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NAB: How broadcast can impact digital signage
With the NAB show this week, the two industries are finding out what they can learn from each other.
April 20, 2009
With the National Association of Broadcasters show going on this week, the digital signage industry will be paying close attention to what broadcast exhibitors have to offer them, and its likely broadcasters will be thinking the same about digital signage.
There are a number of companies that over the years have either transitioned fully from broadcast to digital signage or have added digital signage services onto their company offerings.
One such company is Harris Broadcast, which specializes in media workflows for broadcast systems and also develops Harris InfoCaster digital signage software. With feet in both industries, Harris product manager Candy Helgerson thinks digital signage can reap many benefits from broadcast, particularly when it comes to content.
Making content look good
Digital signage companies are always touting "broadcast quality graphics," and for a reason. Broadcasters know how to make content look good.
"First of all, there's the broadcast industry's knowledge of content," Helgerson said. "To keep content active, entertaining and informational, the digital signage business needs to look for more dynamic, real-time sources of content. And I think the broadcast industry can help with that."
One example Helgerson gave was the recent Harris digital signage installation at Viva McDonald's in Las Vegas, where the Discovery Channel provides most of the content for the network.
Also, with experience in creating high-quality graphics and now HD video, broadcasters and production houses can produce content far beyond the static graphics and templated layouts that are running on so many of today's digital signage networks.
"Much of the history of digital signage up to this point is based around graphics," Helgerson said. "It can be like a pretty digital slide show, although not always pretty. I think with media changing, unless you have something compelling and catchy it doesn't make a difference whether it's digital or not, people are going to ignore it. A digital version of a printed sign is still a printed sign."
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Harris Broadcast's booth at the 2009 NAB Show. |
Relationships with advertisers
Experience goes a long way in a young industry like digital signage, and broadcast companies have had many years of experience working with big brand advertisers and placing advertising media. This can be particularly useful to an industry that is constantly trying to develop new ways to position itself as a viable vehicle for advertising.
"Whether you have a captive digital signage network that you're trying to brand yourself, such as McDonalds, or a wide open network that you're selling ads on, I think digital signage as a business is still developing," Helgerson said. "They don't have the relationships with advertisers and I really believe that for digital signage to succeed at the levels that people like to predict, they need to get a lot better at that."
Combining national and localized content
Broadcast stations, particularly the large networks, all have the same news scheme: provide national content of general interest then cut to local news from affiliates. The plan is the same for commercial programming as well.
In an effort to provide the most relevant content for the viewer, digital signage can use a similar programming method when presenting news and information on a network.
"The big TV networks have built the precursor to what I call ‘modern digital signage,'" said David Wilkins, CEO of X20 Media. "Digital signage in its early days was mainly the playing back of video clips. But digital signage is changing with the ability to target real-time news and information to any screen on the network."
What digital signage can offer broadcast
Speaking with several NAB exhibitors, it seems that the broadcast industry is equally interested in what digital signage has to offer. The economic downturn has hit the broadcast industry pretty hard and the rise of TiVo and other devices means that viewers are watching fewer commercials than ever. Digital signage, on the other hand, has been a growth industry for several years now.
"Broadcast is interested in digital signage because that's where they see advertising dollars flowing. Even though it's at a small scale right now, it's still there," said Keith Kelsen, executive chairman of MediaTile and chair of the Content Best Practices committee for the Digital Signage Association.
Kelsen, a former television producer with more than 30 years experience in the broadcast industry, said that production houses and broadcast content producers have the most to gain from a relationship between the two industries.
"Production houses that are creating content for television are looking at digital signage for new business," he said. "The production process for content is very similar, and some of these production companies have been doing some Web-based flash production. The companies that have the combination of Web-based teams and traditional production teams will do very well in digital signage."
A place for content
Aside from trying to gain ad dollars, TV networks are looking for more screens as outlets for their content. This has been going on for several years, proven by the investments that companies like CBS (which purchased SignStorey in 2007), NBC, ABC and Viacom have made in digital signage.
"If you start looking at the kind of content and concepts that are being created on some networks you then have the idea that certain pieces of television can work in digital signage," Kelsen said. "It might be creating a series of short programs for a specific digital signage networks."
The programming models for the two media are also very similar, although digital signage has taken content and ad integration a step further than broadcast.
"Television traditionally uses programming to draw in the audience, essentially wrapping content around ads," Kelsen said. "With digital signage it's more about integrating the ads and programming into one, which has always been a high-end goal for television anyway. Just look at product placements in TV shows."
Check Digital Signage Today this week for continued coverage of the NAB show.
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