Digital Signage - Content

Content

"Content", in the context of digital signage, is the name used to describe anything designed and displayed on screens. Content is wide and varied, and indeed may be of any variety, including text, images, animations, video, audio, and interactivity. It has frequently been argued that digital signage must rely on useful content if it is to work effectively.

While the technology is well-established, it is often the content that fails, perhaps because marketers have not yet widely adapted their thinking to produce appropriate and engaging content.

Content design (much like the design for static signage) is typically done through a specialist agency or, alternatively, by an "in-house" individual, team, or department. While there are a great number of different software solutions available, the most popular are proprietary to digital signage. The use of other systems to run a digital signage network often does not provide the necessary flexibility and management, as the proprietary software can create conflicts with open-source software.

In many digital signage applications, content must be regularly updated to ensure that the correct messages are being displayed. This can either be done manually as and when needed, through a scheduling system, using a data feed from a content provider (e.g. Canadian Press, Thomson Reuters, AHN) or an in-house data source.