The need to create  good looking content for digital signage network is no different from the need to create for TV/Magazines/Newspapers/Posters/Billboards.. etc. Here, I am not talking about the substance of the content, but rather how good looking is the content. In order to do that you need two things:

1. Creative and talented people with strong background in graphic design and multimedia applications.
2. The software tools.

 In this part I am going to write about the tools, and I am going to list them in order of importance. So here they are:

1. Adobe Photoshop. If there is one tool that digital content creators cannot live without, it has to be Adobe Photoshop. Probably the undisputed champion of all tools. Or if you live in Malaysia, it is the Milo of all tools. There are cheaper and free alternatives, but I will cover such tools in another blog.
2. Adobe After Effects. If you need to spice your content such as intros to your segments (for example news) you need motion graphics. A tool like After Effects does wonders to your content. It is like the chili in your spicy food.
3. 3D Animation tools such as modo and  LightWave 3D. When you combine your 3D animation work with motion graphics, you end up having Network TV-like content. And you need your viewers to think that they are watching TV sometimes and not digital signage network.
4. Video editing software such as SpeedEdit, Adobe Premiere Profeesional, Final Cut Pro, or Vegas. One reason why you need such tool is is you really want to do two things all time with video. Cut it short (not longer than 30 seconds) and convert to better format suitable for digital signage. I am talking Mpeg-II/4 here. Stay away from Quicktime or FLV.
5. Other video tools for quick turn around of video content. Virtual Dub comes to mind as the best free video tool in the world. I like to use TMPGEnc Express from Pegasys Inc (the only Japanese tool in this round) for video conversion. In my humble opinion it does a better job at video conversion that the video editing tools listed above. But it is not free though not expensive. My choice for a good and free video format converter would be the Format Factory. It did better job than some commercial alternative with weird video formats.
6. 2D Animation tools such as Adobe Flash Professional, Toonboom, Anim Studio and TV-Paint. I am not a great fan of Flash created content for digital signage, just like I am not a great fan of PowerPoint for digital signage content. But if you need something cool like side banners, then Adobe Flash would be the best here. Flash created content are lighter in byte size than similar content created using video tools.  But I would recommend strongly against using Flash content for full screen content for digital signage (more in another blog about why not Flash). TV-Paint on the other hand is a professional bitmap animation tools. Check this link to see why I have included it though it may not be as famous as the others. 
7. Finally, ready made clip art. For motion graphics, look no further than 12 Inch Design, Digital Juice and of course one of those DVD-ROMs that has few millions royalty images and other clip art collection  including music and sound effects.  Let's face it, we do not have all the time in the world to create original work all the time. Besides, the clip art offered are used by TV-Networks around the world. So who are we to shun such tools.

Of course having the above tools without the right talent is not going to make your content look cool. So before you invest in the tool, find the right people first.

 

Zones, frames, whatever it is called. The less you have them in your screen the better. Bloomberg TV made it famous, until they realized that the more information you cram into your screen, the less you actual absorb. Then some websites developers or owners decided that they will also try to cram even more frames to put their or customer banners in each frame. This is acceptable due to the face when you are visiting a website, you are practically less than 10 inches away from the computer  screen. Sadly, some digital signage network operators decided to do the same with their screens. They thought that since their screens are usually 40" or above, they can even have more frames and sell ads in each frame. I once saw screens in a  shopping mall that had no less than 6 frames. Needless to say, the company that owned the network closed down. The first thing that you should remember, that in most cases digital signage networks is mostly outside the home, hence some call it Out of Home TV. But unlike your home TV which when you sit in front of it, you actually sit to watch. But hardly anyone that goes to the mall to watch advertisement on the screens. They are too busy walking and shopping.  So the bigger the message the more likely it is going to be noticed. And you cannot have the  message big when you have divided your screen into 3 frames or more. Advertisers usually do not like when their ad is shared with news ticker that tells them that a bomb in Afghanistan has killed more than 20 children. Fortunately, software like Scala allows any content to gracefully appear full screen without any glitch and once shown, your screen channel can go back to your multiple frames layout.

So here is my advice:

• Avoid frames, 2 is fine, 3 is a bit to much, any more is not recommended
• Make sure that the software you are using allows any message, including a TVC to appear full screen over-riding any other frame in the screen. Make sure that it is done gracefully
• If you are going to have a news ticker, make sure  your font size is no less than 60
• The less words you put the more people would notice. If you try to copy the content of a website, give the URL instead.
• IF you have few words to show, try to make an art of it. Do not just use simple text.

 

If in business cash is king, in digital signage, content is the king of all kings.  So in this series of articles, I will talk about content for digital signage and all that relates to it. So the first part, is the easy part.  While this topic is more specific to Scala, it is a general guideline to any tool that you use.  Sol let's start.

Scala supports most file formats, but some formats are preferred more than others. Nop,  color or race has nothing to do with this but rather due to factors such as bandwidth and their use within your message. So, here are few tips:

• For backgrounds, stick to JPEG, and try to optimize them, the small in byte-size they are the faster they get transmitted, loaded and shown. I would use JPEG also for photographs where clarity is not crucial, unless you are talking about cameras.
• For foreground, you know, the chairman photo, PiP,  use JPEG, and optimize please. But if your tool supports alpha channel, like Scala does, then use PNG with alpha, it is clearer and cooler to use. The less PowerPoint like your content, the cooler it is.
• For video, use MPEG-II, but only for full screen. Try 6Mbit compression, no need to go higher than that. But if your video is going to be smaller than the full screen, within a frame or part of the screen, then use MPEG-I. It is good enough. The loss of quality is minimal and it is better than  having a larger byte-size MPEG-II file that is not going to appear full screen anyway. Oh stay away from QuickTime.
• Sound, either MP3 or WAV will do. The smaller the better. In fact, if your screens are in public areas, where there is crowd and noise, do not bother spending time perfecting it. 

Well, that is all for the time being, do visit our blog for more.

Its almost hard to believe that Yasmin Ahmad is gone. The news was so sudden, so unexpected. I have always been and still is a great admirer of the works and productions of this talented warm person. Yasmin Ahmed will always be one of my favourite local film maker. Along with many others I mourn the demise of this great lady who has contributed so much to the local film industry with her warm, poignant inspiring and often evocative TVCs and movies. Her productions brought about a fresh breath of air to the local film industry and taught me how to appreciate the works of local creative talents. Because of her, I actually enjoyed watching TVCs and some of the good local productions by many of our upcoming independent film producers.  One thing's for sure, I'm definitely going to miss watching more of her TVCs ... many of which have never failed to tug at the heart strings and even brought tears. Goodbye Yasmin, thank you for challenging the mindsets of your audience and for infusing changes for a better Malaysia through your works. May you always remain as a legacy and inspiration, not just to the local film industry but also to this nation. 

When it comes to choosing your next printer, you won't go wrong with buying a HP. After all, the name HP is so synonymous with printing that the letter P is mistakenly taken for Printing. But when things go wrong with the printer, and if out of warranty, you regret buying that brand. First HP charges you RM150 for checking the printer. Then the quote you a price to fix it, that is actually higher than if you buy a new one. The biggest problem is when HP blames the problem on using fake toners, when in fact you never know it is fake until HP tells you it is, though you paid the exact amount as the original think that the toners are original. So here in my opinion where you go wrong buying a HP printer. There services is too pricey, and fake toners that are packaged just like the original ones are everywhere.  You buy them by mistake you invalidate your warranty.. and may God help you when this happen. So our next printer will be a Xerox.

For many years I've come across many people who are eager to jump into the digital advertising business. If you look at the potential of  DSA (Digital Signage Advertising), you will find that there is a huge potential for this business and if you do it right, the returns are big. But starting a digital signage business is not really that easy.There are many factors in building a successful business. I'm not going to dwell into all the factors but the one of the main factor is the no. of sites that you have. If you do not have at least 30 sites with 10-20 screens at each site, you can forget about attracting big advertising agency to consider advertisingon your screen. To have 30 sites, you need to have an initial investment of at least 3-4 millions.

 If you do not have 3-4 million startup capital, there is still hope to make it big and have a share of the pie in this DSA market. 

 For small businesses, you need a way attract advertiser without burning a hole in your pockets. To do so, you need to start networking with other digital signage provider where you are able to sell your ads at their site and vice versa. This type of cross selling can be a highly effective tool for a small business.

 When you cross-sell, you are offering the advertiser  more options on where he can advertise.  For example, you have 2 site with 5 screens on each site. Another DS provider has 3 sites with 5 screen too on each site. If you build a network to cross-sell with other DS providers, you can end up with 5 sites with 5 screens on each site. With this, you are able to attract more advertiser to adverstis.

 The only drawback on this idea of cross-selling is the level of trust you have with the other DS provider and the type of platform or system you are using. If both DS provider uses different system then, you are required to change your content format just to suit the other DS software.

 In Click Grafix, we have been actively pushing the idea of networking our client who are using SCALA  to cross-selling to each other. We truly believe that with rampant competition, DS provider must leverage every possible sites to increase sales. This is where cross-selling can help. Cross-selling targets a company's existing advertiser to sell them other sites where they can advertise.

While cross-selling theoretically has been around since the beginning of business, it has become far more effective since internet access is become more accessible everywhere. Remote updating of content especially using SCALA Content Manager has made cross-selling of content more attractive and affortable to the DS provider.

Since cross-selling is such a classic marketing tool, not to mention easy to execute if you are using SCALA, we were surprised to observe several DS provider either not doing so, or treating it as a rushed after thought.

 Here are few reasons why SCALA can help to promote cross selling:

1) Same format. If you develop your content using SCALA Designer 5, you are sure that it will run on any SCALA Players... whether this players belongs to you or to other DS Provider.

2) Remote Updating. You are able to push your content to other DS Provider Content Manager seamlessly. 

3) SCALA support major file format. You are not required to change your content if the other DS Provider are using SCALA .

4) Easy Updating. You can program in SCALA to extract data from any location (example RSS feed) Therefore if you push your content to another DS Providers SCALA Player, you do not have to worrry on how to update your content. 

 Do give it a thought and if you are interested in this idea of cross-selling, you can contact Click Grafix to help you to network with other DS provider.

 Cheers

Dato Chua

Well, if you are using Gmail then task management has become easier. On the left hand side, at the bottom of your lable (that is if you created them), there will be a small clickable text called Task. And it does what it says. It manages your task list. Finally, a task manager that is practically following you whenever you open your email.

Apparently Google is launching its own operating system for the PC. Yeah. If there is any company who can do this and wrestles out the dominance of Microsoft, it would be Google. After all, Google beat Microsoft for the Internet. Soon, will be the Office software.

Click Grafix. The name is enough to show , an organization that dares to be different. From the Toaster, to VT, Lightwave to Modo, and god knows what else. It will continue to make a wave, rippling across the multimedia industry with in Malaysia and the region as well.

As a former family member (i was exiled ..hahaha nah, just kidding), i will try to contribute my two cents worth about the media industry, to my best competency, hence continuing my efforts to still be part of this family.

Gracia ~

No, SCALA is not coming or the release any latest version from  SCALA. I mean the BEST team in Europe and most probably the world best football team. 10 more days till Manchester United will meet with the Malaysian best XI. It does not matter if Malaysia will field the best XI or the best XXII, they still do not have the chance to beat MU. BTW, rumuor says that Michael Owen might be part of the team coming. Hopes that he is able to fit into the team.

 

Dato_Chua