Digital signage can be anything and everything that places (i.e. businesses, campuses, etc.) will set their mind to. Whether advertising products and services, or announcing an important event, or even just reporting the current temperatures outside, digital signage normally beats out printed media.
Though, despite its usefulness and quickness to get to the public, digital signage won’t work without the necessary tool(s), regardless of how optional or required that certain tools are.
In this article, we’ll explore three types of tools you should use when creating and operating a digital signage. As we explore all three tools, you’ll be able to carefully manage your digital displays with little to no problems.
1. Flexible Content Management
When it comes to digital signage, you need to remember the keyword ‘flexible. By ‘flexible,’ it means that you need a content management solution that can tackle just about any of your individual needs. How is flexibility important to content management, exactly?
If you wanted to, say, for example, run a university digital signage network, the first step is to have a CMS that can display different messages depending on location. Since universities tend to have a lot of events going on on-campus, you can display digital messages near areas like sporting arenas, auditoriums, etc. – ideally, places where large numbers of people would normally congregate.
For example, news on sporting events can be displayed near the basketball courts, gyms, etc.; or for science fairs, you can display messages near the science building. But what happens during an emergency event?
You’ll need to be able to display your digital emergency message everywhere, not just one spot. So, for places like a university, an emergency message needs to be displayed in all areas of the campus.
2. Using Content Templates
When people see a digital display, they’ll be looking for content. Here’s what people will look for including what is the ad display about, who is presenting or sponsoring it, and why should people care?
So, how can you make sure that your digital content looks presentable? And how can you create content that people would be willing to look at? That’s where content templates come in.
With content templates, you can figure out a good layout for your display. Once you establish a suitable layout, you can set up the content from screen to screen. And the best thing about it is that you can either create your own template by scratch, or consider using vendors that offer a variety of templates and what they can offer. However, when going with a software vendor, make sure you ask them what kind of templates they have and whether or not they match up with your vision.
3. Remote Monitoring
Remote monitoring lets you know the current status of a digital display. Whether your display is working well, or malfunctioning, or offline, this tool is effective for your digital signage.
Unfortunately, you may run into a problem with your digital display. Sometimes, you’ll experience things like crashes or connection failure, whether it’s because of faulty hardware or outdated software. So, how can remote monitoring help you curb these incidents, and prevent more of them from happening in the future?
With a remote monitoring tool, you get real-time alerts on how your digital display is doing. If your display runs into an issue, you’ll be able to resolve it in no time at all.
Another great feature to remote monitoring is the ability to turn displays on and on, and even update them, remotely. This allows you to update the software without having to be onsite with the display. Plus, you’ll be able to remotely turn off malfunctioning displays until a maintenance worker can come and fix it.
Conclusion
While you most likely won’t need all three of these tools listed, it’s still important to know your options, when it comes to digital signage. And although the best solution might simply be an LCD screen and a USB drive, again, know your options
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Katherine Rundell writes for Custom Writing and State Of Writing. She also writes and edits for OXEssays Reviews. As a marketing strategist, she has utilized her expertise in several high-profile marketing campaigns.
