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5 for 5: Health care, the future and digital signage 101 on the menu

It's time for a look back at the most-read articles on Digital Signage Today in August, and what we can learn from them.

September 9, 2014 by Christopher Hall — w, t

The dog days of August have come and gone, and now we're in the homestretch to the end of the year — but first it's time for a look back at last month, and the top takeaway from the top five digital signage stories of August.

Readers clicked on an interesting selection of stories to make up the top five, and the second five are just as varied, but across the top 10 one common theme is clear: Readers want to learn the best ways to do digital signage. That may mean clicking on stories about how to do something, or what's coming in the days ahead, or how someone else did something well, but the basic idea is the same: Show me how.

So let's take a look, in reverse order, at the top five most-read article on Digital Signage Today, based on pageviews, from last month:

5. "Enroll in 'Digital Signage Kiosks 101'" - Digital signage and kiosk enclosure experts take webinar participants to school on the basics of digital signage kiosks.

Kiosks used to be distinct, ATM-shaped fixtures located in store corners and hotel lobbies, but the lines between digital signage and digital signage kiosks have blurred as screens have become more readily interactive. Now, digital signage kiosks are popping up everywhere from retail stores to hotels and even educational facilities.

So how can deployers and end-users make digital signage kiosks work best? Digital Signage Today and Peerless-AV recently hosted a live webinar, "Digital Signage Kiosks 101," that took a close look at the basics necessary to build a strong digital signage kiosk foundation.

The webinar featured Peerless-AV digital signage experts Brian McClimans, the company's vice president of global business development, and Mike Luttrell, a company sales application engineer, guiding attendees through "Digital Signage Kiosks 101."

Luttrell and McClimans looked at digital signage kiosks in several settings:

• Wayfinding and digital directories;
• Entertainment venues;
• In-store digital merchandising;
• Digital posters and signage;
• Virtual concierge applications; and
• Virtual receptionists/lobby kiosks.

But in each of these settings, one thing remains constant, according to McClimans: "You really need to dive into the technology you need to incorporate … The worst thing you can do on any application on a kiosk is just put something out there and not have a real understanding of how it's going to get used and who is going to continuously monitor it and update it." …

Read the rest of the story here.

4. "MLS's Houston Dynamo energize fans with digital signage" - Interactive digital signage engages and entertains fans, and also helps the team and its sponsors engage with fans.

Fans of the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer got a real-life kick out of a recent digital signage deployment at the team's BBVA Compass Stadium home.

Marketing and technology company MVP Interactive and banking giant BBVA Compass recently rolled out an interactive digital signage Gaming Wall that gave fans at the stadium a change to take real-world penalty kicks against a virtual version of the team's goalkeeper.

The Gaming Wall is located inside the stadium concourse and features nine 47-inch HD digital signage screens totaling 60 square feet of touchscreen surface area, along with four high-definition cameras and a Microsoft Kinect camera. The interactive feature was manufactured by Peerless-AV.

Fans teed up to kick at an imaginary ball, and saw it zip toward, and hopefully past, Dynamo goalie Tally Hall. To start the action, fans touched the screen to activate it, and then receive two practice kicks and five chances to beat the virtual goalie in under a minute. The embedded cameras captured the speed of each kick and points were awarded based on the speed and success of each attempt. After five shots or 60 seconds, the wall displayed the leader board for the evening. After their turn, the player can input their email address on a nearby tablet to receive an email with images of their shot attempts…

Read the rest of the story here.

3. "'You want fries with that?' Why restaurants need digital menu boards" - The retail food industry depends on suggestive selling, and digital signage gives deployers more control over customer engagement and the upsell.

Imagine handing the keys to your business success to an undertrained frontline employee who's having a bad day and maybe a bad attitude when they ask, "You want fries with that?"

That's why you need digital signage, according to restaurant franchisee and digital signage provider Ernest Koury.

Koury is the founder of digital signage and marketing firm Eureka! Media Group, but he also has a past as the founder a Little Caesars franchise in West Texas and New Mexico. Koury has deployed digital menu board solutions at Little Caesars and Wendy's locations around the southwest and in Mexico and Canada, and he spoke at the recent InfoComm 2014 professional AV show in Las Vegas on "Methods to Measure Effectiveness of Digital Signage Systems at Retail," focusing on retail foodservice.

"Why do I need digital signage?" Koury asked near the beginning of his session, before clicking forward in his PowerPoint presentation to a picture of a disaffected restaurant worker (who is actually a very pleasant employee of his firm, he said) asking, "Do you want fries with that?"

"She's why you need digital signage," he said. "In retail it all comes down to service."

The retail food industry depends on suggestive selling and upselling, he said, and when you have disinterested employees, no one is there to protect your brand. Digital signage mitigates that risk by allowing franchisors and franchisees to have more influence on customer engagement and by using digital menu boards to do the upselling and suggestive selling for them.

But digital signage is a delicate mix of the right technology, the right content and the right execution — and the right follow-through, he said: "This is where the majority of those who execute digital signage fall down. Digital signage is not a quick fix." …

Read the rest of the story here.

2. "Look into the future of digital signage" - The fifth edition of the Digital Signage Future Trends report analyzes wide-ranging survey data and mines industry insights for actionable intelligence about the industry.

The future is coming — whether or not you or your company are ready for it.

And the business landscape is littered with the carcasses of companies that thought they were, but were not. The key, of course, is making certain your company doesn't join them.

But how?

There are plenty of good Sun Tzu or von Clausewitz quotes about intelligence leading to victory in battle, but this one from former Commandant of the Marine Corps General David M. Shoup is succinct and to the point: "To lack intelligence is to be in the ring blindfolded."

The key to surviving the future is being ready for it by having intelligence about what's coming down the road. And while the future is by definition unknowable and to a large extent unpredictable, there are ways we can gather intelligence on what the trends shaping it may look like.

One simple but effective tactic to gather intelligence is just asking for it. In the annual future trends reports we ask for it in two ways: First, we ask a few people for general information, and second, we ask lots of people for specific information. We ask people who are experts in their field what they think will be the key trends shaping the future of the digital signage industry. We also survey hundreds of people who either make or sell the technology, or buy and use it, what they think will happen or what they plan to do with it in the future. In other words, we ask the people selling what they think will be important, and we ask the people buying what they think is important and what their intentions are with regards to the sector…

Read the rest of the story here.

1. "In hospitals and digital signage, the media matters" - A health care wayfinding expert says installing digital signage wayfinding in hospitals means more than just hanging screens or deploying interactive kiosks.

Far-flung campuses stretching over a couple of city blocks. Multiple entrances and parking lots competing for a driver's attention. Add to the mix an already stressed patient, physically weak from a health challenge. And they aren't even yet inside the building, where they face more directional challenges.

These trials are a formula for short tempers, patient complaints and wasted resources. Hospital staff must often step out of their primary role and act as traffic cops to help disoriented, and often irritated, patrons find their destination.

Such can be the state of affairs at today's health care facilities — unless they tackle the challenge to improve the customer experience and get everyone where they need to be, when they need to be there, with as little fuss as possible. The fix: a wayfinding program based on methods perfected by modern business and utilizing a mix of both static and electronic solutions.

If a medical institution today doesn't have at least a basic electronic messaging system, patients may question the facility's technical ability in other areas as well. Hospitals and clinics are embracing digital signage to not only improve on-premise navigation, but also to provide targeted information and positive community news…

Read the rest of the story here.

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