It can be your menu, it can be your safety advisory and it can be your way-finding. But while it can be all these things, it also sometimes can’t be something. Easy.

Manufacturers will shout at my comment, but I happen to believe that anything that requires an outside content firm to design your signage isn’t easy. If you want to do anything fancy with your signage, you’re going to need help from a vendor. If you have a complex plan (something that includes HD video) for your sign, you will want the manufacturer or integrator or outside content developer to design the content as well. It’s definitely not something many hotels, bars and restaurants can do in house. You’ll need to decide how often you are going to turn to them to outfit your signage when you want make a content change. Or can the design be something you can adopt as your own and change the content as you see fit. Then the question also becomes, “Who owns the content?” It’s something you should make sure to finalize before you make the deal. Don’t give anything away.

Knowing this ahead of time can make your purchasing decisions easier. What else can make your digital signage plan a breeze? Reading the article, “Eight Tips to Help Keep Your Digital Signage Purchase and Installation Pain-free” by journalist Robin Miller. This article will help you strategize everything from mounting to energy consumption. It’s a good and quick read.

More digital signage tips are available from Jason Kuisel, a digital signage expert and managing partner of Innovative Markets. Robin Miller talks with Jason, who describes the latest trends in the industry that you have to worry about.

On completely different subject, to make sure to understand the ROI behind control and automation, download our white paper on the subject. It will help you understand the whys and what fors behind the concept. You can find a link to it on our main HosptalityTechDecisions.com page.

About the author

Lisa Nadile - Managing Editor

Lisa Nadile is Managing Editor for TechDecisions. She has been a technology journalist for over twenty years and has never lost her love of technology and the way it changes (and improves) our lives. She has written for many magazines and websites on the development of computers and the Internet, and is enjoying her new mission in the audiovisual sector.