Digital Signage
What is Digital Signage?
„Digital Signage“, describing the combination of LCD screens with computers in order to offer advertising or informational services, has seen a steady growth in usage over the past years. This can be attributed on the one hand to the ever lower prices of the neces- sary hardware, and on the other hand to the increasing advantages of such a medium against traditional media – like advertising posters (i.e. always up-to-date, no printing costs). The technology is usually built around a screen, low-priced embedded hardware and custom media software (i.e. for displaying videos, images, and more). These screens are installed at public or business locations (i.e. retail stores, street corners, stadiums, fairs) in order to gain attention or inform bypassing people. There‘s a wide range of differ- ent possible purposes for such a device: Event Management, OutOfHome Media, Point of Sale Advertising, Educational Services, Digital Newspapers, Guidance Systems, and more.
The Problem
Given these diverse opportunities, many companies are trying to enter this market. Since there is no standardized software solution, however, many companies currently develop simple custom solutions for specific use-cases in-house, which aren‘t capable of little more than displaying images or videos. The end result is a highly differentiated market built around a heterogeneous distribution of endless small and interoperable software solutions.
We expect that there'll be a huge consolidation in the coming years driven by customer in-teroperation needs and, more importantly, driven by the formation of advertising content distribution networks. Today we already see companies creating businesses upon the idea to market local advertising to small networks of displays. In order for these networks to succeed, however, standardization and network externality are key.
The Solution
Therefore, for the past three years we have worked hard to build the best and most adap- tive digital signage solution on the market. Our web based software VIDERO combines modern technologies, offers options and modules for almost all digital signage use-cases, and has been built with ease of use in mind. It is our next aim to establish it as the leading platform for digital signage solutions in order to offer standardization.
The Market
„Digital Signage“ is expected to experience a vast growth in the coming years. The 2008 German Digital Signage Study „POPAI Die globale Studie. Chancen und Risiken“ identified the stark differentiation of the software landscape as the one of the primary problems, but expects an ongoing consolidation to begin soon. Additionally, our system will be able to appeal to a huge amount local companies, which currently lack any medium (besides newspapers) to invest their advertising budget.