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.
There have been a number of blogs and articles recently considering the differences between consumer TV’s and commercial monitors for use in digital signage. Many interesting points have been raised and argued but to jump to the conclusion it seems very clear that for a lot of professionals there remain important differences despite the relentless pace of development in consumer products.
So what are these differences:
- Reliability was a significant issue with some commentators questioning how this was validated. Also in this context it was pointed out repeatedly that the warranty on consumer models does not support commercial use.
- Power supplies were identified as a primary issue affecting reliability. Indeed in the Integre we use over spec’d high quality power supplies with the option of dual supplies with power balancing and fail-over protection.
- Inputs & connectors: There is no question that many consumer models have a reduced number of video signal inputs, this is the sort of restriction that affects complete system design so it is quite understandable that a good choice of signal inputs was identified as important.
- Temperature and Air-flow management: Consumer TV’s are designed to be used in landscape mode for a limited number of hours a day at ‘room temperature’. The expectations of commercial display systems usually go well beyond this.
- RS-232: It was interesting to note that this was raised as an issue, see our earlier blog re RS-232 lives on.
- Remote monitoring and control: This is not a possibility with consumer models that stop a long way short of what is possible with commercial units, for example control and monitoring of fans, backlight, runtime, on/off and a myriad of other diagnostics.
- Panel options: Many commercial applications require high bright panels, something that is simply not an option on consumer models.
- Quality of electronics in the sub-assemblies: We can vouch for the fact that components vary greatly in their specification which in turn will affect their reliability and longevity.
Furthermore with the introduction of 3D (with glasses) and connectivity increasingly focused on other consumer devices the chances are that the differences between consumer and commercial models may grow rather than reduce.
Stock video can be an incredible resource for creating digital signage content. There is a lot of it, it is easy to access and easy to use – prices vary. A quick search on the web for stock video websites produces many results but one we use regularly is iStockPhoto which offers both stills and video.
So if for example the requirement is to make a menu board for a restaurant there is a huge selection of relevant video clips available, this is quickly apparent with a search of a couple of sites using the word ‘food’: Artbeats gave 1,601 clips as a result and iStockPhoto gave 11,401. A purchased clip can be used to create a video background with either a fixed or changing menu display in the foreground – this is an easy exercise in video editing software.
There are certainly many topics covered by stock video, for example searches for video on topics such as dinosaurs or 17th century gave a respectable number of results for each.
One final point – always check the usage license. Even royalty free video is likely to have usage conditions.
What do your customers think about your product or service?
Was the restaurant to warm/cold/just right? Should there be more accessories available? Was the waiting time too long? Are the facilities clean? Will you return?
Enable customer feedback – the VideoFlyer is an incredibly cost effective way to poll customers and can combine both information gathering and digital signage type promotion in a single easy to use package. Five straightforward steps:
1) Using any touch screen VideoFlyer (10″ or 15″ display size) or add a button bar to a standard VideoFlyer (10″, 15″ or 21″).
2) Create appropriate videos or still images and organize using DV Studio.
3) Deploy in-store.
4) Collect data.
5) Analyze and report.
Looking at each of these in more detail…
Read more…
LCD panels are a progressive display technology and even though LCD TV’s may accept interlaced video the electronics inside the display have to convert this to progressive. Interlaced originated in the the dark ages of the CRT and low bandwidth. Today bandwidth is available and the display technology is progressive scan. Rather than explain the differences here very good explanations can be found on Wikipedia: Progressive, Interlaced.
The Digital View recommendation is that when creating or encoding video, eg for digital signage, choose progressive. So choose 720p rather than 720i, 1080p rather than 1080i. As mentioned above, interlaced can be used if necessary and Digital View products all do a really excellent job with interlaced video but it is legacy technology support.
As a final note there are considerations for filming in progressive mode that require an understanding of the appropriate techniques, for example panning needs to be either very slow or fast otherwise jerking or image shear can appear. Alternatively tracking an object while panning can be fine as any artifacts in the background will be less noticeable. Filming at 50 or 60fps will likely be better than at lower frame rates. A bit of trial and error quickly illustrates the point.
We’re very excited about an installation of monitors that Alfacam have built using Digital View technology. Using our powerful LCD Controller board, the SVH-1920, and the HD-2000 and IP-50 accessories, Alfacam have deployed these custom monitors in their OB trucks during the World Cup just as they did at the last Olympics. This is enabling them to drive LCD panels to display the feeds coming in from the games. Read more…
Everyone should be familiar with the video technique of traveling across a map used in movies like Indiana Jones and documentaries similar to the example shown here.
This can be a great way to start a documentary clip for a museum exhibit or other digital signage project such as a promotional video in a travel agency and it is very easy to create. While a couple of software packages such as Road Trip Effects (Mac/PC) from Sol Robots provide dedicated tools the latest version of iMovie (Mac) includes a very simple and intuitive function that was used to create the example above.
To access it in iMovie simply select the Maps and Background browser in the iMovie main page as indicated in the picture here. Select a map style and drag it to the project window. A dialog box may open otherwise double click on the video in the Project window, this will allow you to set the duration and other settings.
Note: Digital View does not endorse, support or guarantee any 3rd party products mentioned on its blog.
Creating video from still images can be very effective, quick and easy. The various techniques available go well beyond simple slide shows and produce results suitable for retail product promotion, real estate agents and museums exhibit type digital signage. The following is a quick introduction to some straightforward methods:
- Many video editing software packages include a ‘pan and scan’ function or as Apple call it the ‘Ken Burns Effect’ (it is available in iMovie). This creates a video showing a portion of the still image, moving around it and zooming in or out. It is easy to implement and used quite extensively, the results can be excellent.
- Another very simple approach is to add scrolling text over a still image background. Most video editing packages enable this as a very straightforward function, often referred to as Titles.
- Some software packages and online services are focused on turning still images into creative videos. An example that seeks to address the professional market is Animoto, a web based SaaS service that also enables the inclusion of a soundtrack. Dedicated software packages include PhotoPresenter (Mac) and FotoMagico (Mac) from Boinx and Pulp Motion (for Mac) from Aquafadas that create animated slide shows that can be exported to video. Update: Of course there is also Apple’s iPhoto and Aperture.
- Finally, presentation software such as Keynote for Mac can be used to import still images, add text and effects then export to video.
Then of course there are a considerable number of professional tools such as Adobe CS5, Apple Final Cut Pro and various plug-ins generally requiring a specialist level of expertise and budget.
Note: Digital View does not endorse, support or guarantee any 3rd party products mentioned on its blog.
Time lapse is that fantastic technique that lets us see plants grow, flowers blooming and clouds move rapidly across the sky, it allows us to see things that otherwise happen too slowly. A similar and very much related technique is ‘stop motion’ which is the technique for creating clay animations such as Wallace & Grommit and model animations such as the many Lego animations that can be seen on YouTube.
Both of these techniques are very easy to setup and use, basically all that is required is a suitable camera and PC/Mac with appropriate software. The software used for capturing the images will export a video and may also offer some editing functions as well.
The only difference between time lapse and stop motion is that time lapse uses a scheduled interval between frames and stop motion uses a manual interval, so an object can be moved. When played back at normal speed such as 25 or 30 frames per second these can make up a smooth video.
Some digital cameras now include software to enable time lapse or stop motion. Otherwise examples of suitable software include Dragon Stop Motion (PC/Mac) which works with a number of digital cameras. iStopMotion (Mac) from Boinx suitable for both stop motion and time lapse. A search on the web will reveal many more.
Update: Smoovie from Open Planet Software is reported as being easy to use.
Note: Digital View does not endorse, support or guarantee any 3rd party products mentioned on its blog.
‘Digital signage’ covers a very wide of uses of digital media and is definitely not limited to the professional advertising networks that get most of the publicity. For many of these other uses the cost and time involved in using a professional video production company would be prohibitive.
Fortunately it can be very easy to create and produce video and over the course of future blogs we will look at various accessible and useful techniques. Just as a quick overview some of the issues for consideration include:
- Methods for creating original media such as video, stills and audio
- Using stock media
- Editing and related creative techniques
- Encoding & transcoding
We will also look at how to add various types of interactivity and many of the creative possibilities enabled by Digital View media players.
