Monthly Archives: January 2017

It’s official – 3D TV is dead

I just ran into an interesting article announcing 3D TV is now officially dead.  LG and Sony were the last manufacturers who were still making 3D TVs for the consumer market, but they announced they are no longer in production.

I have no idea how this will impact the 3D digital signage market since there are still some companies selling displays that feature “glasses-free” 3D viewing.  With every major TV manufacturer now out of the game, 3D is sure to remain a niche product with very limited applications.

So what killed 3D?

  • Too expensive for what it delivered.  4K displays have come down in price very quickly, to the point that buying a 3D display makes little, or no sense.  4K displays are poised to take over and become as common as 1080p displays are today.
  • 3D is too cumbersome.  Most 3D display technologies require special glasses which many people found uncomfortable and ungainly.  There were two competing technologies which meant glasses compatible with one TV manufacturer’s products didn’t work with the others. Some companies found a way to deliver a 3D image without the use of special glasses but the results have been underwhelming.  You needed to be positioned just at the right distance and angle to see the effect, which made 3D less interesting for advertising and DOOH use.
  • Lack of decent 3D content.  It’s difficult to grow a display technology when you don’t have any content to support it.  At least, the consumer market had 3D versions of blockbuster movies but even that didn’t save the format.  4K content will soon become the new standard.

I think 3D will end up like many other fringe technologies, like holographic displays and similar “whiz bang” tech.  There is always going to be a market for these products, but they are far from mainstream.

Rest in peace, 3D TV.  You won’t be missed…

More business intelligence dashboards

A while back I wrote about Infocaptor.  They were one of the first dashboard software products that I had seen and I was really impressed with its features and affordability.  I’m glad to see they are still around and the product has continued to evolve.

Infocaptor is a great all around BI tool that lets you create smart dashboards out of your existing data.  The software is relatively easy to use and you have access to an entire library of layouts.  You can cycle through the many available styles until you find the best one for your type of data.

The software is available as downloadable product but they also offer a cloud based service.

infocaptor

 

Infocaster supports many data sources, including CSV and Excel files.  Their website is worth a look and you will learn a lot about data visualization.

The product is packaged in such a way that you buy only the features you need.  For example, there is a single user licence that will let you import data from Excel and flat files.  This is great for small business users who don’t need full database compatibility.  After all, why pay for something you may never use?

The cloud version is currently offered at $29 a month, including 60 minutes of consulting which sounds like a steal.

As one of the testimonials on the Infocaster website goes, It isn’t often you find a product that has the two cardinal virtues: a price that is an order-of-magnitude below the big players in the field, and a development team that really listens and responds to customer feedback and requests. “InfoCaptor is such a product”.

You can output charts in various formats, including HTML5 and you can take the software for a spin without creating an account (check it out here).  It’s basically a “canned” version of their cloud offering that lets you access the various features and see the results in real-time.

Infocaster supports most digital signage products by publishing a public version of the live dashboard (note: a “public viewing licence” is required for this).  With this feature enabled, you can set dashboards to auto refresh and specify the refresh interval.  This is how you display live and accurate information across an entire display network.

In my opinion, Infocaster remains a great data visualisation tool for digital signage users.  It’s affordable and has all the features anyone could want.  It’s definitely worth a look.

 

Business intelligence dashboards for everyone

Perhaps you recently installed a few digital signage displays in your office, and you’re showing some local news.  Maybe you rotate this content with weather feeds a few company announcements.  It’s all great.  People like what they see and are paying attention to your screens. But if you want your displays to have a lasting impact, maybe you should consider adding some business intelligence to your digital signage TVs.

Business intelligence, or BI, is all about your corporate data.  You create BI content using software that grabs your financial information or sales statistics and turns them into visuals that are easy to grasp.  The result is a better informed and more motivated team.

Say you want keep your team focused on the company’s sales performance.  Are we selling more than last month?  What’s our best performer?  This information is critical to the company’s success yet most of this information is kept in spreadsheets or circulated by email to a select few.

Digital signage can help you broadcast business intelligence information to entire teams.  You can display important business information using effective visual aids that are easy to grasp.  Say, bold and colourful charts that update in real-time.  This way, anyone can easily spot trends and act when necessary.

Business intelligence tools come in many flavors.  Some require complex and expensive software to be installed on a local server, but there are also many cloud based services that let you benefit from sophisticated BI tools without the complexity.

One of these products is Zoho Reports.  Zoho is a well known and respected cloud based provider of online business applications. Their reporting tool lets you point to a local spreadsheet and create live charts that update with each new edit.  These charts can be scheduled and displayed on corporate screens, right along your weather forecasts, employee news and other digital signage content.

Zoho is one of the many products that can perform this task with a minimum amount of technical knowledge, yet it’s sufficiently sophisticated to adapt to your needs.  The service is also compatible with corporate database software when you’re ready to move up from spreadsheets.

Cloud based BI services like Zoho are great for small and medium sized businesses who don’t have the required technical resources to build, configure and host their own system.  It’s perfect for small and growing companies who want to leverage their business information.

Your company’s digital signage doesn’t need to be boring.  It doesn’t need to be complicated either, but if you’re ready to invest the time, effort and money to set up displays around your office, you should also consider publishing business intelligence content.  And don’t just display tables with rows of figures or entire office memos.  People won’t be able to read or make sense of that from across the room.  Think graphically.  Whenever possible, make an effort to use short sentences and bold text.  Pick contrasting colours.  Subscribe to a good royalty-free content service for attention-grabbing pictures and videos.  Include truly meaningful content like sales stats, KPI data and other critical business information.

Your employees will notice, and your sales might improve too!

Why digital signage projects fail

Every year the CES show kicks off with a slew of PC and display tech announcements.  This year is no exception with new small form factor PCs and super-thin flat panel displays.  CES is a consumer show but a lot of the technologies shown there will directly influence what we see at the digital signage shows later in the year.

We can’t deny the fact that a lot of consumer grade equipment makes its way into digital signage installations.  Fact is, a lot of small and medium size businesses buy their displays “off the shelf” at Best Buy instead of ordering commercial grade units from a local AV integrator.

The use of consumer tech in digital signage is a known fact and it isn’t about to go away.  Many folks see commercial equipment as unnecessarily overpriced.  Perceived cost is certainly one reason why we see so many consumer TVs hanging in many business environments.  Some of this has to do with the breadth of models and features of consumer TVs compared to many commercial grade products.

We should remember the average digital signage customer isn’t always very tech-savvy.  They don’t realize why they should be paying more for ruggedized technology or see the advantages of higher lumens values or MTBF.

Some people look at the total cost of a digital signage installation and then make their decision based on certain assumptions.  Often, these assumptions are wrong and they eventually run into all sorts of problems.

There are several reasons why digital signage projects fail but judging by what I see out there, my definition of failure is probably a lot different from theirs.

For many, getting an image or a video on a remote screen is a big “win”.  Everybody high-fives, then moves on…  Does anyone ever go back and look at the display?  Probably not, as long as no one’s complaining the screen’s gone blank.  It’s all good.

But what happens when a display starts shifting colors or the LED backlights start to go?

When you think about it, a lot of money is spent buying and installing digital signage equipment, and then bad things start to happen.  I have seen this again and again.  Defective screens with “ghost” images in the background, burned-in displays, uncalibrated displays in video walls… the list goes on.

Can we still see an image?  Yeah, kind of… Ok. It’s fine then…

But in reality, it’s nowhere near fine.  It’s crap!

So, why isn’t anyone one fixing this?  Doesn’t anyone care?

Perhaps the TVs are mounted in a really awkward location and the owner doesn’t want to pay a technician to take them down.  Maybe the warranty has expired on the TVs and there is no budget to replace them.

Whatever the reason, this is qualifies as a “fail”.

Maybe it’s because I’m in the business and I pay attention more than the average person but I see this all the time.

The problem isn’t with the installation.  It’s not the software… It’s just crappy hardware.

It’s a shame, really, because every professional display brand offers extended/on-site warranties.  The internal components of most commercial grade equipment is designed for extended use, often in harsh environments.  Sure, this equipment will cost more in the short run, but it will pay off.

If you care enough to spend the time and effort to invest in digital signage for your business, don’t cut corners when it times to spec your hardware.

You’re not saving any money.  You’re just hurting your business.