More and more companies are entering the digital signage market with their own take on the technology, changing the face of the entire sector. Callum Fitzpatrick finds out what local companies are doing to make sure they stay ahead of the rush.

There are few technology markets that are experiencing as much growth as the digital signage sector at the moment. Ten years ago, digital signage was a comparatively specialist industry, occupied by expensive high-end solutions. Now we’re seeing an increasing amount of user-friendly options, determined to make it simple for end users to switch up display media, while providing an ease of installation for integrators.

It means that we’ve arrived at a time where a commercial enterprise has an abundance of ways to engage with their customers via digital signage. However, the market has been saturated with so many of these new product offerings that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the end user to distinguish between a captivating medium that will enhance sales, and a glorified Microsoft Powerpoint presentation displayed on a TV screen.

The CEAD Group has been in the digital signage industry since 1999 and its flagship product, the proprietary CEAD TV software suite, DISE, incorporates a simple and intuitive interface that allows the creation of dynamic visual communications for distribution locally or across a network to multiple locations.

Seeing the demand for more flexible delivery solutions, CEAD developed StratosMedia, a high performance digital communication and signage platform with cloud-based infrastructure.

CEAD managing director Brian Hammett says that although the proliferation of new technologies has advanced the digital signage sector, it has changed the definition of what is ‘true’ digital signage.

“The core idea behind digital signage was supposed to be about digital communication. But that in itself is such a broad term that there are now thousands of companies that can be classified as digital signage. Products these days range from a system that cues very basic JPEG images on a screen, all the way to high-end graphical interfaces with content development, database integration and a quality of playback that makes it a truly broadcast-quality solution,” Brian says.

“10 years ago it was difficult to create entry-level digital signage, but the rapid advancement of technology has simplified this. That’s why there has been such a significant growth of suppliers with digital signage products in the last few years.”

Brian adds that the challenge for installers is to provide a platform that gives the client a low total cost of ownership, and not just a cheap entry into the market. 

“A very large part of our business is upgrading customers’ existing digital signage platforms or reinstalling their whole program because what was initially promised to them wasn’t properly delivered. Other times, the system might function in the literal sense of the term, but it doesn’t connect with the audience. There’s a high recognition in many industries that digital signage can be a very powerful tool within a business when it’s done well. If it’s just a cheap TV on a wall, nobody is going to look at it.”

One distributor that has put this idea to the core of its operations is Image Design Technology (IDT). The company believes that if digital signage is immersive, it will be engaging.

That’s why its primary focus is bringing 4K signage to the Australian market, through products such as the Planar 8450 Ultra Res 84” and LG 84WS70 Ultra HD displays, as well as the Brightsign 4K signage player.

“Our take on the trend is to put forward immersive, realistic and attractive signage. 4K resolution signage is now a reality. Although it is still a relatively new idea, we are actively working on several 4K signage projects at the moment. We have already deployed many units for blue chip end users and in scenarios where a ‘wow factor’ was required,” IDT corporate general manager Mark Lowe says.

“This has been the case in large convention centres where the end user wants to attract a large crowd. But it’s not just a case of providing great-looking imagery – the realism of the content can be much higher than light-box or neon/static signage.

“In the consumer sphere, 4K is still in its infancy as there is a lack of readily available genuine 4K content. However, 4K signage via a PC is readily available, so it makes for a particularly novel offering. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been experiencing so much demand for 4K installations.”

Can we fit something like this in to highlight that BrightSign range of players are NOT PC based.

To this end the BrightSign brand of digital signage players excel by not only offering a model for practically every application but basing these players on a low cost, very efficient, non PC based platform. In fact this platform was designed for Digital Signage and not as a computer or mobile phone operating system and then remodelled for another purpose.

The Brightsign 4K signage player uses H.265 technology to play native 4K content at 60fps via HDMI 2.0 – a new compression technology standard. Additionally, if a wall is built from multiple screens, an 8K result can even be achieved.

Mark adds that the Brightsign XD series is compatible with HTML 5, allowing for rich-looking animations.

“This allows for nice little touches which present a more compelling way of presenting information – this could be as simple as showing the weather as a moving cloud and rain animation instead of merely displaying text,” he says. 

Geo-fencing is also available with Brightsign – this allows signage content to be played according to your geographic location. Applications include transport (such as on a bus, where the displayed content differs according to your location).

“Some of our customers are even using Brightsign to control the volume of the signage content dependent on how many people are in the vicinity,” Mark says.

“Another user worked with IDT to provide a solution that interpreted numbers and results and represented them graphically. In this instance, using a web-based database, the results of a sports race were translated to the signage content to show a graphical representation of the top three finishers in the race.”

Inevitably when the end result is particularly impressive, more complex programming is often required. This can be a drawback for certain end users who would prefer to be able to customise and update the content themselves. That’s when ease of use becomes an essential quality.

Westan commercial manager Michael Carvosso says that his company, which distributes Philips digital signage solutions in Australia, is aiming to cater for this through the use of touch screen technology.

“Philips has developed a 23-inch Android touch screen. That has been hugely popular because it’s essentially a player and screen in one. This opens up a wealth of options. What’s more, an Android-based player is capable of doing almost everything that a Windows equivalent can, at a fraction of the cost,” Michael says.

This is bolstered by the surge in Android developers worldwide – many are creating channel-specific Android applications to run on devices like the Philips touch screen which are able to enhance a shopper’s experience.

One example of this technology in action is in department stores – in the makeup section, a customer can take a picture of their face using the inbuilt camera and visualise how they look with different types of foundations, lipsticks and mascaras. After settling on a look, the customer can purchase the products immediately.

“When it comes to Android, the hardware is cost effective and there are a lot of people that can develop the apps, so we are anticipating a lot of growth in this area.”

Michael says this is being taken a step further with the development of open pluggable specification (OPS) slots.

“Intel is trying to counteract the decline in laptop and PC sales by growing the tablet area. They’ve developed a standard that allows companies to build small form PCs with advanced processors that simply slot inside a screen with no external connections.”

This essentially delivers PC, audio and control signals internally from the OPS device to the display. Many manufacturers are now adopting these slots into displays, allowing the OPS device to become a neat, clean signage player.

However, Michael says that at present, many end users focus their immediate attention on purchasing an expensive display and underestimate the importance of a solid software solution.

“Many displays on the market are quite similar. If you’re serious about a signage solution, you need your whole back end solution to work and make the network manageable in the first place,” he says.

“Our software, SmartSign, is capable of this. Most other solutions play video or image files one after the other, but this breaks each window up into different layers, so you can have a video layer, a static image layer and an RSS feed, as well as widgets and web pages. You can also add touch layers.

“A lot of these features aren’t currently being used in the real world, and that’s because a lot of people underestimate the time and cost involved with creating the content. In the grand scheme of things, the actual hardware is probably only about half the cost, the rest is dedicated to having ongoing creative put together.”

The proliferation of cloud-based software is changing this, as this helps organisations to avoid the costs of servers and hosting.

“I have previous experience selling solutions that required a significant upfront investment in servers – it was impossible to be deployed in a small scenario as you could never cover the cost of the back end,” Michael says.

“You could buy a player Smartsign, a yearly licence for the software, go to a browser and be up and running. We are also able to provide trials for potential end users. That’s why we see cloud technology as one of the biggest influencers on the future of digital signage.”

Brian agrees, but he says that connectivity needs to improve before cloud technology can fully mature.

“The main problem is the delay that occurs when you’re operating in the cloud. Most platforms are very limited in what they can do when it comes to content creation because you’ve got to compensate for that lag. The issue here is that it takes us back eight or nine years to what basic digital signage used to be.

“Cloud is definitely the way we’re going, but the applications are very dated when compared to what very high quality local signage systems can do.”

resi linx – a company primarily known for its distribution products – is also taking the plunge into the world of digital signage through its digi-MOD HD modulation system, which allows the distribution of HD devices in true HD.

“As we increasingly started moving into HD modulation, we found that there were sections of the market that were hoping to use it as a means of distributing digital signage,” resi linx business manager Jason Crabtree says.

“Many clients found that the simplicity of sending content over a single coaxial cable from multiple zones ended up being a cost effective solution for entry level jobs. Traditionally, to achieve distributed HD video, installers have used video matrix systems. The problem with this is that once you reach the capacity of a switch you have to include more hardware, which can be cost prohibitive to your clients. Additionally, matrix systems require additional cabling to modulator systems. Extra cabling presents additional opportunities for something to go wrong.

“Digital encoders, however, convert the signal into a DVB-T/DVB-C channel, which can be distributed to hundreds of TV sets, alongside free-to-air signals, without any additional equipment. There are no proprietary cables; installers simply use multiplex or diplexer mixed in to existing cable.

“Installers can simply walk into any existing building with a coax backbone and add this system within minutes, no matter how many displays are present. Then, when the signal is sent to the display, it appears as a normal TV channel. End users don’t need to change inputs between HDMI, DTV, component, etc. The picture is there, ready to go.”

Jason says this tool simplifies digital signage for end users, putting the power in their hands.

“A lot of digital signage installers think that this is too easy at first. When they play around with it and see what it can do, they’re always surprised.”

As much as it is tricky for end users to decide what level of complexity their digital signage solution requires, it’s also a predicament that many installers will be faced with. That’s why Brian says that it pays for installers to pick one area of the market and do it well.

“The majority of the cloud based digital signage platforms that are entering the market have been built by web designers. They might understand software, but they are often uneducated in the psychology of how you communicate information to people looking at a screen. They probably aren’t up to scratch compared to many of the other companies that have been in the marketplace for a very long time.

“That being said, there is definitely a market out there for customers who want to have some basic media on a screen. The sky really is the limit. I think that anyone who is new to digital signage needs to decide what market they’re going after and then focus on becoming experts in that market.

“A good installer can put up a video wall, mount the brackets and make sure everything is connected successfully. But the infrastructure for actually making it work and the understanding of resolution, images and what performance factors are required on each content delivery system is key. That’s the difference when it comes to digital signage.”