Digital Signage FAQ

Q: What is digital signage?
A: Quite simply, digital signage is the new form of displaying “traditional” print advertisements or media. Digital signage is now being used in any capacity where there is a message to get out to consumers or clients, whether it be a billboard along the freeway, a display in a retail location or even ambient screens in a bar or lounge setting.

Wherever there are potential customers, visitors and/or clients, there is a use for digital signage: shopping malls, casinos, educational campuses, corporate environments, theme parks, resorts, mass transit stations and vehicles, civic centers, media studios, emergency command posts… the list is long and as varied as the needs of communication.

Q: Is digital signage easy for anyone to use?
A: Absolutely! SmartAVI’s digital signage products and supporting software have been designed with the “average” user in mind. We have painstakingly developed our digital signage solutions so that even novice end users that have never worked with digital signage will have a pleasant, user-friendly experience with our products practically right out of the box.

Q: Do I have to install any software from SmartAVI to operate my digital signage display?
A: All of SmartAVI’s digital signage products are designed to work hand-in-hand with our Windows®-based software that you install on your personal computer, be it a laptop or desktop at work where others may have access to it as well. The beauty of our software is that it is designed to be a hassle-free part of our digital signage product line. There is no need for a dedicated server with our software, nor is it bulky or difficult to learn. You will find that SmartAVI’s software is actually very easy to master and will assist you in the production of incredible digital signage presentations for any and all settings!

Q: What type of files can I use in my digital signage presentations? Am I limited to what the SmartAVI software will support?
A: The answer is yes, you need to use files that SmartAVI’s software supports. The GREAT news is, we have specifically designed our digital signage software to understand and use the common everyday media files that you are already familiar with, such as QuickTime, AVI, Flash, JPG, GIF, Windows Media File, Acrobat, PowerPoint, RSS feeds and HTML, just to name a few! There is absolutely no file conversion process within our software, eliminating the frustration and inconvenience of changing the files you’re already familiar with.

Q: How do I upload media I want to use in my presentation to the digital signage player?
A: Once you have programmed your presentation within the SmartAVI software, the uploading process automatically begins to your digital signage hardware. This can take place locally over a LAN connection or remotely via the Internet. In cases where there is no network available, the files and playback schedule can also be transferred to the media player via USB flash drive.

Q: How long can my digital signage presentation be? Am I limited to a few minutes of playback time?
A: SmartAVI digital signage products generally come with four gigabytes of internal hard drive space. The rule of thumb is that one gig is equal to about one hour of playback time, which means that our digital signage hardware is capable of approximately four hours of continuous playback time, which is typically way more than most clients would ever need. Of course, in the event that you would need more than four hours of playback time, SmartAVI can custom-fit a larger hard drive into any of our digital signage units to meet your needs.

Q: You mentioned that the files and programming for my digital signage would automatically upload over the Internet. Do I need a constant Internet connection to run a digital signage display?
A: Not always, and not constantly in many cases. The only time you need a connection to the Internet is if you are remotely programming your player or if one of the selected media types you wish to display happens to be an RSS feed. “Manual” or local uploading to your player may be done over a LAN or with a USB flash drive if you’d like. Naturally, if you are located in San Francisco and your digital signage is in Palm Beach, you’re going to need an Internet connection – or a really long Ethernet cable!

Q: Isn’t digital signage primarily for advertising? Why would I need an RSS feed as part of my presentation?
A: Actually, digital signage is used for many applications – not just advertising, although that is definitely a major selling point of this type of product. Digital signage is used for informative presentations, ambient displays, corporate presentations, civic information, emergency command posts and community broadcasting. Stock ticker, emergency/disaster, real-time traffic and news information feeds are examples of why someone might want to incorporate an RSS feed into their digital signage presentation.

Q: Do I have to choose between an RSS feed and another file playing at once? How does my digital signage work as far as showing different files at once?
A: SmartAVI’s digital signage products are all capable of multi-zone display playback. “Multi-zone” simply means you can select as many individual files as you’d like to play at once, where and when on your display screen. This is what gives you the ability to play a movie file and perhaps have a creeping line of RSS text across the bottom. Multi-zone displaying gives you the ability to get as creative and “complicated” as you’d like with your digital signage presentations – have a company logo, movie, static image and live RSS text running at once; the freedom is yours, thanks to SmartAVI’s dynamic products.

Q: Multi-zone display, RSS feeds… this all sounds so complicated. How am I going to successfully program my digital signage presentation? I’m not an engineer or computer tech!
A: Most of the users of digital signage technology aren’t engineers or computer techs. In fact, many folks programming digital signage are marketing and management individuals given access to a company’s digital signage system to update with information and content. Knowing this, SmartAVI has specifically developed our digital signage software with even “novice” end users in mind – folks that don’t necessarily need to know or understand how it all works, but rather simply need it to do what they want it to.

SmartAVI digital signage units come with software that includes dynamic and very powerful display templates that are simple to load content into with the help of easy drop-down menus that make multi-zone programming a snap.

Q: Okay, so I get the whole software/hardware thing. What if I want to have more than one screen for my digital signage display?
A: Having more than one display screen as part of a digital signage network is very common. SmartAVI’s digital signage products have been designed to be programmable from a single source, regardless of how many hardware units (they’re called “clients” if you want to get technical) you employ in your network. This means you can program and operate one to more than one thousand digital signage displays.

Q: What if I want to play different presentations on a few of my digital signage network’s screens?
A: That is no problem at all. On the computer that the SmartAVI software is installed, you may have as many presentations created and stored as you’d like. Within the digital signage software, you determine which presentation gets played on what display screen and when. You can have 100 different screens playing 100 different presentations, if you’d like; you control it all from one PC!

Q: We have a large digital signage network and a big campus where the display screens are installed. I understand that different screens can play different content. But what if we don’t want to depend on one administrator to control it all; what if we want each of our department heads to be able to control what is being shown and when within his/her area at any given time? Is that possible?
A: Absolutely! While you can have one admin overseeing the entire digital signage network on a regular basis, you can also set up user permissions when you install the SmartAVI software so that various individuals can sign on to the control PC and have access to his/her area’s content and scheduling controls.

Multi-user permissions make it possible for a group of department heads or key personnel within an organization to control various aspects of your digital signage network, without having to depend on one single administrator to make all of the content or scheduling changes.

Q: So, when I purchase one of SmartAVI’s digital signage solutions, it comes with one installation disc for the software, which is installed on whatever machine I plan on controlling the presentations from, and can then be used to power the programming on as many individual units as we have in our network, correct?
A: Yes, that is correct.

Q: I’m guessing there is a product key for the software that I install before programming my SmartAVI digital signage presentation, right?
A: Yes, that’s right. Installation of our software and the use of a product key allows you to receive updates for your unit and fast, friendly customer support from SmartAVI if and when you ever need it.

Q: What if I want to switch the software from my desktop to laptop or transfer it to any other computer? Is that possible?
A: It’s absolutely possible and easy to do. You just simply uninstall the control software from the current PC and re-install it elsewhere using the same product key. You can switch computers as many times as you need this way – you just cannot install the digital signage software on more than one machine at a time.

Q: Digital signage sounds so easy, fun and powerful to use – not to mention cost-effective. WHY would anyone continue to rack up printed signage costs rather than switch to the dynamic solutions that SmartAVI offers?
A: We… don’t know.