Digital signage has also become common in education institutions, including Toronto’s Humber College (pictured).
Another important choice is which software to use. There are subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) options, as well as packaged software for on-premise use, which is either purchased outright or included with a system package. Software provides the ‘brain’ of a digital signage system, including the management, scheduling and distribution of content.
Hardware is a more obvious, visible and easily understood element of digital signage, including displays, mounts, stands, media players, cables, connectors and distribution amplifiers. All of the major suppliers produce good to excellent equipment and most are on par with each other.
If software is the brain, then connectivity to the Internet is the nervous system of digital signage. Wired systems are the most reliable, but depending on installation issues at a given location, they may be the most expensive or even impractical. Wireless and cellular connectivity has improved significantly over the past few years, though it can still encounter problems with reception and bandwidth.
Once the network is completed, it will need to be managed on a daily basis. Support, service and maintenance are ultimately the processes that will make a project continue to work within definable costs. Not accounting for these processes will necessitate additional outlays of money when (not if) something goes wrong.
What to sell
The display is the most visible part of any digital signage system. There are all types and sizes of screens available today, but the most common are flat-panel liquid crystal displays (LCDs). They tend to range from 152-mm (6-in.) kiosk screens to 2.4-mm (95-in.) large-format displays. Digital projectors are also common, making up 20 per cent of the overall market. And light-emitting diode (LED) arrays are becoming increasingly popular as video walls.
Displays have become commodities today, with low profit margins for those selling them, but these can be made up for through the sale of peripherals and add-ons. There are many products, for example, designed for mounting screens and projectors to walls, from ceilings or in stand-alone kiosks. The addition of mounts, along with enclosures (for outdoor applications), power conditioning and extended warranties can turn a low-margin flat-panel display into a profitable system.
Media players are devices dedicated to storing content and bringing it to the screens. They may be stand-alone personal computers (PCs) or boxes that attach to the back of a display. In some cases, they are built into the displays; these are often referred to as system-on-a-chip (SoC) players.
Software also resides on a PC server for the management and distribution of content. Cables and connectors, which allow displays, media players and servers to communicate with each other, are another category of profitable peripherals.
Beyond these items, however, the real profits in digital signage are in the design, integration and recurring revenues from content creation, software updates, service and maintenance. The time invested in the client’s needs analysis to discover the objectives of the project is a tangible value and a price must be charged.
