Photo by Infrogmation of New Orleans

With the school year well under way, we’ve been reliving our high school memories and contemplating the age-old quest to be one of the popular kids. Here are six lessons from the in-crowd that can help the rest of us create more effective digital signage. Get started now, and you just might have a shot at those coveted king and queen nominations next spring.

1.  Keep your social calendar full. Let’s get this party started! It’s no coincidence that schedule information is the most common content shared on FireSign digital signage. That’s why we’re making it easy to enter your events directly into FireSign with upcoming applications like FireSign Bulletin Board, or we can help you connect to your existing event management software (such as WhippleHill, Evanced and more). Keep your calendar up-to-date and make sure folks know what’s on the horizon.

2.  See and be seen. Build your entourage by telling visitors about all the places where they can find you. Invite visitors and patrons to sign up for your email newsletter, join your fan page on Facebook, connect with you on LinkedIn, or follow you on Twitter. The key is to integrate your digital signage with your other communication channels.

3.  Share the love (and the spotlight). The most popular kids (err, brands) know that it’s not all about them. So introduce visitors and patrons to your biggest fans. (Incidentally, FireSign is the perfect place to feature your most valuable customers, donors or sponsors.) Your fans will appreciate the recognition, and you’ll build a stronger network by connecting people in your shared community.

4.  Offer a shoulder to lean on. Reassure your visitors and patrons that you’ll be there when they need you. Direct visitors to seek personal attention by guiding them to service counters and reference desks. Using FireSign digital signage to facilitate a personal conversation is a sure-fire way to get you nominated as  “most likely to succeed.”

5.  Lighten up and be yourself. Who doesn’t want to be the big man on campus? Naturally you want to craft effective, professional messages that reflect your organization’s brand standards. But don’t shy away from revealing a little about yourself and your staff. Share stories about your organization’s culture and personality. Remember, if you can find a way to make their time more enjoyable or entertaining, your visitors will be more likely to keep hanging out with you.

6.  Dress to impress. Hey, you’ve earned that Varsity jacket, so wear it with pride. Of course, you’ll want to maintain your brand standards, but you’ll look the part if you stay on top of the current color and design trends. Oh and those templates and generic stock art, they won’t help improve your street cred. That’s so 1990 anyway.

Well, class, there’s the bell. Don’t forget your homework assignment—create digital signage communications that rock! Next time we meet we’ll tackle how to apply a few e-learning tricks to your touchscreen content.

Photo of an RFID chip by midnightcomm

Cutting-edge technology is becoming more affordable and more user-friendly than ever before.  What does this advancement mean for you? Well, it means that FireSign Dynamic Digital Signage can be used for more than simply displaying static messages and company information. You can incorporate interactive displays to increase patron participation, integrate QR codes to direct customers to additional information, and now you can use RFID to display personalized messages based on visitor’ behavior and preferences. The abilities of RFID range from the checkout at your local bookstore, to driving through a toll station, and the tags are changing the way businesses personalize their services and advertisements.

The Specs

Radio-Frequency Identification, or RFID, is a technology in which a microchip tag or transponder uses radio waves to identify and track behavioral patterns. This microchip, along with a tiny radio antenna, is physically affixed to a carrier, such as an ID card, affinity card programs, book spine, or mobile phone. The RFID tag is composed of two components: a chip, which stores and processes information, and an antenna, which receives and transmits a signal.  The tag is highly reliable, standardized internationally, and experiencing a cost decline—current prices are between 3 and 5 cents per chip.

Where can you find them?

RFID tags have long been used in supply chains to track products, monitor transportation, and manage inventory systems and logistics. Recently, however, they have appeared in a wider range of consumer products including mobile phones, speed passes for public transportation, or library cards. Hospitals use the technology to identify patients and staff, sports events for race timing, and breeders for animal identification.

What does this mean for you?

Because RFID has the ability to instantly record and report information such as traffic, usage, and inventory, it is a great way to make your digital signage content more customized and targeted. Whether you’re at the library or touring a museum, utilizing RFID is a simple process.

Scenario One: At the Library

Say you walk into a library and pick up a book, which has an RFID tag in the spine. The RFID antenna communicates with the library’s circulation database, which tracks visitors’ book choices. Holding the book near a digital sign equipped with an RFID reader could generate real-time suggestions such as other books you might enjoy, reviews for the material, or supplementary items such as related events, summaries, and movies.

Scenario Two: In the Museum

Before beginning your tour through the museum, you provide basic demographic information to register for a RFID card. Digital media exhibits are equipped with RFID readers, and as you walk through the exhibit space, you indicate the media you like by swiping your registered card. At the end of the exhibit, you swipe your card at a designated scanner. Using your preferences from the exhibit and demographic information, relevant upcoming events that you might enjoy are displayed on a digital sign. The RFID technology further enhances your museum experience in the gift shop, where the digital sign displays promotional offer for merchandise that matches your interests. Additionally, the museum can use the information collected for tracking visitor traffic and usage stats for exhibits, monitoring the effectiveness of merchandise tie-ins, and measuring promotions and retention metrics.

All in All

RFID is an inexpensive, easy way to provide more meaningful, relevant information based on an individual’s demographics and likes or dislikes. By incorporating RFID technology, you can track your visitors from sign to sign, offer real-time suggestions for gift store purchases, and recommend upcoming events. Take advantage of this technology to automatically turn each screen into a personalized interactive experience.

Have you seen these strange markings in your mailbox, on the back of your new novel or on the door of your favorite restaurant?  They are called Quick Response (QR) codes or referred to as mobile tagging, and they are creating a new opportunity to connect the physical world with a digital experience.  By incorporating these increasingly popular codes into your FireSign digital signage, you can elicit an entirely new and more powerful level of visitor interaction and analytic data.

So what exactly are QR codes and how do they work?  In short, QR codes are open-source, 2-dimensional (matrix) barcodes—similar to a UPC (Universal Product Code), only immensely more powerful.  Using a decoding application, mobile devices read QR codes by taking a picture of the barcode image.  The information stored in the code can launch your web site or promotional micro-site, generate an SMS text or phone call, and download contact information.  The options for connecting and linking customers to additional information are limitless.

Adding a QR code to your FireSign digital signage can encourage your visitors to take action.

QR codes are changing the depth and mobility of information by making it easier for your visitors to take action.  Gone are the days of remembering URLs or writing down a phone number— QR codes store the information for your visitors, so they don’t have to!  When visitors scan your QR code, the mobile application decodes and stores the information for your visitor to act upon immediately or save for future reference.

The availability and capabilities of this technology, popular in Japan and Europe, are changing the advertising and marketing atmospheres.  QR codes have a strong presence in print campaigns where they are used by a wide range of companies such as Ford, Calvin Klein, the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, and Best Buy to connect the physical world with an interactive experience.

Another important feature of QR codes is that many of the available code generators also offer built-in analytics on how many times the code has been scanned.  These metrics can help your organization make decisions regarding creative elements and marketing expenditures.

You can generate your own QR Codes with services like SPARQCode.

So how do you create a QR code?  You will find several free QR code generators online. In the example below, we used SparQcode.com to create a code that links to our most recent blog post.  QR codes are simple, unlimited in quantity, and most importantly free; so don’t hesitate to experiment with the different options.

Start experimenting with this new technology to see how simple, yet powerful, it is to create a new interaction with your visitors. By adding a QR code to your FireSign digital signage, you can encourage an immediate connection to your Facebook page, email newsletter, blog or point of purchase.

All too often, we see digital signage where the screen is literally crammed full of an overwhelming amount of information like stock quotes, international headlines and of course the obligatory weather feed. We call this “The Bloomberg Effect.”

This type of signage certainly has its place, but it should not be the starting place for every organization.  Most of your visitors carry this information on the smart phone in their pocket and it does not provide any real value for them or you!

Here are 30 ideas for creating digital signage content that actually says something about who you are and how you can help your visitors. Not all these ideas will apply to your organization, but hopefully this list will encourage you to create more relevant content for all your audiences.

1. Recognize guests and VIPs with personalized greetings and messages
2. Share event photos or behind the scenes snapshots
3. Feature upcoming events, open houses and special programs
4. Display a countdown to show times or tour departure times
5. Promote your involvement with charitable organizations and community support initiatives
6. Display wayfinding maps for your facility or campus
7. Pull content from your blog, Twitter account or Facebook page
8. Showcase new products or services
9. Share your company mission, values and policies
10. Highlight new or existing customers/members
11. Introduce your board of directors, management team or individual employees
12. Promote your membership or affinity programs
13. Ask for feedback and comments
14. Provide information on handicap access points
15. Display annual report highlights and recent press coverage
16. Offer insider tips and tricks related to your organization’s products or services
17. Advertise current specials and upcoming promotions
18. Give instructions on how to volunteer time or money
19. Direct visitors to customer service options
20. Share product or service reviews and testimonials
21. Extend a polite “thank you” to your customers or visitors
22. Educate visitors on your green practices or recycling policies
23. Report statistics, facts and figures related to your industry
24. Identify gift shop and retail locations
25. Promote gift certificate or gift card options
26. Advertise venue rental options
27. Guide visitors through check-in procedures
28. Highlight key performance indicators related to your organization
29. Notify potential employees of job opportunities, and give instructions on how to apply
30. Convey safety and security information, including emergency exits, defibrillators, and first aid supplies

Are you interested in working with the Anode and FireSign teams? Check out the Anode, Inc. job opening for a Nashville-based Account Executive on anode.com.

Thanks to the Apple iPad, FireSign is more portable than ever before. Using the built-in Safari browser on the iPad operating system, mobile FireSign customers can stay connected to their digital signage systems over Wi-Fi and 3G connections.

The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum uses an iPad to modify schedules for their new FireSign Matinee Application.

Using the iPad, FireSign customers can complete all essential management functions such as modifying schedules, checking Player status and running reports. It’s important to note that the iPad does not currently support FireSign’s media upload and segment creation tools.

Below is a complete run down of the functionality and limitations of FireSign on the iPad.

Anode, Inc. has announced a revolutionary new suite of applications for building touchscreen content. Using the company’s FireSign™ Dynamic Digital Signage software, customers can now create, maintain and schedule interactive content for touch-enabled displays.

FireSign Interactive Guide

FireSign’s Touchscreen Applications allow customers to create interactive experiences such as digital scrapbooks, video jukeboxes, high definition galleries, virtual donor walls, guided tours and much more. A number of these applications are already in production for customers, and the first installations will be completed in the coming weeks.

Content editing tools eliminate the need for complex programming and navigational design. FireSign users simply upload existing media assets into pre-defined application templates with customizable design elements such as fonts and background colors. Changes and edits are then deployed directly to any number of touchscreens running on the FireSign system.

“Our customers are very familiar with media creation tools for producing things like blogs, photos and movies,” commented Chris Lee, Vice President of Technology. “Now, we have unlocked that same creation process for interactive kiosks and touchscreen displays.”

FireSign Gallery

From the beginning of the development process, Anode has worked closely with customers to develop these Touchscreen Applications. “Our customers have been delighted with the capabilities we have built into these applications,” stated Richard Bess, VP Sales and Marketing. “Thanks to them, we are developing applications that pinpoint their exact needs in a format that is extremely easy to use.”

This month, Anode, Inc. is proud to introduce FireSign 4.0 as the first major upgrade to the FireSign Dynamic Digital Signage platform since May 2008. This full version upgrade includes numerous enhancements to both the usability and functionality of the FireSign software.

Redesigned User Interface

• FireSign now has a more consistent look and feel across multiple browsers for users with multiple computing environments.
• The FireSign interface is cleaner and more intuitive with a redesigned Home screen that provides more useful information and direct links to common tasks.
• Data tables have been completely overhauled to include checkboxes where you can select multiple rows for operations like Delete. In addition, data tables are now “paged” to show 20 records per screen with Prev/Next and page number links.
• Media groups have been eliminated in favor of new “Tags” which are more flexible and less restrictive. Each media item can have up to 8 tags, such as “backgrounds”, “outdoor shots” etc.
• FireSign 4.0 also includes a greatly improved media import screen with progress bars.

Redesigned Layout Editor

• Message segments no longer have individual scenes. Layout now has a more advanced timeline-based editor to simplify the creation of segments without the cumbersome Scene Sorter used in previous versions.
• Within Layout, media items are now listed by their “Tags” for faster access to relevant assets.

Exciting New Touchscreen Applications

• New Touchscreen Application editors make it easy to create and maintain interactive content such as Image  Browsers, Galleries, Scrapbooks, Jukeboxes and many more.
• Touchscreen Application editors can be used on Windows or Macintosh browsers to create and edit content.

Other Interface Changes

• New status listings identify when a segment is “In Use” by a schedule or as an override for a Player. Likewise, the schedule list screen now shows which schedules are “In Use” by a Player.
• Schedules can now be modified by simply dragging a schedule item to change its playback priority or order.
• More feedback prompts appearing at the top of the browser window have been built into the system on all operations.
• A new Comments feature allows user-to-user dialog about media, segments or schedules with direct links to the referenced items.
• No more confusing vertical or horizontal screen orientations, just width and height dimensions throughout the system.
• Two new reports are available: a summary report for segment playback and a Player status report.

Hardware Changes

• The hardware USB keys for Players have been eliminated, and Players are now authenticated by the server. New Players can now be deployed faster and more efficiently.

1.  The type of wayfinding information to present
Does your airport need to present all Points of Interest (POI) available in the airport, concourse or property such as emergency, medical, administration, etc.? Or, is the primary focus on specific passenger needs such as Quick Serve Restaurants (QSR) and other retail concessionaires? By understanding the focus of your wayfinding signage, you can more precisely define the required capabilities you need.

2 . The efficiency of a single-user experience vs. a multi-user experience
Airport patrons have become accustomed to both public and private media experiences. On one hand, passengers have traditionally consumed directional wayfinding information through large public signage. More recently, travelers have learned to enter or verify very private information through flight check-in and rental car kiosks. When providing interactive wayfinding information, does the screen size leave people feeling exposed, knowing that others may eavesdrop on their experience? Personalized wayfinding is more aptly handled in a manner that gives users some sense of personal space.

3. Management of interactive wayfinding systems
Printed wayfinding signs have traditionally proven to be costly and have very limited life cycles. While digital signage and interactive wayfinding are significant steps in alleviating some of those costs, Administrators should realize and appropriate resources for continued management of these systems. Manufacturers, resellers or agencies that provide design and content management services should be favored when weighing these considerations. Systems that also offer the simplicity and flexibility of being managed by Airport Staff should also be given weighted consideration.

4. Using an interactive wayfinding system as a value-add or revenue generating mechanism
Investment in interactive wayfinding is not an inconsequential expenditure. How do Airport Administrators maximize that investment and shorten the ROI realization term? Many interactive wayfinding systems will allow for value-added options like wireless coupons or ad-driven content. Administrators can also take advantage of interaction metrics that are reported back by the digital signage system. These metrics can be used to improve user interface design, spot search trends and to discover hidden user behavior patterns.

5. Buying vs. leasing an interactive wayfinding system
Today, more progressive agencies and manufacturers realize the effect of Moore’s law on technology and hardware; a cutting-edge product this year may be obsolete two years after implementation. So how do airport administrators protect themselves from this effect? More and more end-users are electing to lease equipment for terms of 3-5 years, depending on use. The market will begin to see more facilities choose lease options that allow them to return equipment at the end of a limited term in exchange for updated equipment. The service model will continue to trend towards a Software as a Service (SaaS) model that has been popularized within other business markets.