The Digital Signage Evolution is Unstoppable

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As commercial display technology has evolved so has the actual configuration and the solution itself.

Back in the early days of digital signage a QSR, for example, would have a monitor up front serving as a menu board. In the back of the restaurant would be a large computer to play the content, with cables running to the front for the menu board. That computer was expensive – maybe $1500 – $2000 to have enough power to run however many monitors the QSR had in the front area.

But as technology improved, and solutions improved, the actual computer (now called a media player) has gotten much more efficient and powerful, the capacity has gotten larger and the player has gotten much, much smaller. And the costs have come down.

Today, the latest evolution is SoC (system on chip) embedded in the display itself, with an 8GB SoC being powerful enough to run the content. A digital signage solution with SoC and a web-based platform reduces system costs by eliminating the need for the media player, and also saves money on installation labor as well as cabling.

And that’s just for content delivery. When we consider the evolution of the displays themselves it’s incredible what has happened. We’ve gone from thick and heavy flat panels to lighter, thinner flat panels, virtually seamless video walls with ultra-narrow bezels, stretched displays that go where no display could go before, razor-thin displays that seamlessly blend into the environment, curved flexible displays that can actually become the environment, and transparent displays that take digital content to yet another new level of excitement.

Where will it all end? We don’t believe it will. All we know is that today’s digital signage solutions offer businesses more ways than ever to stand out from the competition, create better customer experiences, and manage their content in real time from pretty much anywhere.

We can’t wait to see what’s next.