Dynamic Digital Signage

Introducing "DDS Manager"(Dynamic Digital Signage), a management, scheduling and player system for dynamic digital signage, developed by Sound Idea Digital. It's an inexpensive, networked solution, for controlling media displayed on in-store television or plasma screens. Retailers are ideally placed to charge brand owners for point-of-purchase advertising on their plasma screens. With "DDS Manager", advertisers have creative freedom to mix a variety of media with dynamic data. Text, graphics, animation and video can be seamlessly combined with data feeds for prices, schedules, and more. Our real-time multimedia playback engine reduces the need for expensive video production without reducing the overall production quality.

• Sound Idea's solution virtually eliminates the continual large bandwidth transmissions that are required by MPEG-only player solutions.
• All media files are controlled and contained centrally on a web-based server. Users of the server are able to upload and queue media files and ultimately remain in complete control of their content broadcasts.
• Through the use of an internet-based system, content can be produced, uploaded and controlled from virtually any location in the world. Terminals can be targeted individually, allowing users to specify content to be displayed on each individual terminal within the system.

Media content production

Using professional media production agencies such as Sound Idea Productions, advertisements and announcements are cost effectively assembled for the system. Media files can range from Flash files to still image slideshows.

Now every retail environment can have a complete dynamic signage system capable of displaying highly targeted photo realistic signage at the retail point of purchase (POP).

What is Dynamic Digital Signage?

Electronic display panels like plasma screens, television screens or LED screens are strategically placed in areas that have a regular flow of shoppers. Targeted multimedia messages for advertising, information and education can be broadcast to out-of-home locations including shopping centers, shops hotels, stadiums and theatres. Networks allow content to be quickly distributed anywhere. Dynamic signage is a more effective, more easily updateable, and more a measurable medium than billboards or posters. Broadcast multimedia is becoming the new mass media.

Impact

Dynamic Digital Signage displays animated multimedia messages several hundred times a day. Attractive dynamic signage draws attention and animation and sound ensures that ads are always fresh and appealing.

Information

Inform your visitors of your activities and entertainment programmes opening hours, events, and promotional campaigns for shops, new products and services.

Audience

Ideal hosting sites offer heavy traffic and high average visiting time in an entertaining commercial environment.

Criteria of a Good Solution

• Production Efficiency
• Distribution Efficiency
• Attractiveness
• Attention-grabbing
• Targeting capabilities
• Reliability & Measurement

Approaches to P-O-P Advertising and Communication

When considering how to get your message to your target market, there are many different options ranging from print to video.

Printed Materials

• Moderate production costs
• Takes weeks or months to update, constant print and mailing costs
• Large colourful format, but no motion
• Expensive to do regional content, and to customise locally
• Hard to measure if/when ads are shown (relies on store staff)
• Printed billboards tend to become a "part of the furniture" because the content remains static for months at a time

Video Tapes

• High production & duplication costs force content to be less updated
• Constant courier and media costs
• Tapes are changed manually at branches
• Wear and tear on tapes can cause down time
• Hard to measure if/when ads are played

Digital Video Players

• High production & encoding costs force content to be less updated
• Constant duplication & courier costs (if using DVD); transmission costs are high if there is lots of content
• MPEG player-boxes require you to constantly produce and needlessly transmit expensive video.

Sound Idea's Dynamic Digital Signage Solution

Sound Idea has developed an inexpensive, networked solution called "Ad Manager", for controlling in-store television/plasma screens and sound. In essence, by using this system, advertisements, public service announcements, product information, music and even video files can be displayed on TVs around the country.

TV and audio content can be controlled from a central place, i.e., if you decide to run a specific ad or message, tomorrow only, at your Durban branch, you can do it from any internet connected PC in the world. Connected to PCs, these TVs can be placed in prominent locations such as shop windows and display rooms to display promotional content to customers. The multimedia content is queued centrally from a database driven server, allowing each remote PC in the system to be controlled from one central location.

Our software helps ease system integration, broadcasting, networking and content management while delivering eye-catching animation and effects that can work together with video. These images, can be static, have dynamic fades, wipes or animations, and full motion digital video commercials with CD-quality sound or a combination of all of the above.

Sound Idea's DDS Player

Our player system is optimised to play ads created with "Flash" technology.Flash material offers the impact of video without the huge cost of video production. Flash based material is superior to video when it comes to speed-of-production, bandwidth efficiency, and playback quality. Low to moderate production costs; minimal encoding required; offers a TV-like experience without full TV production. Content can be distributed digitally and efficiently updated.Requires a low bandwidth network.Motion and sound plus dynamic data can be seamlessly mixed and updated instantly. Our player system can also play video based material.

Lower Fixed Costs

Sound Idea's solution uses standard PC hardware instead of a custom embedded system.

Lower Ongoing Costs

With real-time editing and preview, production costs are minimal compared to video. Content can be updated faster, which is critical for short turn-around production cycles. This greatly reduces transmission and encoding costs. Only the parts that absolutely have to be video need to be encoded. Since dynamic content can be mixed with video, expensively produced videos can be reused, adding new information when needed.

Dynamic Data

DDS allows more dynamic data such as pricing, availability and targeting by location. This makes ads more valuable to potential advertisers. Flexibility in scheduling and targeting allows more ads to be scheduled easily. Sound Idea's system can be integrated with databases to display dynamic content on screen - incorporating existing and changing information like flight schedules. The result is that fewer people are required to deliver more relevant and more personalised information.

Sound Idea's DDS solution is used by retailers to generate revenue from advertising, cross sell new products and to manage queues and lines. For the media buyer, digital signage presents a host of new ad placement opportunities. Behind the scenes of these digital networks, our management software tracks ad rotation, logs days of ad display, specifies which ads get served to which screen, and more. The software makes sure that the proper ads gets delivered to the proper screens at the proper times. Such software, as one can imagine, can be bewilderingly complex. DDS Manager is not, and still delivers on all of these promises.

Business Plan

In the end, isn't it all about your business plan? Sound Idea's Dynamic Signage System provides new and innovative ways to create wealth.

Attractive Sources of Revenue

Other business models

Other companies may offer to install plasma screens in your shopping center or stores for free in order to sell ad space to tenants or brand owners. If you see the potential earnings per screen you'll understand why they are so keen to do it.

Our business model

You buy the hardware and management/player software and sell ad space to tenants or brand owners. Sound Idea will liaise directly with your client for their production requirements.Contact Sound Idea for more information on the Dynamic Digital Signage Manager.