Digital Signage Software

If you thought Las Vegas couldn’t jam more blinking lights into its city limits, the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) has news for you – Vegas can and did.

In arguably its biggest show ever, CES allowed consumers and companies alike to see what the future holds in the consumer technology marketplace. From Ultra-flat panel 3D TVs to Justin Beiber, CES delivered the goods.

MediaTile was prominently featured in both the Verizon Wireless and Alcatel Lucent booths in the form of The GameTime Media Table. After winning the 2012 DIGI Award for "Best New Content Management Software/Web-based”, absent was “The HumanKiosk” featuring Video Presence. But born from the same value propositions of being cellular connected and cloud controlled, The GameTime Media Table delivered the rich on screen content and unique experiences over 4G LTE that drew visitors to both booths consistently over three days. This is super-powered cellular digital signage. 

The GameTime Media Table showcases multiple interactive features including the ability to upload and display pictures instantly from your smart phone, play music, watch movie previews and the coup de grace: playing video games (single or multi player) where smart phones act the controllers. So if you are thinking to yourself, ‘MediaCast can deliver media like movie/music files, streaming videos, live intelligently routed video calls, interactive gaming and everything in between!’ your thinking would be spot on. Verizon’s network and Brass Monkey’s video games deliver the blows, but it’s the MediaCast muscle that ensures maximum impact (also in attendance at CES was UFC Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem, hence the metaphor). Gaming on digital signage... and then some!

It was great to be part of CES and MediaTile is honored to partner with industry leaders like Verizon Wireless and Alcatel Lucent to launch solutions that will steer the industry and delight users for years to come…or at least until CES 2013.

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What a great way to kick off the New Year. Digital Signage Magazine awarded MediaTile the coveted 2012 DIGI Award for our innovative MediaCast Video Presence system.  

MediaCast Video Presence, which powers the revolutionary HumanKiosk solution, has received a first place award for Best New Product in the New Content Management Software/Web Based (SaaS) category.  

Black Friday. Cyber Monday. With the holiday season upon us, people are in the shopping mood for sure. And if your business is looking to invest in digital signage, the fine folks at Digital Signage Today published a nice overview of key features to look out for.

The software selection is endless so it's important that you find software that's intuitive for the users and that you work with a company that supports you long beyond initial implementation. 

In a sidebar, the article notes four key areas any software must meet:

• Ease of installation & management
• System flexibility
• Reliability
• Remote control

Fortunately for our customers, MediaCast (our signage software) meets all of these criteria. We guarantee 99.9% uptime. And since it's SaaS, you'll always be using the latest and greatest version. With MediaCast, you have unlimited users with unique roles and permissions. And installation? There isn't any (SaaS). 

We have many things to be thankful for this year, and we hope each one of you has a happy Thanksgiving. 




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Rather than bother everybody's Twitter stream with updates, I thought it would be better to provide presentation thoughts here (and serves as good note-taking for me).


Pete Tosches, The ServiceMaster Company: "'Who Uses That Website Anyway?' Communication Secrets from the Front Lines"

• Under the ServiceMaster umbrella are brands like TruGreen, Terminix, and merry maids. 
• They have 24,000 full-time employees & another 5,000 seasonal, with no work PCs, no email and no office phone. 
• Producitivity drives revenue, which is why it's a tough conversation to invest in employee communications. 
• Only 58% of employees agreed that leadership communicates a vision that motivates them. 
• Face-to-face communication is vital to internal communication at ServiceMaster. They have a mandatory monthly branch meeting for one hour "on the clock." 
• The meetings were key for employees to be able to share what the customers were telling them. The feedback loop became very important. 
• Like Volkswagen, ServiceMaster still sends home quaterly newsletter mailing to sales and service employees' homes. This highlights the "spouse factor." 
• The company is dipping its big toe in the social media water. They are encouraging employees to listen to the online conversation as part of improving communication. Yammer is also part of the strategy. 
• In a company that's operation-focused, they need to provide basic communication tools (ride-alongs, town halls, podcasts, etc) to hear back from employees. 
• They rely on 3-way communication, and the the most important "way" is employee to employee conversations. 
• ServiceMaster has to use paper-based communication and face-to-face to tell employees about the information available online. 

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All this month, we've been sharing 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. And given the rather spooky month October is, we thought it was a great time to share this information. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. 

We know it can be intimidating launching a network, but that's why we're here. We try to take as much fear out of the equation as possible through education and awareness (hence, this blog). We are open to having as many conversations or demos as needed to help you get your project off the ground. 

So in case you missed any of our 31 reasons or want to stroll through memory lane, here they all are:

1.  Networking
2. Cellular
3. WiFi
4. LAN
5. Scalability
6. SaaS
7. Unlimited users
8. Cost of installation
9. Complexity of installation
10. Variety of file types
11. Scheduling
12. Digital signage hardware
13. Content management
14. Content expansion
15. Component players
16. The Cloud
17. Touch screens
18. Training
19. Digital signage content creation
20. Custom-branded templates
21. Video
22. Security
23. IT involvement
24. Custom training
25. Support
26. Content best practices
27. Screen placement
28. Project management
29. Return on investment
30. Enterprise deployments
31. Roles and permissions

We hope everybody has a safe and fun Halloween. We'll leave you with this spooky message. 

In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #30: Enterprise deployments

A nationwide or worldwide digital signage deployment can scare the pants off even the most hardened IT or marketing professional. It can be a nightmare between all of the logistics of purchasing and IT networking. 

But just because it CAN BE doesn't mean it HAS TO BE. We've helped both large and small companies deploy signage networks, here in the states and abroad. Because our hardware just needs a data connection (LAN, WiFi or cellular), you can put them anywhere. Our MediaCast software is web-based, which means you can give users access anywhere they have an Internet connection. 

And we can provide enterprise-level pricing for those looking at large digital signage deployments. Giving you an "all-you-can-eat" signage solution (hence the zombie image). We've made it as easy possible to deploy your digital out of home network, especially if you're trying to deploy across multiple locations or countries. 

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In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #29: ROI

What is ROI? Commonly it refers to "Return on Investment" and, even with digital signage, there are online calculators which can help you formulate how long it may take for your network to pay for itself. Generally the easiest model is the one applied to the retail vertical in that the increase in product sales where signs are located is subtracted from your hard dollar investment. The resulting number tells you if your investment in digital signage was worth it or not.

What is harder to measure is the less common ROI or "Return on Involvement." This type of ROI refers to the impact of your content on your audience and how easily they can recall that information and complete your "call to action." For the more sophisticated interactive content experience, it's not only about how easily the information can be recalled but also if the user's experience was a delightful one. The more unique and positive the experience, the more likely your audience is to recall your brand; therefore, regardless of where they maybe in the buying cycle (to continue with our retail example) when it comes time to finally make a purchase they will be more likely remember the great digital signage experience they had with your brand's network.

Part of MediaTile's offering via our MediaServices group is to help you define the measure of success for your digital signage network. Whether it's traditional hard-dollar Return on Investment or soft-dollar Return of Involvement, our consultative approve ensures you will be able to define success and measure in the present and well into the future.

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In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #28: Project management

When you are ready to kick-off your digital signage project, the management of said project can feel like a whole other job on to itself. MediaTile offers to manage your entire project from start to finish through our MediaServices team. We will work with your primary internal digital signage advocate starting with the kick-off meeting, then concept creation, establishing timelines, approvals, testing, roll out, and reporting. In the case you want to keep the project in house, here are a few suggestions to help your engagement go as smoothly as possible:

• Dedicate a project leader to oversee the processes and make sure it is moving.
• Come up with clearly defined goals for your digital signage network.
• Have a single provider contact so any questions or issues that may arise only require a single call.
• Come up with content designs and templates that maintain a consistent tone with your existing brand messaging (whether your audience is internal or external)
• Have a list of all the hardware and software components you'll need to deliver an individual installation point.
• Schedule your team's training and testing well in advance and encourage "playing" with the content management solution.
• Once your project goes live, make sure either the project leader or some other vital team member is checking on the network daily to ensure success and gather usage data.

If you have any questions about a new project or management of existing one, MediaTile has the experts to consult or inherit the engagement and increase the likelihood of another digital signage project in your future.


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In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #25: Support

Nobody likes having to call support. But from time to time, it's an inevitability. And we try to make it as easy as possible. For one, we never charge for support. You can email us or call us several times a day if you want. No fee. 

And here's the not-so-scary part. We WANT you to get in touch with us if you're having problems. Because not only do we know that our customers are on track, but it also helps us improve our digital signage software and hardware. Customer feedback is the biggest part of our product roadmap. 

Support is available weekdays, 8am EDT to 8pm EDT. But we're also proactive. Every week, our support team sends out helpful tips to not only educate our customer base but also give them some new ideas on how to use our software. 

So don't be afraid to call or email support. That's why we have it. 

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In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #24: Training

As with any new hardware or software, users are going to need to be trained. Digital signage is no different. But what can be horrifying is that amount of training that's needed for some systems. I've heard scary stories of people going to two- and three-day trainings just to get oriented with the signage platforms. And that's just the first step. 

With ours, it requires a basic 2-3 hour web training with our customer support team. That's it. Most of our users are up and running immediately after. And some even before. Built right into our MediaCast software is video support. Once logged in, users can watch helpful videos about some of the more basic tasks. 

We ask new customers to watch these even before going through our training. It allows them to become familiar with the software and then they come armed with questions to the official training. 

But the best training of all is using the digital signage software. The more you use it, the better you will get at it. And for those who want more, we offer custom advanced training for our power users. 

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In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #20: Branded templates

In yesterday's post, we talked about about our Composer tool (it allows you to create content for your digital signage network right in our software). In this post, I want to spend more time talking about customizing the templates for your company. 

The general templates are available to be used and abused by all of our customers, but they are a bit generic (on purpose). The real benefit of Composer comes in when you upload custom-branded Composer templates for your network. 

Content that's on digital signage for banks should look a lot different than a network for a college campus. Retail networks should look different than a corporate communications one. 

But even though the looks are different, they can all still be professional through a template system. One of our corporate communication customers themed all of their templates so that employees would know what sort of content was on the screen before even reading the message. This type of planning can be very beneficial to a network's success. 

It's no secret that content is critical to a network's success and Composer is a tool that makes creating content not so scary. 

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In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #18: Training

No Halloween monster parallel required here – training on how to use your digital signage screens can be flat out scary. Never mind what the majority of providers require from an installation standpoint– on site servers, hard line connectivity – their content management solutions can be like learning a new programming language. Should you want to use a jpeg already created, you will probably have to contact your IT representative and have them re-create this asset using your provider’s complex content management system.

MediaTile’s cellular connected, SaaS-based content management system – “MediaCast” – eliminates many of the costs and complexities of initial installation. Additionally, MediaCast allows you to simply upload common media assets (mpegs, jpegs, etc), easily create a playlist, and schedule this content to play in a matter of minutes. There is no need to learn a new “programming language” and no need to bother your IT counterparts with pushing content to your digital signage network. MediaCast is so intuitive that training only takes a few hours and can be done remotely, versus spending a few days at an offsite location, which is required by other digital signage providers.

Don’t believe me? Contact MediaTile today and we’ll be happy to demonstrate MediaCast to you directly, live on the web at your convenience.

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In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #16: The cloud

We've all seen commercials touting the benefits of "the cloud." If you're on Facebook or Twitter, you're using cloud computing. And since our beginnings, MediaTile has been in the cloud with our digital signage offering. We are 100% SaaS. 

Other than the physical player units or screens, there is no other on-site hardware or applications to manage. This is what "the cloud" refers to. We host everything for you so that you don't have to worry about it. 

And if you choose cellular to manage your digital signage network, your signage is truly cloud-based in that it doesn't even require any on-site networking to speak of. This has been a tremendous benefit for many of our corporate communication networks who either couldn't get access to their internal network or the network was too fragile to handle any more connections. 

The cloud isn't a scary place at all. In fact, we think it's the best place to manage your signage network, no matter how large or small. 

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In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #11: Scheduling

For a few digital signage owners, scheduling is a major portion of their network. But for most, it can be a little bit of an afterthought. They don't really put that much thought into properly scheduling content on their network. 

MediaCast, our web-based software, includes a complete and robust scheduling platform, including the ability to schedule down to the minute. So many in the industry use a term called "dayparting," but what it's really about is getting the right content to the right audience at the right time. 

For employee communications networks, they will commonly loop the same content throughout the day, and then use the scheduling feature to turn the signage off when they don't need it. But for our retailers and banking customers, they can schedule specific content to target their audience at specific times. This is a vital feature. 

Another key scheduling benefit is the ability to make content expire. Let's say you have a specific marketing campaign that ends on a certain date. Instead of having to worry about removing that content from your playlist on that date, you can simply schedule it to expire. Once the date hits, the content doesn't get played. 

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In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #10: Variety of file types

One of the first questions I get when I talk to digital signage newbies is, "What kind of content can I play?" And this is a good question, because it means they are focusing on the right things. 

My answer back is, "Well, what are you currently creating content in?" The beauty of MediaTile's MediaCast digital signage software is that we have no proprietary format types. 

You have a video that's MP4? Upload it. 

Have a simple JPG that you'd like to put on the screen? Upload it. 

Want to feed content through an RSS feed? Send it on in. 

Our platform plays videos, static imagery, Flash, Dynamic Flash, RSS and, yes, even the dreaded PowerPoint. 

And this is just the content that you've created outside the system or want to feed in. Later we'll talk about creating content INSIDE MediaCast. (Or you can check it out for yourself.)


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_______________________
Flickr image, Norwichnuts

In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.  

Reasons #8 & #9: Cost AND Complexity of Installation

When you start thinking about digital signage - more specifically, putting your own digital signage network out in the world - what are the first few elements you think of?

How big will the screens be? What content will be shown? How will you manage all the screens?

As your engagement process moves forward and experts help steer your vision, one topic is rarely discussed proactively – how much will it cost to install your digital signage screens? The answer to the cost of installation question is often times the equivalent of costs related to purchasing hardware, software, and content development combined.  Whaaa?

SOP for traditional signage installation consists of the following:

1. A third party installation vendor conducts a site visit to determine how connectivity will be established, where and what it will take to mount the screens ($$)
2. Your screens are shipped to the third party installation vendor ($)
3. The third party installation vendor in-field tech reps take your screens to predetermined locations, and at an hourly cost, integrate with or install any required onsite servers, provide connectivity, mount the screens,  and test to ensure content is reaching the screens ($$$$)

 MediaTile’s cellular connected, cloud controlled digital signage solution set eliminates many of costs and complexities associated with traditional digital signage network installations. MediaTile partners with the world leaders in cellular provided services and each of our screens has a dedicated point of connection to these cellular networks. This means our clients don’t have to worry about pulling wires to a certain screen location, integrating with existing secure networks and dealing with firewalls, or setting up a new robust Wi-Fi network as the connectivity to MediaTile’s platform is "outsourced" to the cellular networks.

MediaCast, MediaTile’s content management system, boasts all the benefits of a SSL encrypted cloud-based, SaaS web portal. Content can be created and securely scheduled to play from an Internet connected device and pushed out to one, many, or all of the digital screens on your entire network remotely. No onsite or near-location personnel required.

Costs related to installation are like the other escaped mental patients from the famous Halloween horror films. While everyone is focused on Michael Meyers, the other nuts are causing havoc but aren’t rounded up until later.  Sure, they aren’t wearing hockey masks but eliminating them from the situation would certainly reduce a lot of tension just the same.

In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them.

Reason #7: Unlimited Users

Yesterday, we talked about why people shouldn't be afraid of a SaaS digital signage software offering. And one of those key benefits of SaaS is unlimited users. 

Back when I first started managing signage networks, we had to pay for seats/licenses for individuals to access the network. And me being cheap, we all shared the same login. It worked but certainly wasn't ideal. It created all sort of security risks, in addition to content problems with people being in the system at the same time. 

MediaCast is web-based and has always been web-based.
We encourage our customers to add as many users to the system as they want, logically speaking of course.

Within the software, there is a full right and permissions panel for admins. So not only can you have an unlimited number of users, but you can set up unique rights and permissions for each of them. You can have common roles similar to other CMS software (super admin, admin, editor, contributor, etc) or define each user experience to exactly what they need to be able to do. 

This is great for international deployments, who are looking to improve global communication to employees and customers. 

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Flickr image, Guerry

In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them. 

Reason #6: SaaS

For those who aren't familiar with SaaS, they think you are saying "sass." And if you say that word too many times, it starts to sound weird. But SaaS stands for Software as a Service. And what this means is that the software is available over the web, meaning no application to load on to your PC or laptop. 

Our digital signage software is entirely web-based and has ALWAYS been web-based. This is particularly great for companies or organizations who have restrictions about loading applications on to work computers or don't want to manage upgrades. 

With web-based software, you can access from anywhere, which is important for digital signage operators. Plus, you can have as many users on the system as you want. No need to put prices on people's heads through seats or licenses. We let you run the network the best way you see fit. Each user has their own unique login and password, which helps tremendously with security. 

SaaS may be sassy, but there's no reason to be afraid of it. 


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In light of October being a rather scary month, we thought we would highlight 31 reasons not to be afraid of digital signage. We hope you enjoy them. 

Reason #5:  Scalability

Everyone wants a project to be successful, digital signage or otherwise, but spreading that success and finding the resources to manage it can be a scary proposition for even the most seasoned digital signage professional.

The cost and complexities associated with scaling a digital signage network can sometimes exceed the budget and manpower available. This is why leveraging a SaaS (Software as a Service) based content management solution is extremely important. Our SaaS-based digital signage software (“MediaCast”) allows for complete visibility of your entire network, as well as centralized control from any internet connected device. And with our solution, you can have as many users on the system as you want (no seats or licenses). 

With MediaCast, you can create and control groups of screens in a network, or control can be as granular as changing content on a specific area of a specific screen. You don’t have to rely on live bodies on site to manage content. It is SSL encrypted so you can relax as all of your communications are secure. 

Leveraging Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity is another component that leads to ease of scalability. MediaTile’s digital signage screens only require a standard power outlet to be deployed. Once powered up, MediaTile’s units connect over the wireless network, pull content from the cloud, and your digital signage network is up and running. And you don't have to start with your entire network in place. Ramp up your network based on business need or budget. 

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Today is a big day for MediaTile, our customers and our partners.  But it’s an even bigger day for the digital signage industry as a whole.  This morning, we officially launched our HumanKiosk Solution, powered by the revolutionary MediaCast Video Presence system.  With this solution, we are fulfilling consumers’ demand for personal service and contextually relevant and accurate answers exactly when and where they want it: at the point of sale or point of service.  Just as importantly, the solution allows businesses and organizations to provide this service easily and economically. With our innovative solution, marketers are able to humanize brand interactivity, improve the customer experience, and deliver their messages with absolute control and precision.

Marketing and communications is undergoing a fundamental shift across all industries;  it is the transformation of B2C communications into B2Me engagement.    This transformation does not surface merely where messaging is specifically tailored to individuals, but also where engagement and dialog is triggered by a customer – and where he or she is then rewarded with courteous and knowledgeable service; even in their native languages.

It is this B2Me paradigm shift to which we are responding with the launch of the HumanKiosk Solution and MediaCast Video Presence.  A growing number of us in the digital signage industry believe that the fusion of interactive digital signage, with live, on-screen customer service attendants, will significantly expand the addressable market for digital signage.  This is what makes the HumanKiosk truly exciting.  For background, here is the story that appeared in Digital Signage Today regarding our announcement and the B2Me transformation; you can also watch a short video introduction on YouTube.

This is a very important milestone for MediaTile, and according to the article above, may well also be for the industry.  I believe today’s launch is as significant as our announcement made back in 2004, when we unveiled the industry’s-first “cellular digital signage” turnkey solution.  It is simple to deploy and easy to use.  This created a leadership position for MediaTile in the world of Digital Signage, SaaS-based CMS systems, and the use of cellular-based networking.  At first we made it simple, now we’ve made it personal.  Today, we offer another innovative and revolutionary breakthrough in marketing and communications, again extending our industry leadership.  It’s time for Digital Signage to “Get Personal”.