Digital Signage

Digital blackboards are the perfect alternative to conventional information terminals.

In this article: 

1. What are digital blackboards?
2. Digital black board software: How does it work?
3. Virtual blackboard: The advantages
4. Best industries for the digital displays
5. How much do digital black boards cost?
6. What’s the difference between digital blackboards and digital signage software?
7. Conclusion
8. FAQ

Digital Blackboards: An important step towards digitalization

Many people see digital black boards as some kind of terminal to get further information about something. Others associate it with a bulletin board in a kitchen. Both perspectives aren’t wrong, speaking from an analogous point of view. In the following article, FRAMR gives you answers regarding how digital black boards work, their advantages and the costs you should consider.

Digital boards as a flexible source of information

What are digital blackboards?

Again, speaking from an analogous point of view it makes sense to say it’s a bulletin board. However, you shouldn’t take it too literally. Digital blackboards are an electronic solution to display video- and picture content (as well as PDFs). The color is significant – the more known whiteboards show content on a white background, the casing or the background of blackboards on the other hand is black.

The contrast in color comes with an advantage for companies. Especially in brighter shopping malls digital displays are almost invisible because of the same accent in color. A black board on the other hand is more recognizable.

The goal with digital displays is to reach more customers and because of the outstanding color contrast, companies even have advantages for their marketing as they gain more attention.

Digital blackboard software: How does it work?

Basic requirement for displaying content is compatible software. Through the connection to a device, software displays content. Reproduction can be configured so that contents can be shown for a specific period and then be replaced easily.

That creates flexibility in the content creation and the possibility to reach out to the target group. The connection to a cloud makes the device work without a permanent internet connection (only required during the data transport).

Virtual blackboard: The advantages

Modern technology meets stunning design to display digital content. Digital blackboards aren’t just a pragmatic solution to provide information (although that’s one way to use it), because their design makes them a real eye-catcher.

Speaking from a marketing related point of view, communication with customers gives companies a big advantage. Virtual blackboards serve as a source of information, inspire for an exciting shopping session and provide important safety notices. Thanks to this diversity, companies benefit and market their products as well as their services effectively.

Digital blackboard advantages overview:

• Vandalism prevention
• Remote access
• Cloud based solution to display content
• Made for continuous use
• Design by own preferences

Content is short lived because the own target group wishes for variety and the growing competition on the market requires companies to regularly come up with new ideas. Conventional banners reach many people but design and printing takes long and is expensive. Digital black boards come with many advantages in that case because all you need to do is to create content and then display it on the board. Besides that, companies don’t produce personnel costs because they don’t need staff to exchange advertising banners.

Best industries for the digital displays

In the age of digitalization all industries benefit from mobility solutions. The use of blackboards is not limited to display advertising or information because every company is free to show the content they want.

Shopping malls show exciting advertisements and the administration of a company displays industry news. Restaurants even have a double advantage because a digital menu looks good and is informative.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter which industry your business belongs to. More importantly, businesses need to know their target group and what they want. The number one question companies should ask themselves is: What are the interests of my target group and how do I reach them with my content strategy?

Know your target group to make your advertising more effective

How much do digital black boards cost?

Virtual blackboards (display only) start at 1.000 €. But even more important than a display is a high quality and compatible software to display content. Companies make the best choice by buying software that includes the desired use.

FRAMR offers attractive solutions with all important features and modules for a monthly fee. Our products promise maximum performance, high flexibility and customer satisfaction. We adjust to the needs of customers and therefore only offer products that promise high quality and high technological standards.

Feel free to contact us to get to know our products better.

Overview to our products: https://framr.tv/en/products/

What is the difference between digital blackboards and digital signage software?

Digital signage solutions are digital-visualized screens that display pictures and videos in a compact form. Therefore, digital signage software is the general term for all screens that show content. What makes digital blackboards special is their color – as already mentioned, pictures or videos are either displayed on a black casing or a black background.

-> Article: Digital Signage Software: The future of communication?

Conclusion: A must have for companies

Digital blackboards aren’t only beneficial for shopping malls. Even smaller businesses such as doctor offices, property managements or restaurants take advantage. That underlines the biggest benefit of digital marketing methods: No matter the industry or company size, businesses reach customers with digital signage solutions. If you know your target group and their interests, then you will use digital boards successfully.

FAQ

How does a digital black board work?

A screen is connected to software or a player to show pictures or videos. Content-collection happens in the background through software and the digital display shows the content.

Digital blackboard apps: Which ones are to recommend?

FRAMR offers packages with all kinds of integrations for digital signage solutions. The unlimited number of content is one of many advantages which improve the overall performance of your digital displays.

Picture © Canva

Digital signage offers new chances on the market and is all about innovation in times of digitalisation.

Guide for the interview:

1. What is FRAMR and how was the idea behind it developed?
2. Which steps were to consider during development?
3. What about the current demand for digital signage products?
4. Why do more businesses rely on digital billboards?
5. Recommendations of Lukas Aumair
6. Which industries take the most advantage of digital signage?
7. How can working processes be simplified?
8. What are the future perspectives of digital signage?

Digital signage, software and more – for many businesses it’s the unknown but for Lukas Aumair it’s daily business. In the FRAMR interview, the CEO of Megatechnik professional multimedia GmbH describes how important digital signage will be for businesses in the future and which chances can be used. Other than that, he also talks further about important advantages regarding digital advertising.

Lukas Aumair: Developer of FRAMR and CEO of Megatechnik multimedia professional GmbH

What is FRAMR and how was the idea behind it developed?

A digital working environment requires the right solutions but many businesses fail in that area. Digital screens are known to most people, although not necessarily under the Term “Digital Signage”. What most people don’t see on the outside: The processes behind the development of software to display content on a digital screen require detailed programming as well as a qualified team. At the end, everything needs to work properly, starting from the idea through to marketing.

“The content management team of our company looked for a solution to remotely manage content of digital screens in a mall. All solutions on the market were locally installed and therefore only accessible under unsafe as well as complicated conditions and the usability was bad.”

The thoughts of Lukas Aumair to get to the idea make clear which challenges his team had to face. Missing usability and flexibility are common problems in digitalization but FRAMR takes an approach to these challenges.

Which steps were to consider during development?

From the beginning the creation and concept of a scalable cloud system was important to offer clients from all over the world a good service. Also, FRAMR should be usable without software installation and be ready within seconds. Competitors partly still don’t make their services work without a team of educated technicians.

Lastly, the usage of Linux over Microsoft was essentially to provide proper system safety. There is no worse situation in the field of digital signage than a “player” which doesn’t work properly after a windows update.

What about the current demand for digital signage products?

A growing number of businesses rely on digital solutions because of the corona crisis. That also comes with a higher demand for digital signage. Financial support of states in the European Union fuels this trend.

Why do more businesses rely on digital billboards?

In a fast living world and an agile working environment digital billboards offer faster reaction times to new events, a faster display of advertising as well as faster actions and available information for employees in comparison to classic print products. The exchange of content happens instantly whereas print products need to be printed in the first step and then be deployed manually. Other than that, a moving image is always a better eyecatcher than static posters. Lastly, with the right setup it is possible to change the little worlds for visitors / customers within seconds.

Recommendations of Lukas Aumair

Basically, I recommend professional displays with continuous operation in order to provide sustainable and long term usage. For reasons of sustainability, it’s best for businesses to use passive cooling. I also recommend a short usage of extra hardware such as signal distribution and transmission routes – a direct configuration with displays through a player is better – for example with a HTML5-browser or FRAMR player.

→ Find out more about the application areas of digital signage and how your business will take advantage of it. 

Which industries take the most advantage of digital signage?

Businesses with many display locations because the speed of digital signage can be used very well.

Are there any functions to simplify working processes in order to provide a better usability for customers?

There are many options to support this goal. These are the following:

• Cloud based solutions with mobile optimization to edit content from all over the world.
• Scheduling of content enables complete planning of the playout to the point of creation.
• Drag and drop functionality for an easy and intuitive usage.
• Monitoring functions to supervise the usage of these functions.

Article → 7 underestimated advantages of business digitalization

What will the possible future development of digital signage look like?

Digital signage will be much more interactive and additional add-ons, for example new features, will improve the products. Other than that, it will be possible for digital signage to react to the environment and be controlled by it. Our FRAMR add-on “FRAMR Eye” for example recognizes personas through AI. Based on data, digital signage can locally decide if, for instance, a man or woman stands in front of the display and then can control the display of content.

That comes with the following advantages:

• Opportunity to personalize advertising
• Data will only be processed locally and not be saved in cloud based systems
• GDPR-compatibility

In the future it will be important that Software of a specific digital signage provider will work on many different platforms, no matter if it’s LG, Panasonic, Android or any other provider. It will also be a future challenge to connect one digital signage software with many hardware devices. Today, professional displays offer integrated HTML5-browsers in which digital signage can directly be shown to some extent. Just a comparison to the early days: A player is connected with a display and provides content.