Choosing The Best Digital Signage Solution for Your Business
by Scala Team
Choosing The Best Digital Signage Solution for Your Business
by Scala Team
Factors To Consider When Choosing Digital Signage
There are several factors at play for businesses to consider while choosing a digital signage provider.
Budget
Digital signage has become a well-established technology with hardware and software solutions available at all price points. Obviously, a higher investment will yield a more complex or bespoke digital signage solution, but there are also some very cost-effective models available (for example, cloud-based or Software-as-a-Service models) that suit many different business sizes, types and budgets.
Therefore, cost is a great place to start in determining what kind of digital signage solution to choose.
The Goals of the Business
Businesses must have clearly defined goals that they would like to achieve by implementing digital signage. Is it to add dynamism to their brick-and-mortar stores? Is it to drive more sales or attract more foot traffic? Is it to improve internal communications for employees in a corporate office?
Clearly defined goals mean that your digital signage solution will be customised to fulfil those goals.
Complexity of the Business
The complexity depends on the scale and requirements of the project.
For a small business, their digital signage needs may be relatively simple and straightforward and implemented without much hassle. But for large organisations with multiple locations and more advanced technical needs, then the digital signage provider must be chosen very carefully to ensure they can meet those needs.
An easy way to gauge the expertise of a digital signage company is to ask for details about their past projects to get some insights on how well they can deliver complex solutions.
Maintenance & Resources
Businesses with well-staffed in-house technical teams can easily manage their digital signage network in-house. However, that is not the case for many businesses. In many cases, it is easier (and cheaper) to have the supplier handle crucial services like maintenance and upgrades, making cloud-based or digital signage Software-as-a-Service an ideal option.
Top Features to Look for in A Digital Signage Solution
Not all digital signage solutions (and providers) are made equal in what they can offer your business. So, how should businesses go about choosing the best digital signage in Australia?
Below we explore some key features that make certain solutions stand out over others.
Easy Content Management & Scheduling
A good, easy-to-use digital signage Content Management System (for example, Scala Content Manager) is the backbone of any decent digital signage solution. A digital signage CMS is a tool to create and schedule content to display on your screens, and the best ones make it an easy and seamless process. Here’s what to look for in a good CMS:
- easy-to-use, intuitive user interface that allows scheduling, publishing and organisation of content with just a few clicks.
- flexible, easy to manage scheduling and playlists with the ability to schedule the same, or different, content across multiple screens and locations
- support for multiple content formats to prevent the hassle of converting content from one format to another
Intuitive Design Tools
Digital signage design tools should allow the user to easily create effective, eye-catching designs combining different types of media. Some features to look for include:
- ability to dynamically combine text, video and audio elements
- ‘drag and drop’ functionality and an uncomplicated design interface
- beautiful transitions
- customisable templates
- versatility to design content for multiple screen orientations and
- live rendering.
Some design tools come with optional scripting language that virtually renders their potential limitless. In this regard, tools like Scala Designer are especially powerful because businesses can add additional capabilities on the go.
High Quality Displays
A quality display is the heart and soul of any digital signage. It is the most visible part and the first point of contact for the viewer. Businesses can capture the attention of viewers and deliver their message effectively by ensuring that the display is of high quality.
Therefore, the display should be clear, bright and vivid. Wide viewing angles are also necessary, as distortion of colours from certain viewing angles can ruin the viewing experience and turn off customers.
Always choose displays with high resolution, a decent contrast ratio, adequate brightness and wide viewing angle. Usually, LED displays fulfil these criteria but LCD screens can be nearly as good if the business is running on a tight budget.
Reliable Media Player
A dependable media player is a must, and its importance should not be overlooked. A good media player can reliably play content with 100% uptime, and is built for constant round-the-clock use without failure. Other features to look for include:
- multi-content support, with the ability to display interactive content
- ability to download content updates rather than re-downloading whole contents
- live streaming capability
- ability to output to multiple screens
For example: Scala Media Player also gives Windows Script Host Support which means the media player can be made to interface with other applications using programming languages such as JavaScript and Python.
Reliable Support and Maintenance
Access to reliable technical support is an essential component of choosing the right digital signage solution for your business, to avoid lengthy downtimes. Make sure to research the provider’s support mechanisms to ensure you will have access to on-the-spot troubleshooting and repairs should issues with your displays occur.
Why Is Scala The Best Digital Signage Provider?
Scala is a world-leading provider and has helped hundreds of brands globally implement smart digital signage solutions, making it the best digital signage in Australia.
Here is a short glimpse into our process for implementing practical digital signage solutions for businesses:
1. Identify Business Objectives
Every business has different needs and Scala works hard on identifying these needs and devising digital signage solutions through which they can be met.
2. Outline Challenges
An assessment of challenges likely to appear is done beforehand to ensure the most seamless experience for our clients. Outlining these challenges helps us prepare for them ahead of project deployment and craft solutions that address them from the get go.
3. Deliver Optimal Solutions
Finally, arriving at the solution. The screens, media player hardware and software for digital signage are installed and thoroughly tested for their performance, reliability and security. The content management system is also tested before final deployment, and clients are provided with training to be made familiar with our easy-to-use intuitive user interface.
Do you want to transform your business? Get in touch with us today:
https://apac.scala.com/au/solutions/
About the Author:
Scala digital signage experts share their experience and thoughts in our blog to provide practical tips and advice for real-world applications. Our team aims to offer interesting content through a variety of formats including long form articles, video logs, interviews and infographics.
