By Milenna Miller

When you first deploy digital signage, you probably hope it will last a long while. After all, no one wants to deploy a new display every year, or every month. Although digital signage has become more affordable, it still isn’t cheap. So, how do you future proof your digital signage?

Buy commercial, not consumer

When you look at consumer devices, you might be tempted by some lower prices. After all, can’t you just take a big 4K TV screen and turn it into digital signage? Well you can, but you might pay for it in the long run.

Commercial displays are built specifically for use with digital signage, which means they likely come with the inputs and outputs you need, and they can handle 24/7 usage. They also might also come with system on a chip for content, or you might get a discount with a particular media player.

Also, with commercial displays, you can potentially get professional help with installing and maintaining the display from a qualified digital signage vendor.

By buying commercial displays, you can save yourself time and money in the long run and help future proof your display.

Know what you want

If your display is going to work for the long run, you need to have a very clear idea of what you want it to accomplish.

For example, let’s say you want a display that’s going to dazzle visitors for your corporate office. In that case, you better invest in one of the best displays in the market with 4K content if you want it to look good for a long time.

Or you might just be a small retailer that wants to put up a simple display that will highlight weekly specials. In that case, a medium sized LCD display with a simple plug-and-play media player on a USB might be right for you.

When you have a clear idea of your communication goals, you can pick the solution that will last.

Have a good content strategy

Without good content, even the most expensive display in the world is useless. If you are going to keep your display effective for a long time, you need a good content strategy.

Your strategy should answer questions such as:

• Who is going to be marking the content?
• How regularly will we update the the content ?
• What content management system will be using ?
• Do we have the resources to continually manage and update the content ?
• How will the content connect with our audience ?
• Can our display handle the content ?

If you can answer all of these questions, you will have a far more effective digital signage strategy overall, and that will help keep your signage fresh, even if there have been hundreds of new displays released since deployment.