For years digital signage vendors have focused their attention on developing powerful digital signage software that accommodates small networks through large enterprise deployments. The number of companies that exist in this space is amazing, approximately 300 or more by some accounts. However, as all of us in the industry know, the technology is evolving very quickly and just providing a digital signage product that facilitates placing text, graphics, and video on digital screens is no longer enough to compete in the industry – the bar is rising. Vendors have to consider online, social media, mobile, place-based media, user-generated content, hand-held devices, and wireless to be competitive.

The article goes on to say that “it’s critical to leverage the fullness of the medium while paying attention to, and planning for, our shifting media landscape. The DOOH industry cannot be looked at as though it were outside of the sphere of other media properties. It isn’t a separate entity. It is a piece of a robust ecosystem, in which symbiotic relationships foretell success.”

This point is critical for retailers who want to integrate digital signage into their in-store strategy. If their digital signage network is deployed as a separate entity, history has indicated it is doomed for failure. The message delivered to their customers on the digital screen is not tied to any comprehensive strategy and therefore the consumer is potentially presented a mixed message when considering the many avenues of information available.

However, if the digital signage network is considered part of the overall in-store strategy with brand and product messaging being consistent, the digital signage network becomes a viable part of the retailer’s brand marketing and product strategy. This ensures the consumer is presented with a consistent message when investigating the many avenues of information available.

So, as the digital signage industry evolves through its infancy an opportunity exists to create a media company born from a multi-layer approach to the industry. I believe, as the article highlights, enlightened DOOH vendors who work closely with retailers to combine the reach of place-based media with the mass distribution potential of the Web to form a fluid, nimble, efficient, and robust media entity; one that blankets the out-of-home space and supports the redistribution of power occurring online will be the “next great media company to emerge from the digital-out-of-home space.”

I remember going through this discussion several years ago when the technology was referred to by a myriad of names including: narrowcasting, captured audience, digital posters, corporate TV, etc. Back then POPAI took on the chore of developing some guidelines and specifications on the naming characteristics of the technology. These standards and more can be found on the POPAI Digital Signage website.

I think what has happened is that so many people have been writing about the term digital signage for the last 6+ years that the term has become ubiquitous in the industry – like referring to facial tissues as Kleenex. Because of this the term digital signage has represented the technology well. It allows the industry to focus on one term to describe the technology and how it impacts our world. However the debate goes on!

According to Lyle Bunn of the Bunn Company and a recognized industry consultant, “a myriad of descriptors are still being used, though the term digital out-of-home (DOOH) has gained broad acceptance in use to describe networks that are primarily supported by advertising revenues, since advertising has typically been assigned from the “out-of-home” budget. Such networks operate on a for-profit basis and are typically owned by the location provider or investors. The Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) membership accounts for more than 400,000 dynamic, location-based video displays, which are available to present messages paid for by advertisers. The term “in-store TV” has been used to help tap into TV budget allocations and “the outernet” also has been used to help DOOH networks access online ad spending. The term digital signage serves as an umbrella term or is applied to networks that are typically funded by internal communications or operational budgets for patron, visitor, staff, student or community communications.”

According to Bill Collins of Decision Point Media Insights and a respected industry consultant, “for the purpose of this definition, the terms ‘digital signage’ networks and ‘digital out-of-home’ networks can be used interchangeably, but with one exception. The exception: when screen networks are deployed inside corporate buildings largely for human-resource and corporate-communication purposes, this is digital signage, but it cannot be accurately referred to as digital out-of-home.

Digital signage is comprised of networked electronic displays (such as LCD, LED, plasma or projection technology) that show information, advertising and other messages that are relevant to the specific venue or geographic location where the displays are visible to viewers. Digital signage can be found in public and private environments — both indoors and outdoors — alongside roadsides and at other venues such as retail stores, hotels, hospitals, shopping malls, motion-picture theaters and inside corporate buildings. Messages on digital signage networks always include visual images (sometimes moving images, sometimes a succession of static images). These messages may also include audio. Although most digital signage networks are connected across distances via the Internet or satellite communication and are controlled technically from one central network operations center, for the purposes of this definition of digital signage, we also will include the so-called “sneaker-net” networks. For these “sneaker nets,” the operator of the digital signage network drives the content to the screens from DVDs, memory chips or other memory devices that are physically connected to the electronic displays on-site.”

I suspect the debate will go on but I think the discussion is health for the industry. If we use ‘digital signage’ as an umbrella term and refine our description to other relevant terms for specific applications, I think this advances the understanding of digital signage and allows people to associate relevant terms to the specific applications that are important to them.