above information should give you a fair idea of what should cost less and what should cost more.

The popularity of digital signage is growing rapidly and several companies are using this powerful medium to market their brands. This has led to the increase of number of software in the market. Digital signage software comes in all shapes, sizes and price tags. However, for now, we will focus ourselves on the price factor alone. There are free or open source software available and then there are proprietary or the paid ones available. While everything that’s free is not bad (read Linux), it does not seem to be the case with software for digital displays.

We are not bashing the open source digital signage software, because there are some which are really good. But generally they carry a lot of disadvantages which can stop a business from realizing the full potential of an interactive digital display. Here are just some of the disadvantages that we are talking about:

Poor User Interface

Open source software in the realm of digital displays has been known to provide a pathetic user interface. It takes hours to understand how to install them and it is really difficult to know how to use them. In the cut-throat business world of today, nobody has the time to spend more than a few days to learn using software. This puts the open source software at a huge disadvantage.

Limited capability

Most open source digital signage software come with limited features and capability. They lack the capability to playback variety of file formats. They don’t have a very good network capability and they also lack other features like Bluetooth connectivity and a lot more. In the case of paid software- you can play back almost every file format out and you can also get awesome network capability allowing you to broadcast your content across different screens at the same time and also they are loaded with a host of other features. So always paid software is a better choice.

Upgrades and after sales support are not there

Free digital signage software does not get the upgrades very soon. Moreover, even if they do, you should figure it out on your own to use the latest features, which can certainly take a lot of your precious time. There is no customer care executive or sales staff to support you with the queries on the problems in the case of open source software. You have to go online, look for related communities, post questions and have to wait for hours or even days to get a useful response.

The investment in a proprietary software for digital displays guarantees you timely upgrades and great after sales care and support. After all, they are charging you for the same.

We reiterate our point that we made in the beginning- not every free software is bad but a majority of them have huge disadvantages. For businesses serious about using digital displays as a potent medium for communicating with consumers effectively, paid digital signage software is the best bet. It is easy to use, easy to manage and has timely support from the sales staff for any issues that you might arise.

Digital signage has become the latest trend in marketing of several brands and it needs digital signage software to run. The market is flooded with different types of software depending on the requirements of the customers. There are networked software and there are un-networked ones; there are basic software and there are advanced ones; and there are free software as well as proprietary ones. Although not every free software for digital signage is bad, we certainly prefer the proprietary ones; and there is solid reasoning behind it.

Proprietary digital signage software carries a lot of advantages which are lacking in the free variety. Here are just some of the advantages you get when you buy proprietary software for your digital display.

A user friendly interface

This can be termed as the biggest plus of paid software. Since the companies are charging you for it, they hire the best talent available and make a product that’s really simple and easy to use. Majority of the free digital signage software is really hard to understand and operate. In a competitive environment where every business is trying to outdo the other, nobody wants to spend time on learning how to use software. And that’s where proprietary software have the edge.

Customizable

Most of the paid software can be customized depending on the clients’ requirements. You can get special features added to your digital signage software for your specific needs, which means you have a better engine to run your digital displays. Most of the free ones available are open source, which means anyone and everyone can make changes to it. That really puts you at a disadvantage as you never know that the changes made are going to work out or not.

After sales support

You cannot expect somebody offering training and support for a source of free software. The same is exactly the case with free digital signage software. You will not receive any training or support from developers or other professionals, and for small businesses, that’s really a big letdown. Small businesses can’t afford dedicated IT personnel just to manage their software for digital displays. It can be cost intensive. On the other hand, most companies who sell software for digital signage offers you training and regular after care support. They are just a call away to listen to any of your problems and give you support for any upgrade that happens.

Better capabilities

And of course, proprietary digital signage software comes with better capabilities. The software is compatible with most of the systems, has better network capabilities, can playback almost any file format out there and has lots of features which help you to design interactive solutions for out-of-home advertising. With free software, however, you can’t be assured of their compatibility and their capabilities, which simply puts you at a disadvantage compared to your competitors. Like they say, everything good comes at a price.