Electronic signage, also known as digital signage is getting popular and widely used in all fields. According to the Grand View Research, the market value of digital signage worldwide stood at $21.49 billion in 2020. and this growth rate is predicted to be able to reach $31.71 billion by 2027. So, all these figure demonstrates that digital signage continue to be a profitable business in the years to come, thus bringing about more business opportunities for many engaged in this business. In this article, we will introduce software-based digital signage management in terms of the operations and disadvantages that features AV contents unreliability over the internet, higher cost, limited scalability and integration with other devices, Q-NEX solution aims to address all these problems by providing business with an unified and reliable control and management of digital signage along with other devices in an efficient and money-saving way.

Digital signage is not new to us, and it has been applied in different areas. Its applications can easily be found in numerous public spaces, including retail stores, airports, train stations, hotels, restaurants, healthcare facilities, corporate offices, educational institutions, and so on. Businesses use it to attract attention by putting audio visual ads on the displays.

However, all these businesses and organizations, on the one hand, are looking for a more reliable, efficient, and cost-effective way of managing digital signage. On the other hand, they want to achieve more efficient and cost-saving management by unifying control and management of display with other electrical devices such as air conditioners, speakers, and so on. This unified control with a higher degree of automation for digital signage and other devices means further increased productivity, reduced management cost, and efficiency.  

1. Challenges of digital signage management

Currently, digital signage control and management are usually carried out by some ads company or certain organization that manages the digital signage display remotely via software, and cloud-based platform, and some smaller retailer even used USB or SD card to manually update the screen contents on a frequent basis. But these methods might not necessarily lead to efficient, reliable, and cost-saving digital signage control and management, let alone a unified control with other devices.

2. Content management software

CMS software is widely used for the control and management of digital signage. It allows users to create, upload, schedule, and organize content on their digital signage displays. CMS platforms typically offer features for remote management, content distribution, and scheduling. It offers efficient and remote management of digital signage, but it does not come without its problems.

2.1 Compromised reliability

CMS platform-based control and management rely heavily on stable internet connectivity to manage the AV contents distribution to the target display. This means if the internet condition is bad or with compromised bandwidth, the organization cannot expect to deliver the AV contents in a fast, smooth, and uninterrupted way. Worse still, when the internet outages or is suddenly cut off for some reason, it will lead to a complete shutdown of the CMS-based management. Therefore, organizations need to consider factors such as network bandwidth and other internet factors.

2.2 Higher cost

When choosing CMS for digital signage, the key factors to think about are the features and capabilities. and it is always the case that the greater features and capabilities and higher the cost it will be. And the cost is usually associated with licensing fees, and subscription fees that can be paid on a monthly or yearly basis. And there could be additional charges for some advanced or premium features. So, organizations need to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of CMS solutions.

2.3 Limited scalability and integration

As the digital signage network grows in size and complexity, managing content and scheduling across a large number of displays becomes more challenging. Coordinating content updates, ensuring synchronization, and maintaining consistency can become cumbersome, especially when dealing with a high volume of displays and locations. More importantly, the CMS can only be used to control the management of AV distribution to the displays and it cannot be used to control other devices for its compromised integration capability for example turning on TVs, interactive displays, air conditioners, speakers and so on

3. Q-NEX solution for digital signage and integration

Q-NEX solution is designed to address the above problems and achieve efficient AV distribution and device control. Let’s take a look.

3.1 Unified and remote control

Q-NEX comes Networked Media Processor with an all-in-one design. It is capable of integrating with displays and other electrical devices with its universal AV ports, LAN switch, AV matrix switch, wireless mic system, AV decoder, power relay, serial control module, and digital amplifier. By deploying an NMP and converging all the devices to it, all the devices can be controlled remotely through an app and Q-NEX platform for example turning off or off the display automatically at the predefined time you scheduled, thus improving employee’s work efficiency.

3.2 Reliable AV broadcasting

Q-NEX offers reliable and fast AV distribution to digital display by means of pre-recorded AV content based on AV broadcasting or live streaming. As it is deployed in the LAN network, it is completely free from the impact of poor network bandwidth, thus ensuring smooth and stable AV distribution to the target displays. An AV distribution schedule can be created to distribute different AV contents to the targeted displays at the same time. It greatly maximizes the operational efficiency of AV distribution. Therefore, the solution can be a good option for anyone who wants to achieve reliable and efficient AV distribution.

3.3 Cloud-based AV file storage

Q-NEX offers cloud-based cloud storage. That means users are allowed to upload AV contents to the cloud and update the AV contents on the display via an app and Q-NEX web interface. Users can take out the smartphone and select the AV contents for the displays, and the same thing can be done using the Q-NEX web platform.

3.4 Automation schedules

Apart from setting up automation for digital signage, Q-NEX allows you to create automation schedules for other devices such as air conditioners, lights, and speakers. For example, you can decide when to power on or off the device. By doing so, employees do not need to power off or off the device every day, because all the devices including the display will be up and running before employees walk into their workplaces.

In conclusion, the digital signage market is experiencing significant growth and demand. The software-based CMS control and management of sending the AV contents to the target display works for the digital signage AV distribution and management, but it still needs to be improved in terms of its AV contents distribution reliability and stability over the internet. Also it comes with a higher cost for using it monthly and yearly. Q-NEX solution is able to address all the challenges by providing users with reliable and stable AV distribution to the displays with a remote and unified control and management involving digital signage and other equipment, thus greatly maximize the AV efficiency, reducing the cost, and improving productivity.

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