The first time I heard the phrase ‘digital signage’ I was pretty clueless. If you’re reading this blog post you probably are too.
Don’t fret. The TrouDigital platform has been designed for, how shall we say, ‘less technically-minded’ users. In this ‘dummies’ guide, we walk you through how it all works.
TrouDigital signage operates around three key (rather catchy) principles…
A) Drag & Drop
Digital signage for dummies overcomes the need to employ a graphic designer or IT specialist to manage your screen content and network. TrouDigital offer a drag-and-drop, cloud-based platform that lets users create dynamic content in minutes. From any PC with an internet connection, you can log into our studio editor through a portal on our website.
Our creative studio offers users a blank canvas and a menu of, you guessed it, ‘drag and drop’ widgets to layer up content. These widgets enable you to embed dynamic content from slideshows, images, and videos to RSS feeds, social media, even web pages and more.
B) Set & Forget
Creating content seems easy enough but what about all that scheduling? You’re probably thinking that this is where digital signage becomes a headache. On many platforms, it certainly does. TrouDigital identified this as a real problem and aspired to make ‘set and forget’ functionality a cornerstone of our digital signage for dummies. With a few clicks you can schedule each piece of content, or individual playlists, to play on certain days of the week, at certain times. All scheduling can be done weeks, even months in advance.
If you have content that will be outdated, you can also schedule in advance an expiry time. Say, for example, you have a piece of content that’s topical to Easter in a general playlist that is suitable all year round. This one creative can be given an expiry time whereafter it will be automatically removed from the playlist while the rest of your content continues uninterrupted.
C) Plug & Play
The final area of digital signage TrouDigital strive to keep as simple as possible is hardware. Many providers recommend ‘digital signage displays’ which are effectively overly-fancy smart TVs with built-in signage players. These screens cost thousands of pounds, making digital signage inaccessible to smaller budgets. They bring another problem too. Digital signage technology is improving all the time. If you’re using a built-in signage player, however, you become tied to what could quickly become outdated hardware.
In the name of affordability and flexibility, TrouDigital provide external ‘plug and play’ media players. These devices, our favourite being Android Micro PCs, can transform any TV into a dynamic digital signage display. This allows users to reinvent existing TVs and avoid the largest cost associated with digital signage: new screens. As part of our package, TrouDigital send out media players free of charge, already programmed for digital signage so they are ready to go straight out of the box.
