What is digital signage?

A plain definition, the other names it goes by, what it changes compared with paper, and the words that come with it. If screens in a building are new to you, start here.

The content can be anything a screen can show: text, images, video, animation, a live dashboard, a web page, the weather. What makes it signage rather than television is the place and the purpose. It is there to tell the people in front of it something useful about where they are: what is on the menu, which room the meeting moved to, how the shift is doing, which way the pool is.

What makes it digital is that nobody has to print anything. The information lives in software, and every screen that shows it updates when it changes.

• Digital signage — the international term, and the one most software uses.
• Narrowcasting — the Dutch and Belgian term: broadcasting to a narrow, chosen audience, such as the people in one building, instead of to everyone with a TV.
• Electronic signage and digital displays — older or more general names for the same idea.
• Information screens — what visitors and staff usually call them.
• Digital out-of-home (DOOH) — screens that sell advertising space to other companies, such as billboards at stations. Related, but a different business: most digital signage shows an organization's own information on its own screens.

The difference shows the moment something changes:

• A price changes. On paper: a reprint and someone walking the building with a stack of new signs. On a screen: one edit, and every screen that shows the price follows.
• A meeting moves. On paper: a sign that is wrong until somebody notices. On a screen: a schedule that updates itself.
• A campaign starts in twenty stores. On paper: posters shipped to every site, and the hope that they went up on time. On a screen: one campaign that starts everywhere at the same moment, and stops when it should.
• The breakfast menu ends at eleven. On paper: someone takes it down, or doesn't. On a screen: it disappears on schedule.

Paper still has its place. An evacuation plan or a sign that never changes doesn't need a screen. Digital signage earns its keep where information changes often, or where it has to be the same in many places at once.

Screens and TVs

The most common kind: a professional display built to run all day, or a TV you already own. A player connects it to the software, either as a small box behind the screen or built into a smart display.

Touchscreens and kiosks

A touchscreen lets people look things up themselves: a floor plan, a menu, a list of who is in the building. When Castit runs on a touchscreen, it runs interactive kiosk applications on the same platform as your other screens.

E-paper displays

Electronic paper, the same low-power technology found in e-readers. It reflects light instead of giving it off, so there is no glare, it stays sharp in direct sunlight, and a static image draws no power. The battery lasts up to 5 years on smaller formats, depending on the number of refreshes, which is why e-paper works where cables can't go: next to meeting-room doors, at the shelf edge, on a warehouse rack.

A word on sound

Most screens have speakers, which is why digital signage is often counted as audiovisual (AV) equipment, and why so much of it is installed by AV integrators.

• CMS (content management system) — the software where you build content and decide what plays where. In digital signage it usually runs in a browser.
• Player — the software, or the small box running it, that connects a screen to the CMS, downloads the content, and plays it. Also called a media player.
• SoC display — a smart display with the player built in (system on chip), so no box is needed. Samsung's Tizen and LG's webOS displays are examples.
• Web player — a player that runs in a browser, on almost any device.
• Playlist — content in a fixed order. Change the playlist once, and every screen that runs it follows.
• Schedule — when a playlist or a single item plays: from nine to five, on weekdays, until the end of the campaign.
• Zones — areas of one screen that each show their own content, such as a video with the news and the weather beside it.
• Ticker — a running line of text, such as headlines from a news feed.
• Virtual screen — in Castit, the stand-in for a physical display, so you can set it up and manage it without touching the device.
• Offline playback — players keep showing their scheduled content from local storage when the network drops.
• Proof of play — a log of what played, on which screen, and when.
• Kiosk — a touchscreen people operate themselves.

For customers and visitors

A welcome at the entrance, the way to the right room, waiting times, today's menu, opening hours, the offer of the week. Information that guests would otherwise have to ask for, or find on a sign that may already be out of date.

For staff

Company news, targets, safety messages, and the shift roster, on screens where people pause anyway: the canteen, the coffee corner, the shop floor. Most internal communication depends on people opening an email or the intranet, and many staff don't sit at a desk. A screen reaches them without an inbox. More on internal communication.

It runs in a browser, on almost any hardware, from one screen in a reception to thousands across sites and countries, and certified partners install and support it. You can start for free: 21 days of the complete product on up to ten players, then a free plan that keeps running.

For how a setup works in practice, what hardware you need, and what it costs, read digital signage: how it works. To compare software, read digital signage software.