LCD Enclosures

We briefly touched upon content creation using images and video, by creating a simple slideshow to promote the menu items, using the digital menu board to drive the brand of the restaurant.

Due to all businesses having different challenges and key business objectives you have to decide in advance what your content is going to say about your company. If the key objective is to promote the high profit items pictures or video footage needs to be integrated into the playlist. The content may also be non business related, for example weather based, if it is hot outside, promote a cool drink to cool people off.

Perception.
Visual perception is one of the main buying influencers around, if you are hungry and see an image of a juicy burger I’m sure you will want it. Now here is your opportunity to use it in your digital menu boards.

Fonts.
It is a know fact that psychologically fonts form an impact some work encouraging us to buy some don’t. Large rounded fonts have been proven to increase sales, due firstly to them being seen and secondly to them appearing friendly to potential customers.

Motion.
We all know that adding a video ads impact, this distracts from the static page. And if you can capture the attention of someone you have a good chance of selling to them.

Attention can be captured in numerous ways from motion on the display, colour changes, etc.

When creating content for the digital signs, you have to decide how you intend on capturing the audience’s attention, just bear the above points in mind.

Hopefully LCD Enclosures Global have tried to explain how digital menu boards are being used.

One question has to be asked, “why doesn’t every restaurant have a digital menu board?” Well the answer is simple, it comes down to cost, restaurant owners think they need 6 or 7 digital boards to get the menu across to customers, the fact is they don’t!

One of the easiest ways is to have one for the promotional menu and one with the regular menu on, so customers can see everyday items but are tempted with the promotional items too.

Some restaurants run commercial quality LCD displays that are designed to run 24 x7, these are then housed in a special HDTV enclosure, these protect from fat and steam in the air attacking the internal electronics of the TV display and causing the displays to fail.

Commercial Flat Screen Vs. Consumer Flat Screen.

Commercial flat screens are designed and manufactured for continuous use, compare these to consumer flat screens you can buy from Costco and you will realise that the manufacturers warranty is void if used as a menu board. Consumer LCD’s have a much shorter lifespan than Commercial displays.

Just remember that most restaurants open at 6 or 7 am and run till midnight, so you need a signage solution that can cope with this sort of lifespan use.

One restaurant that has a major success is Mitchel’s Baguette”, who use digital menu boards to tempt passers by into their deli and enhance their customers experience. The folks at Mitchel’s are so dedicated to enhancing customer experience they spent $6,000 in new wallpaper and they commented on how for less money the digital signage menu boards had a bigger impact on consumer impact!

They used the menu boards for day parting, this allowed them to promote breakfast, lunch and dinner items at the right time of the day, increasing their sales substantially.

Things to think about before deployment.

When ever you are planning a deployment you must first think of the placement of the digital menu board, then you must think about the mounting hardware then powering it.

Placement is normally predetermined, as the digital menus are a direct replacement for static old menus, normally behind the cashiers or where the lines form, but they must be in high traffic areas.

Mounting solutions are weight and screen size specific, so research them and get the correct product for the jobs.

Another article brought to you by LCD Enclosures Global – anything else is a compromise.

Restaurant Owners Are Finding Digital Menu Boards As A Way To Increase Profit

As traditional in-store marketing is converting to digital signage, the trend is seen in the restaurant industry. Rather than having employees slide plastic inserts into a track of the old backlit boards together with the old blackboard that took an employee most of the morning to write the menu of the day on, digital menu boards are appearing and making life easier and more profitable.

Customers are greeted with dynamic content, this results in increased sales as well as more repeat business.

Today we will look at Digital Menu Boards for the novice.

Chalkboards are long gone, yes they were cheap to maintain yet bland and boring and extremely labour intensive. These were more popular in the Fast – Food Restaurants, these once established were franchised and the franchise owner had the sole responsibility to drive traffic (paying customers) to the restaurant.

At this point the chalkboards were made redundant and replaced by high gloss printed posters, showing the product in the optimum way. Imagine looking for a meal deal without the printed poster…

Fast –Food Restaurants became aware that visual appear results in increased sales, so let us look at the following points.

3 Advantages of a Digital Menu Board Network

–a digital menu board network can be controlled from one central location, eliminating employees having to manually change the menus. A network of thousands of digital menus can be controlled by one person!

Easy Product Changes – when there are a number of menu boards on a digital network, menu and price changes, as well as promotional content can be updated simultaneously throughout the network with one click of the mouse.

Feature more products – with the use of dynamic content, this offers the ability to add or remove menu items without having to touch a menu board. They also allow for day parting so you can target the menu items for breakfast, lunch and dinner items.

In a modern restaurant expect to see two types of digital signage, one is the digital menu boards and the other is dining -area digital signage, both contribute to increasing sales and boosting the promotional items.

Digital Menu Boards.

Digital menu boards are the largest opportunity for any restaurant to deploy digital signage into its work areas. One of the major benefits of a digital menu is that it saves so much space and overcomes the item change limitations of standard backlit boards.

There are two types of digital menu boards, the networked type and the standalone type.

Standalone Digital Menu Board – these are an inexpensive solution, were a restaurant can use JPEG images to create their own dynamic content with promotion meal deals etc. The content is then stored on an internal memory card and is looped to display as many items as the restaurant wants to promote. (Ideal for the small Fast Food Restaurant)

Networked Digital Menu Board – these are networked enabled and can be connected to any business network, so that the content can be controlled from one single area. These also allow for better content creation, as you can use flash to create some fantastic campaigns.

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Upon a recent visit to one of the Polaris World Resorts, we noticed in the supermarket some mini instore digital signs had been deployed, this allows the owners to update new prices from one main operation section. This eliminates having an employee print out all the new prices and then put them on the relevant product shelves and is a much more efficient way to control special offers and new promotions.

Even Leeds Bradford airport has digital signage that integrates with passenger information. This allows the “duty free” stroe to advertise it’s current special offers to people whilst they wait for their plane.

This is another report from LCD Enclosures Global – anything else is just a compromise.

The University of Akron opened it’s doors around 1870 to 46 students, today almost 20,000 students are enrolled at the University and the campus consists of 87 buildings on 222 acres. One of the main problems with this sort of grown is dealing with the across the board communications from one building to another.

The University wanted to increase it’s “brand” and effectively communicate it’s messages across the campus so every student knew what events were on and where they were located. As well as marketing local convenience stores to the students too!

The university was looking for a cost effective marketing tool that they could control and share with other departments throughout the campus, so they decided to turn to one of America’s leading wireless digital signage integrators – Wireless Ronnin Technologies.

Initially 35 screens were deployed across the campus, to “trial” it, this included several used in the dinning hall used for menu boards! These were connected via a wireless network making for fast deployment and quick changes when needed, without the unsightly cables.

In association with LCD Enclosures Global -anything else is a compromise.

Project Start.

This is when the digital signage integrator meets with the key decision makers to assess the following project factors – time scale, Return on Investment, budget and what is generally expected from the digital signage system and how they see it enhancing the House of Worship experience.

Project Deployment.

This is when the digital signage integrator meets with the key decision makers and schedules installation, finalizing the content to be created. A site survey is completed to determine the best placement for the digital signage taking into account human traffic flow, gathering points. The first “Mini system” is shipped to site for testing, staff training is started and tutorials created for future users of the signage software.

Pilot Trial.

If you have opted for a trial project, this is when you can assess the feedback from your members and committees. The project is continually monitored and when the results are hitting targets the remaining site locations are moved to a full deployment stage.

Ongoing assessment.

The digital signage integrator is there to trouble shoot any problems or to advise on future signage campaigns.

This article brought to you by LCD Enclosures Global -anything else is a compromise.

If you are looking for a simple way to transform traditional signage into dynamic signage, you may want to consider a basic Flash memory based media player or an external DVD player. On the other hand if you want to create a “WOW factor” for visitors, why not consider a video wall?

Apart from the hardware, you also need to consider what type of network solution to run your signage system on.

SaaS Network.

This is an externally hosted network that runs outside the existing network were ever it is, be it in a house of worship or a mall. Whilst you own the hardware you only subscribe to the software and no maintenance is required. Access is gained through a browser based user interface. SaaS is a solution that is perfect for tight deadlines as well as tight budgets, however it is not recommended for interactive kiosk applications.

LAN/WAN Network.

This is an internally hosted network that runs within your existing network, this is capable of covering 1 location or a global network through a WAN (Wide Area Network). You own both the hardware and the software giving you total control over customization, such as designing an interactive kiosk data retrieval system. Access is through a browser based interface.

LCD Enclosures Global – anything else is a compromise.

There are a couple of initial concerns when people start thinking about deploying digital signage and here we will try to address them.

Will it be too difficult?

Most Churches look for the simple solution, turning to store bought flat screen TVs and DVD packages, however going down the Do-it-yourself route can be more costly and less productive.

With in-experienced people involved this can result in the wrong hardware being purchased and result in the TV failing sooner than it should or just simply poor content creation that puts parishioners off.

There are many organisations out there who will do a complete service from design to deployment ensuring that the project team in the House of Worship is updates frequently and everyone is aware of the deadline for the project.

This will look strange in our House of Worship.

To be fair, any change with technology looks strange remember the old movies with the man and a flag that ran in front of the early cars to warn people, now we have to educate our young not to run in front of cars!

All joking aside, when digital signage integrators carry out site surveys, they plan the optimum place to deploy a screen, ensuring the minimum of disruption to the structure of the house of God. Making sure any extra electrical and data cables are enclosures in custom cases to blend in with the current décor.

This will be too expensive.

Digital signage integrators will ensure that the cost of ownership in a House of Worship is low and that the failure rate of the hardware is low too, by suggesting the correct solution for the project.

How do I keep content fresh?

Many of the content creation software packages that are used to create printed posters are also used to create media content for digital signage campaigns, the difference come from integrating static images besides video and other moving images to engage with the audience and make it an memorable service.

By LCD Enclosures Global – anything else is a compromise.

I hear you ask yourself, “how does a House of Worship benefit from a digital signage system?”

Improved quality of experience.

This new technology improves the quality of experience for the congregation. Through the use of flat screen TV’s and video walls, a digital signage system can enhance the visual experience of the service. Viewers can now see the pulpit from any distance and any angle no matter where they are with hearing impaired members more easily included

Informs the congregation.

Service schedules and community events are easily achieved through the strategic placement of digital signage. Digital Interactive Displays can be used in wayfinding, should a visitor need to find the nearest toilet facilities they can now do this without disrupting the service.

Cost savings.

Every organisation is looking to reduce costs and digital signage is one of the best mediums to do this. Gone are the days when printed static posters and fliers are created for the congregation. Compare the dynamic signs that inform you of the services for the next week – you take notice compared to the old printed weekly service sheets that just get discarded at the end of the service or are used as placements in the hymn books.

Reduces the Church’s environmental impact.

Digital signage is a sure way to reduce the overall use age of plastics, paper and ink. Most LCD and plasma TV’s can be fully recycled whilst containing less hazardous materials.

Service & Peace of Mind.

With the use of dynamic signs, they can be programmed to turn on and off to co-inside with service times this saves money and energy. Some signage systems are so advanced they can detect a failure before it happens and can email an engineer who will come to site and rectify any problem before the screen is effected.

Brought to you by LCD Enclosures Global –anything else is a compromise.

With pay-at-the-pump technology hitting 22 years old, the concept has been a huge success. However in some aspects, it has become too successful!

With people paying at the pump this has a drastic decrease in customers going into the convenience store and purchasing other items or merchandise.

With profits being minute on fuel, the only way a gas station stays in business, is by selling the in-store merchandise that has a higher profit margin.

The main focus of the store owners is to get the customers inside their store and for them to buy! This is why there has been an influx of digital signage units on top of the gas pumps, showcasing new merchandise from the store.

Now one smart company who deploys these units offers the convenience store owners the facility to buy the gas top digital signage solutions eliminating any other advertisers or they can have them free of charge and advertising slots are sold locally.

With pump top digital signage being in it’s infancy, there is room for everyone, however you must be careful…during a visit to Massachusetts we filled up the car to the preaching of a minister who was giving his religious message out, don’t get me wrong, right message wrong place!

At another gas station, we spotted an advert for the local pizzeria down the road, this was a direct competitor to the pizzeria inside the convenience store. By the time you have put $15 in your tank you have seen and heard 3 ads!

Gas pump toppers are also featured the range of products from LCD Enclosures Global – anything else is a compromise.