A fashionable technology and a market eager for innovative solutions with tangible results. These two elements allow you to configure a product with characteristics that, as if it were a bottle of the best liquor, can produce an unforgettable evening or a frightening hangover.
Santiago Algorta*
Digital signage technologies have been on the market for a long time. People who work in broadcasting say, with some displeasure, that this is the same thing that years ago we called narrowcasting. They have some reason ... the concept of reaching very specific audiences through audiovisual technologies is absolutely valid but broad.
Digital signage is a much clearer and more functional concept. It is about converting static areas of information into dynamic communication portals. Offer the customer useful and timely information that allows them to make intelligent decisions. In recent years the digital signage market has taken a big boost due to the emergence of two technological developments:
1. The significant increase in the availability of large bandwidths capable of transmitting huge amounts of information.
2. Price reduction and functional improvements in display products, from plasmas, LCDs and LEDs, to new OLED technologies.
These phenomena have also enabled an exponential increase in the amount of audiovisual content, highlighting HD videos. Today, any media student can access an HD camera and an advanced editing system. And companies can now produce or order – at reasonable prices – materials that were previously only available for the largest budgets.
One of the markets where digital signage develops most naturally is on university campuses. On the one hand, these are places of high influx of public with common interests and willing to consume information (typical audience for a system of digital billboards). On the other hand, universities have human resources that allow them to develop content of excellent quality at low cost.
The main objective of a digital signage system within a university should be, without a doubt, to improve communication on campus. Digital billboards can also play an important role in the mission of educating students and provide information that allows intelligent decisions to be made regarding time and space management.
However, certain universities have granted these systems as a commercial concession to companies that install billboards at no cost to the institution with the consideration of being able to commercially exploit the screens. As respectable and economically advantageous as this scheme may be, we consider that it is not the best for this market since it does not contribute to the communicative and pedagogical functions of the system and wastes the great potential of talent that exists within university institutions.
Clear objectives
A screen on a given campus must fulfill a series of primary functions among which we can highlight the following:
1. Promote events that are happening at that time or that will occur in the future. The public should also receive guidance to access important events. These functions are of utmost importance as they produce immediate effects on the audience; smart decision-making and time saving on the go.
2. Disseminate updated information regarding the daily work of the students. This includes the allocation of classrooms and physical resources of the institution.
3. Disseminate emergency alerts and specific evacuation instructions. It is important to involve joint groups and first aid brigades in the coordination of communication strategies for evacuations, and that the system plays an active role in drills and campaigns organized by these groups.
4. Distribute information about social activities of students and the university environment. Primary function to create a sense of belonging. These messages also help draw students' attention to screens.
5. Disseminate internal or external commercial messages. In the case of internal commercial messages, this can have a favorable impact on the adoption of commercial agreements, promotions in merchandising products of the institution ... etc. External advertising messages – if supported by the organization – can become an additional source of revenue that finances the very operation of the communication system. It should be clarified that this is not the same as delivering the system in concession since in this model, the institution retains full control of the contents.
6. Support pedagogical efforts. University environments are especially prolific in the production of audiovisual materials. Digital billboard systems allow you to program the dissemination of student work in the audiovisual area on selected screens and specific schedules. In addition, the great flexibility of these technologies allows them to become a support for distance education and extended university processes.
7. Centralize the distribution and production of content, unifying the management of brands and generating coherent messages among all the departments of the institution. Digital signage systems serve to integrate and facilitate the flow of content from multiple repositories through the LAN. In this way, the department in charge of managing the network of billboards can manage the "look and feel" of the contents (taking care that the basic guidelines of a communications policy are respected) but at the same time gives access to all the dependencies interested in publishing their own content.
Benefits and measurement
One of the immediate benefits of digital billboards is the easily measurable reduction of printed paper and its corresponding economic savings as well as the transmission of ecological values. However, the greatest benefits require somewhat more elaborate measurements with the design of specific tests and control group.
An increase in student attendance at events promoted in the system, compared to attendance at events advertised with traditional media could be a way to test the efficiency of the system. However, in this case it would be necessary to deal with the frustration of the organizers of the events excluded from the digital billboards. In this same way, the reaction of the students whose works are presented on the screens can be measured.
But the less tangible benefits are perhaps the most important. The improvement in the communication environment, the perception of students of being in an open and modern environment are more long-term benefits whose return on investment (ROI) will eventually be reflected in aspects such as the improvement of the image to the public and the increase of enrolled students.
Emerging technologies
University campuses can serve as laboratories to test technologies that can later be applied in the business environment. In addition, companies will subsequently be able to feed on qualified labor in the design, implementation and maintenance of digital signage networks as well as in the production of specific content for this medium.
One of the emerging technologies that it is essential to incorporate in any university digital signage network is the integration with external information sources, either accessing databases dynamically using for example ODBC, RSS news feeds or even Twitter accounts controlled by the directives. Most robust digital signage systems, such as Scala, Sony's Ziris Pro or Harris' Infocaster, allow you to configure some of these functions.
These types of facilities are also a great opportunity to implement and develop and become laboratories for advanced signage solutions such as interactive kiosks, or integration with advanced web technologies via Apps or clusters of screens for special effects such as Canvas.
Finally, it should be noted that the integration of IP television systems (IPTV) and digital signage finds its ideal environment on the university campus. With the addition of an IPTV encoder and the ability of players to receive multicast streams, network management can schedule the transmission of specific programs from their university channel such as a Real Madrid – Barcelona at noon in the cafeteria or a message from the rector broadcast live.
IPTV systems share the network with digital signage systems and can also share certain screens. For example, the screens of the cafeteria can be programmed, from the digital signage administration server, to present the news at a certain time of day from an IPTV encoder but framed in a branding box of the University. Other screens can be directly connected to the IPTV system with cheaper set top boxes than a digital signage player, and finally, a third group of screens can completely ignore the IPTV system and show only the digital billboard templates.
The issue of integration between digital signage systems and IPTV systems deserves a separate article as well as it is worth discussing in another report topics such as the workflow of digital signage and IPTV systems. For which I expect contributions, comments and concerns from readers that will help me to accurately identify the high points to be addressed.
*Manager of Digital Signage Media, [email protected]
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