Article

How to decide between native and Web-based Android digital signage

All Android content management systems are not created alike, and it's important to understand the distinctions if you are planning out a digital signage network.

December 21, 2015

By Charles Regula, Product Manager for Digital Signage, VIA Technologies Inc.

All Android content management systems are not created alike, and it's important to understand the distinctions if you are planning out a digital signage network.

They break down in two ways: Web-based and native.

Web-based generally, but not always, means the CMS is designed to run across multiple platforms, like Windows, Android and even new technologies like Chromeboxes and smart displays.

Native players, on the other hand, are designed specifically for Android devices, with software written for that operating system and often optimized for a particular device, or set of devices.

It's not an absolute, but generally speaking, native players are more feature rich than Web-based players. That owes to what amounts to months, and even years, of focused R&D and the associated financial investment.

One way to look at it is to compare the capabilities of and responsiveness of applications and extensions that run on your computer's browser, versus software (such as word processing) that was natively designed to run on your computer and its operating system.

Where the differences become most evident are in things like the video and graphics playback capabilities of the player, and the ability to monitor and manage a device.

Web-based applications tend to sit on top of a device, and the amount of information operators can get back is limited.

The companies that have developed native players have done the work and gained the hardware and file access to allow for deeper, more detailed monitoring and management capabilities. That tends to only be possible on commercial Android devices, as consumer devices are manufactured for plug-and-play work like media streaming to TVs in homes.

So what's the best choice for your digital signage network? Web-based or native? As you might expect, it depends.

Web-based platforms can, in many cases, run across blended networks that have some Android, some Windows, and so on. So you can have one platform managing a variety of devices.

Web platforms also oftentimes run on lower cost consumer-grade Android devices, and have lower software subscription fees. But the trade-off is functionality and, probably, the reliability and longevity of the devices.

So a simple, light and small digital signage project can probably do fine with a Web-based setup.

But for digital signage networks that are more demanding in terms of content programming, scheduling, management and scale, it's likely a native Android CMS with commercial players is a better option.

Native Android platforms now rival what's possible with Windows CMS platforms. The big difference is the lower capital cost — sometimes dramatically lower — for Android players, versus Windows PCs.

The best advice: Invest the time assessing your needs and the demands of the network, and remember any initial savings on a device or software disappears the moment an inexpensive device falters in the field, and needs a repair or replacement.

The math is simple: Save $40 up front on a "cheap" device, but then spend $100 on a replacement and $250 on a field technician call.

Get the right platform and devices the first time, and there *is* no replacement or service call.

Charles Regula is Product Manager for digital signage at VIA Technologies Inc. in Fremont, California. With headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan, VIA is a global developer of integrated embedded platform and system solutions for M2M, IoT and Smart City applications, ranging from video walls and digital signage to health care and industrial automation.