Free Digital Signage Software

Many people are wondering if they should use one term or another,well this is the way I understand it:

If you are coming from the broadcast industry or you simply think of using digital displays as a way to extend the reach of TV to exteriors and malls then narrowcasting might sound right, for a lot of people narrowcasting might be just a brother of broadcasting TV, they might be thinking about creating original content, put some advertising in between and make some money from that.

But, if you have been in the advertising industry or directly involved in signage communications, then Digital Signage might be the best answer, since for many of the people in this industry, it is just a more modern and efficient way to show, manage and distribute the same thing.  For a lot of these people is like bringing print media to life.

Today, the term Digital Signage is gaining more and more power, there is the Digital Signage Association (www.digitalsignageassociation.org), digital signage websites, the Digital Signage Expo DSE (www.digitalsignageexpo.net) and software and hardware manufacturers are targeting directly digital signage, slowly narrowcasting is falling behind.

People are realizing that this is not TV, although you can be using also a TV display, the media is different, in most cases you don't have a captive audience, let me explain this:

In TV, people decide to sit down and watch the TV content, this is the opportunity for advertisers to make some money inserting their ads, the main activity here is to watch TV, get entertained and informed, usually this is inside your home.

But when you are out of your home, then everything changes, you go out with a totally different motivation, to go to work, shopping, traveling, sports, etc.  Advertisers shouldn't believe that people are there to watch a TV on the middle of a hall, or bus terminal or maybe a store, they have other things to do.  The digital displays are competing with hundreds of visual stimulus bombarding your eyes, they need to stand out and grab the attention of the people passing by in an instant.

Today, there is a new term emerging that is called Digital Out of Home (DOOH), there will be a lot of discussions about this, there will be a new controversy about using it or using digital signage, and narrowcasting will stay, but only for a few ones that are really doing TV for a very specific audience.