Small to medium size organisations who have researched digital signage and outdoor digital signage previously found it to be too expensive or not flexible for their use, now there is a solution that is both flexible and affordable.
Small businesses are always looking to maximise its profits from the golf store to the automotive parts store, almost all of them advertise and spend a considerable amount of money on advertising to get the foot traffic into their store.
Now some mom and pop stores are looking into outdoor digital signage that will not leave them feeling as though they have been mugged and is as easy deployed for as little as $2000, but the best thing is if you know other fellow business owners you can sell them advertising on your hardware and this will make you a tidy profit throughout the year for very little work. If you want to know more read on.
Now outdoor digital signage can be as complex or as simple as you wish, for example you could purchase an outdoor interactive kiosk complete with air conditioning units to cool the internal hardware, however this will set you back around $8,000, there is a solution though that is much more affordable and that is to use a flat panel television and a media player and this is the most cost effective solution.
Success in 4 easy steps.
Step 1.
Select the location were this solution is going to be deployed, but remember the more people who see it, the more successful the campaign will be. If you have a car park that is near a major road, maybe this is the perfect spot? Or if your building has a large wall that lots of people pass every day and is seen from cars, trains etc this also could be the perfect location.
Step 2.
Now you have the best location and now you have to decide on what size of screen you will use, the larger the better, now even LED screens are very affordable, so shop around for the largest screen possible that fits your budget, as a rule of thumb screens from 42” to 60” are the most popular for outdoor digital signage applications. A branded flat panel TV can cost from $899. Try and get a screen that has a USB connector in its range of connectors, more on this in the next step.
Step 3.
Now you have the TV, it is time to think about how you will display your ads, the choices here are a media player and they can be wireless or hard wired, the wired solutions are the more affordable and take less technical know how. No matter which type you choose, the fundamentals of these players is to store the content on its local hard drive or memory and the easiest way to set these up is to get a media player that has a USB port so it will connect to the screen easily (you can always use the composite connectors). These range from $180 and all you need to do is run a cable from the screen to the player, than a data cable from the player to the store, this will then connect to a computer and this is how you will update and refresh advertising campaigns.
Step 4.
The main thing to consider before deploying a digital signage solution is how the weather is in your locality and if you are troubled with vandals, as one thing you cant have is the hardware damaged and unable to display the content you have on the screen, the most affordable solution is to use an LCD enclosure, these LCD enclosures are designed to offer protection in all weathers, from rain, snow, sleet as well as high temperatures and offer a solution for outdoor TVs.
As a note, if you are going to sell ad spots on your sign, remember these potential customers will give you the content as they want it displayed, so all you have to do is add it to your ads by drag n drop technology on your computer and the media player will do the rest.
So you have spent $900 on a TV, $250 on a media player and $1500 on an outdoor TV enclosure, the total outlay is $2650, you sell 20 ads to your fellow business owners in your area at $200 per month, you do the math 20 x $200 = $4,000 per month, so you are in profit form month one, after you have paid for the hardware you are left with $1350, then every month you have a recurring income of $4,000 for very little work.
LCD Enclosure Global – anything else is a compromise.