Nobody notices a screen that has gone black
Digital signage is sold as screens, and that is the smallest part of it. It is the screen, the box behind it, the bracket, the power and the network, and the question of who notices when ten of your forty screens stop showing anything. This page says what such a setup consists of, what goes wrong in practice and where our boundary sits.
Why a television cannot hang here
A signage screen and a television look the same and are a different device.
- Built to stay onManufacturers give commercial screens a warranty tied to the number of hours a day: sixteen, or twenty-four. A consumer set running day and night does not last the year, and the warranty does not cover it because it falls outside the use it was sold for.
- Bright enough for the spotA screen behind glass in a shop window faces the sun and needs several times the brightness of a screen in a corridor. That is not a luxury version but a different model, and it is the mistake most often made on the first order.
- Portrait mounting is allowedA commercial screen may hang rotated ninety degrees without heat building up somewhere. A television is not made for that, and portrait is precisely the format that works best in a shop or a hall.
- On and off from one placeCommercial screens can be switched on, switched off and restarted centrally over the network. Without that, somebody walks a round every morning with a remote control, and that is exactly the round that stops being walked after three weeks.
Four parts, and the third is forgotten
The quote is usually about the first part and the project stalls on the other three.
The screen
Size, brightness, portrait or landscape, and whether it goes behind glass. That follows from the location and not from a catalogue. We supply Samsung, LG, Philips, Hisense, Sharp, iiyama and BenQ among others, and that choice makes little difference to the rest of the setup.
The player
Something has to show the content. That is either a separate box behind the screen or a player built into the screen itself. Built in saves a device, a socket and a fault; a separate box handles more and can be replaced without taking the screen off the wall.
The mounting and the power
This is the part that gets forgotten. A sixty-five inch screen on a plasterboard wall calls for a structure behind it, and behind every screen there has to be a socket and a network point that are not there now. That is building work and electrical work with a lead time, not part of a screen order.
The network
Every screen hangs off the network, including over Wi-Fi. Forty screens pulling content all day are forty extra devices on a network that was not designed for them, and they belong separated from the tills and the workplaces.
From choosing to noticing one is off
The same catalogue and the same rollout job as the rest of the hardware, with one clear boundary.
- Choosing and supplyingPer location the screen that suits it, with the bracket, the cables and the player. On the software side we work with Loop24 among others, which puts content on the screens from the browser, and with Airtame, which lets a meeting room screen present and show signage as long as nobody is presenting.
- Mounting and connectingMeasuring up, mounting, connecting and checking per location that the picture is there. Across several branches that is a rollout with a schedule and not an afternoon’s work. In the Netherlands and Belgium our own people do that on site.
- Noticing one has gone blackScreens showing nothing also show no error message. We take them into the monitoring, so a screen that is no longer there becomes an alert instead of a remark from a customer who had been seeing it for two weeks.
- Where our boundary sitsThe content platform is a third party’s software, and the text, images and clips that go on it are made by you or your agency. We do not get involved in what is on the screen. We make sure the screen works, is on and is connected to the network.
What goes with this
Screens are the visible part of a network project.
Questions we get about this
The ones that come up most, answered briefly.
Can we not just hang a television?
For a few hours a day, yes; beyond that, no. A commercial screen has a warranty tied to the number of hours a day, is brighter and may hang in portrait. A television running day and night does not last the year, and the warranty does not cover it because it falls outside the use it was sold for.
What is usually forgotten in the quote?
The power and the network behind the wall. Behind every screen there has to be a socket and a network point, and a large screen on a plasterboard wall calls for a structure behind it. That is building work with a lead time and it is almost never part of a screen order.
Do you also make the content that goes on the screens?
No. The content platform is a third party’s software and the text, images and clips are made by you or your agency. We supply the screens, the players, the mounting and the network, and keep an eye on whether they are on.
First the locations, then the screens
Say where the screens will hang, how many hours a day they stay on and whether power and network are there. The setup follows from that, including the work behind the wall that comes with it.
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