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Digital signage is ubiquitous nowadays. Walk into any respectable store and on the wall replacing the old poster signage are LCD screens displaying the stores products, logos, and videos of satisfied customers. However, the LCD screen is only one part of the equation. What is not seen is behind the scenes. A digital signage player is feeding all the displays with their images, slideshows, videos.

A digital signage player is a computer that connects to the LCD display ,they can be disguised in a variety of appealing cases and mounted to the back of the display if there is no other placement options available.


The best standalone digital signage players are capable of extraordinary feats such as displaying video onto multiple screens, using multiple screens as one large macro-screen, jumping video from screen to screen, and even directing the displays through the internet to affect chain locations across the state, country, or even internationally, all synchronized by one central box.

At its heart, the digital signage player is most often a PC with all the standard PC parts. In fact, a standard PC can play the part itself. Many digital signage players come bundled with digital signage software, which removes the hassles of setup and offers the ease of plug and play digital signage.

Housed in the case of the digital signage player is motherboard where everything is connected to the CPU. Attached to the motherboard are 1GB-4GB of RAM memory, a hard drive of 40GB to 120GB capacity, a top of the line video card to handle high-definition graphics and video, and power supply to juice it all up.

Of course, the hardware can't work itself. It needs the software to tell it what to do. As mentioned, many of the standalone dedicated digital signage players with the now come bundled with software, but many will also use Linux which runs a good number of internet servers and is easy to configure for internet routing to remote locations and displays outside of where the player is located. In many instances, Windows XP Pro edition will provide an excellent operating system for digital signage for both dedicated in-house and internet functionality. Using a Windows system allows the digital signage player to double as a standard PC if necessary in a pinch.

Some of the leading models of digital signage players are based on a Windows XP operating system and can run basic signage displays with as little as a Celeron processor, 10GB hard drive, 8MB video card, and 1GB RAM. For more advanced display configurations, they can handle the latest technology with quad core processors, 2+GB RAM, 1GB video cards and a 120+GB hard drive.

Top quality models such as these include the AOpen, the Engine 4.0, and SSI. Engine 4.0 and SSI can handle the most intensive and advanced digital signage while AOPen is better for basic and intermediate needs.

With a digital signage player, advertising is made modern.

By: Todd Hemme.

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About Digital Signage Player: Rise Vision, Inc. owns, develops, and operates the Rise Display Network, a web-based digital signage software system for managing digital signage content. For more information, please visit: www.risevision.com.