What Is Digital Signage? The Ultimate 101 Guide

Chapter 01

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What is digital signage?

Digital signage refers to LED, LCD, or OLED screens that showcase dynamic material, including text, graphics, video, interactive media, and live-streaming content via software that facilitates it all.

These versatile displays are a common sight in outdoor public spaces, serving as high impact billboards in iconic locations such as Times Square. Their indoor applications are equally diverse, enhancing customer experience and communication in retail spaces, restaurants, modern office buildings, healthcare facilities, transport hubs, and educational and religious institutions

A standout advantage of signage technology is its operational efficiency, particularly in content management and playback. Unlike traditional signage, electronic signs eliminate the need for printing, enabling instantaneous content updates and allowing for timely and relevant communication with audiences.

Image: (Left) An acrylic door sign shows the conference room number. (Right) An electronic A digital door signage displays the room number, the meeting agenda, current meeting duration, upcoming meeting schedules, date & time, and other dynamic information that can be updated on a need-basis.

Most modern signage networks are controlled using using software that offers the ease of maintenance. This often comes these software applications come equipped with media design toolset. That means, one can create, publish and manage all of their on-screen messaging from one single platform.

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What is a digital signage system?

From the above definition, it is clear that digital signage is any screen that we use for specific information to a target group

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But, these screens are not the sole component; there is a particular technology working at the backdrop. That is why we often refer to the entire technology as a 'digital signage system.'

A digital signage system is a network of displays powered by software that enables the creation, management, and playback of multimedia content for advertising or informational purposes. These systems are commonly used in public spaces and commercial environments to engage and inform viewers.

There are three primary components of this system:

1. The hardware
2. The software or Content Management System (CMS)
3. The content

A. Digital signage hardware

The digital signage hardware comprises-

1. Display screen: Similar to a smartphone or TV, this screen shows information and can be a signage media player. Commercial-grade screens are preferred for their longevity and superior display quality.
2. Signage player: The signage media player connects to the screen and plays content. It may be built into smart TVs and uses software to pull content from a centralized management system and display it in various formats, such asvideos, images, and HTML.
3. Mounting hardware: Brackets and cables are used to securely install the screens on walls or suspend them from ceilings

B. Digital signage software

The software is the brain that helps to process the data and display it on the screen without much hassle. Here are some of the key attributes:

1. Content management system (CMS): A Content Management System (CMS) for digital signage is a user-friendly dashboard that lets users control their display content. Key features include scheduling when content appears, managing screens from anywhere, supporting various media formats (JPG, MP4, GIF,HTML, HTTPS), integrating with other systems, designing custom layouts, and ensuring the content looks good on any device.
Image: The Pickcel dashboard as it appears on the user's laptop
2. Cloud for content management: The CMS can be hosted on an organization's private data center (on-premise digital signage) or on cloud. Cloud deployment helps organizations with easier server infrastructure management, easy contentdistribution across geography, and high scalability. If your digital signage software is hosted on the cloud, you can access your dashboard or CMS from anywhere in the world.

Related Article: Why do users prefer cloud-based digital signage software?

C. Digital signage content

Whatever you show on screen is the content. It can be a pre-designed advertising video or a live news broadcast. Electronic signs offer a vast array of content possibilities, such as images, social media posts, text messages, YouTube videos, website information, live traffic, sales dashboards, and RSS feeds. Many modern digital display management platforms like Pickcel offer content apps that can bring live and programmed content (for example, live news , real-time weather, accurate clock time, live countdown, etc.) to any screen.

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