The Digital Signage Insider
WireSpring's blog featuring tips and analysis from a team of industry experts

need to under stand know how of digital signage, all compatitor in the world, content of this system & budget figure of the system.

Pricing of digital signage software can vary according to its features.

Of course the price really depends on what you want to do with it -- if you have only a few locations and want to show a simple slide show, you could get by with a $100 digital photo frame and manually changing out the memory cards periodically.

Our numbers are composite figures based on medium-large (100 player) networks, which typically have more similarities than differences with each other with regard to features, etc.

Looking for digital sign to put up and rent on major hiway near Houston Texas. Can you tell me how big and approximate costs. I am on a very limited budget.

Hi David,

Do you mean an outdoor electronic billboard? Those things are pretty expensive -- you can count on something big enough to be seen from a highway costing several hundred thousand dollars. The cost of ancillary equipment like media players won't even figure in compared to that big cost.

I am sending this in from Lagos, Nigeria.I have been reading from your writings for about 4 months now. I am so happy someone could help the rest of us to understand the digital signage concept clearly.

It's nice knowing 9ja reads Bill's blog. I've been on it more than 3 years my dear. I'm happy it's been okay for me and others. Nice knowing you there BOLA

Thanks all for the kind words. And stay tuned for this year's "digital signage budget" post, due out some time in the next month or two!

what do you think it'll cost to have 25 in-store TVs with various TV channels for different purposes in one store? Do i actually need to look into buying bandwidth from a firm or what?

Hi there Bill,

Hope you can help me with a few questions.

We are currently trialling digital signage in 11 stores. A Business Case is being put together, for rolling out digital signage across 300 stores (approximately 2-3 screens per store).

To assist with the decision making process, there are a few questions that have been raised. I hope you can help me or point me in the right direction.

1. Costs – where is Digital Signage on the cost curve? Is it still holding? Economical to purchase digital signage 'equipment'?

2. What is happening with costs? (I know you've addressed this in the pricing report) - in terms of screens, software and content. Would you imagine the trend will continue in terms of costs coming down?

3. How are business's managing their costs? Where are they finding their biggest savings?

4.Which operating model are businesses finding is best? Outsourcing vs In-house?

5. Best model for ROI?

5. How are businesses using Digital Signage?

6. Any notable trends appearing with Digital Signage in the USA? UK?


I know there are number of questions, but I do hope you can provide me with some assistance/guidance on these matters.

Many thanks,

Kirsty

Hi Kirsty,

Wow, that's a lot of questions! I'll answer what I can.

1. Where is Digital Signage on the cost curve?

Pricing continues to fall as key components like screens and media players get commoditized and subsidized by other industries (e.g. consumer electronics). Costs are about 50% less than what they were 5 years ago, so we've probably seen the biggest drops already. Look for more modest reductions in the future, in addition to new form factors and capabilities.


2. What is happening with costs? (I know you've addressed this in the pricing report) - in terms of screens, software and content. I expect a few more years of low double-digit reductions.

Screens will continue to fall driven by consumer (e.g. non-business) demand mostly. Software is being partly commoditized and faces a hyper-competitive market landscape, which continues to push down prices. Expect mid- to high-single digit reductions each year over the next few years.

Content creation fees are leveling off if you're looking to get your content produced in-country. If you're willing to outsource to a low-wage country like India, China or places in SE Asia, you can get considerable savings, but of course there are downsides to that approach. And, new content aggregation and clipping services make it easy and inexpensive to get off-the-shelf content onto your screens, so that has compelled prices to fall recently. I expect this trend to hold. Look for modest single-digit reductions in content creation/acquisition prices in the next few years.

3. How are business's managing their costs? Where are they finding their biggest savings?

Financing eats up a large amount of income for many operators, so a good financing deal is essential, and the best place to start looking for cost reductions if you have good credit and a strong operating history (or have other sources of capital available). After that, outsourcing of non-core services like IT are popular. On the other hand, those operators who wind up making/modifying a good deal of content have been bringing those services in house by hiring a few content-savvy staff.

4.Which operating model are businesses finding is best? Outsourcing vs In-house?

According to our most recent report on the subject, almost everybody is in-housing everything right now. I don't know if it's because of an aversion to spending up-front, or because people just like to have more direct reports.

5. Best model for ROI?

No such thing. There are many, many models that work well depending on the operator's situation. However, as we always recommend, make sure your host venues have a stake in the game (so that their interests are aligned with your own), and of course, if you've never sold advertising before, don't start an ad-driven network until you've hired some real experts and forged key partnerships with groups that can help your sales game.

5. How are businesses using Digital Signage?

Advertising, merchandising, corporate communications, employee education, safety information display, public awareness display, hospitality, wayfinding... there are a lot of ways!

6. Any notable trends appearing with Digital Signage in the USA? UK?

It continues to grow despite the crappy economy, so that's a good sign in my book. We continue to see growth on the low end, with networks in the 5-25 screen/venue range, but even toward the end of this year the number of large network projects on our radar has increased substantially.