I’m beginning to think there’s a place for digital signage in every single industry. Not that long ago I had the opportunity to help a Michigan factory modernize with digital signage. Digital signage is used to communicate important information all across the factory floor as well as give employees the chance to watch live TV and still get an on-screen display of the time and other important stuff while eating lunch. Digital signage is also used to help greet people in the lobby. This company uses digital signage everywhere, and I’m pleased to say that they’re expanding the program to their other factories.
They’re using Brightsign digital signage players behind consumer-quality televisions. Why did they choose that combination? The Brightsign players are controlled from a single location in the office and the content automatically appears on every player no matter where it is in the world. This makes it easy to update information every day. As for consumer-quality TVs… this was mostly a matter of just being honest. On a factory floor, these TVs aren’t going to have a long life. Assuming they don’t get bumped, cracked, or banged into, they’re still going to be living in a factory where there’s noise, vibrations, and dust and even the most expensive TV isn’t going to live forever in those conditions. By choosing consumer-level TVs, they get a good looking product that won’t break the bank, and if they switch it out in a few years so be it… because prices will have come down.
For the lunchroom they chose a Brightsign player with the ability to pass live video, meaning that they can put up live television but still interrupt the programs with full-screen announcements if they want. This player also has the ability to play video files so if there’s a training video or some other content, it can be easily displayed on the screen.
Finally, a lobby television gives a nice clean modern look to the factory and gives a 21st-century way to welcome guests instead of using one of those old signs with the white plastic letters. Those really went out of style in the 1990s and they should hopefully never be seen again.
The best part of the whole thing is that installation took less than a day once the network lines were run to the locations that needed them. Training for the staff took roughly one more day and that’s all there was to it! They’ve completely modernized their signage and done away with bulletin boards and older-looking signs. It provides benefits to the employees who get up-to-date information as well as making the factory look modern. All this was done for a very reasonable price.
If you’re interested in a custom digital signage solution, be sure to give the professionals at Solid Signal a call at 888-233-7563 to talk about what kind of solution is best for you.
