Digital Signage is becoming commonplace in the corporate world as a means to communicate to both internal and external staff as well as visitors and customers. Staff-facing screens can inform about call statistics in a call centre, sales targets in a business or provide relevant news information on the trading floor of a bank.

Digital Signage - How it works

View Standalone Digital Signage Diagram Illustration Here

How it Works	What You Need
The Digital Signage Net-Top-Box is connected to a computer network and to an audio visual display device such as an LCD TV.	Cat 5 Ethernet cable VGA cable 5.3mm audio cable
Power is applied to the unit and the boot sequence starts.	Mains power
The unit obtains an IP address from the network and shows the address briefly on the display device.	DHCP server
The user connects to the unit through a web-browser using the IP address.	Any PC or Mac Username and Password
The user uploads (copy and paste) media files from their computer onto the Digital Signage Net-Top-Box. The files are stored on the disk inside the unit.	Media files Windows Explorer (PC) or CyberDuck (Mac)
The user creates one or more screen Layouts containing one or more rectangular Zones. Each Zone has a PlayList to which one or more of the stored media files can be added.
The user adds one or more Layouts to the weekly Schedule.
The user activates the Schedule and the relevant media will appear, as laid out, on the display device. Each PlayList runs in a continuous loop. The media is not streamed out over the network or shown on the users computer monitor.
At the scheduled time and day of week, different Layouts will appear on the screen.
To show live TV, the Digital Signage Net-Top-Box is connected to a TV aerial and the relevant TV station is added to a PlayList (as opposed to a video file that is stored on the disk).	TV aerial RF cable Analogue station list Or good digital signal
To show the text from an RSS newsfeed, the Internet address (URL) of the feed is entered into the Digital Signage Net-Top-Box which may also need to be configured to access the Internet. Simmilarly for showing web-pages.	Newsfeed URLs Proxy Server details

A Digital Signage Net-Top-Box can clone its media off another over the network. This feature, known as Channel Manager allows the same multi-media presentation to appear on display devices at multiple sites. The presentation will appear at the scheduled time on the local clock.

View Multiple Digital Siganage Sites Diagram Illustration Here Multiple Sites

How it Works	What you Need
A Digital Signage Net-Top-Box is designated as the Channel Publisher and the current Schedule is published as a collection of files on the Channel Server. The Channel Server can be the Net-Top-Box itself or a file server on the Internet.	Publisher Net-Top-Box FTP server (optional)
Other Digital Signage Net-Top-Boxes are designated as the Channel Subscribers by entering the address of the Channel Server. They will then download all required files from the Channel Server and then activate the new Schedule.	Subscribing Net-Top-Box per site
The Channel Subscribers poll the Publisher periodically for any changes that may have been re-published. They will download new and delete redundant content automatically.

To show a different multi-media presentation on each Digital Signage display device, one Net-Top-Box is required per display.

To show the same presentation on more than one Digital Signage display, the output from the Net-Top-Box can be split and or distributed using a variety of third-party equipment.

View Multiple Displays Diagram Illustration Here

Distance to Display	How it Works	What You Need
Less than 50m	The Digital Signage Net-Top-Box is connected to the input of a VGA splitter box and a display is connected to each output.	VGA splitter unit VGA cable per display
Less than 500m	The VGA and audio outputs from the Net-Top-Box are connected to the inputs of a VGA over Cat5 distribution amplifier. Dedicated Cat5 cables connect each output on the amplifier to the input of a receiver positioned at each display device. VGA and audio cables connect the receiver to the display device.	VGA over Cat5 Amplifier Cat5 cable per display VGA over Cat5 Receiver per display Short VGA cable per display Short audio cable per display
More than 500m	See "Multiple Sites".	Net-Top-Box per site.

Digital Signage Net-Top-Boxes that have been designated as Channel Subscribers will automatically download and show a Channel that has been published by another Net-Top-Box. It is possible, however, to log into each Subscriber and customise content on an Ad-Hoc basis. A welcome message, for example, can be re-written to be specific to the site that the Subscriber is located in.

View Local Customisation Diagram Illustration Here Multiple Sites

How it Works	What you Need
Media on the Publisher is designated as "Ad-Hoc" when added to a PlayList on the Channel Publisher. Ad-Hoc content can be scrolling text, text entries in a table, a TV station or a collection of files in a folder. Default content should be provided in each case.	Advanced Ad-Hoc licence (optional, advanced features)
The Channel is re-published and the Subscribers show the default Ad-Hoc content	Advanced Ad-Hoc licence for each Subscriber (optional)
A user with Ad-Hoc access can log into a Subscriber and change the Ad-Hoc content. The new content will replace the default content.	Ad-Hoc user at each site
If the Ad-Hoc content is changed on the Publisher and the Channel is re-published then the Subscriber will continue to show the local custom content. If the Ad-Hoc content is removed from the PlayList on the Publisher then the local custom content will be deleted from all Subscribers.

Find out more about Digital Signage by using the links on the left or for more information, or to arrange for a Digital Signage consultant to visit you, call us on our Freephone number 0808 156 70 80.

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