With all of the digital signage software options available today, how do you find the right solution for you? If you’re new to digital signage, check out our two getting articles that many customers find helpful:
When looking at it from a practical standpoint, we’ve boiled it down to four essential items to look for and have created a four-part series to help walk you through the process.
- Part 1: The Basics
- Part 2: Ease of use
- Part 3: What can it do?
- Part 4: Flexibility
Reliability
Having a system that is always up and running is vital. With digital signage, reliability comes down to three key elements:
- Digital signage software
- Digital signage player
- Digital signage player software
Digital Signage Software
Digital signage software is the platform that you use to create, edit and manage the content of your screens.
A cloud-based digital signage software solution would be ideal. It will allow you to log-in from any computer, from anywhere, at any time, to design, update and control the content of your screens. Because the software is in the cloud, you would have complete flexibility over how and when you can access and manage the content for your digital signage screens.
When evaluating a digital signage software platform, it is essential to:
- Involve the day to day users in the testing process
- Make sure all users can efficiently operate and use the software
- Look for a library of pre-made but customizable templates
- Test all of the drag-and-drops widgets
Digital Signage Players
Now on to the digital signage player. This is a small form device that is connected to your screen via HDMI. The digital signage player gets connected to the internet via WiFi or Hardwire. The digital signage player downloads the content from the cloud and plays it back on the screen.
If you have a low-quality digital signage player, you will face playback challenges of your content:
- Overheating
- Power-cycling
- Freezing of the device
- Poor media playback quality
To avoid the issues, we recommend using a commercial-grade digital signage player that is rated for 24/7 usage. Attributes to look for in a digital signage player include:
- Aluminum or Metal Chasis for superior heat dissipation to prevent overheating
- Optimized Firmware to avoid freezing or power cycling of the device
- 4K Graphics Card for crisp and sharp media playback
Digital Signage Player Software
Digital signage player software is separate from the cloud-software. It is a piece of software that is installed onto the digital signage player itself. It’s what downloads the content and or updates from the cloud and plays them back via the digital signage player on the digital signage screen.
Exceptional digital signage player software needs to be:
- Reliable – not crash after several hours of play
- Easy to install – simple and straightforward installation
- Supports offline play – content caches and plays even without internet access
Many times, digital signage software companies have free to download digital signage software player apps that are available on either the Android Google Play Store (the “Market”) or Chrome Web Store. These apps can be easily downloaded onto an Android TV Box or Chrome OS device.
About NoviSign
NoviSign is a cloud-based digital signage software solution that was designed and released around ease of use and reliability.
Using the included customizable templates and the drag-and-drop widgets (slideshows, videos, scrolling tickers, RSS feeds, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, images and more) users can easily and quickly create the perfect layout and send it to their screen.