Digital signage is one of the most interesting and rewarding paths for digital marketers; digital signage players are the digital signage displays.
It’s not always easy to understand what definitions like FullHD, 1080P, or 720P mean when purchasing players.
How can you be sure that you’re buying a good digital signage player? And what digital signage player should you choose?
This is what we’re going to look at today in detail.
So, What Is a Digital Signage Player?
A digital signage player is an easy way for building owners to leverage digital technology for their business’s digital signage.
The players are connected to the digital displays (like a smart video wall) and will use a schedule for playback.
A proper player also provides technology that optimizes video and images to work in high-resolution digital display screens.
Some common functions of a player include the following:
- Autoplay: This function enables drivers to view all playing slides on the digital screens automatically without any significant input from human operators for their digital signage project.
- Looping: This media player function enables users to play all or different slides continuously until someone stops it or changes them manually.
- Scheduling: Some digital players allow scheduling for different groups of digital screens to be accessed in a single location.
- Searching: This media player function enables users to quickly find digital slides they want using any operating systems or multiple screens.
- Visual Effects: The visual effects enable the live feed videos to have amazing effects, which makes viewing interesting, informative, and entertaining at the same time.
- Multi Digital Display Support: The best players can be connected to a commercial smart video wall or multiple digital screens and set up different feeds for each screen which is really helpful when it comes to branding with interactive kiosks.
Benefits & Importance of Digital Signage Players
Digital signage players are important tools for businesses of all sizes.
In this next section, we will discuss the importance of digital signage players and how they can benefit your business.
1. Good for Communication
One of the most important benefits of retail digital signage players is that they allow you to communicate with your customers in a variety of ways.
You can use this device to display messages, videos, images, and more.
2. Boosts Interactivity
Not only can digital signage players be used to display information, but the device can also bring more life and interactivity to your displays by allowing you to add digital photos or videos of your employees and products.
3. Increase Sales
Another way a digital media signage player benefits businesses is that they allow for increased sales.
You can use digital players to promote new product lines, upcoming events, current specials running at your business, and more.
A professional display like this will hopefully encourage customers to attend the event or buy your products, which will, in turn, lead to increased sales for your business.
4. Connects Businesses to Online CMS System
A digital signage player is a key component of your digital signage setup.
When a digital signage player, screen and a content management system work together, they help you centralize all your ad content.
With easier access to your ads, you can switch things up as need be, and create localized retail digital signage for your store.
Overall, this improves the customer experience and makes marketing as effortless as possible.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Your Digital Signage Player
Now you might be interested with installing digital signage player, but how do I choose?
Choosing a digital signage media player for your digital signage is an important decision.
There are many digital signage players available today that offer a good mix of features and price points.
Below are some factors to consider when choosing your digital sign player.
Size
When choosing a digital signage player, size is a factor that must be considered.
Smaller media players or ones that can be mounted are easier on the eyes. If you mean to conceal your digital player, a small one is ideal.
Oftentimes, you need to consider the scale of your digital signage campaign and the functionality you’re hoping to reap.
Storage Space
A device with 4GB or more will be sufficient if you plan on just displaying still images, but if you want animated content, then internal storage of 8GB or 16GB would work much better — especially since most videos are at least 2GB in size.
Another great feature to look out for is playback across different digital signage hardware, along with video content.
For example, digital signage players that are able to play MPEG-4 videos are the most effective as this allows you to play digital media across all digital screens at once without any interruptions or other device issues.
Budget
Digital signage players vary in price depending on features, storage space, screen size, digital media compatibility, and brand.
While the hardware for digital signage is generally available at affordable prices, there are cheaper options out there if you don’t need the extra features these digital signage players offer.
When making your choice, you should also consider the cost of future repairs or part replacements for your commercial digital signage setup.
Security
Securing your digital signage player should not be too costly or too hard.
Your player should be concealed well enough that it doesn’t encourage tampering.
You should also keep the number of people who have access to it and its contents to a bare minimum.
On the software front, choose digital signage vendors that are well-aware of possible security weak points and who do periodic checks.
Make sure your data is encrypted and protected.
Internet Connectivity
An Internet connection is one of the most basic things to consider when choosing digital players.
On its own, any digital signage software solution might not be very effective if no digital mediums are regularly displayed in areas where passersby can see them.
Internet connectivity allows these players to update digital displays with fresh content and broadcast it to a wider audience.
Integrations and Software Compatibility
Digital signage players have different levels of integrations, which will affect what software you can use with your digital signage screen player.
For example, some digital players are not compatible with Mac OSX or Android devices, so choose one that suits your compatibility requirements.
Content Display Formats and Resolutions
The multi-user signage player is what displays content for digital signs.
Sometimes, the best digital signage player can simply be a computer with high processing power and USB ports that are compatible with most flash drives.
Ultimately, video walls and mounted digital signage need to be supported by hardware that can display content in HD resolution for the best user experience.
Durability
The durability of the device is a very important consideration to make when you’re choosing your easily integrated digital media players.
Digital signage players come in all shapes and sizes, and durability can vary greatly depending on the model and brand that you choose.
5 Types of Digital Signage Players That You Should Consider
As we’ve established, you need a digital signage player in your quest to set up stellar digital signage.
When you invest in digital signage solutions, a good media player can make a huge difference to your advertising efforts.
Digital signage players are very user-friendly and they make content display much simpler.
There are several key types of digital signage players out there.
1. Windows / Linux PC
PCs are more widespread in use, and they have more applications that can work alongside digital players for streaming video and RSS feeds on a digital signage network screen.
The computing power offers a complex digital signage solution, but this will come at the price of increased costs for components even when using your own hardware.
To maintain these high-quality machines, they require regular maintenance work, which isn’t cheap.
2. Android
What’s better than a computer? An Android media player.
They’re small and are built around Google’s Android operating system.
These digital signage solutions also offer plenty more benefits, including being very compact and valuable due to their performance compared with other devices of its kind.
The drawback is that they’re a little too small, and using them for huge digital signage projects can be hard since they cannot be used with other operating systems.
3. Chrome
Google’s Chrome OS operating system is built for the technologically inclined.
It’s simple software that’s easy to use, and offers great functionality with support of key features like single app kiosk mode and HTML5 content which makes it high-quality as well interactive.
Chrome OS devices are digital signage applications that are small enough that you can take them anywhere yet powerful enough to run digital signage projects.
4. Raspberry Pi
You can also consider getting a Raspberry Pi-based digital signage player for your business.
The Raspberry Pi is a powerful processor that’s specifically designed to accommodate digital signage.
This device is open source and features an active community of developers. It does not consume much power and this unique aspect will help you save on electrical bills.
However, the digital signage solutions tied to this device may be a little complicated for your employees to grasp if they’re dealing with demanding content.
5. System on a Chip
The system on a chip (SoC) for digital signage is more cost-effective and efficient than an external media player.
The main advantage is that it has a clean setup. You don’t need HDMI ports, HDMI sticks, USB-C ports, and other hardware options.
However, SoC is a little limited in its ability to handle simultaneous video playback on any contemporary digital signage display.
Takeaway
Choosing the best digital signage media players for the right digital signage system may look easy at face value, but it can take you ages since there are so many options available.
If you’d like more help on choosing the best digital signage solutions and devices, then feel free to get in touch with us.
Here at Rev Interactive, we provide high quality digital signage players (Windows and Android) that are sure to suit your needs.
Rev Interactive is committed to providing the best digital signage hardware for your project.
