What is Dynamic Digital Signage? - Learn at Loop

As technologies advance, the use of AI and other intuitive programs becomes commonplace. These technologies are changing the digital signage business, too.

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Digital signage (DS), or TV signage, is a form of digital messaging. In contrast to the past, this form of communication is not static. Static signage refers to digital messages printed on paper, tin, or wood. These only change or go straight to a customer when someone moves the sign.

Digital signage today is changing at a rapid pace. Now, you can get dynamic digital signage for your business marketing.

But, what is dynamic digital signage and how is it different from traditional digital signage?

Dynamic vs. Static Digital Signage

The old, typical digital signage of the past can&#;t cut it anymore. According to Forbes, digital signs have 7 seconds to make a first impression. If a customer doesn&#;t trust or engage with your content in those few seconds, then you have lost them.

Add the constant use of smart devices in the mix, and you have a steep mountain to climb. Most people are used to getting exactly what they want in an instant. So, grabbing the attention of a customer has never been more challenging.

To compete with the allures of various technologies, you need a digital signage display that will catch and hold the attention of potential viewers. This way they will trust your company and buy your products.

Digital signage uses state-of-the-art technology and research to deliver high-quality content to customers.

There are two different types of digital signage available:

• Static digital signage: Plays continuous videos, images, and other media. These have to be changed regularly by hand. They stay the same for each viewer until someone changes the digital message.
  
• Dynamic digital signage: Changes displays based on predetermined conditions. It uses AI, proximity sensors, and customer choices to make signage more personalized and interactive.

In short, dynamic signage provides potential customers with a catered digital message experience.

Benefits of Dynamic Digital Signage

If you can catch the attention of a passerby, they are more likely to enter your business. Dynamic digital signage has many benefits. This is a fast-growing marketing solution that may be a good choice for your marketing needs.

1. Flexibility

It is easy to change your digital sign with dynamic signage. If you have a digital menu, you can sync your inventory software to keep the menu up-to-date.

As seasons change, you can change your digital messages with the touch of a button. This keeps your messages relevant.

Dynamic signage is easy to use and manage. The content management system for dynamic signage is accessible from any location. Fewer people need to be in charge of changing the message, so things are less confusing.

You also save time updating digital messages. You can update digital signage content using digital media players. These allow you to create schedules for content to change based on predetermined conditions.

Or, you can change them remotely yourself. This gives you the freedom to update the sign from wherever, whenever. These intelligent changes make sure your digital messages never get stale and outdated.

2. Eye Catching

Since your dynamic signage will always be changing, it makes it more appealing. People tend to walk past marketing they&#;ve seen a million times, but fresh content catches their eyes.

Also, many of the dynamic signage options available involve interaction. This gives people the opportunity to stop and engage with the content. S. Shymar Sundar is the professor of communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory.

Sundar explains how interaction works. Physical interaction aids in memory. People tend to retain more when they perform a physical task. Interactivity also helps to shape people&#;s opinions of content.

So, as people interact with your content, they shape their opinions and memories of your brand. In as little as a tenth of a second, a potential customer has shaped an impression of your brand based on the visuals. So, if you want to draw them in further, offer them something modern.

If you want consumers to remember your company and your products, interaction is key. Dynamic signage provides that experience.

3. Targets Specific Audiences

Dynamic signage also gives your marketing team up-to-date data. There are regular reports on what appeals to your audience. So, you can continue to deliver what your customers love.

It can also give you insight into what doesn&#;t work. So, you will be able to make changes and update your digital messaging based on people&#;s responses.

You can integrate your digital signage software with your social media platforms to get customers interacting with your digital displays online. You can also share your social media feeds. You can even display social media feeds on other sites.

This gives you a real-time playlist. So, you can better use your time and efforts to reach your target audience.

4. Saves Resources

Printing and distributing digital messages is costly. It also takes a lot of resources such as ink, paper, and the like. With dynamic signage, you don&#;t have to worry about producing physical copies.

Also, printed materials often get passed by without a glance. They can become out-of-date sooner. Dynamic signage is always up-to-date and delivered in an engaging way that is hard to pass up. Your software will stay current with all the latest updates, so your digital screens are always optimized.

Digital displays may cost more than paper in the short term. But, they last longer and are easier to change.

Also, most of these products are backlit digital screens with LED panels. These energy-efficient lights make dynamic signage a greener solution than paper messages.

In terms of content management, fewer people are needed to manage your digital signage network. This makes it a much more cost-efficient option in terms of manpower.

There are several templates available for your digital content. You can streamline your marketing team and focus on making quality digital messages.

5. Real-Time Programming

Another feature of dynamic signage is its ability to keep customers informed. Whether it is updated on weather, sports, or news, dynamic signage keeps viewers current. No matter where people are, they can feel connected with what&#;s going on.

Another way that dynamic digital signage can reach customers is through catered experiences. These use real-time video content to engage your customer while they are at your business.

For example, music videos in fitness centers encourage customers to work out more. How-to videos will get customers ready to start their DIY projects. Demo videos let your customer experience a product before they buy it. The playlist will always be catered to your customer&#;s interests.

These digital messages stay fresh and relevant to your customer&#;s needs. They also help your customer build a positive association with your brand.

Examples of Dynamic Digital Signage

To give you a better idea of what dynamic digital signage looks like, let&#;s take a look at some different options. There is a variety of dynamic signage you could try.

Interactive Menu Boards

Digital menu boards are nothing new. You can see them displayed above cash registers in a variety of restaurants and cafes. They have the menu items listed, prices, visuals, and some images of deals. Customers can see and take advantage of the promotions and items you have available.

Dynamic signage takes these digital menu boards one step further. Interactive menu boards are stand-alone structures. In addition to the above features, they work as self-checkout kiosks, as well.

As many as 66% of consumers in a survey of 1,000 US participants prefer self-checkout over traditional. This gives customers the perception of shorter wait times and speedier checkout.

You can set up your interactive menu to display daily deals. You can list in real-time the items that are available and unavailable. And, you can give your customers the option to choose their check-out experience.

Try-Before-You-Buy Displays

This trend in dynamic signage is a great strategy to get consumers to try and fall in love with your products. Try-before-you-buy displays are popular in retail stores. These can look many ways. However, the most common is being able to try out the product in-store.

Interactive mirrors are the best example of a dynamic digital display. Customers can use interactive mirrors to try out clothes to see how they would look on them. When a customer sees an item on, they are more likely to buy the product.

You can also program the interactive mirror to suggest similar products. So, your customer continues to engage with your products. Even if they decide against the product they tried on, they may purchase another product the mirror suggests.

These displays are great for getting people who may be on the fence about your product to take that extra step.

Interactive Kiosks

A kiosk is a stand-alone booth that provides a service. Kiosks allow for a modern digital messaging experience. They are popular in busy locations where a lot of people will come into contact with the machine, such as shopping malls.

You can get both indoor and outdoor touchscreen kiosk displays, according to your needs. These unmanned kiosks provide product information, self-checkout, and check-in services.

They can also provide the service of wayfinding, or helping your patron find their way through your store with ease. If you have a particularly large office building or medical facility, these displays are ideal for directing your customer to the right location.

Interactive kiosks sell products by promoting self-services. These can be paying bills or selling items, like tickets, directly to a customer.

This dynamic signage is perfect for businesses trying to sell more products. In crowded areas like shopping centers, customers can avoid standing in long lines. These kiosks work great for customers who are in a hurry.

Lift-and-Learn displays

Dynamic signage can also be interactive with the product itself. You can engage your consumer with one of these lift-and-learn displays. Here they can check out a product further.

This helps customers make better decisions about the product. When a customer lifts the product on a lift-and-learn display, it triggers it. This will activate targeted digital messages and promotions.

Customers can look and feel the product. Meanwhile, the screen provides similar product recommendations at the same time. This encourages buyers to further investigate your product and make a purchase.

They also get to look at similar products you offer. This helps increase the likelihood they will buy something.

Proximity Digital Signage

Environmental inputs influence the product recommendations for this type of dynamic signage. These digital displays detect people near displays. For example, if a customer picks up a certain product, a digital message will activate.

This dynamic signage can be large or small, based on your needs. You can install proximity digital signage anywhere. Some businesses have them on glass facades, elevators, video walls, or kiosks.

Having the digital message at the right time can help your business tremendously. Location is everything. Dynamic signage helps keep your business looking modern and fresh.

Dynamic Signage with Loop

Loop TV is an ad-supported video-on-demand streaming platform. It provides quality, dynamic signage for your business. Getting Loop TV has many perks to help your business grow.

Loop TV has real-time displays that allow you to control the digital message for your business. The online portal is easy to use and makes changing and personalizing your content a breeze. This is an interactive and targeted way of getting your dynamic content to customers.

Some dynamic signage features that Loop TV offers include TriviaLoop and the sports ticker widget.

TriviaLoop is a non-stop multiple-choice quiz. It is perfect for adults and children alike. Customers can answer questions in eight different categories as they sit and wait or enjoy a meal. As people answer questions, they build a relationship with your brand. These fun interactions keep customers coming back time and again.

The sports ticker widget runs along the bottom of your screens. It keeps up-to-date information about the major league sports news, scores, and games. This keeps your customers caught up on their favorite games while they shop or eat.

Loop TV provides all the digital signage solutions your business needs with unlimited entertainment. Entertaining your customers with music videos, kids' channels, and more has never been easier.

Highway streaming-text messages may not be entertaining, but they're crucial: "Accident ahead, reduce speed to 20 mph and use alternate Rte. 312 to avoid stalled traffic."

Many state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) have adopted LED message centers as their preferred highway-traffic management system to inform drivers about current travel conditions. Roadside, LED text messages instantly communicate ongoing, or unsafe, driving conditions and, if necessary, suggest alternate routes.

Want more information on walk in dynamic message signs? Feel free to contact us.

The sign systems report such roadside incidents as slowdowns, accidents, construction, lane closures, weather concerns, amber alerts and travel-time alerts. Alerts vary from global messages that cover the entire network (amber alerts and posted speed limits) to dedicated messages concerning road incidents along specific routes.

Highway LED electronic systems take many forms. Overhead electronic sign cabinets are suspended on scaffolds across highways. The walk-in sign cabinets allow onsite maintenance without interrupting traffic flow. Signs installed on single-post stanchions supply the same message capabilities as overhead highway signs on arterial, or secondary, roads, which feed traffic to and from major highways. The sign face lifts in sections to provide maintenance access to the interior.

To serve secondary roadsides, LED units can also be towed on mobile trailers to inform travelers about temporary road incidents, such as road construction. Toll-booth signage, which displays collection fees and lane directions, helps manage traffic-funnel locations near bridges and tunnel toll-collection points.

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LED message centers have been integrated into highway-traffic management to form a complex, information-gathering network. The Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) program, the U.S. DOT's initiative to add information technology as a traffic-management component to each state's transportation infrastructure, helps improve safety and reduces vehicle wear, transportation time and fuel costs.

The U.S. DOT refers to ITS displays as "dynamic message signs" (DMS). State DOTs may describe them as "variable message signs" (VMS) or "changeable message signs" (CMS).

Sign manufacturers who work with DOTs must provide LED sign systems that communicate with the department's sign-network software program at its command center. The National Transportation Communications for Intelligent Transportation Systems (NTCIP) has issued protocols that define the systems' interoperability &#; the manner in which system components work together.

The NTCIP protocol establishes a traffic-control standard that allows DOTs to "mix and match" various types of LED sign equipment so they can operate in a common sign network, despite unique manufacturing or operating characteristics.

To understand the roadside-network environment, Georgia's and Washington's state DOTs have explained how they maintain and acquire electronic signage to manage traffic. Also, several LED sign manufacturers, who supply VMS signage to the state DOTs, have mapped out their VMS network.

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Georgia's CMS network

The Georgia DOT maintains one of the nation's oldest and most comprehensive ITS installations. Monica Luck, its public-relations spokesperson, said traffic significantly increased statewide in the late s and early s, and the Summer Olympics in Atlanta compounded the situation.

By turning to an electronic traffic-management system, the DOT quickly solved how overcrowded state and local roads could safely handle Olympic visitors, plus local residents, through the metro Atlanta area.

The ITS system included television monitors of highway traffic; onsite observers, who dealt with incident management and motorist assistance; ramp meters and weather monitoring.

The DOT's NaviGAtor website provided real-time local and regional, 24/7 traffic information. The LED message centers, which Georgia refers to as CMS, synthesized the information to alert drivers about travel incidents and, if they were serious, suggested alternate routes.

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Since its Olympic success, Georgia has installed approximately 97 permanent CMS units throughout the state, Luck said.

"As our metro-Atlanta population has grown [100,000 new residents are added yearly], we can accommodate expanding traffic, not by building more roads, but by improving our ability to manage existing roads with better, information-deployment systems. Our goal is to place individual CMS, LED sign units where we think they'll do the most good."

The metro Atlanta area is the central hub for most Georgia highways. At least two major interstate routes, I-75 and I-85, feed Midwest and Eastern Seaboard traffic through the downtown Atlanta area.

Incidents that occur in nearby states also affect Georgia's traffic, Luck noted. "Although we're not directly affected by hurricane weather, we're affected from a by-product of that weather. Many evacuees from the Florida Panhandle come here when displaced by a hurricane. To deal with that, we've placed CMS units in southeast and southwest Georgia to provide Floridian evacuees up-to-date traffic and evacuation information as they travel north towards through Georgia," Luck said.

Washington state's VMS

Washington state's DOT operations engineer Bill Legg said his state began retrofitting existing sign cabinets in by replacing sign faces with early-model LED electronic signs.

Asked if the state's roadside electronic signage is enough, Legg replied, "We find that 'enough' is a tricky word. How we place our VMS network is defined, in some instances, by how traffic activity rearranges itself [new travel patterns]; by road conditions, such as construction; or by location, like mountain passes, where weather can go through very quick extreme changes."

Legg said the state's electronic sign system proves its effectiveness. "When we post travel-time alerts or amber alerts," Legg said, "we get many responses, so we know that people are paying attention."

For new orders, the state specifies the types of signs it needs and defines the required performance capabilities and operability to work with its existing, central-control system. The state then allows the appropriate LED sign manufacturers to bid on the project.

Legg said, "We select a vendor, and, having done that, any one of Washington's six operational regions that needs to add new VMS units can buy off the selected vendor list to fulfill its specific VMS needs."

Daktronics

Daktronics Inc. (Brookings, SD), an LED sign manufacturer that offers commercial and sports LED-sign product lines, has provided LED signs to the DOT community since .

Its family of ITS-based, LED sign systems, called Vanguard variable-message signs, includes overhead, walk-in sign cabinets; arterial, secondary-roadside signs; and a mobile trailer for road-construction and lane-closure alerts. The Vanguard signs deliver full-matrix and full-color capabilities, which enable such graphics and symbols as merging, traffic-lane symbols or the disability graphic (a blue background with a white wheelchair symbol).

In a secondary, traffic-management situation, Daktronics also offers toll-booth, lane-control signage and parking-lot price and lot-status indicator signage.

In conjunction with its Vanguard line, Daktronics also offers DOTs an NTCIP-compliant, software-management system that controls VMS signage that's within a state-highway system. The software's message-scheduling function allows traffic-management users to edit and change sign messages in real time, and it provides self-diagnostics of the entire LED sign network. It monitors and simultaneously interfaces with various roadside-communication systems, such as , cellular, fiberoptic and radio-communication setups.

Because of a VMS network's critical importance to highway safety, LED outdoor sign-manufacturing processes must meet more rigorous fabricating demands than typical commercial signs. Tom Becker, Daktronics' ITS market manager, noted a few of the robust, DOT requirements for an ITS, NTCIP environment:

&#; Special welding standards are based on American Welding Standards guidelines.

&#; Structural standards for wind loading, ice loading and hurricane gust level are more demanding than commercial-level requirements.

&#; Redundant power-supply support is required.

&#; A high level of self-diagnostics must exist.

&#; Performance capabilities must demonstrate interoperability NTCIP compliance.

&#; The 9,000-nit, sign-brightness level far exceeds typical outdoor, commercial, brightness levels (usually 5,000 nits).

Government bureaucracy often lengthens the acquisition process. Becker said, "In the commercial world, the decisionmaking process moves pretty quickly in regard to sign purchases. In the DOT world, a more bureaucratic acquisition process requires a longer lead time for the DOTs in getting their VMS signs for interstate use."

Adaptive Micro Systems

Another VMS supplier, Adaptive Micro Systems Inc. (Milwaukee), designs, develops and fabricates indoor and outdoor LED signs. Adaptive's vice president, Ron Levac, said transportation became one of the company's market applications when "we saw that outdoor LED signs were the perfect technology for the DOT's ITS market, in terms of replacing the older, electro-mechanical, flip-disk technology."

The company introduced its AlphaXpress signs as a highway sign system to DOTs nationwide. The VMS sign line includes overhead, walk-in cabinets and the smaller, arterial roadside signs.

Adaptive applies the DOT's stringent manufacturing and operating standards &#; redundant power supplies, pixel-failure diagnostics and a ventilation system that manages the sign's ambient operating temperatures &#; to its VMS-manufactured signage. NTCIP compliance allows AlphaXpress signage to fit within all DOT interoperability standards. AlphaXpress has been sold to most DOTs nationwide.

At the ITS America (sponsored by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, Washington, DC), the company introduced a unique browser interface that allows service personnel to diagnose and service a VMS with any browser-enabled device.

Dashboard signage?

VMS' potential traffic-management effectiveness will be enhanced by once and future technology. Most electronic signs are networked via landlines, but wireless may become the new connectivity standard between LED signs and the various DOT traffic-command centers. Additional color and graphic capabilities will enhance driver/traffic-management communications.

After some crystal-ball gazing, Washington state's Legg noted that vehicles already feature electronic-navigation systems that provide on-board maps, but, in the future, he predicts vehicles' dedicated display panels will pick up electronic ITS sign messages and replay them on the dashboard. This wouldn't replace LED highway signage, but "CMS" may change its meaning from "changeable message systems" to "car message systems."

&#; Louis M. Brill is a journalist and consultant for high-tech entertainment and media communications. He can reached at (415) 664- or

RediAlert&#; Instant, Mobile Communication

To communicate such pre-planned, temporary road incidents as road construction or lane closures to drivers, mobile VMS trailers are towed to roadside locations and turned on to help drivers navigate through construction or alternate routes. VMS displays also inform drivers about such sudden, unexpected highway incidents as major accidents or fires.

However, not every highway or road has a VMS display. Also, an existing VMS network may not be able to communicate certain concerns to drivers. In these situations, first responders could carry portable, LED message displays. After the police, fire, DOT traffic managers or Haz-Mat teams arrive and appraise the incident, they can unpack and position a portable LED display with more specific messages for motorists.

Fold-up VMS

Portland-based OnScreen Technologies Inc. offers RediAlert, a portable, lightweight, fully operational, LED display screen. A standard RediAlert unit, which fits in a car trunk, comprises a two-piece, folding display unit; a stable, four-legged stand that also contains the two, 12-volt batteries that power the unit for more than eight hours without recharge; and a smart controller that can display preprogrammed or on-the-spot messages.

RediAlert is transportable enough that, once packed up, its parts can easily be stored in a car trunk or a van. The sign is designed to meet the National Electrical Manufacturers Assn. (NEMA) and Florida DOT requirements for wind tolerance, using a patented open-slat design.

RediAlert's display architecture creates its lightweight portability. The screen face comprises a grid of horizontal rows of LEDs embedded within a wind-resistant, horizontal louver, which also acts as a heat sink. Empty space between each row almost eliminates a wind-load factor. The louver's streamlined shape helps stabilize the sign during wind gusts. Breezes also provide a heat-transfer effect by cooling the unit. Thus, the displays don't require conventional HVAC equipment, as do LED sign cabinets.

The 3 x 5-ft. sign face can be set up in minutes, and, once responders assess an incident, display appropriate messages to passing drivers. Setting up sign communications can be done via a laptop or a handheld device. Also, messages can be stored from the last usage and displayed as soon as the RediAlert sign is set up and activated.

With its streaming-text messages, RediAlert offers a +/-15° viewing angle for passing drivers. The sign meets NEMA requirements for above-ground height, text lines (three nominal lines are adjustable from one to six) and nominal, 9-in.-high text characters, with other font sizes available. Text fonts can be seen from 400 ft.

Aside from emergency-responder displays, the unit can facilitate temporary parking-lot situations for vehicle control at such venues as sporting events, outdoor music concerts, state fairs or municipal events.

OnScreen Technologies also offers Living Window, a full-color, transparent, lightweight digital sign for retailers that's based on a similar architecture as the RediAlert sign.

RediAlert signs can be purchased through a dealer-distribution network and, in certain cases, directly from OnScreen. For more information, see www.onscreentech.com.

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