Digital Signage Can Save Lives
As
communicators on digital signage networks or private TV channels, you have the
power to make a difference when an emergency situation arises.
There can hardly be a driver in America
who hasn't been cruising down the highway when the regular programming on the
radio is interrupted for a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. A brief
warning that a test is about to occur is followed by a burst of tones that
sounds like it's coming from a dial-up computer modem followed by a reminder
that what was just aired was a test.
Or, perhaps you live a
tornado-prone section of the country like I do. If so, we probably share this similar
experience. Absorbed in the work at hand, you hear a whine in the distance that
at first startles you and then makes you look at a clock and a calendar to
confirm it's 11 a.m. on the first Tuesday of the month --the time local government
authorities test the city's emergency warning sirens. If it isn't, you know your
next step is to grab a portable radio and flashlight and head for the basement.
I'm not sure exactly when this
loose network of government officials, broadcasters and local sirens coalesced
into an organized system for alerting the public of an impending emergency -
although it probably was the same time the USA
entered into a protracted Cold War with the Soviet Union.
However, I am certain the original planners of the system did not envision the
existence of thousands of private TV channels and digital signage networks.
Yet, that's exactly where
technology has taken us today. The existence of these networks gives
corporations, universities, colleges, secondary and even primary educators,
government agencies, the military and other institutions the opportunity to
inform people within the reach of their private TV and digital signage networks
of an unfolding emergency situation.
I would argue that in some situations
the ability of these networks to deliver highly targeted messaging to a select
audience makes them even more valuable than a blaring siren or even a
broadcaster. It's a sad fact of life that we live in a time when a lone person
or a small group can perpetrate an act of evil so deplorable that tens,
hundreds or even thousands of innocent people can come face to face with peril
and possibly death. In those situations, knowing where to go and what to do can
mean the difference between life and death.
In a school, at an airport, in a
post office, at a shopping mall, around the campus of a large corporation or
even the confines of a small business, a digital signage network or private TV
network can be used as a closed-circuit Emergency Alert System. "Terror Alert:
Evacuate Terminal A," "Emergency: Gunman in North Wing of Building," or
"Warning: Fire On Third Floor -Use West Stairway to Evacuate." These are all
vital, yet simple messages that these networks of flat panels and TVs can
display to stack the odds in favor of saving lives.
Additionally, with the
right software, hardware and interface, the media servers used to schedule and
playback digital signage networks and private TV channels can be tied directly into
the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to playback warnings of larger dangers, like
tornados, flash floods and civil emergencies.
In the next couple of columns, I
will lay out some of the technical details of setting up a digital signage
network or private TV channel to support the EAS system. (Don't worry. You
won't need to be an engineer or computer programmer to understand what's
required and how to employ it.) I'll also offer a few tips you might find
valuable in preparing for emergencies.
Often in our professional lives
we get so focused on our core task -be it selling more widgets, posting our
school's social activities, class schedules and menus or welcoming visitors to
our companies- that it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. We are
professional communicators first. We have a powerful medium at our disposal,
and we can help to make a difference and possibly save lives when an emergency
situation presents itself.
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Digital Signage: Out-of-Home Advertising Gains Public Recognition
A recent
article in The Los Angeles Times
says out-of-home advertising is offering an important alternative to traditional
TV commercials.
The concept of advertising with media outside of the home
gained a good degree of notoriety Sunday in The
Los Angeles Times with a major article by staff writer Alana Semuels.
The 1,000-word article, "Now
showing very near you...", makes a
strong case for digital signage networks and advertising as well as other
out-of-home media. In the article, Semuels identifies digital video recorders
as a major culprit in diluting the frequency with which traditional television
commercials are viewed. As a result, advertisers are hungry for an effective
substitute, and out-of-home ads appear to be the solution.
Semuels elaborates on a major theme of several of my
recent columns, namely every day more TV viewers are skipping past commercials
with their DVRs, making in-store, out-of-home advertising all the more
appealing. (Two of my earlier columns discussing the impact of DVRs on TV
viewing, include: "Digital
Signage Payoff: What Is A Challenge For TV May Be A Boon For Digital Signage
Networks" and "Digital
Signage Market Poised to Skyrocket.")
According to the LA
Times story, about 20 percent of U.S. households now have digital
video recorders. The ease with which viewers in these homes can skip past the
commercials has a growing number of advertisers interested in out-of-home ads
on flat panel displays near the point of sale where they can influence shoppers
making purchasing decisions. And, if they can't influence a particular buying
decision, at least they can elevate brand awareness.
Quoting San Francisco-based Premier Retail Networks, which
has 200,000 screens in 6,500 stores nationwide, the article points out 42
percent of shoppers remember a brand they see on in-store screens, twice number
for television commercials.
It's no wonder then that a recent forecast from PQ Media
Research indicates that spending on out-of-home advertising will grow 27.7
percent this year. The statistics, part of the company's "PQ Media
Alternative Out-of-Home Media Forecast 2007-2011" report show the category
to be among the fastest growing segments in the media industry.
Last year, media spending on out-of-home advertising
reached $1.69 billion, up 27 percent from the 2005. In fact, spending on
out-of-home advertising has grown at double-digit rates every year from
2001-2006 with a compounded annual growth rate of 22.6 percent, according to
the PQ Media report.
In discussing the reasons for the growth, Patrick Quinn,
president and CEO of PQ Media said: "Unlike
its mass media peers, alternative out-of-home advertising is impervious to
channel or web surfing and is immune to audience fragmentation."
PQ Media identified several factors driving the growth of
out-of-home advertising, including:
- advertiser perception that out-of-home ads provide
high engagement, targeting options, proximity to point-of-sale, measurable
impact and cost effectiveness;
- data indicating exposure to and recall of
these media are growing;
- research suggesting the vast majority of
consumers view alternative out-of-home media as favorable and educational;
- new technology enabling companies to launch
digital advertising platforms that generate higher revenues than the
conventional formats they replace.
PQ Media divides out-of-home advertising into three
categories: video advertising networks and screens; digital billboards and
displays; and ambient advertising. The research firm has found video
advertising networks is the largest category, accounting for 60 percent of all
out-of-home ad spending. Spending on this category grew 28 percent in 2006 to
$1.01 billion with double-digit growth in four markets: in-theater, in-office,
in-store and in-transit, according to the company.
High-profile
news articles, like the one from the LA
Times, draw the public's attention to this market. More importantly, this
sort of coverage helps busy ad professionals focused on traditional media segments
to notice the out-of-home advertising market. As these ad pros have their own
"Ah-Hah" moments thanks to these sorts of articles, it won't take too much
effort to back up the perception that out-of-home advertising is a growing,
important new segment. Research, such as that from PQ Media, makes it easy for
out-of-home advertising to be taken seriously -and more importantly for ad
buyers to consider it as a new part of their media mix. As they do, out-of-home
advertising and digital signage are likely to enjoy even wider acceptance and
use.
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Digital Signage Advertising: Meeting HDs Demands
The increasing use of HD display
panels in digital signage networks means content creators must find sources for
high-def material.
When I
think about digital signage, I'm sometimes reminded of the perpetually hungry, ever-growing
plant from the musical "Little Shop of Horrors." You might remember that
unusual flora. It's the talking, singing Venus Flytrap on steroids that
constantly demands "Feed Me!" I can't help but think of that giant man-eating
plant, because its appetite for flesh was as large and insatiable as that of digital
signage for content.
Content
is the currency of digital signage. Without it, digital signage would be about
as appealing as looking at a dimly lit mirror. So, it's imperative that digital
signage users source, create and schedule enough of the right kinds of content
to attract and hold the interest of their audiences till they've delivered
their intended message.
Not an
easy task under normal conditions, the job is even harder when high definition
is added to the equation. The appeal of HD content on a digital sign is
straightforward. High definition television's ability to reproduce enough
picture detail to convey a previously unattainable sense of realism is
powerful. Sports fans who watch their favorite teams in HD never want to go
back to their ordinary TVs, and nature buffs who tune into Discovery HD Theater
can feel overwhelmed at times by the Mother Nature's majesty.
Transplant
that HD realism to a retail digital signage network, for example, where
marketers want to create a specific mood or portray their merchandise in the
best possible light. Under those circumstances, understanding the allure of
high definition to digital signage marketers is as clear as an HD image itself.
However, the
issue of sourcing HD content -particularly video originated in high definition-
is significantly less clear. While it seems that every week another press
announcement trumpets the arrival of a new TV channel or cable network in HD,
the reality is the video production industry is still in a transition period
between conventional television and HDTV. HD content can be shot for your
digital signage needs, but there is a strong demand for HD production services
and limited supply -so be prepared. On a positive note, those content creators
who wish to shoot their own HD digital signage content have a broad selection
of relatively affordable camcorders from which to choose.
Another
source of HD content is your company's film library. Remember continuous-tone
film is a high-resolution -or at the risk of confusing things "high
definition"- medium. Film can be transferred to HD video, and depending on your
project, doing so might make sense.
Upconverting
standard definition television to HDTV is an option as well. Depending on how
you intend to use the content, this may be an entirely suitable solution for
your HD content needs. While it may not be ideal, upconverting select content
has significant advantages over shooting original HD material in terms of cost,
speed and opportunity. Remember, many programs you're ooing and ahhing at today
on your HDTV may include sequences that have been upconverted from standard
definition footage. That's especially likely to be the case for historical file
footage.
If you're
not looking for original HD content, you're options are a little broader.
Cable, satellite, and even Telco TV services make a variety of channels and
networks available in high definition. It is even possible to turn a computer
with a USB 2.0 port and a USB device that's an ATSC tuner along with a loop
antenna into an HD receiver/digital video recorder for terrestrial
(over-the-air) broadcast HDTV content. While I specifically am not advocating
unauthorized use of copyrighted material, the availability of the USB HDTV
tuner and recorder does increase your flexibility and options.
Feeding digital signage's insatiable appetite
for content has never been easy, and HD makes the task even more troublesome.
But you are not without options. Originating HD content, transferring existing
film assets to HD and upconverting ordinary video content to high definition
are starting points. With time, HD production capabilities will become so
prevalent that creating high definition content will be taken for granted. Until
that time point, creative digital signage content pros will assess their
resources and employ the options that make sense today.
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Digital Displays: A Little More About High Definition
When it
comes to HD, it's not one size fits all.
Last week, I made a simple point in this space, namely
that just because a display device, such as a plasma or LCD panel, is flat
doesn't mean that it's capable of displaying high definition content as part of
digital signage messaging.
By way of review of last week's column, a display panel
can be SD, or standard definition, ED, or enhanced definition, or HD, high
definition. Displays are made up of individual picture elements, called pixels.
Basically, the idea is the more pixels, the higher the resolution of an image. Thus,
an SD display with a pixel count of 704 (horizontal) x 480 (vertical) has less
resolution than an ED display with 852 x 480 pixels. HD displays, which have
even more pixels and are at the top of the resolution food chain for displays,
come in three flavors: 720p, 1080i and 1080p. (More on the "i" and the "p" in a
moment.)
A 720p HD display has 1280 pixels (horizontal) by 720
(vertical); 1080i and 1080p displays have 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels, or more
than 2 million individual picture elements. The letters "i" and "p" stand for
interlaced and progressive, respectively. Interlaced displays, like ordinary TV
sets and 1080i HDTVs, paint individual lines of pixels back and forth top to
bottom across the display on the odd numbered lines (in HDTVs those are 1, 3,
5...1079) first and then the evens (2, 4, 6...1080) before beginning the process
over and over. Taken together the odd numbered line "field" and the even
numbered line field create one "frame," or complete still image. There are 30
such frames displayed per second.
Progressive displays, like computer monitors and 1080p
HDTVs, display lines sequentially (1, 2, 3... 1080) before beginning the process
again. These 1080p HD displays paint 60 new still images on the screen every
second. With twice the frame rate (60 versus 30), 1080p demands twice the
amount of data as 1080i.
That difference in frame rates means different things to
different parties interested in high definition. To marketers using an HD as
the display technology in a digital signage network, 1080p is the
top-of-the-line image quality they can expect to achieve for the foreseeable
future. If the message they are communicating requires the utmost resolution,
1080p may be the right choice. However, 1080p displays are more expensive and
there will be a price to pay in terms of content storage required to drive that
messaging.
To broadcasters who must work within the law administered
by the FCC for transmission of HD, 1080p is too much. Simply given what they
must work with, 1080p is beyond their capacity to deliver. Thus, 1080i and 720p
are the broadcast HD formats.
To movie studios wishing to distribute their films in the
highest display format available in the home, 1080p is the answer. Much of the
buzz over Blu-ray and HD-DVD optical discs is in part about the ability of the
competing formats to deliver superb image quality. Those formats -and their use
of a blue frequency laser with a shorter wavelength that can write more data
per area of storage- were designed to be able to write the all of the 1080p
data to disk that's needed to playback a full-length movie plus bonus material.
But here's the most important party in the 1080p HD
resolution equation: the audience. Whether you're a digital signage marketer, a
broadcaster or a movie studio, you are faced with same question: How do I
affordably deliver the level of quality to my audience that satisfies my
desired communications goal? In other words, how much resolution is enough for
the communications task at hand?
Only you can answer that question. To illustrate how
subjective the answer is, consider this: ABC, ESPN, Fox and My Network TV rely
on 720p, or 720 progressive lines, for HD service while NBC, CBS and PBS rely
on 1080i. Perhaps before you decide which level of HD resolution is most
appropriate for your high definition digital signage network, you should flip
between ESPN's "Sportscenter HD" (720p), "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno"
(1080i) and "March of the Penguins" (1080p) playing back from an HD-DVD player or
"Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (1080p) from a Blu-ray player on your 1080p display. You
may be surprised by what you observe.
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Digital Displays: Things Are Not Always As They Appear
Just because a digital signage monitor is flat does not mean that it's high
definition.
The most obvious thing about digital signage is the display
panel. It's the first thing you see, and probably the last thing you think
about once it's hung and showing the content you want others to see.
But did you know that just because your digital signage
messaging is playing back on a flat panel plasma or LCD that it's not
necessarily being shown in HD quality? While they're somewhat less common
today, for the past few years display makers have marketed -right next to the
HD panels- something known as ED panels or TVs. EDTV stands for "Enhanced
Definition Television" -something that's better, to be sure, than the ordinary
television in most homes across America,
but nowhere near as good as HDTVs and HD monitors. So, what makes one panel
"enhanced" and another "high-def"? Basically, its pixels, scanning and
terminology.
Pixels
first
If your interest in digital signage is more about what it
can do for you than how it does it, you might not be very familiar with some of
the basics. First, a pixel is a picture element. Many say it's the smallest
picture element in a display, but maybe a better way to think of it is as the
smallest whole picture element in a
display. That's because just like Gaul, all
pixels are divided into three parts -red, green and blue. Those parts are often
referred to as sub-pixels. But for the sake of this discussion, let's stick
with pixels.
In plasmas and LCDs, pixel count is pretty cut-and-dry.
These displays are made up of rows and columns of picture elements or pixels.
An SD panel -or standard definition panel, the closest thing to your ordinary
home TV- will have 480 rows and 720 pixels across. EDTVs have the same number
of rows, 480, and 853 pixels across.
Besides having about 20 percent more pixels across,
another important distinction between the two is the type of scanning used. An SD
display is interlaced just like your fingers are when you do "Here's the
church, and here's the steeple...." Drawing one complete picture, or frame, in an
interlaced display requires the monitor to scan the odd number rows in an image
sequentially first, i.e. 1, 3, 5 etc. and then the even numbered rows 2, 4, 6
etc. Together those two interlaced "fields" make up a frame. There are about 60
fields per second, or about 30 frames per second in SD video. (I won't trouble
you with the why regarding the term "about.")
These interlaced fields are displayed so quickly that the
scanned odds are still aglow, although decaying, while the evens are being
scanned. However, that decay in the glow and constant refresh account for a
flicker that's visible to some.
ED monitors are progress scan displays. Like computer monitors,
they scan lines, 1, 2, 3, etc. all the way to line 480. It's the greater number
of pixels and this progressive scanning that makes them better than SD, or in
other words, enhanced.
Enter HD
HD or high definition can produce a view of the world
that's lifelike. If you doubt that, flip on the Discovery Channel and then flip
over to Discovery HD on an HDTV. You will be amazed.
There are many different types of high definition standards,
but you only have to be concerned about a few things when it comes to digital
signage. First and foremost, HD is pixel count. If it's got at least 1280 x 720
pixels, it qualifies as HD. However, here's where things get a little
confusing. HDTV and monitors also come with 1920 pixels across and 1080 pixels
vertically, and they come with lots of different pixel counts in between. Those
"tweeners" have more to do with the manufacturing capabilities and priorities
of the company making the panel than they do with the actual HD standard.
Like the difference between SD and ED, there are scanning
type differences among HDTVs as well. First, there is progressive scan called
720p (row 1, 2, 3... 720). Then there is 1080i, or 1080 interlaced (1, 3, 5...1079
followed by 2, 4, 6...1080). Finally there is 1080p, which some HD marketers call
Full HD (implying that the rest aren't quite HD, which is misleading and
self-serving in my opinion).
Not
quite as they seem
Without a doubt, HDTVs are burgeoning in the home and HD
panels are becoming popular displays for digital signage. Their ability to
reproduce lifelike images is breathtaking. That's powerful clay in the hands of
digital signage sculptors.
But
don't be confused. Just because a panel is flat, it's not necessarily HD. Look
for the panel's resolution in pixels. Find out what type of scanning it uses.
Together, those two pieces of information can tell you what you're looking at,
even if your eyeballs aren't sure. It can also save you the headache of
mistakenly acquiring the ED monitors that seemed like a steal when you thought
you were buying HD.
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