Wallboard Shows Why On-Demand Video Product Demos Make Sense

April 8, 2021 by Dave Haynes

I pretty much write for a living, but in the context of the industry I cover, I’m usually much happier when a vendor shows me what a product or services does, as opposed to making me read about it.

So I think a new YouTube demo series put out by the Hungarian/American CMS company Wallboard is quite effective, with Co-CEO Robert Simon walking viewers through a variety of long-form explainers and demos of capabilities for things like sensors.

When I first met Simon at ISE back in 2020, JUST before travel stopped, he did quick versions of some of these demos for me, and I walked away thinking he was a bit of a mad scientist mashing up IoT gadgets with signage software.

So Simon, of course, has a white lab coat on for his demos. And a photo of Chuck Norris? And sometimes a bust of Lenin??

He sent me a note looking for my opinion on the videos, which I like. “I think we still have to educate the end-customers, and often the reseller partners,” Simon explains, “that there are many more options for digital signage, not only playing images and videos in an endless loop.”

“So the goal is to create 2-3 videos per week about something interesting, something different. It is not too easy to be short enough, being enough detailed but not too technical.”

A hell of a lot of the video material I see produced for digital signage is either over-produced, and do the style over substance thing. I also see a lot of video material that is somebody at a desk or standing in front a product, rattling off features and benefits.

What Wallboard is doing here is not at all fancy, but I think it is effective because Simon is not just blabbering on about his product and company, he’s showing in detail very specific functionality and use-cases. You don’t need splashy motion graphics and licensed music and multiple cameras. One fixed and steady camera, decent lighting, a GOOD mike and plans for what to say and do are enough for this sort of thing.

If I was selling software for a living, I’d be much happier sending a prospect a link to a video that shows how my platform specifically does what interests the client. In many to most cases, sales people are sending spec sheets or trying to get a call organized that will involve a sales engineer.

This video below is among the things he showed me in Amsterdam – mashing up a scale and an alcohol breath sensor with screen-based access control for a factory. If the sensor picks up booze on the breath, access is denied and, I assume, someone in security gets a notification.

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