In this post I want to share some thoughts of how you can use (and why it’s a good idea) different technology including digital signs to create memorable experiences, and look at what some companies and creatives are already doing to offer amazing value to brands and organizations.
As I write this our UK office are exhibiting at the In-Store show in London showing a comprehensive selection of display solutions for retail marketing together with numerous interactive options. One of our exhibits in particular caught my attention because of how cost effectively we are able to produce it.
The demonstration as pictured here shows a video of a car rotating so the user can see a 360 degree view. The nearby touch pad with various colors is, as you might expect, a color selector for the car. While this would normally require a costly PC and touch screen we have used a 15″ VideoFlyer and our own touch solution mounted in a separate frame. The user touches the color of choice and immediately the video changes to show a view of the car in the color selected.
Very easy to put together, cost effective and reliable.
Recently I saw a signage company suggesting that supporting a wide range of file formats was a positive feature. I feel they are wrong with this – good signage is about good content and this is going to be at risk if there is little or no control over the the media file formats.
As such the way to ensure good quality results is to set and maintain standards for the media formats being used. By all means provide tools to make it easier to convert video to the required formats.
Digital View used to promote a flexible approach to file formats and technically this is still possible, but given the overriding requirement to ensure quality we switched to focus on a limited range of formats and provided transcoder tools to make it easy for customers – this is called DV Media Converter (http://www.digitalview.com/dv-media-converter).
A lot of digital signage applications do not use audio and indeed very many of the systems Digital View as asked for do not have audio as part of the specification. However when audio is suitable the issue is where to get it from, this is certainly a challenge for me. I quite like stock audio such as from iStockphoto and playing around with programs like Garageband (Mac only) but it seems there are other options.
One product I found that makes it about as easy as it can get is Abaltat Muse (Mac & PC), this generates audio to go with a video based on the duration of the video and the colors. Shown here is an example of a video (from iStockphoto) that I ran through Abaltat Muse:
Digital signage is everywhere, some of it amazingly good, some not so good. What separates the good from the bad and what is being done to build on successes? Read more…
Digital View media players are designed so companies can write their own server or PC based content management systems. A number of companies have taken advantage of this to create a proprietary system exactly matching their business needs – the results are very impressive.
FTP Concepts a UK company have used these networked ViewStream protocols to provide full compatibility with their SaaS based digital signage content management system.
It is all fairly straightforward for database developers with most command files in simple text format. For security purposes the playlist file is compiled using a server based script.
I have often heard people dismiss the use of presentation software for digital signage content but Apple’s Keynote looks entirely suitable for some applications. For a start it is very easy to use for text, graphics and video as well as creating animation, then rendering out as video. When you start up Keynote it asks for the slide size so for example a size of 1280×720 for 720p video or 1024×768 for 4:3 video are good choices.
So to consider an application example, video for a real-estate display, suitable steps would be:
That is it, a high definition video suitable for a Digital View VideoStream or VideoFlyer media player.
First a quick definition re ‘professional’, I am using it to refer to anyone who creates video for digital signage as a significant part of their employment and has appropriate expertise.
Video may be created either by filming then editing or by working solely on a computer so we will consider both of these.
Filming: Professional video shoots are fascinating exercises in organization. Even seemingly simple shoots can involve scripts, storyboard, director, film crew, the equipment (camera, lights, audio, dollies, cranes, cabling), actors, models, extras. And that is before it gets to the editing suite. Very often, possibly most often some or all of the equipment will be rented.
Computer Creation: At a simple level this will involve authoring and editing and the usual software are any of:
These software packages not only cram in significant functionality but also support plug-ins from companies providing specialist tools. In addition to these there are software packages for 3D modeling and rendering.
I find that some lower cost software provides a subset of the functionality of these professional software systems but is not always easier to use. In this blog we will be looking for software and systems that are easy to use.
Update: Here is an example of an After Effects plug-in, also suitable for Final Cut Pro, this allows speeding up or slowing down of video using interpolation when slowing down: Twixtor.
A couple of our blog posts recently have mentioned making video out of still images so I was interested to see this approach being used by two popular local restaurants:
First there is the local Thai restaurant, they have a large LCD display integrated into the wall at one end of the restaurant. The content comprises still images made into a video using Ken Burns effect and a selection of subtle transitions. The photos are a combination of food, pictures of the menu and a diverse selection of scenes from Thailand – including the highly recognizable Songkran festival. It is not intrusive and works well.
Next is a modern cafe. It has 5 large LCD displays high on the wall behind the main counter used as menu boards. These change for breakfast, lunch and dinner. On some of the displays they had the standard menu which didn’t change – easy to read and choose from. Then on the middle display there were a couple of specials and these did change. In all cases the menu items were in a ‘window’ with a relevant food background made from still images using, you guessed it, the Ken Burns effect so there was movement.
Both these establishments made excellent use of easy to achieve digital signage. The approaches were very different but entirely suitable and matching to their respective styles.
We mentioned the Animoto web-based video creation system in a blog back in a 16 June 2010 but I thought it worth a further mention in order to draw attention to a few of their application examples, namely for Hotels, Real-Estate, Pro-Photography and a Winery. These are shown on their showcase page here. These are all good digital signage applications.
Three of the examples show a mix of still photography, video and audio. For some digital signage users photographs may be as far as they can go without professional assistance which is fine – the winery example is all made from photos. Audio is part of the Animoto offering but very many digital signage deployments do not involve audio in any case.
Animoto is the only example I am aware of an online video creation service and for anyone struggling with video editors it may be worth a try.
