Digital signage has come a long way thanks to how affordable audio-visual devices have become. Plus, almost all of the Smartphone and tablet innovations can be somehow migrated over to smart TVs and digital signs. Here are a few of the more popular digital sign innovations that many retailers and service providers are enjoying right now.
Touch Screen Interactivity
Even though this is possibly one of the biggest digital signage innovations of the last century, it has gone pretty unnoticed because we are all used to the idea of Smartphones and tablet devices. If these items didn’t exist, then a touch-screen digital sign would be world news. Nevertheless, all you need to know about touchscreen digital signs is they operate the same way a tablet device does. In fact, many of them use the same operating systems as tablet devices. There are digital sign manufacturers who offer touch-screen digital signs that already have operating systems on them. They also offer signs that can go outside in all weather. Plus, even explosion-proof signs for use in dangerous industrial areas. If you are a Mobile phone user, you will greatly benefit from touchscreen interactivity as well as being able to create your custom QR code on your devices.
Scheduling Content
Back in the old days, scheduling content was little more than running a series of images and videos on a PowerPoint presentation. These days, thanks to advances in digital signage software, you can schedule content based on the time of day, on customer sales and you can even schedule it based on the weather. You can set up triggers and activation protocols. This way, when the news says it is below a certain temperature, your scheduled content for raincoats starts to run. There are many retailers who tailor their content to the time of the day. For example, they run child-parent-related content at around 11 am, kid-friendly content around 3 pm, and more mature shopper content around 5 pm.
QR Codes
If you can put QR codes on posters, then you can put them on your digital signs. Even if you are running video adverts, you simply put the QR codes in the bottom corner, always visible. People will scan them and use them. You can reference the fact that they are there. Including asking people to scan them to get your discounts. Or, just like running a website URL on the bottom of your screen, you can make a QR code, and add it to your content on the off chance that people may want a quick way to get to your website, product, or latest offer. We are even seeing companies putting QR codes on live feeds that are aimed at employees (in break rooms, canteens, etc.). So don’t rule out the benefits of QR codes when creating your digital sign content.
Video Walls
A video wall isn’t that impressive when it simply shows a bunch of screens pressed together while they all show the same image. What is more impressive is when these many screens create a single image so that from a distance, it looks like you are watching a cinema screen.
Another clever innovation is how they make the same images appear as if they are running across several screens. An easy example may be how a red ball moves from the screens on the left, running through to the screens on the right.
If you want a video wall, you simply get a bunch of TV screens or digital signs. And you push them together. Up close, you can see that the wall is made up of several screens. But from a distance, it looks like one big screen.
Making a single large video or picture appear on all the screens is pretty easy. The image or video is divided up into pieces, a bit like a jigsaw. They are streamed into each screen in the correct configuration to create the illusion that they are one big screen.
The other trick, making a ball run from the screens on the left, running through, to the screens on the right, is done with a bit of scheduling trickery. In its simplest form, you run the same video of a ball moving from the left of the screen to the right. And you run them in sequence to make it look as if the ball is running from one screen to the other. Using these techniques, you can create all sorts of illusions. This includes a person walking from one screen to another across the video wall.
