What is changing however, are two significant trends that will directly affect how one interacts with each screen and how one creates content for each screen.

Viewers now are interacting with every screen.  This is brought on by technology that was born recently.  From the simply interaction and engagement to very sophisticated and technologically impressive means to keep the viewer connected to every screen all the time.

One can envision a world where our screens are as seamless as the streaming digital landscape that we find ourselves in.  It is this seamlessness and connectedness that technology is just beginning to affect us.  Connecting all five screens technologically is a trend that will find new ways to keep the audience turned on and tuned in all the time with every screen. 

Does it really become one screen? Once we reached a digital platform the portability of content is next.  It is just now beginning to become easier to transport between each of the 5 screens, but,  it is the purpose of those screens and the mindset that is setting each apart.  What is evolving is how we are beginning to use each screen with this new technology.  I contend that as this technology becomes ubiquitous so follows our use.  Even though we call it the silver screen, television, PC, mobile and digital signage they are all just screens and the technology behind them is changing.  It doesn’t mean that one’s mindset or initial use changes when interacting with each screen, what does change is how we perceive the reach and depth of the digital landscape that spills out from each screen and how it is all connected to a digital world that lurks behind all the screens.

At the very core is great content and great technology.   In the near term, technology has been driving connectedness between digital signage and mobile.  This is the most significant trend for 2011.  Driven by smart phones’ newfound abilities, digital signage has embraced this simply because DOOH is a key activation and engagement point for mobile interaction in the marketplace.  Helping to position this screen as a central point of interaction and engagement is the very fact that behind every connected digital signage screen is a computer.  Most of the top companies have a strategy around mobile engagement.  The very nature of one to many and one to one redirects the purpose of digital signage to match the digital landscape.  Mobile interaction is just one of the first steps in creating a seamless digital world.

The integration of technology has been noted by several companies in the industry: Symon introduced its mobile platform that works with digital signage; Enqii and Kombi joined forces to integrate mobile for retailers; Reflect Systems and TXT4CRM have partnered in text messaging services for Target and GameStop; then there’s Pixel Inspiration’s Twitter integration on the social media side and Clear Channel’s recent Corona promotion allowing people to upload Facebook photos of themselves to a billboard on Times Square.

To meet this new found technological shift, one needs to re-evaluate the content creation process to include “all digital.” One can create content objects and use digital asset management systems to manage the vast amount of content that exists to feed all screens with consistent messages.  This is rising to a critical point to offset the costs of creating media.

Content strategies and discussions began to trend quickly in 2010. More presentations were made on content at shows in 2010 than the three previous years of trade show presentations combined. It has been estimated that content accounts for approximately $3.5 billion of services for creating content that plays on digital signage … that is more than the $2.5 billion in the technology sector and more than the $2.1 billion in advertising placed on DOOH. This year will see more of the same. Content is king and will outspend any other sector from here to eternity.

As the lines of technology blur screen to screen, so does digital content creation to deliver content that is truly portable in our new digital landscape.   If one thinks about the digital stream as one big pool of bits and pieces of content that can be accessed in multiple different ways and in multiple different combinations while delivering a consistent cohesive message.   One can then understand how to potentially create content in smaller bite size pieces that can be assembled upon delivery to whatever screen is before us at the time of our interaction with the content that we desire.

This is a tall order, but evolution will prevail and content will become something different than as it is seen today.  Just as we moved from radio to radio pictures years and years ago, and we may struggle with what to call this new found digital freedom, one cannot help wonder where the media behind the screen will influence and potentially evolve to essentially one screen thinking with many types of screens in the marketplace.

©2011 Keith Kelsen    Keith Kelsen is the author of “Unleashing the Power of Digital Signage – Content Strategies for the 5th Screen.” More information about the book and the book’s companion website can be found at www.5thscreen.info. Twitter KKelsen

Once digital signage becomes interactive, several things occur. The content is different, the reaction is different, and the data collected is different.

First, let’s consider how the content changes. Remember: digital signage is a new medium, and it is different from the PC. It is encountered in different places and circumstances than the PC and Web sites, and its purpose is different. This means you must resist the impulse to take your Web site and simply transfer it to the digital signage network to create an interactive experience. The result would be a larger, public version of a Web site — and not at all an effective experience in this context. (It is also unlikely that the digital signage network would have access to or allow full Internet access and browsing ability.) Therefore, micro sites would be developed specifically for digital signage implementation.

First, understand that content for touch screens must be designed to both engage the viewer, and to lead the exploration of the interaction. That is, you are not simply throwing open the doors to the user; you are attempting to direct them and elicit inputs and choices that will drive them toward the goal you’ve set for the network — finding and choosing merchandise, exploring a brand, or the like.

There are three key considerations that go into creating great interactions:

• Create the right attraction. First and foremost one needs to get the viewer to participate because the viewer may not expect to have the ability to interact with the content, as she does with a PC; the first job is to let her know she has that ability here. Creating an attraction loop, message or some piece of upfront content that will motivate the viewer to engage is the first step. This loop needs to be more in line with a typical content found on digital signage following the advice in the previous chapters of this book. The one exception is the attraction loop is just that: designed to attract the viewer to touch the screen.
• Present one thing at a time. Once you have gotten their interest, keep them engaged and moving through a logical progression. Lead the participant in a guided manner through each step of the interaction you want to encourage. Provide focused layers of information that make it easy to comprehend what is being presented, and direct them to the layer of information that follows. A major difference between digital signage and a PC or smart phone is the amount of time that one will spend with each. Because the time is more limited with digital signage, you need to provide a clear, logical path for the viewer to follow. Offering too much information that is not directed will not motivate the user to continue with the interaction, because they will perceive it too time-consuming and unlikely to provide them with enough value for the time invested.
• Offer choices. Interaction must be more than simple “next page” buttons in order to engage the viewer and direct toward a goal, such as a purchase. The value of interactivity comes when the user is presented choices, allowed to personalize the information presented, and perceive they are seeing something “special” for them.

Digital signage is powerful, and good content makes it that way. But the next level of effectiveness comes when one truly engages the user through enabling them to interact with the network. Touch screen technology today provides an excellent and proven method to let users decide the “path” they take through your content and personalize the experience. New technologies such as gesture interfaces extend that to another level, and combine interaction with group entertainment. Finally, a linkage with the user’s personal screen on a mobile device extends the interactive component of the network in a way that can stimulate longer interactions, interaction away from the digital signage itself, or motivate a purchase. In all of these cases, the content you create must account for the interactive factor and be purpose-designed for this type of network. Much more than porting a Web site to the digital signage network, this requires thinking in new ways – and like a user.

One way to understand this important concept is to consider the difference between a “consumer” and a “shopper.” We can look at most individuals as consumers – that is, they have the potential to purchase products and services aimed at individuals or families. But one is a consumer at home, at work, and at play. In each of those circumstances, an individual may be thinking more or less about purchasing anything, or making any kinds of decisions surrounding a potential purchase. One can reach this consumer with certain messages – branding, for example – but making a direct offer is more difficult.

When in front of a Point Of Sale (POS) network, though, the consumer has become a shopper. The mindset of a person who has deliberately entered a store is much more attuned to cues and opportunities related to their needs and the wares on sale at the particular store. They are now reachable with more direct offers about products – and particularly offers that now take into account their gender, age and income, for example. Putting all these together creates real relevance for the content of POS signage because it can create an emotional response that drives desired behavior.

Looking at things from another angle, we can consider another two types of viewers – the “Dweller” and the “On the Go.”

Dwellers are in situations where they are either patient, have little choice but to remain passively in the area of the screen, or they may be in a situation where there they are relaxed in an out of home situation like a food court in a mall. A dweller can be in an elevator or a doctor’s office, but in either case is stuck with a wait. All have dwell time, but for entirely different reasons, and it is those reasons that need to be considered when creating content that is relevant.

On the other side of this are the consumers who are on the go – people who are walking or driving and are in transit. These are people in circumstances where their mindset is firmly fixed on reaching a destination or taking a journey – usually in areas where point of transit networks dominate. They are on a mission to get somewhere, and that’s the key to relevance. Where are they headed and why? This is a very complex question with a range of answers. It certainly depends upon the subcategory of the Point Of Transit (POT) network and time of day. This is the first place to start to understand the mindset of the on the go viewer. If it is a billboard then during morning commute traffic you can guess that most on the go viewers are heading to work. On a subway it will also apply. What is on their minds? More than likely, it will be something involving work or coffee. They are also thinking about where they came from. Home and family issues, things they may need to find time to deal with during a busy work day. Conversely, on their way home they are recapping their day and looking forward to home, friends, family and dinner.

These examples are of course basic thinking around what mindset of the shopper, dweller and the on the go viewer is in and depending upon the sub category of network, this can be fine-tuned to match relevancy.

When you think about content and categorize by type of network and the mindset of the shopper, on the go viewer or dweller, it immediately helps to organize the thinking around content.

©  Keith Kelsen is the author of “Unleashing the Power of Digital Signage – Content Strategies for the 5th Screen.” More information about the book and the book’s companion website can be found at www.5thscreen.info. Twitter KKelsen

Many people are already familiar with this general concept, thanks to the development of HDTV and its “wide screen” images. For digital signage, this is about more than the sheer size of the screen, though — it’s about getting the shape of the content, particularly video content, to match up with the screen.

It’s quite likely — unless a network or multiple networks are of a single aspect ratio and all the content for the networks can be built from scratch or acquired in that same ratio — that the network operator or agency will need to decide how to place content of one ratio onto the screen of the other.

The aspect ratio of the traditional television screen prior to HDTV was developed from the movie screen, built to display the 35mm film that had been developed in Edison’s time. It is not quite square: The aspect ratio is 4:3, (Figure 1) also known as 1.33 (what you get when you divide 4 by 3). Until recently, most computer screens were also built on a 4:3 aspect ratio. Almost all films prior to the 1950s, the vast majority of TV programs until very recently, and TV ads, were all shot in this aspect ratio and hence fill up the full frame of such a screen.

Fig. 1 http://www.5thscreen.info/figure6-1.html

In the 1950s, in an attempt to stave off competition from television, the movie industry developed a collection of wide-screen formats, and today filmgoers are accustomed to seeing movies that are almost twice as wide as they are tall — and in some cases, even wider. The development of HDTV involved the adoption of the most common of these newer aspect ratios, 16:9, also commonly called 1.78 (Figure 2). Many films since the 1950s, significant prime time and sports programming on TV, and some TV ads, are in this aspect ratio. Almost all PC screens being sold today are in this format, and as HDTV becomes more widespread, more video will be available from the TV world in this format as well. If one is installing a new digital signage network, chances are it will consist solely of 16:9 screens, whether they are small shelf-mounted POS screens or large outdoor billboards.

Fig. 2 http://www.5thscreen.info/figure6-2.html

These are the most commonly encountered aspect ratios but there are others, notably the 2.35:1 format used by some movies, typically high-budget productions. (It is extremely rare to find digital signage in this format; there are few manufacturers for it.) And some screens in custom form may have unique ratios, or they may be taller than they are wide, to accommodate the location (the large exterior digital signs in Times Square are an example of the latter).

The reason these ratios matter is because content created in one aspect ratio must be modified in some way to be displayed in another. This can create a number of problems for a network operator — if a digital signage network consists of screens of different aspect ratios, the same content will look different on each type, without special treatment. Even for a network comprising a single screen format — and 4:3 is being phased out in existing networks as hardware is updated — any content created in another ratio poses the same display issue. (This is another reason for considering carefully the direct use of TV commercials in digital signage networks, since almost all ads today are still in 4:3.)

There are two basic methods for taking 16:9 content and presenting it on 4:3 screens, methods that might be familiar to buyers of wide-screen movies on DVD who watch them on older TVs.

The first is known as letterboxing (Figure 3). In this approach, the 16:9 image is allowed to fill the horizontal width of the screen. Because of the difference in ratios, this means the content will not extend the full height of the screen. Instead, it is centered vertically on the screen and two black stripes are displayed as borders on the top and bottom of the image. Letterboxing has the advantage of retaining the full image of the original content, although it leaves some significant screen real estate unused. If the screen is not sufficiently large, then some individual objects in the image might become less distinct.

Fig 3 http://www.5thscreen.info/figure6-3.html

Fig 4 http://www.5thscreen.info/figure6-4.html

A second approach is to allow the 16:9 image to fill the full vertical height of the 4:3 screen (Figure 4). By necessity, this means that the full width cannot be presented and some of the original image will not be visible. This can be done by cropping out both the left and right sides of the original image and displaying the 4:3 section at the center, or by a more laborious process called “pan and scan” in which the cropping may be more pronounced on one side or the other in order to keep important parts of the image centered. This typically requires an editor or technician to view the original content and determine which part of each frame to crop, and then creating a 4:3 version of the original according to that decision. In either case, the content takes up all the available screen space, but at the loss of a considerable amount of the image.

Know what type of network the content will be deployed on — ask for the specifications.

What Oblong has been doing is essentially teaching the machine about space, and its position in it, using what is essentially a new concept for an operating system. In this new world, the machine no longer thinks of the screen as a flat abstract collection of pixels but as a real object, in the real world, that exists at a particular location and has a relationship to other things in the environment based on that location. It is also aware that the pixels it displays have a particular size based on the screen in use. There are small screens and big screens. And the screens are at a particular orientation. It’s mounted on the ceiling, it’s mounted on the walls, it’s on the hinged top of a laptop, it’s in your pocket. The point is, it has a particular location that matters with respect to the viewer.

When one begins to think about how this relationship works within the bounds of a display and then expands the thinking beyond just one display, one then opens the mind to even a different world of content and interaction. When we look and the type of connectedness this will drive and the type of content that will need to be produced it becomes apparent that each type of connected system will require its own set of rules and its own connected content that drives the true engaged experience.