If you are attending DSE February 24th and 25th in Las Vegas and you want to learn more about interactivity and digital signage I would encourage you to sign up to attend Session 34 on Thursday the 25th at 3pm.

Feb 24-25 in Las Vegas, NV

I will be moderating the session where you can learn about some of the exciting trends and technology from GestureTek, learn about the deployment of multiple interactive technologies at the Official New York City Visitor Center, and see some of the groundbreaking things the MIT SENSEible City Lab is producing.

You can learn more about the seminar at the DSE website, or read the article Three Ways That Interactivity Will Change Digital Signage

Digital Signage Software, Software-as-a-Service Digital Signage Content, Digital Signage Software, Digital Signage Tech Tips

Let’s face it one of the most important parts of a high school student’s day is lunch.  Whether they are standing in line or sitting down to eat, digital signage can be an effective way to communicate with students.

Digital Menu Board

The days of posting paper on a bulletin board are over. To compete with Ipods, Twitter, text messages and the barrage of other messages hitting teenagers every minute you need to use vibrant and flashy technology to get noticed.

In addition to posting the menu for the day, digital signage provides you with the opportunity to expose students to the latest headline news, local weather conditions, and stock market values.  In the event of an emergency immediately transform the display into a flashing message to attract attention.em

If you are a high school principal looking to utilize technology and create ”wow factor” , two other articles you may find of interest are Why High Schools Are Building Trading Rooms and Emergency Alerts at the High School Level

Software-as-a-Service Digital Signage Content, Digital Signage Installation

How do I get my ______ information onto my digital display in real time.  This question has been around since the dawn of digital signage.  When you are planning to install a large format display one of the first questions is with respect to content and how you can integrate some of the valuable data you are collecting to run and organize your business.

Sample content integrating live financial quotes

For a call center this may be call stats stored in a phone switch, for a trading floor this could be live stock quotes and news from a trading terminal, for a hotel this could be event information stored in a database, or for a corporation it may be metrics for sales and service levels.  There are literally hundreds of different places data could be collected and stored.

The first step is identifying what data and more importantly what fields or characteristics of the data you want to display.  After you identify the data then figure out how it is stored and how can you share it.  Data can be mined from things like SQL databases and MS Excel Spreadsheets with a little time and integration.  The easiest information to display is information that can be output as html or simply put – created as a web page that can be set into the content.  Another way is to publish the data as an RSS feed allowing you to accept it and format it onto your display with relative ease.

There are lots of tricks and nuances to integrating live data.  Your best bet when selecting a digital signage partner is to make sure they have a strong content services team to help you evaluate these sources and figure out the best way to incorporate them.

Software-as-a-Service Digital Signage Content

Looking to add some new and fresh content to your digital signage?  Already posting regular updates to your followers on Twitter?

Incorporating Twitter into Digital Signage

Why not integrate the two?

There are dozens of ways to incorporate Twitter feeds into your digital signage.  Two of the most popular are to create an RSS feed and then link that into a ticker or to find one of the many widgets available on the web.  One suggestion is to check out http://twitter.com/badges

Software-as-a-Service Digital Signage Content

How do you get content to “jump” from display to display?  It is actually easier than you might think.

First – arrange the monitors on your wall (learn more about bezel widths)

Second – build a computer with as many video outputs as you have displays.  If you need more than 2 monitors check out Matrox as they have options that by combining cards you can get up to 16 outputs.

Third – configure windows as you would for multiple monitors or desktops (Microsoft help entry)

Fourth – make sure your digital signage software allows you to select custom resolutions and match that resolution to how you set up the desktops in windows. (for example if you have 3 LCDs side by side by side and they are each capable of a native resolution of 1360×768 set your software to display at 4,080 x 768)

Finally – build content to fit that unique resolution.  Flash is a great tool.  Check out the enclosed picture.

Software-as-a-Service Digital Signage Content

This video uses a simple piece of cardboard to communicate a message, but the example of how to craft the message is very true for all of us that create content for digital signage networks.

Link to Video:  Crafting the Right Message

Software-as-a-Service Digital Signage Content

Dave Haynes had a very interesting post on the legality of using Adobe Flash at his sixteen-nine blog last week.

Like other digital signage software providers we see the growing trend for users to create dynamic content for their displays using these powerful off the shelf tools.  By leveraging these 3rd party applications resellers and end users alike can easily create dynamic content without purchasing or learning proprietary applications.

I like many others will be anxious to see what Dave uncovers in his investigation.

If you have a perspective or advice on the issue I would encourage you to get involved in the conversation.

Software-as-a-Service Digital Signage Content

Want to covert a PNG image to a JPEG image? Think that a WMV video looks better than AVI Video? Want to change the resolution of an image or video?

Converting between media is not always an easy task and you usually need special media converters to convert from one file format to another, as well as the know how to get it completed.

We have reviewed several on-line  converters for our clients and have the following recommendations:

• YouConvertIt Beta (http://www.youconvertit.com/) with this tool you can convert ANYTHING. Video, document, audio, image, you name it, you can convert it.  The only downside is you can’t change resolutions.
• ZamZar Beta (http://www.zamzar.com/) great tool for more intense users that require options for priority conversions, larger storage size, etc.
• Media-Convert (http://www.mediaconverter.org/) a bit more complicated than the others but it does allow you to change the resolution your files are rendered at.

These media and file converters are easy to use and provide you with a wide range of conversion options without having to purchase any expensive conversion software.

Software-as-a-Service Digital Signage Content

I was just talking with Derrek Wright of Conducive Technology about their product offering. They are making Flight Arrival and Departure information available via widgets to Digital Signage owners and have already deployed solutions with two of our Network Operators!

Here is an example of their widget at work SFO Departures. If you are interested in learning more about them or incorporating into one of your projects, click here for the details on how to get started.

Digital Signage Software, Live Data, Software-as-a-Service Digital Signage Content, Digital Signage Software, Digital Signage Tech Tips

Incorporating live data such as sports scores, news headlines, stock quotes, and weather into your digital signage content is a great way to make your display a destination and keep your visitors entertained.  Most digital signage software providers offer services or integrate with 3rd party suppliers to offer this real-time information at a cost or supply tools to incorporate generic RSS feeds.

Example of screen design using live data from Rise Vision

Many end users question costs for licensed data because they can go grab similar information for free from Google or Yahoo for free.  Why is this free – because those websites are trying to attract your traffic for the pay-for-clicks revenue.  So while those data services may be free to you as the visitor someone is paying for you to view that data.  If you read the user terms for these websites many of them specifically say it is for personal use and not allowed for public display so do your homework if you opt to go this route.  Another fear with using “free” data from the web is that it could be unreliable or go away at any time.  What is to prevent that website from changing their design and removing the data service you are using.

In summary using live data is a great way to make your display stand out, just make sure you use a legitimate, authorized source so you don’t find yourself with blank spots on your screens or even worse a letter from the owner of that information demanding restitution.

A list of some sources of data can be found at http://creativenation.blogspot.com/2009/07/syndicated-content-news-sports-etc-for.html

Digital Signage Software, Live Data Digital Signage Content, Digital Signage Software, Digital Signage Tech Tips