Welcome to Digital Signage University by Screenly! Our goal is to make digital signage simple and easy for new users to understand. We have compiled several bite-sized lessons that can take anyone from zero to hero in just a few sittings. You can get started at any time and move forward at your own pace.
1. Understanding use cases for digital signs
Digital signs are any TV or monitor that displays custom content, including images, videos, and even live web pages. Organizations can use digital signs to display information internally to employees or externally to visitors and customers.
Some examples of digital signage use cases for internal communications include:
- Showing company data and KPIs on data dashboards.
- Showing HR policy announcements and reminders.
- Showing friendly birthday and work anniversary announcements.
- Showing team calendars and upcoming meeting times.
Some examples of external, customer-facing digital signage use cases include:
- Displaying new inventory.
- Displaying promotional offers and sales.
- Displaying digital menu boards.
- Displaying upcoming events.
- Displaying local weather forecasts.
- Displaying news highlights.
The above digital signage use cases are just a few of the many ways organizations can use digital signage. Digital signs are an excellent medium for visually communicating information, particularly in a hassle-free way for people who are on the move.
2. Understanding digital signage hardware
Digital signs require two main hardware components: the digital signage player and the screen. A digital signage player is a small, physical device that renders content to a user’s digital sign. Just like a DVD player renders content to a home TV, a digital signage player renders content to a digital sign.
The second hardware component of a digital sign is the screen that displays content. This screen can be almost any modern TV or monitor, and the right type of screen for each user depends on the screen’s environment. For example, outdoor screens need to have particular brightness capabilities and weather protection, and screens that are far away from viewers need to be large.
Selecting a screen also depends on the user’s digital signage player. Most digital signage players connect to screens using an HDMI cable, a standard input for modern screens. However, some screens for enterprise use cases, such as NEC screens, have built-in digital signage players. Also, a screen must be able to display the digital signage player’s output resolution. Most digital signage players display content in 1920x1080px resolution (also known as 1080p).
Some digital signage players and screens can support 4K resolution content. However, 4K resolution digital signs are often unnecessary and come with a lot of expenses. You can read more about considerations regarding 4K digital signs here.
3. Understanding digital signage software
In addition to digital signage hardware, digital signage software is also necessary for a successful digital signage deployment. Digital signage software is typically cloud-based and allows users to select the content that each digital sign displays.
Digital signage software is important because it allows remote digital signage management. Before digital signage software, users had to visit each digital sign physically to change content. The process typically involved a USB drive with media files and a keyboard. The user would then plug in the USB drive and keyboard into the TV and upload the new content to each screen manually.
As one can imagine, the manual content changing process was very time-consuming. Additionally, the process was challenging to scale across large digital signage deployments where users had multiple digital signs across one or more cities. With digital signage software, users can instead log in to their online accounts, upload content, and select content to run on their screens in just a few clicks.
Digital signage software also provides users with a range of useful content management features. For example, users can arrange content into a particular order using playlist builders. Additionally, users can then schedule playlists to run at specific times or on particular days of the week. For example, a restaurant can schedule playlists with daily menu specials to only run on days when those menu specials are available.
4. Using digital signs with popular software tools and websites
Individuals can display a variety of content from their favorite software tools and websites on their digital signs. Importantly, these software tools and websites include ones that require a username and password. You can read more about showing content from websites that require authentication here.
One of the most common types of software tools for digital signage is slideshow tools. Users can display content from Apple Keynote, Google Slides, and PowerPoint presentations. With Google Slides, users can automatically update their digital signage content as they change their slides.
Another type of software tools that are popular for digital signage content includes data visualization and dashboard tools. These tools include Grafana, Power BI, Geckoboard, Chartbeat, NetSuite, and Screenful. Users can connect these tools to their business databases and show up-to-date business metrics to their teams using digital signs.
A subset of data visualization and dashboard tools includes IT infrastructure monitoring tools, which display data regarding software uptime, software user counts, errors, and more. This group of tools includes Datadog, Hosted Graphite, Jenkins, Munin, Nagios, New Relic, and Zabbix.
Other popular tools that are compatible with digital signage include Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar. Users can display team calendars or personal calendars with private events hidden.
To display weather forecasts for their locations, users can display local data from the Screenly Weather App.
5. Creating custom digital signage content
In addition to using the above tools, users can also create and display custom digital signage content. In many cases, an organization will have a marketing or PR department with in-house designers, photographers, and videographers. Digital signs can display an image or video content that those individuals create so long as it fits within the compatible resolutions. Most digital signs display content in 1080p resolution.
Smaller organizations that do not have in-house design talent can also create and display custom digital signage content. There are a variety of online tools that make content creation simple. We recommend that users check out the popular design tool Canva, which features a variety of image and video templates. Users can quickly change out the template colors, logo, and text with their own and then add this custom content to their digital signs.
6. Monitoring the health of your digital signs
In addition to allowing users to change out content on their digital signs remotely, digital signage software also enables users to monitor their digital signs’ health from anywhere. As with any technology, glitches do happen, and digital signs may temporarily stop working. A blank or error-displaying screen is not a good look for an organization or its IT professionals. Accordingly, it is important to identify screens that need troubleshooting quickly and easily.
With digital signage software, users can remotely monitor their digital signs’ playback histories to ensure that the intended content displays correctly. Additionally, if a screen stops working and is no longer online, users can receive a timely alert. Users can also view all the health statuses of all their screens at once on an online dashboard.
When a user receives an alert that a screen needs troubleshooting, they can quickly address the underlying issue. In many cases, the user can troubleshoot the screen remotely by triggering a reboot command on their online digital signage account.
This quick alert functionality is a game-changer for many IT teams who would otherwise have to wait for an email from an upset customer or coworker. With remote health monitoring for digital signs, IT teams can proactively check for screens with problems and quickly address each issue.
7. Using digital signs at scale
While digital signage software makes it easier to manage even just a single sign, users see even more significant efficiency gains when they manage multiple screens. In many digital signage deployments, there are often sets of several screens that display similar content. For example, a user may want all three lobby screens to show the same content. Digital signage software allows users to manage the content for the entire set of related screens at once.
To manage multiple screens at once, users can apply labels to screens. Using the previous example, a user could label each of the three lobby screens with the “lobby” label. Once the user assigns the label to each screen, the user can then apply changes in bulk to all screens with the particular label. This functionality saves time and allows users to manage digital signage at scale with efficiency.
8. Keeping your digital signs secure
Security must be a top priority when it comes to digital signs. Hackers often target digital signs because digital signs are in locations with high-visibility and a lot of foot traffic. When a hacker successfully gains control of a digital sign, they may display inappropriate content to viewers and be able to produce significant harm to an organization’s local image.
More advanced hackers can also exploit digitals signage vulnerabilities to gain access to more than just the company’s digital signage screens. Hackers may use an organization’s digital signs to access the organization’s back-end systems and databases, and hackers may be able to access sensitive business information and customer data.
To keep digital signs secure, users must select a digital signage player and digital signage software company that takes security seriously. You can read more about the security precautions that digital signage software and hardware providers should take on our Digital Signage Security page.
In addition to using secure digital signage software and hardware, keeping digital signs secure also comes down to how the organization manages its digital signage accounts. For example, individuals can use two-factor authentication (2FA) features to make it more difficult for a hacker to access account credentials. Additionally, digital signage users can set up multi-user permission levels, limiting what actions each user can take. Further, organizations can segment their digital signage deployments into individual accounts to restrict user access even more. Managers and administrators can then access each of those accounts through multi-team functionality.
9. Programming custom digital signage functionality with a digital signage API
Users can change out content by logging in to their online accounts and editing their digital signage playlists. Another method for users to change out content is by doing so programmatically using a digital signage API.
A digital signage API allows users to build custom integrations between their existing business applications and digital signage accounts. Users can then program a variety of events to trigger their digital signs to show particular content. For example, a user can use a digital signage API to stop displaying a promotional offer on a retail item when that item is out of stock. Alternatively, users can program their digital signs to show live traffic updates when there is a traffic jam on popular routes.
10. Digital signage content design
The best digital signage deployments can fall flat with poorly designed content. Before launching your digital signs, take a moment to consider your audience and how they will interact with your sign. You want to make sure that your content fits the environment of your signs. For example, it would not be appropriate to have content with a lot of text in a hallway, where viewers quickly pass the sign while en route to another location.
Digital signage users should also think about the distance between digital signs and viewers, color contrast, and content layouts. Learn more about digital signage content design.
11. Digital signage device management
Managing a fleet of hardware devices can be difficult. IT professionals need to keep devices up-to-date with the most recent software releases, and they also need to ensure that all devices keep running. Device management has an added layer of complexity when devices are remote and not immediately accessible to the user.
With modern digital signs, users can manage their devices on a central dashboard. Some igital signage software solutions allow the user to see all their screens on a map, and screens that are not communicating with the software’s servers often highlight in red. Additionally, users can receive an email update if servers lose contact with a screen. The user can then visit the screen to troubleshoot any issues.
Learn more about digital signage device management.
12. Getting started with digital signage
Getting started with digital signage is easy. To get started, the first step is to sign up for an online account for digital signage software. Users can get started with a free 14-day Screenly trial here. Users do not have to enter a credit card. Once inside, users can get familiar with the software and learn more about digital signage management features with a guided software tour.
The next step is to source digital signage hardware, including a digital signage player and a screen. Users can buy a Screenly Player digital signage player online via Amazon. Note that Screenly Players are compatible with screens that accept HDMI input and can display 1920x1080px resolution. Almost all modern screens and monitors fit those requirements. However, it never hurts to double-check.
Congratulations! You just completed Digital Signage University by Screenly
You now know all about digital signs and how to get started with your first digital signage deployment. Of course, there is always more to learn about digital signage, and you will likely have additional questions along the way. If you have questions or need help at any point, please reach out to Screenly Support. We are always happy to help.
