Digital Signage Today
00:03:42 · Darryl Kuder
[00:03:42] S1: Mhmm. Yeah. You know, we do a lot of work with integrators, and we actually really like working with integrators. You know, the value for a company like us to work with an integrator, goes both ways. So one is that we get to work with experts in the field that know the hardware, know the installation side. And, you know, in return, we can offer them the ability to provide from a content perspective and even helping them, you know, spec in the right digital media players and software, we can provide that level of expertise, which ultimately kinda comes together and and puts together a really good project for the end user. Right. But one of the things that we do find from the integration side is that, you know, for whatever reason, and sometimes it's done even before we get brought in, the integrator that's specking in the software and the hardware Right. They're really... They're usually not having a deep enough conversation about the content. And what we found is that when that happens and they're just specking in a media player with a piece of software, couple things occur. One is that the media player itself might not be equipped to handle, an advanced level software. So take, for example, if we're going to use a CMS that does require a little bit higher processing power, we want a media player that can handle that, not just an entry level media player. Well, the same goes true from the CMS side. If the integrator is specking in a specific piece of hardware, we wanna make sure that the CMS is matching up with the type of content and that we're not just blindly deploying the same CMS everywhere. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't do that. There are definitely projects where the same CMS works on every media player, and it's totally fine. But imagine if you have a CMS for, let's say, corporate communications, you know, where companies might have enterprise deployments of hundreds of screens and they're communicating to their employees internally. That one CMS might work great. And the reason it would work great is because it's got built in functionality that makes updating content on corporate communications very easy.
00:06:02 · Darryl Kuder, Judy Monnel
But then you turn around and try to use that same CMS on a wayfinder or some sort of custom HTML type project, and you actually quickly realize that that CMS really cannot handle either the type of HTML you're deploying or something like that, and now you're kind of scrambling and potentially it's gonna cost the client more money or something like that. So when we come across the integrators, you know, we really try to advise them upfront that it's really not always one size fits all, and that it's okay to do multiple CMSs. [00:06:36] S0: Right, and that's what Red Dot does. It does that customized approach. So, say I'm looking to a multi facet Digital Signage project, and my integrator is saying, Oh, we got one CMS that's gonna handle it all. How do I determine if that's actually true? Are there questions that you know, I need to ask to ensure that the CMS portion is being done correctly?
00:07:07 · Darryl Kuder
[00:07:07] S1: Yeah. I think, you know, there's obviously a value in the experience that we have. You know, like you'd mentioned at the top of the show, we have worked with a lot of the top CMS providers that that are out there. And so having that kind of experience really allows us to kinda draw on, like, what's available, what the different CMSs do. And, you know, taking that experience and then kinda translating that, you know, with the customer and figuring out based on the content, alright, this is the CMS we wanna use on this job, or this other CMS is gonna work better on this job, really is some of the value that we're bringing into these types of projects. And so the tough part is that sometimes the only way to figure that out is you have to have a conversation with the client. And that's something we definitely stress is that if we're gonna help with the content or we're gonna help pick a CMS as a specific option, you know, we need to get in there and kinda ask some of these, what type of content are you wanting to deploy? What type of content are you capable of creating in house? What type of content do you need, like outsourced or a company like us to create on your behalf? And once you start realizing that the type of content is actually very simple, okay, they only... They're gonna run full screen images and a playlist, every CMS can do that. So do you wanna spec in a CMS then based on price or additional functionality that they made in in the future? And so we're we're definitely keen to getting in and asking those questions and trying to help the integrator figure that out.
00:08:43 · Judy Monnel
[00:08:43] S0: So... And and so that on the user side, the client side, those are questions they kinda have to answer maybe even before they sit down with you or an integrator or anyone. Right?
00:08:54 · Darryl Kuder
[00:08:54] S1: Yeah. I mean, ideally, we need the client to know ahead of time. If they're looking to invest this money and they're gonna spend money on the hardware, the installation, the software, all this kind of stuff, especially if there's a lot of different screens that they're gonna deploy. They really need to have a good understanding of ahead of time what type of content it is that that they're going to wanna display. You know, a great example of that, even when it comes to corporate communications, is do they wanna do something, where the screen is broken out into multiple sections so they can display multiple types of content at once? And if they do, who's gonna design that content? Are they capable of updating it on a regular basis? Do we need to have what I would call filler content? You know, third party feeds that come in like news feeds, weather feeds, you know, things like that just to keep stuff fresh. Right. So, if you're not having those conversations upfront, it makes it really difficult to figure out what CMS you wanna use or what might be the ideal CMS for that. It also makes it hard to figure out what's the hardware. Anyone can go in and say, alright, I'm gonna use the most advanced piece of hardware on the market. Yeah. That's no problem. But when you really start coming down to budgets and things like that, you realize, okay, we actually do need to figure out what is the the sweet spot from a from a hardware perspective. I mean, we use BrightSign all the time, and we have really found that it is it is like the premier digital signage product on the market, and they've got multiple levels of products. And their entry level product may not be a good enough product to work with some of the higher level CMSs. And so you really need to kind of figure that out upfront.
00:10:39 · Judy Monnel
[00:10:39] S0: You know, to me, an important aspect is that you don't build digital signage for today only. You kinda... You have to keep in mind what you're gonna need in the future as well, right?