Digital signage means showing your message on screens to a defined group of people, in the place where they are at that moment. A takeaway that puts its menu and prices on a screen, a physiotherapist who shows exercises and opening hours in the waiting room, a shop that displays the deal of the week in its window: that is all digital signage. You decide the content, and you change it remotely.
Digital signage, broadcasting and the Dutch term
Three terms that are often mixed up. The difference lies mainly in the audience and who decides the content.
| Term | Audience | Who decides the content | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadcasting | Large and broad, everywhere | The broadcaster | TV broadcast, radio |
| Digital signage | Specific group in a specific place | You, as the owner of the location | Menu board, waiting room screen |
| Narrowcasting | Specific group in a specific place | You, as the owner of the location | The same; the Dutch term |
In the Netherlands most people use the Dutch term from the table; internationally, and in the UK, it is called digital signage. Anyone searching for one usually means the other too. A digital menu board is a specific form: digital signage where the screen mainly shows your menu and prices. You can read more about that under digital menu boards.
How does digital signage work?
Every digital signage set-up consists of the same building blocks:
- Software in which you create and manage the content. These days that is usually an online dashboard.
- A player: the device or app that fetches the content and plays it on the screen.
- A screen: a TV or professional display, landscape or portrait.
- Internet, so the player can fetch new content.
- Content: slides with text, images and video that play in a loop.
At Narrow.TV it looks like this. You create slides in the dashboard at dashboard.narrow.tv. The screen runs the Narrow.TV Player, an Android app from Google Play. You create a screen in the dashboard, which gives you a pairing code, you enter that code in the app and the screen starts playing. If you change something after that, it is on screen within about a minute, because the player checks for new content every 60 seconds. The whole process is described under digital signage software.
What do you need to get started?
Less than many people think:
- A screen. A consumer TV will do; a professional display is built for more operating hours a day and is often brighter. For a screen that is on all day, that is worth considering.
- An Android device: a smart TV with Android TV or Google TV, an Android tablet, or an Android TV box or stick that you connect via HDMI.
- Wi-Fi or a network cable where the screen is located.
- A subscription to digital signage software, usually per screen per month or year.
- Time for content. Creating the first slides takes the most time; after that, keeping them up to date is often a matter of minutes a week.
What all this costs, from software to screen and mounting, is explained in how much digital signage costs.
Examples of digital signage by sector
What you show depends on your location and your visitors. A few examples of content you can create with Narrow.TV:
- Hospitality: the menu with prices in a price table, a video of a dish, the daily special as text. More in digital signage for hospitality.
- Shop: the deal of the week, the new collection in photos, a product video in the window.
- Waiting room: opening hours, explanations of treatments, a clock and weather forecast, a ticker with short announcements. See digital signage in the waiting room.
- Office and production: internal announcements, welcome messages for visitors, world clocks showing the time at branches in other time zones.
- Gym: the class timetable as an image or text, offers, instruction videos.
Why businesses choose digital signage
The main reasons are practical. You change a screen without printing or sticking anything up, so your information is more up to date. Moving images stand out more than a poster. And you manage several screens, even at different locations, from one place.
There are caveats too. A screen needs power and internet, someone has to keep the content up to date, and a poorly filled screen is counterproductive. Content that stays the same for years stops being noticed after a few weeks. How to avoid that is explained in our tips for digital signage content.
Want to experience how it works yourself? You can try Narrow.TV free for 30 days with 1 screen. Start your trial.
Frequently asked questions
Are there other terms for digital signage?
Yes. In practice people usually mean the same thing: information on screens at a physical location. Digital signage is the international term and puts the emphasis on the screens; in the Netherlands a separate Dutch term is used that puts the emphasis on reaching a specific target audience.
What do you need for digital signage?
A screen, a playback device (player), software to manage the content, internet and content to show. With Narrow.TV the player is an Android app and you manage everything in an online dashboard.
Is digital signage the same as TV advertising?
No. TV advertising is broadcasting: one message to a large, broad audience. With digital signage you decide the message yourself for the people who are at your location at that moment.
Can I use an ordinary TV for digital signage?
Yes, if a suitable player is connected to it or built in. The Narrow.TV Player runs on Android TV, Android tablets and Android TV boxes or sticks. For long operating hours each day, a professional display is often more durable.