Digital Signage Portal

Is there anybody interested in getting together to start a National or even worldwide network of digital signage locations. Of course all the details would have to be worked out but I really think it could be a great start for us smaller companies to attract larger clients. I personally see in the near future the larger companies taken over the whole industry and forcing the little people out. If we come together now we can control our own futures.

I'm all for it but how will the overall network get managed by all the different operators? And will there be a standard that operators need to use i.e. compatibility between all the different players out there? Some questions to think about - I like the way you think.

Yes, I agree that the larger companies will take over the whole industry but if you have a niche and innovative product that stands out from the rest, I'm sure your business will survive.

First off thanks for the input. I do believe if a group of small owners get together and put together a basic standard of what's needed to enter into the network it could succeed. Maybe I'm crazy but I do see a network being formed could benefit hundreds of small operators. It could also set a new standard for digital signage. If anyone else agrees just leave a post and maybe we can get to work on making things happen.

Stan

I'll create a blog post on our digital signage blog and see what responses we get.

I like the idea but I think it will be a challenging task. How do you suggest we start?

I think a a scale for revenue sharing has to be created. And then from there the criteria for what is an acceptable setup. I do believe everyone should be on the same setup. Getting advertisers shouldn't be a problem because of the number of screens. I do envision the network possibly becoming the governing body for digital signage standards. I do believe your site can be the cataylst for great things in the industry. I know a lot of people don't like web-based players, but I currently use infosignz. The reason behind me using them is because I believe it's the more affordable solution for a smaller sign owners. We could probably contact them and workout some kind of deal for that ultimate network.

Stan

Yes i agree with you. There needs to be a way to manage and centralise the revenue sharing - something like google adsense/adwords.

I think it will be hard to get everyone to be on the same setup, especially when the information about each businesses digital signage network needs to be validated. I did read in the past that all digital signage manufacturers will end up using a standard protocol called SXML.

One of the major problems that I see, which has been highlighted on our digital signage blog post called "The complete digital signage tracking solution", is how do we track and validate the advertisements displayed on the screens and charge this back to the client.

For example, I might be a digital signage operator and sign up to the network. I then setup 10 players in the Test Lab, each of these are not connected to a screen i.e. it is not displaying anything. In this case, the advertiser would be paying me x amount for displaying nothing - that is one flaw that I see.

We also like to use web-based players, however we do see some limitations with them i.e. cannot install additional software tools for other functions ie Retail Management Systems.

We have tried requesting to become a reseller for infosignz but we have not received any communication from them. Maybe they might be just busy.

Maybe invite them here so that we can discuss how that would work.