Introduction
Digital signage systems rely on a combination of hardware and software components to deliver content to electronic screens, monitors and projectors in out-of-home settings. While there are literally hundreds of products on the market to assist network operators with this task, they all tend to share a few key features. Specifically, there must be some component that allows a network manager to schedule content to appear on a certain screen at a certain time, another component that actually transports the content to the appropriate screens, and yet another component that plays the content on the screen at the right time.For example, consider the following illustration of a digital signage network that delivers content to three digital signage players in two different physical venues (perhaps two stores in a retail chain):
In this case, content stored on a centralized content management system (CMS) is transferred over the Internet (or some other computer network) to each of the two venues. Venue A uses a single digital signage player to deliver a single channel of content two two screens, while Venue B uses a pair of digital signage players to drive two independent channels of content. Let's consider each step of this process, and the software necessary to enable it.
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Content Management Systems (CMS)
Content management software does just that -- manage content. This typically involves a few key steps:Content Ingest
This is the process of inserting new pieces of content into the system's library. It might take the form of uploading content to a remote website (if using a web-based software package, or a Software -as-a-Service (SaaS) solution), or simply dragging files from your hard disk into a new folder (if using a desktop-based software package).
Content Organization
Once in the CMS library, content can typically be organized in a hierarchical fashion (for example, using a tree of folders like you would manage the files on your desktop computer), or using metadata "tags" to allow the content to self-organize (for example, by tagging all advertisements from Coca-Cola with a tag like "vendor=coke", and letting the CMS put all like-tagged items together).
Content Scheduling
Since the goal of a digital signage network is to show relevant, time- and place-specific information, CMS software also allows the network owner to build playlists of content segments. Depending on the software package used, the playlists can vary from simple linear lists to dynamic lists that use external data sources (such as weather information or inventory data from an electronic POS (ePOS) system) to modify list properties. These content playlists can vary by day of the week, seasons, holiday periods, etc., and can typically be organized so that a group of digital signs can share some portion of the list, but have customized components for each screen as well.
Player Management
Organizing and manipulating content is only one half of the digital signage equation, as the content must be played back (and verified as having done so) on-screen before the task is complete. The player management component of any digital signage CMS will be responsible for tracking the "health" of the network, by listening to status messages from each player, and querying them for additional information as appropriate. >> Learn more about:
Content Transfer Software
Content transfer software is responsible for taking the playlists assembled in the CMS system and delivering them to the appropriate media players. The software must identify which content files are needed by each file and deliver them, along with the necessary scheduling information, over the computer network (such as the Internet). Content transfer software can take one of two primary forms, with some variations for each:"Push" -based software
With so-called push software, the content server is responsible for sending the necessary content and schedules to down each player. It typically does this by directly contacting each player (usually by connecting to a known port using the player's known IP address), and then transferring all of the files using a protocol like FTP. The chief advantage to this system is that updates can be forced immediately -- the content server will simply start opening ports and transferring content as soon as the network administrator saves his changes. The chief disadvantage is that the systems often require each player to have a dedicated and externally-visible IP address, or else use a dedicated VPN to allow for direct, server-initiated connections in cases when players must be located behind firewalls (which is extremely common, particularly in the retail and financial industries).
"Pull" -based software
Pull software, on the other hand, resides on each player, not the content server. With this approach, each player is responsible for requesting new content files and schedule updates from the central server, typically on a period basis (for example, every 5 minutes). The primary advantage to this approach is that it works well behind firewalls and can use NATted IP addresses without having to open any external ports (thus making it more secure). The main disadvantage is that each player must poll the server frequently to ensure that updates happen in a timely fashion.
One "hybrid" example of the two approaches above would be a network that uses both satellite multicasting technology as well as an IP-based terrestrial unicasting approach. In such a scheme, large volumes of content might be pushed over the satellite network nightly, to special satellite receivers in each venue. At the same time, the players at each venue would employ a pull system to download smaller schedule files and pass status messages.
Player Systems
As its name implies, player systems are responsible for playing the scheduled content on the right screens at the right time. These systems also log content playback activity and send status messages to the serverThere are three primary types of player systems on the market today:
Player Appliances
Player appliances are typically low-power, embedded computer systems that run a limited and task-specific software stack off of an EEPROM or Flash memory device. These devices are often physically small and relatively inexpensive, making them attractive to smaller businesses. However, the low-power components are often limited in terms of multimedia playback capability, requiring users to carefully tailor content playlists so as to not over-tax the sytems.
Player Operating Systems
As the name implies, these are complete operating systems that are purpose-built to play back digital signage content. The underlying operating system (OS) is typically Linux or an embedded version of Microsoft Windows. However, unlike their desktop counterparts, these systems cannot be modified by the end user, and typically lack common desktop tools and user interfaces. The main benefits of this approach are playback flexibility (the OS runs on a standard desktop computer, which has powerful content playback capabilities) and reliability (since users are unable to tamper with key settings). The chief drawback is that these systems require a dedicated PC to act as the player device, so they can't act as dual-use machines (e.g. acting as both the digital signage player and a desktop PC at the same time).
Desktop Software-based Systems
These systems rely on a standard software application running on top of a generic operating system (typically Microsoft Windows). Like the Player Operating Systems above, these software packages can run on potentially powerful standard PCs, which gives them the ability to play back complex schedules. Additionally, since they are just standard software packages, these systems can run on existing PCs, allowing them to serve as both digital signage player and desktop PC at once (assuming that the host PC is powerful enough, of course). The chief drawback to these systems is that they can be less robust than purpose-built software or hardware solutions. Additionally, using a standard Microsoft Windows installation subjects the user to the drawbacks of that platform as well. Thus, it is often necessary to install separate anti-virus, anti-spyware and automatic patching software programs to ensure network security is maintained.
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