What Is Digital Signage?

Any digital installation that displays video or multimedia content for informative or promotional reasons is known as digital signage. Whether we know it or not, we’ve all gazed at these in malls, restaurants, on buildings, on both sides of the road—they’re everywhere!

In fact, they’re so versatile that everything from the tiniest of screens in restaurants, which have replaced traditional menus, to huge interactive displays in cinema theaters that vend out tickets unmanned are all part of the realm of digital signage.

Digital signage makes use of LCD and LED screens to display content like news, videos, photos, and so much more. They could be for entertainment, advertisement, or even just informative purposes.

Digital billboards have almost entirely replaced traditional billboards in many parts of the developed world and are only expected to grow further. In fact, the digital signage industry is estimated to grow from USD 20.8 billion in 2019 to USD 29.6 billion by 2024! That is a whopping CAGR of 7.3%. Of this, the biggest shareholders are estimated to be retail businesses that use digital signage for kiosks that increase the chances of impulse shopping, menus for interacting ordering, or just hoardings that display product information. Depending on the type of digital signage, they may also be used to improve customer service, for promotions and brand awareness, to provide the public with information, or to communicate internally. Let us briefly look at the major types of digital signages out there.

Promotional Signage

As the name suggests, these displays are used mainly for advertisement purposes by brands. Larger cities surrounding highways have a substantial presence of advertising digital signage, with eye-catching advertisement panels using LED-type displays. This is usually because of the infrastructural requirements for such displays and the returns on investment.

Automated Signage

Automated signage displays usually show ‘fixed’ content like train stations on a particular route, performance metrics of a particular team engaged in a production unit, public safety messages, and the like. Although they have been around for quite a while, they have been gaining popularity in the last ten years due to technological advancements in the interface used for these signs.

Interactive Signage

These signs became increasingly popular in the 2000s under the name of ‘interactive terminals.’ Recently, they have begun being called ‘smart signs’ due to their integration with smart operating systems like android. They usually comprise dual screens in portrait, or landscape modes and are strategically placed in areas of high footfall to ensure maximum visibility.

Their applications include:

• Kiosks at malls that allow customers to choose and customize their product/service needs
• Screens at restaurants that have replaced traditional menus, where customers can view and order food directly from the touchscreen
• The education industry uses interactive screens to provide students with interactive learning experiences.

What Is a Digital Signage Network?

Since we have established what digital display signs are, let’s dive deeper into what a Digital Signage Network is.

A digital signage network is a collective name assigned to the hardware and software involved in interconnecting a series of displays showing a set of multimedia content to a specific target audience. This network allows for the content to be controlled or even changed remotely.

Marketing and advertising organizations frequently employ a digital signage network to manage a fleet of signs across multiple locations. The advertising information will subsequently be distributed across the display screens by the marketing agency handling their advertising, and businesses pay to have their advertisements shown on those screens.

Why Is Using a Digital Signage Network Necessary?

Digital signage networks help you manage multi-location screens remotely. Not just that, they also have a ton of app-integration capabilities, making your screens versatile and providing end-to-end experiences to your users.

A good example of this would be the integration of payment gateways into your platform, so your users can customize their service and pay for it seamlessly.

What Does a Digital Signage Network Comprise?

Using a digital signage network requires you to invest in hardware and software that makes managing screens as simple as possible. You'll need to be able to manage the devices remotely if you have different sites. Therefore, the digital signage gear you require must be dependable, secure, and user-friendly.

The Software

Everything from scheduling, uploading, and managing your content is done with the help of the software of your network. This requires you to have robust and user-friendly software that can help you manage all your signages across multiple locations and various scenarios effectively.

The Hardware

The hardware has to be equally capable of executing the requirements you have fed into your software. These devices will run your digital signage software and display the content on the screen.

For each display screen, depending on what you want to show and how much computing power it consumes, you'll need at least one digital signage device in the network.