The Complete Digital Signage Solution
What is Digital Signage?
Digital Signage is a form of electronic display used to convey information, advertisements and other messages to a targeted audience. With its ability to capture attention and deliver targeted content, it has become an essential part of many businesses' marketing and communication strategies. Content can be updated and changed quickly and easily, allowing businesses to display up-to-date information, promotions and offers, as well as delivering targeted messages to specific audiences at specific times (i.e seasonal content or time specific menu items). The use of bright colours, motion graphics, and dynamic content can help draw in viewers and keep them engaged!
A successful digital signage solution requires a few key parts.
- A screen to display your content
- A Content Management Software (CMS), like Fusion Signage, to manage the content sent to the screens
- A media player to run the software and ultimately display your content
- Content to display on the screen (usually as images and videos)
- A reliable internet connection
A screen is the physical hardware used to display your desired content. The screen itself can be a variety of different technologies such as LCD, LED, projection, a video wall etc. and comes in many shapes and sizes. It is best to go through a Reseller to be guided on what will be the best solution for your needs. It’s important to note that a screen is different to a TV that you would have in your home. A digital signage screen is commercial grade and has a bunch of features to make it suitable for long term use in your business. You can read about the differences here.
CMS is where Fusion Signage comes in! We offer the exact tools you need to elevate customer connection, experience and excitement, all in one place. As the software, Fusion Signage works behind the scenes as the brains of the operation to allow you to create, schedule and update your digital signage content in minutes! Without a CMS you would need to manually add your content to the screen (if it supports it) by USB stick which is very time consuming and tedious!
The media player is a small but important part of the whole solution. Think of your typical computer setup - you have the computer itself, a screen of sorts, and your mouse and keyboard. The media player is the computer in this analogy, without it the screen has no way of being told what to display. Our Fusion Signage app gets installed onto the media player in order for our software to be able to talk to your screen. There are a variety of different media player solutions but they all fall under two categories - internal or external. Internal media players or System on Chip (SOC) are built into the screens themselves. There are a variety of different media player solutions but they all fall under two categories - internal or external.
- Internal media players or System on Chip (SOC) are built into the screens themselves. There are many brands that provide these kinds of screens including Philips, Samsung and LG to name a few.
- External media players are as the name suggests, separate to the screen itself and will need to be plugged into the screen to be connected. Similar to the SOCs, there are many different brands that supply external media players. Fusion Signage also offers an Android based external media player if required.
Due to the many different options and combinations available we do advise contacting a reseller to guide you through what will be the best option for you and your company.
To learn more about what the role of a reseller is and how to find one, check out our help guide here.
A form of Internet connection is required for the initial setup of the solution, as well as whenever you are updating the content displaying on your screen. Internet can be connected to your device via an ethernet cable or wifi. As a cloud based software, for the screen to talk to the Fusion Signage CMS through the media player, it needs to have a stable internet connection. If the screen does lose internet connection it will continue to play the content last uploaded, however to make any changes or updates display live you will need to re-establish a connection.
Commercial Grade Solution
A digital signage solution often requires technical expertise to set up and and install, from choosing the correct screen for your area through to safely installing it in your business. We recommend using a Reseller/Integrator if you don’t already have one as they will ensure your solution is set up correctly and continues to work for years to come. Learn more about Resellers here.