Digital Signage Taking Next Step

The ability to beam ads and promotional content to any number of sites simultaneously via satellite remains a remarkable concept, and network reliability and cost concerns that may have conspired to turn prospective customers away in the past are being overcome by advancements in technology.
Digital signage solutions are becoming more attractive in Europe and North America due to more affordable high-resolution displays and more reliable networking components. “It is a market that became more positive two or three years ago as upgrades to BTV (business TV) and distance learning networks started taking off,” says Christopher Baugh, president of Cambridge, Mass.-based NSR. “Still, digital signage has generally not met expectations and has not developed as quickly as many originally thought. Time frames have slipped. It is a challenging market.”
While gains are being made, the digital signage market is a long-term play — “longer term than many expected perhaps three or four years ago,” says Baugh. “We still believe in the viability of the digital signage market, and some obstacles are being overcome. Business model identification and formation is the biggest problem. Large retailers — the low-hanging fruit with satellite [information technology] already in place — get it but not necessarily the smaller players.”
The digital signage sector as a whole appears to be on track to achieve forecasted sales of more than $3 billion by 2009, says Lisa Jachimowicz, president of the Washington-based Digital Signage Forum. While demand for satellite-delivered digital signage is growing, small and medium-sized companies remain reluctant to embrace it because “they think it is too expensive to implement,” she says. “The good news is that larger networks are being deployed, and using satellite can be an easier solution for managing content and more cost effective [than] traditional digital signage delivery for both small and large companies. Satellite companies need to do more marketing and more education in the digital signage industry, and there is a serious lack of presence when it comes to satellite solution providers at trade shows and industry events.”
Helius, based in Lindon, Utah, is seeing significant growth in demand for digital signage networks across a variety of markets and industries, says Jeffrey Curtis, senior vice president, of worldwide sales and marketing. “The primary driver for satellite-based networks is the requirement for live events in conjunction with digital signage playout,” he says. “I believe the jury is still out in determining if these networks increase sales. Most of the people we work with do not know understand the cost benefit of satellite networks and this provides an opportunity for us to introduce satellite as the transmission method. The quality of the video signal is much more important with digital signage than with traditional BTV. Support for Flash and other file formats is important as well. Customers often do not require the video to be live, so store-and-forward methods are often effective.”
Content management is not simply a matter of timing, as viewers are demanding more options if digital signage systems are to attract and hold their attention, says Greg Weaver, manager of digital signage networks at Raleigh, N.C.-based Microspace Communications Corp. “Constant advertising is not compelling, nor is hard news,” says Weaver. “A soccer mom standing in line with her four-year-old probably does not appreciate seeing a news feed of people getting blown up.” To achieve true cost savings, “multicast via satellite is still the way to go as networks grow,” Weaver says. “Dealing with a variety of different terrestrial providers in different regions [means] network management only becomes more cumbersome. Smaller networks or initial pilots are fairly cost effective and easy to control on a terrestrial circuit but still are unicast models.”

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