Digital Signage has thousands of uses and as it penetrates our daily lives, businesses need to embrace the ways in which it can help deliver both business and consumer needs – but what’s the right type of digital signage for you? Well, there are several types of digital signage but there are two core signage types that Eclipse Digital Media offer; These are USB updated, all in one digital signage and fully networked digital signage solutions.
Below we have outlined the core differences between the USB and Networked digital signage solutions and hope that this provides you with a guide to making the right decision for your business when choosing a digital signage solution.
USB Updated Digital Signage
The digital signage media player is built into the display device and content is updated via a USB stick. Take a look at the video below to see them in action:
Pros:
- All in one (screen & media player together in one unit)
- Easy to update content – plug and play
- Quick & simple set up – turn power on, upload content and content playback beginst
Cons:
- Limited to single zone content
- Limited to image, movie and audio content
- Manual updating – not ideal if you have multiple screens
Networked Digital Signage
The digital signage media player is controlled via a computer network (internet or intranet) and connected to an AV display via HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort or VGA. There are various options of digital signage media player and we have many available on our online shop: www.eclipsedigitalmedia.co.uk/product-category/digital-signage-media-players.
To see a breakdown of which media player is suited to different types of digital signage applications, check out our ONELAN digital signage media player comparison guide.
Pros:
- Display multi media and multi zone content – more creative options
- Publish content to a network of digital signage from one location – great for multi screen and multi location networks
- Advanced scheduling features – schedule playback of content form entire layouts down to individual items in a zone
- Fully scaleable – as your business grows simply add more players to your digital signage network
Cons:
- Higher CAPEX cost – based on variable hardware options
- More complex set up required – networking configuration and layout distribution needs to be configured
- Not normally an all in one – hardware and screens sold separately
Digital Signage Winner
For small businesses that only need small quantities of screens for basic advertising requirements – USB Updated Digital Signage wins.
Why? Because of the cheaper cost, all in one solution, ease of set up and how simple they are to update.
For larger businesses with multiple locations requiring various content and creative options – Networked Digital Signage wins.
Why? Because of the flexibility and scalability of the system. Although some more advanced configuration is required at set up, having the ability to schedule content, create multi zone and multi media layouts and have different content displaying at different signage locations provides businesses with a comprehensive digital signage solution to match their needs and ambitions.