As 2014 draws to a close, the digital signage market is steadily expanding. A great deal of this growth is organic. More and more retailers, restaurants, offices, airports and other transportation hubs are adopting digital signage because it is affordable, reliable and easy to update. Printed digital signage that is peeling and out of date is now unacceptable – dynamic digital signage has become the norm.

A sector that is seeing particular expansion is luxury retail – an expansion being driven largely by 4K. These retailers are highly image-conscious and quality-sensitive, and they are finding that state-of-the-art 4K players suit their needs perfectly. Paired with a “true 4K” display, the resulting signage is as crisp and satisfying as high-quality print imagery. Most content at this top end of the market is shot in 4K anyway, so a modest investment in a 4K player and screen takes full advantage of that 4K content, providing an immediate return on that investment.

We’re also finding that 4K players are being more widely adopted than expected, and they’re not always being paired with 4K screens. Many of these players are being used to feed conventional 1080p content with sophisticated HTML5 and other dynamic elements. Due to the 4K player’s more powerful graphics engine, the player is capable of producing a richer viewing experience. The cost premium isn’t that great, and the customer gets a future-proofed solution that will transition seamlessly to 4K content and displays as the installation is updated over time.

Additional growth is being driven by an expansion into the entry-level, or “low end,” of the market. Integrators are seeing increased price competition for large-scale kiosk rollouts in big-box retail, among other settings. Until now, the only low-cost option was to try to work with a consumer device that wasn’t built for digital signage and didn’t deliver the reliability and functionality of commercial-grade, purpose-built player. Now that professional-quality, reliable, low-cost, networked signage players are available, we are seeing more and more new customers jumping at the chance to replace printed signage with digital displays in applications where cost was previously a barrier.

If 2014 was all about 4K, I believe that 2015 will be a year of healthy and sustainable growth in the digital signage industry – growth driven by the proliferation of 4K and the emergence of reliable low-cost digital signage solutions.  There is plenty of opportunity for organic growth that will sustain the market for many years to come. At the same time, the emergence of 4K in particular is not only opening new markets, but is also driving a replacement cycle. Existing users will upgrade their installations to take advantage of the enhanced capabilities of this new technology.

As CEO of BrightSign, I see the market expanding at all levels, a market condition that is poised for the introduction of our completely redesigned portfolio of market-leading products – from the entry-level BrightSign LS players right up to the unsurpassed power of the BrightSign 4K players. 2015 will bring great opportunities for the digital signage market to thrive in the new year.

One display that every single visitor to a restaurant or fast food outlet will unfailingly consult is the menu board. Most retailers have to attract customers’ attention to their in-store displays, but restaurateurs have a guaranteed audience.

The restaurant menu board offers a truly amazing branding and sales window for the store. It’s no wonder that more and more restaurants are moving away from static signage and introducing digital screens.

The menu board must of course be up to date, accurate and compliant with relevant local and national law. To this end, digital signage content management systems can now be easily integrated into restaurant point-of-sale solutions, ensuring that changes to the menu and pricing are instantly reflected in both. These updates can now be handled through an iOS app or a web browser interface, ensuring that any member of staff can quickly remove a dish that’s sold out, and introduce a new one as it becomes available. Meeting food labelling regulations is also a snap with this technology. One update is immediately reflected in every screen in the restaurant or chain of restaurants.

What really sets digital menu boards apart from fixed signage, however, is the way in which they can enhance the customer experience. Rockbot, for example, is a digital jukebox that can be integrated into the menu board system, allowing customers to choose songs when they choose their meal or drink. Sports results, news, or even entire sporting events can be delivered to customers alongside the menu, enhancing their dining experience and encouraging them to stay longer and consume more.
 
The operational efficiencies achieved with an integrated digital menu board integrated and point-of-sale system are often used to justify the installation cost by providing an easily measurable return on investment. But the real benefit is the opportunity to take the restaurant’s customer and staff experience to a whole new level. VIP Room Theater, one of the most famous Paris nightclubs, allows customers to message each other using screens set into each table. The Cheesecake Factory is using its screens to display staff training videos during off hours. Truly, the only limit to your digital menu board is your imagination.

In the digital signage industry, we are masters at creating jaw-dropping visuals. Video walls, custom-shaped screens and video columns show how we continue to push the bounds of what is possible with modern digital signage. But something I find particularly interesting is how digital signage is evolving ‘beyond the screen’ to create a more sensory experience that is as entertaining as it is effective.

One such example is Pixels, one of our UK system integrators. Pixels joined forces with award-winning illusionist Sean Alexander and Hollywood special effects artist Rob Ostir to bring illusions to life on HoBs PiT, a £500,000 ride at the Pleasurewood Hills amusement park in Lowestoft, England. The ride, set in an abandoned mine in absolute darkness, uses digital signage to create a series of chilling special effects. Pixels uses twelve BrightSign solid-state digital signage players to rattle doors, open and close hatches and even raise and lower a corpse in sync with HD video playback.

Sean Alexander’s script incorporates a ride element and a walk-through section. Video playback, holographic projection and physical effects need to be totally in synch. Each must happen at exactly the right moment, otherwise the impact is lost. Norman Garland and his team at Pixels did an outstanding job using the players and free BrightAuthor software to achieve this, avoiding the need for expensive control systems. Using BrightAuthor, they programmed the players to replay HD video in response to triggers from sensors in the ride, and to control pneumatic valves and rams, lighting and motors for the special effects. Control was achieved through the GPIO port on the players.

To continue the theme of ‘spooky signage,’ Pale Night Productions is a Missouri-based company that sells special effects to professionally created, commercial haunted houses. Pale Night Productions is recognized globally, and a big part of that recognition stems from its extensive portfolio of video effects. These video effects are complete packages, including the monitor, sound module, control hardware and our digital signage players. In addition, these packages include pneumatic connections and control valves that integrate with the package to spray water at particular times to simulate blood splatter. You can imagine how impactful it would be to observe a chaotic zombie chase scene on the display that culminates with the zombies being shot, while being showered with simulated blood at the exact moment the zombies explode!

It’s a bit gruesome to describe an amusement park ride with levitating corpses and a haunted house complete with zombie shoot-out, but these are graphic, compelling examples of how digital signage is reaching beyond the screen to deliver a very immersive viewer experience. And when you consider how effectively this multi-dimensional digital signage is being used to provoke emotional reactions in those nearby, just imagine what’s possible when these techniques are similarly applied in other settings. My prediction is that we’ll begin to see more of this multi-dimensional, sensory digital signage deployed in retail and other business settings, creating new and creative ways to connect with customers.