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By Chris Angelini |
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| NO MATTER WHOM YOU ASK OR WHAT YOU read, the general consensus is that digital signage—already a large market in 2006—will be even bigger in 2007. Digital signage is everywhere, from the walls of your local clothing boutique to corporate boardrooms, movie theaters, and automotive showrooms. And it isn't just advertising, either. "Digital signage can be branding and advertising at a retail shop, of course," says Dave Haar, vice president of North American sales for Minicom. "But it can also be corporate messaging and training, information and alerts in a public space, pure entertainment in an arena or bar—anywhere you take a static display and digitize it." One classic example of signage at work is the movie theater, where posters advertising the latest films line the walls. Every two weeks or so, theater staff must replace the old posters with new ones. The constant switching is a financial drain and a strain on productivity, especially when you consider large theater chains repeating the same procedure at every location. Digital signage enables that same theater to replace its posters with 42" plasma displays flipped to a portrait view showcasing the same content. With a network setup, one staffer can make changes when necessary. Or, in the large chain's case, updates can be pushed out across a secure connection to each location. And now, because the displays are dynamic, there's no limit to what can be shown. "Using digital space, you can show trailers and advertise Coke," says Minicom's Haar. "And by the way, the auto dealer down the street and restaurant next door want to buy into that space as well. Suddenly, you're increasing the mileage and payback of the signage solution. Instead of costing money, it's bringing in monthly revenue." Despite the potential for SMBs to turn digital signage into a real moneymaking opportunity, many VARs seem to be sidestepping it altogether. Perhaps the problem is one of scope. A digital signage solution done right incorporates several different hardware components. It also necessitates high-quality content and a mechanism for distributing content to the displaying hardware. Though most resellers would have little trouble figuring out the IT-oriented side of signage, there is no solution without the content to match.
The general consensus is that excelling in signage means partnering up. The key to success here is to recognize that this isn't something you're going to do by yourself. Hardware is one component of digital signage. Content is another component. Management is a third. The role you play in each deployment will depend on your specialty. For most resellers fielding signage, that's going to mean understanding the hardware picture. A Foundation in Digital Signage Selling a signage solution with some value means more than just deploying hardware. After all, the purpose of a well-designed digital signage solution is to convey a message, and while it's tempting to zero in on the nuts and bolts, Minicom's Haar suggests looking at the customer's message first and foremost. Will the customer stay in-house for content or look to a third party? Is the message going to be rotated once a week or every ten minutes? Even if your forte isn't crafting the message, knowing what your customer wants to do will help you figure out how to do it. So once those message-related questions are answered, the reseller can start picking the right hardware pieces. A signage solution consists of four principle parts: an authoring console, a server responsible for distributing content to networked displays, some sort of distribution infrastructure (aiding the transfer from server to display), and, finally, the displays themselves—plasma screens, LCDs, or CRTs.
In some cases, the implementation is easy. A photographer's studio, for example, might feature a workstation connected to a 30" widescreen LCD slowly playing through a PowerPoint slideshow of the photographer's best shots. The content management software, server, distribution infrastructure, and display are all part of the same machine, and yet the setup qualifies as digital signage. As the configurations become more complicated, the content playback formats diversify, the distance from server to display lengthens, and the number of displays driven by one server increases. Building a Signage Server Thankfully, the whole project starts off with a very familiar piece of hardware. The server that will host and distribute finished content should be built and treated like any other mission-critical system. That means using hardware components designed with a mind to enterprise operation. A signage server doesn't have to be particularly high-end or expensive. Intel's dual-core Xeon 3000-series platform works well when combined with a motherboard such as Intel's S3000AH and a couple of 1GB memory modules. Because you're broadcasting content over a network and not actually rendering it on the server itself, graphics aren't as critical. Storage is naturally an important component of signage, since most solutions will be running anywhere from eight hours a day to 24x7. Take advantage of the S3000AH's four onboard SATA 3 Gbps ports and software support for RAID 1, keeping costs to a minimum while still facilitating redundancy. Seagate's Barracuda ES hard drives, available in capacities up to 750GB, operate in lockstep with the 24x7 usage model.
Establishing a Network Digital signage involves getting a message from here (the server) to there (the displays). Between here and there, you have a network—the distribution technology and platform serving as a transfer medium, be it a data network, CAT5, or fiber-optic cabling. Each platform has its own set of benefits, and it may turn out that your distribution choices hinge on the equipment your customer already uses. The data network platform is easiest to implement, since it broadcasts content over an existing infrastructure and potentially saves a lot of money. But this setup has some drawbacks. Depending on the performance of your customer's data network, it may be necessary to compress content heavily and thereby reduce quality. Further, each display device must be connected to a local computer responsible for decoding the compressed stream before it's put up onto a screen. Fiber-optic distribution addresses the performance issues of a data network platform by enabling lots of bandwidth and extremely long cable runs. There's no need for a PC at the display end; a transmitter broadcasts from the host and ends with a receiver attached to the monitor. The compelling list of benefits is unfortunately overshadowed by two overwhelming drawbacks. First, fiber optic technology is point-to-point, which creates a problem when installations involve more than one display. Second, it can be prohibitively expensive. That brings us to the CAT5 distribution system, which combines the strengths of data network and fiber optic platforms, enabling high-bandwidth transfers at a reasonable cost. Additionally, CAT5 distribution supports point-to-multi-point applications. The way it works is simple: an A/V broadcaster connected to the server transmits content over CAT5 cable to a receiver on the display end, similar to the fiber optic topology. If the platform's only notable drawback—cable length—becomes an issue, VARs can combine CAT5 distribution with fiber optic to stretch much longer distances. In single-location installations, maxing out at 350 feet or so shouldn't pose much of a problem. Minicom's Video Display System (VDS) takes advantage of the benefits inherent to CAT5 distribution, enabling communication between your signage server and the display outputs. One CAT5 cable runs from the server to Minicom's Broadcaster unit, an eight-port transmitter. A remote on the receiving end takes that signal and outputs it to one display. Of course, each screen requires its own remote. Should your installation grow larger than the Broadcaster's eight ports, eight-port line splitters extend the solution's reach. By opting for a canned distribution configuration such as Minicom's, you take a lot of the guesswork out of building the infrastructure for a good signage solution. The only step left is to pick out suitable displays. Getting to Know Display Technology By far, the two most flexible display technologies used in signage are LCD and plasma. Choosing the right one can be difficult, and it's embarrassingly easy to tell when someone made the wrong decision. We've all seen the information displays with burnt-in ghosting and the dimly-lit advertising panels in bright department stores. By understanding the strengths of each respective technology, you'll have an easier time drawing attention to your customer's message and away from the hardware used to convey it. It should come as no surprise that the type of display you sell depends on where you'll be installing, how many people will be looking, and the customer's budget. Take the importance of lighting as an example. For particularly well-lit environments, LCDs are generally considered the way to go because they're brighter than plasmas. As the lights dim, plasma technology delivers superior contrast. Content is also an important determinant of display technology. If there will be lots of on-screen movement, such as with fast-paced movie trailers, plasma technically delivers better response times. Slower signage applications—slide shows, user-interactive demos, and presentation screens, for instance—might be better served by an LCD, which is less susceptible to the image retention, or ghosting, artifacts that affect every phosphor-based display technology to some degree. Audience size, viewing distance and budget all tie in to help determine the best screen for your customer as well. An automotive dealer looping a demo of the latest luxury sedan to customers standing three feet away at the reception desk doesn't need an overwhelming 42" screen. More than likely, a 21"-24" LCD would to the job nicely. The same dealer, looking to catch the eyes of customers walking into its large showroom, will want to go with a larger display—something along the lines of a 50"-60" screen. At that size, price becomes more of a variable, since large LCDs cost more than comparable plasmas. So, as viewing space grows, you'll need to bear in mind how display technology affects the total cost of your signage solution.
Beyond the fundamental differences between plasma and LCD monitors, display vendors have their own differentiators, some of which make a real impact on signage applications. Take LG's MU-60PZ95V as an example. The 60" HDTV plasma screen is a commercial model, meaning it doesn't come with the stand and speakers bundled with most consumer sets. That's a good thing though, because many signage solutions shed those living room extras in favor of clean, thin bezels and wall mounts. Nevertheless, LG still offers both features optionally. A slew of inputs ensure universal compatibility, and the addition of HDCP support paves the way for protected high-def content playback. Of course, once you've helped choose the right screens, you'll want to address the finishing details. Stands, mounts, wall panels, and wiring all help keep your installation clean. Building a Signage Server Getting your head around the digital signage scene isn't nearly as difficult if you come at it from the right angle. The reseller emphasizing hardware will have no trouble building a simple server capable of pumping out content around the clock. So long as you understand the strengths of each display technology, picking the right screens should be a piece of cake, too. And the only imposing hardware component—the distribution system—is easily addressable through ready-made kits such as Minicom's CAT5 VDS. Tackling digital signage isn't a task for just one vendor. By partnering up with someone specializing in content creation and perhaps someone else intimate with content management software, your customer gets the right signage solution and quality content to match and you get to focus on what makes sense for your business: hardware, deployment, and gathering the right partners together to create an ongoing revenue stream. |
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