The next phase of the digital signage market
Posted by ET Group on November 19, 2015
In my last blog I wrote about the “Technology Market Lifecycle of Digital Signage”. The blog described the evolution of the first phase of the Digital Signage market which is just starting to commoditize. And just as Phase 1 starts to commoditize, Phase 2 of the market is just getting started.
Phase 2 is logical extension of the first phase and there is overlap, especially with the different adoption postures that customers have. But how do we know we are at a secondary phase of the market? A new phase is never defined by new technologies but by the customer’s needs and how technology can meet them. We stepped through the customer need and subsequent customer questions in a technology lifecycle, as those questions relate to the digital signage market, in the last blog and you can see the graphical depiction in the image below.
In this blog I am going to write about the first two customer questions that define Phase 2:
- Does this work? (Can the customer need be met?)
- Does this solve my business problem?
- Does this work?
What Is the Customer Need in This Phase of the Market?
Customers with digital signage networks are asking the question: Can I use my existing network of displays to do other things? They don’t want to stop using them for digital signage but they do want to do more than play content files on their network of digital displays. That network of digital displays can be leveraged to do a lot more, and some of the things they want to do are pretty critical.
What exactly do they want to do with their existing and growing network of digital displays? They want to use the displays:
- For instant Emergency Broadcast notification
- For Town Hall communications, allowing an executive to take over the digital display network and to speak live on the displays
- To connect other technologies in their buildings to their display platform and communicate status, feeds and other information
- To play internal advertisements or to make money by playing other advertiser’s messages
- To easily display content from other corporate technology platforms and from any Internet source (I will address this in my next blog)
Each one of these items is a topic onto itself, and I hope to dedicate a blog to each of them, but for now, here is a high level overview.
Emergency Broadcast
In the event of an emergency – a fire, bad weather, bomb threat, a shooter, and other emergency situations, there is an increasing requirement to immediately take over a single existing digital display network or multiple independent digital display networks and unify them into a single emergency broadcast. In the case of some Higher Ed institutions, this requirement is becoming more important than the digital signage itself. Studies show that students on campus pay attention to the digital displays. In fact, 96% notice digital signage immediately and can recall its content. And when something happens, Emergency Ops need the ability to instantly take over what is playing on the digital screens because seconds count.
The digital signage network is one of the most effective ways to communicate in the event of an emergency to in-building occupants or the on-campus community.
Town Hall Communications
Most digital signs are placed in common areas where people congregate or pass by, e.g. lobbies, foyers, cafeterias, lunch rooms, atriums, hallways, branch locations, etc. Corporations, government and educational institutions have a constant need for their top executives to communicate to their constituents live. It isn’t economical or practical to assemble everyone in one location but you can assemble them in the common areas of their work locations. If you can turn your digital signage network into a live broadcast network without having to buy a lot of extra equipment or having to switch the equipment sending the signal to the digital display, then you have a really viable solution for Town Hall updates.
Connecting to Other Building Technologies
The amount of technology that is making its way into everything we own or come in contact with is increasing every year. Buildings are no exception. They are filled with many different systems that have an increasingly higher proportion of digital technologies in them – fire alarms, security cameras, door locks, lights, HVAC, etc. Historically these are islands of technology and they do not communicate to each other, but as they become more digital, they are transforming to IP technology and if they have an IP address they can talk to each other. This is a big part of the Internet of Things (IoT) story.
Digital signage is one of the best ways to communicate information from other building systems. Both:
- Status updates, e.g. real time energy savings or building maintenance updates
- Real time information, e.g. security camera feeds on the digital sign
Advertising
Some organizations play their own ads on their digital signage displays but others are willing to play other people’s ads. For those who don’t mind playing other people’s ads, what easier way to use your digital display platform than to make some money from it.
What do All These New Requirements Have in Common?
Some of these items aren’t new, but they are either being done in a less than optimal way or it is just too difficult and costly to implement them based on the digital signage platform that is in place. Very few existing digital signage networks deliver these kinds of capabilities except in very rudimentary ways. The player based architectures that were so successful in Phase 1 of the digital signage market just do not provide the integration flexibility required to interface with all the other technologies.
A new architecture is required to give the digital signage network the capability to easily adapt itself to all these new requirements in an elegant way. An architecture based on web technologies, or as I call it – a Web Based Architecture.
The Ability to Easily Integrate – Solves My Business Problem
Phase 2 of the Digital Signage Market Technology Adoption Curve, is just beginning. Phase 2 technologies will help users solve their need to integrate their digital display network with other technologies to be able to use them in the ways that they want. To make them a platform for different types of communication which can be triggered to switch content manually or by automated triggers.
With a player based architecture (PBA) it is very difficult to do all these things, but with a web based architecture (WBA) all this is possible. Phase 2 of a market takes us to a new curve with new technology delivering new capabilities. Here is what that market evolution looks like for a technology that has re-invented itself.
It is the same curve starting all over again. And for the digital signage market it is based on a new architecture that can easily INTEGRATE to other technologies.
Easy Integration
- To web content, e.g. YouTube, Social Media, other live sites
- To allow triggering of content – manual or automated, for Emergency management and more
- For IoT connectivity
- To enable Town Hall forums
- And more
In my next digital signage blog, I will contrast in more detail, the Player Based Architecture of Phase 1 of the market with the Web Based Architecture of Phase 2 of the market. I hope to demonstrate the flexibility the WBA provides and difference it makes. If you want to learn more about creative technology solutions contact us to learn more about our HybridX solutions.
