Where digital signage software is going: Part 2
September 24, 2010 by Dave Haynes
Interactive
This is a British company called ScreenReach that specifically builds mobile apps that interactive with digital screens, for things like games and polls. Companies like Boston’s Locamoda and Aerva have also done mobile to screen interactive apps. More basic touchscreen apps are done by a lot of companies, but I’d argue it’s a bolt-on for many of those, and not at the core of the offer.
Integrated support for interactivity is growing increasingly fundamental to an offer. Touch is not going away now, nor are technologies such as enhanced bar codes. Networks need to be able to engage, react and measure, and CMS systems that stay current will align with this.
Yes, there are lots of circumstances when interactive will make no sense, but being the CMS provider that doesn’t do interactive is not a particularly strong point of differentiation.
Media RSS
Developed by Yahoo originally, these are text feeds … but juiced up with multimedia. This technology automates and significantly improves the presentation of content like news and weather. It also allows end-users how to create, publish and manage their own feeds for their purposes.
This slide shows ScreenFeed’s excellent use of MediaRSS. CNN is providing a feed for LG’s new SignNet service. SignageLive uses a feed from SkyTV in the UK. I believe the sector will see more of this.
Will Google ever announce a pure-play digital signage product?
Probably not. In their world, digital signage is too small and unfocused.
But they probably don’t need to have a declared product to have a toolset that does much or all of the digital signage job. They have simplified online static and video ad production tools, and among a steadily building list of offers, a targeted TV Ads service and their own stripped-down OS and browser. They also own something called YouTube.
Mobile
I am in my early 50s and while I get much of the social thing, and use it, a lot of the location-based check-in stuff eludes me.
However, there are some things that have strong, obvious business cases and tie-ins to Digital Signage.
This woman is using an app called ShopKick to scan products in stores and build up loyalty points. This is one of endless location-based services out there and this one is particularly aimed at retailing.
A tiny handful of digital signage companies are working with mobile applications. Like ScreenScape with its FourSquare integration. Nanonation and Starmount Systems have apps integrations. Ignoring millions of smartphones and apps that make getting information easier would be a mistake, and the smart companies are figuring out how what they do ties in.
Social
We’re now thoroughly in a real-time world, and tools like Facebook and Twitter are how people communicate and distribute information. We’ve seen companies like Locamoda provide tools and integrate their capabilities to display Tweets and Flickr images. I have chatted extensively with a company in LA that has patented filtering technology CMS providers can integrate to automatically moderate user-generated content streams.
UGC streams understandably scare the pants off people and human moderation is costly. If it can be safely moderated through algorithms, that’s interesting stuff.
Adobe
Can you use Flash or not in digital signage apps without licensing?
Big gray area and has been for years. Adobe has promised an unambiguous position statement on this, but that was last year. I know a CTO for a CMS company that has had lengthy discussions with Adobe as recently as two weeks ago, and they are telling him Adobe’s Flash Web Player is not allowed in any digital signage application unless it has been licensed.
This applies to CMS companies (many) that run the Web Player that is used in a browser and the ActiveX version as well.
Wouldn’t it be swell if Adobe just laid it out there?
HTML 5
So does that mean a lot of companies will cut over to HTML5, taking Apple’s point of view about Adobe and Flash? Well, maybe, but …
HTML5 as a standard has been around a while, but the authoring tools are limited and right now it is a geek tool. The creative community works in the Adobe Suite and loves Flash. One answer – create in Flash, output to MPEG4 video.
The attraction of HTML5 is, in part, the stability. Flash runs PCs hard, and leaks memory. HTML is at least thought to be easier, and requires no licenses. It also crosses browsers and Operating Systems, and nothing needs to be installed.
The Cloud
We will see a lot more integration of CMS offers with Internet cloud-based, high scalable and open web services. More and more companies are realizing there are great tools out there that they can plug into and integrate, as opposed to build.
We’re seeing companies integrating with ad-planning front ends and content creation tools and libraries. Companies like Rise Vision are re-inventing themselves as cloud-based, right down to using online support systems that do the bulk of their work with e-commerce companies.
You will see companies coming out with more and more bundled, integrated offers that increase their capabilities without building it. In fairly short order all kinds of devices will be IP-connected.
This is no longer about one central point pushing out content to a distinct set of nodes. Potentially, everything is intertwined.
Crowded Field
The problem with integration, cloud-based services and open, flexible software architecture is it gives more companies an idea that they can add a little of this and tweak a bit of that, and join the race. A big trend I am seeing in digital signage platforms now is white-label products being introduced by companies like AMX and Polycom, among others. Not to mention all the display guys.
While consolidation is happening, as is natural selection, the numbers might not really be shrinking as yet more firms come in.
Looking ahead
As with most industries that build up to many, it will thin out considerably. You will see software companies doing a far better job of defining what they do and their field of play. Some pretty big names will drop off. There will be consolidation. Offers will get highly specialized so that the companies can retain their pricing model.
Other offers well be far more rounded, layering in third-party and complementary technologies. There will also be a new gush of companies who are active other areas, but have most or all of the components to deliver a digital signage solution. Burstpoint, for example, is a streaming company that has its eye on this sector and offers DS as something it can also do, as opposed to all it can do.
So what does all this mean? The sector has in some respects changed very little in the past five years. The pace of that change will really crank up over the next two years.
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I haven’t worked for a software company for 18 months or something, so I am slightly removed from the action. But that also means I am not working in a bubble. People are a lot more open to telling you what’s up – surprise, surprise – when you are not selling against them.
This isn’t the last word on this stuff, and as noted, represents a pretty high level overview and misses, I’m sure, lotsa things. So what do you think? Use the comments and add your thoughts.
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