New Tool Ensures Maximum Uptime for Large-scale Digital Signage Systems

Large, distributed enterprises, like retailers, restaurant brands and government agencies with hundreds or even thousands of locations, often have multiple digital signage screens at each location. Digital signage has evolved to become an essential value-add channel for engaging customers and employees and a powerful tool for incorporating useful data and third-party content feeds. For example, break room screens can connect to employee management software to automatically recognize employee work anniversaries and birthdays; menu boards can be updated in real time to display current pricing.

No matter the industry, content managers are faced with a common challenge --how to tell if a digital signage screen is offline. And outages matter. A blank or incorrect screen or menu board impacts the employee and customer experience––and potential revenue.

Some digital signage providers deliver screen images to confirm functionality. But finding an outage is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. It requires scrolling through hundreds or thousands of images to identify which screens are blank or incorrectly displaying content. Few brands can afford to have staff or store managers perform such a cumbersome and manual task, especially when their time is better spent on the business instead.

The new Hughes SmartScan tool applies Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automatically monitor and report screen performance and anomalies, effectively nipping this problem in the bud. From the tool’s dashboard, which features a graphical user interface, content managers can easily assess the health of their digital signage systems and identify screens that may not be performing as expected.

The tool provides three distinct visual indicators:

• A green checkbox denotes the screen is operating correctly.

• A yellow flag warns when there’s an issue, such as a content feed error. The screen may be displaying the wrong time and date; or showing a black content box where the weather feed should appear; or be properly connected but not displaying any content.

• A red alert shows screens that are disconnected and blank.

Customers may proactively check the dashboard for alerts, or have scan reports delivered on a regular basis, such as daily or even hourly. Becoming aware of problems means they can troubleshoot and resolve issues faster––ensuring maximum uptime for the signage systems. From the dashboard, users can also view trends and drill down into the details of individual screens and locations, providing useful feedback about frequently faulty screens. Through AI, SmartScan continues to learn and improve over time and adapts to each customers’ unique screen layout and content.

For enterprises with digital signage screens across multiple locations, SmartScan saves valuable employee time and eliminates the need to worry about whether the system is doing the job it was intended to do––delivering dynamic, up-to-date content to inform employees and customers and create an engaging  branded experience.