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Is the clock ticking on an old benchmark?

A blogger questions if advances in display tech have moved the digital signage industry past OPS.

August 28, 2014 by Craig Scott — VP Sales & Marketing, www.digbil.com

I think it might be time to ask if it's time to consider other alternatives to OPS? In my last blog post, I discussed how selecting fit-for-purpose displays keeps you at the forefront of innovation and maximizes the return on your digital signage dollars. Equally important as picking fit-for-purpose displays is picking the appropriate hardware platform to run your digital signage solution.

Launched in 2010, a hardware standard called the Open Pluggable Specification was released aiming to reduce digital signage market fragmentation and simplify device installation and maintenance. 

Although OPS was a good idea when it launched, times have changed. Displays of yesteryear were thick and required metal chassis to deal with high thermal levels. OPS was seen as a compact, cost-effective solution to fit into such environments. However, the last four years have seen such dramatic advances in display and computing technology that the environment has changed dramatically. Today, there are various other alternatives to OPS — options that are certainly worth considering . 

If your digital signage application involves more than one display, you might want to consider these questions before choosing OPS as the brains behind your hardware:

1. Is minimizing the cost per channel in your digital signage use case important?

In an OPS architecture, every display requires its own OPS module. What this means is that every display requires a processor and all the internal components that make up a mini PC. On top of that, being small in size brings additional costs stemming from the miniaturization of its technology. In short, what is great news for vendors selling OPS is not so good for your budget. 

In a retail application with five signs, you could easily spend in excess of $4,000 USD on OPS modules alone.

2. Would you like to have synched multiscreen content, or content which spans across multiple screens?

The most impressive digital signage applications are those that make you stop in your tracks with extraordinary content. A great way this can be achieved is when content spans across multiple screens, and even interacts with the screen's layout.

How can this be accomplished in an OPS architecture? It can't — at least not in an easy, reliable, synchronized manner. Instead, each display is treated as an independent entity for content scheduling and playback purposes, making it extremely difficult for your average signage user to accomplish.

3. Is serviceability and ease of replacement important when something goes wrong?

OPS modules are typically found inserted in the bottom or side of the displays. One large problem with this is accessibility when maintenance is required. If your application has screens in an inaccessible location, such as high off the floor like in menu boards, how will you service the unit without having to climb up a ladder, or even worse, interrupting your sales process? 

We have seen multiple installations with screens installed next to each other, effectively blocking access to the OPS module once installed. What happens if the OPS module fails? Not only could replacing it be tricky from an accessibility standpoint, but also quite a costly proposition when you account for the time spent by the maintenance guy climbing up and servicing the modules.

Even if your use case only calls for a single screen, with simple video playback and no need for advanced features like demographics analysis, OPS might still be ill suited for the task. A likely better option would be one of the myriads of cheap players that support such uses.

Photo courtesy of followtheseinstructions.

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