DIGITAL SIGNAGE HARDWARE PROCUREMENT.
OPTIONS AND BENEFITS
Corum Digital offers everything you need to plan, build, deploy and manage a digital signage network including all the required hardware.
In this blog, I’d like to discuss the acquisition of hardware for your digital signage network. Corum Digital offers everything you need to plan, build, deploy and manage a digital signage network including all the required hardware. A lot goes into the planning of a digital signage network and one of the most important pieces of that process is a solid set of goals that you want to accomplish. Among other things, these goals will help guide the selection of hardware.
A typical digital signage network ties everything together to reliably bring your messaging to your audience and create the desired user experience.
Hardware for a typical digital signage network consists of screens, mounting systems, a media player and sometimes an enclosure like a kiosk. Our own MediaTile software running on the media player and the management software running in the cloud, ties everything together to reliably bring your messaging to your audience and create the desired user experience.
The key visual component of any digital signage system is the display.
Here, you have many options and configuration possibilities to have a really positive impact on your audience. There is often a discussion around whether consumer grade screens can be used for digital signage. I don’t want to get into too much detail here because we have an article on why consumer grade equipment is not the best choice for digital signage. Click here if you would like to read that post. In summary, consumer grade screens are subject to burn-in, are less robustly built, are only designed to be on a few hours a day, may not work in portrait mode and the warranty may be void when used in a commercial environment. Corum Digital sells only commercial grade hardware that is designed and built to withstand the rigors of a digital signage network.
The choice of displays is almost endless.
You can select a single screen, a multi-screen, high resolution video wall, or a tablet. You can choose a touch-enabled Kiosk for a more interactive experience for wayfinding or user driven content or a custom enclosure to match any locations unique requirements. This is where having a well-defined set of goals really helps to guide the selection of displays to meet the need. To finish off the installation, we have a large variety of mounting and stand options to provide a clean and professional look. We also offer complete and experienced installation services across North America.
In terms of media players, we offer three standard options; Samsung SOC, Android and Windows. They are all hardened for digital signage and the functionality they support is pretty much on par so the choice of media player depends largely on the project, budget and other customer or project specific factors.
Samsung SOC is an all-in-one display which means that the media player is built into the screen itself.
While these can be used just about anywhere a single screen is needed, they are especially good for QSR and Retail stores. The only drawback of SOC is that that if there is an issue with the built-in media player, the entire display will need to be serviced.
Our Android media players run our own customized version of the Android OS and are considered our entry level players. It is a popular choice because its a full featured media player that is aggressively priced. It can be used in almost any scenario where standard playback is needed yet still supports features like RS232 to control certain display functions like turning the screen off and on. Being Android, it does not have the same level of remote management as a Windows based media player and has a one-year warranty (Windows media players have 3), but the price/performance of this player makes it a very attractive option.
Our standard media player is our custom built, Windows 10 based player that comes with a 3-year warranty. Many customers prefer this player because their IT departments already standardize on Windows, there are more integration, feature and remote management options and, of course, it’s 3-year warranty. It is the more expensive option, but it is a solid workhorse that gives you the most flexibility. To drive a multi-screen video wall capable of pushing 4k content across 2 or more displays, we offer a Windows media player with a power graphics controller that supports multiple outputs to ensure the best picture quality.
If you’re looking to upgrade your existing digital signage system and want to take advantage of your existing investment in hardware, there's a good chance that you will be able to continue using them if you transition to MediaTile. Click here to read a detailed post on this subject.
Whether you’re new to digital signage and are looking for a complete system or you are transitioning to MediaTile from an existing digital signage system, we have the people, the services, the software and the hardware to make it a success. And to ensure you are getting the most out of your investment, we include unlimited support and training.
To learn more about the MediaTile digital signage platform, click here.