Producing content for multiple platforms

by Matthew | 14 April 2012 11:25 am

By David Wilkins
The digital signage industry has a proven history of enabling the delivery of real-time content to screens of different types and sizes. Now, the content creation workflow concepts that have been developed and the best practices learned over the years are being incorporated into management tools for other applications, including those geared to mobile phones and tablet computers. In this way, some of the visual communications technology of digital signage is facilitating new ways to push content out to a variety of platforms.

While a number of applications have recently been developed to span these platforms, content creation for successful multi-screen delivery will depend on users understanding how to plan creatively, how to use existing digital assets to reduce additional costs and how to achieve branding and messaging consistency across different channels.

Optimizing use
To maximize the value of content, it is important to start with the strategic production of that content to ensure it can be used across multiple platforms. Another key strategy is to be creative in repurposing existing content.

With some advance planning, a digital signage provider’s client can achieve consistent branding across multiple digital platforms, reduce content creation costs, engage its own customers with impactful messaging and thus improve its return on investment (ROI).

In a cross-platform content creation workflow, the fundamental processes remain consistent and unified, regardless of whether the content will be published to digital signage displays, desktop players, online portals, smart phones or tablet computers. Ideally, the workflow also supports a variety of data sources, both internal (e.g. databases) and external (e.g. social media networks), allowing the delivery of this data to various screens in an appropriate format.

With a ‘create once, use many times’ approach, the same content is distributed across multiple platforms with minor or no modifications. This has obvious shortcomings, such as when video ends up overly stretched or shrunk to fit a screen or when content is mismatched to the audience’s realistic dwell time.

Given such problems, a ‘create many times, use once’ approach is often used instead. In this model, roughly the same amount of work is dedicated to each channel or platform. Content creators are given the most freedom to customize the ideal creative materials for each target screen. With regard to efficiency, however, this approach requires more time and adds significant expense.

So, content producers need to find a healthy balance between the two approaches. This can be achieved with a compelling and appropriate production process for each type of screen, so long as it can be handled at an acceptable level of cost.

The role of technology
Optimizing the workflow depends not only on how content is being created and distributed, of course, but also on which technology is being used to support it. A variety of options can facilitate the content creation process in this respect.

When selecting software and systems, digital signage content creators need to focus on how they can best streamline various aspects of their operations. Automated video format conversion for different screens according to preset rules, for example, is one way the application of technology can help minimize tedious, time-consuming work for staff members who should be contributing their time and talent to the creative process.

An increasing number of content authoring tools are now capable of publishing to multiple platforms, resulting in significant improvements in efficiency. A ‘smart template’ approach, adapted from broadcast graphics, lets users of all skill levels create professional-quality dynamic content, based on existing templates, data, graphics and other elements. Layout is rearranged based on the form factor of the target device where the content will be viewed.

A different look and feel can be applied to content, while using ‘style sheets’ will ensure appropriate branding across templates with less effort. On-the-fly formatting is handed in a manner akin to website design, which has also had to address multiple-screen content.

Standardization—the holy grail?
Despite these numerous advances, however, the ubiquity of screens in today’s world has not solved the problems that have plagued content producers in the past, nor has it simplified the road ahead. There have always been many different tools, platforms and standards. And today, as the field continues to advance, a multitude of new tools and platforms are still being developed.

Some experts hold out hope for the realization and adoption of a single standard. And indeed, there have been some positive trends supporting this possibility.

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) 5 is under development and has generated a lot of buzz with its potential to standardize content delivery. It is already supported by multiple operating systems (OSs), web browsers and major mobile devices. Adobe, for example, recently announced it would phase out its Flash plug-in for mobile devices and instead adopt HTML 5.

The promise of HTML 5 is significant. Nevertheless, the language as it exists today is not a cure-all. For one thing, the term ‘standard’ may be misleading in reference to HTML 5. While many of its features have been designed to run on smart phones and tablet computers, it is supported in different ways by different manufacturers, software developers and service providers—to the point where, so far, it has proven quite challenging to use HTML5 to deliver video content that will work uniformly across devices.

Yet, both in spite of and as a result of the many popular tools, platforms and potential standards, successful multi-screen content delivery is possible today. By using technical advances and optimizing both content creation and delivery workflows, digital signage companies can provide engaging viewing experiences for effective communications across a variety of media.

David Wilkins is president and CEO of X2O Media, a Montreal-based provider of software, network management and content services for visual communication applications, including digital signage. For more information, visit www.x2omedia.com[4].

To read the sidebar, Giving Content a Sporting Chance, click here[5].

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/producing-content-for-multiple-platforms/

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