Three Things to Know Before Making a Digital Signage Purchase
1. What are your communication goals?
In other words, what would you like to accomplish by implementing digital signage? Is it to communicate information, to entertain, to “wow” your viewers? This is where you have to decide what type of content you want to display. Will it be static photos or moving video? News tidbits, event calendars, famous quotes, people profiles or bios? Do you want to include a clock, a live feed for sports scores, financial information or weather? Should there be sound or music playing? There are many other options and you have to know what you are trying to achieve with the communication in order to choose the right types of content.
2. Where will content come from?
Look at what resources are available for the various types of content. Where will your videos, images, photos, calendars and other information come from? Do you have a person who can develop content, create image files, Flash animations, video properties, slide presentations? Is it someone with good design skills who can create content that is visually appealing, with good taste in fonts, colors, background images?
3. How easy is it to build and manage content on the signs?
Since the value of digital signage is in the flexibility of the medium and the ability to change content quickly and frequently, it’s important that it comes with easy-to-use scheduling software. Find out if the software is included with the media player, or is it only available at an extra cost? Talk with someone familiar to find out if the software is intuitive and what kind of training is needed. Ask to try it out. Finally, is there someone assigned to take on the role of learning the software and keeping the signs updated with fresh content going forward?
We strongly recommend you take the time at the start to ask the right questions to ensure you make the best choice when choosing a digital signage solution. The above examples are not the only questions, but they are certainly very important ones.
If you need more information on this subject, please ask us. Just send an email to:info@blrsignsystems.com