Would you be watching screens and channels for a long time when you assume that they are just showing old content on their digital signage television screens? Probably not. People want to see real-time data, accurate information, the latest key performance indicators (KPI), hot news, actual weather information and so on. Without real-time data, digital signage does not make much sense. You can still display your shoes in your shop till the end of the season when it comes to advertising. But in most non-advertising environments, people look at data and info, and that definitely needs to be up-to-date.
What is Real-Time Data?
An advertising video on a screen is a good example of traditional static screens. You start it now, and after one week, or at the end of summer season, it is still the same video or promotion that you are showing. Data-driven digital signage is data that is shown in real-time on screens. Without data connectivity, you would have to update your content on the screens, every time that there is a data update, and redistribute it again. Imagine a data center, where they show the total number of callers in the waiting queue. Every time that is person is taken out of the queue, you would have to re-render your screen content. Every time that is person calls in, and is added to the queue, you would have to re-render the screen content again. You see what is needed here; you need to be able to connect your screens to your data, so that, you can show database content directly on your screens. That is real-time data.
Examples of Real-Time Data on Screens
A very good example of real-time data is flight information at an airport. Here it is obvious that last minute updates and data needs to be shown in real-time. It makes no sense to display a flight that already departed at the check-in area screens. But there are more good examples of real-time data on screens.Â
Transportation Screens
It was already mentioned at the previous paragraph; flight information at airports is a good example of real-time data. But this is valid for most of the screens that are used for real-time transportation information. Think about arriving and departing trains at a train station. Metro schedules. Shuttles or ferries between A and B, next bus info, headquarters or a taxi company.Â
Financial Info
Good examples of real-time financial information on screens are stock quotes. Here it is obvious that the value of stock is continuously changing, and a given change in its value, needs monitoring so that people can take proper actions.
Another relevant example of real-time data are currency exchange rates. Here too, we know that these values are continuously changing, and you can’t edit your presentations or screens whenever an update is communicated. For these type of displays, you need to link your presentation to dynamic and real-time data sources.
Real-Time Scoreboards
Sports like tennis, soccer, basketball, football and more, all have something in common. These games all have a score. That is why they are playing. That is why the supporters are coming. The score is there to show who is the winner and who is the loser. The score of any game is all that counts in the end. And that score is displayed in real-time on screens. That is what everyone is watching.
News and Weather
Those 2 go hand in hand like salt and pepper. Nothing is so often used as real-time data on screens like news and weather. Weather is continuously changing, and news is even more and more unpredictable. So, you need to bind your screens and presentations to real-time data sources that hold the latest news and weather information for automatic updates.
Counters, Countdowns, and Timers
A countdown to New Year at Times Square, New York. A counter that shows the number of days since the last accident in your factory. The number of people in the waiting queue before you. All examples of counters and countdowns that are shown on screens and LED walls.
Productivity Dashboards
Next to scoreboards for games, you also have scoreboards or leaderboards for businesses. What sales team is performing best? What production team has the least complaints and faults?
Motivate personnel by showing their productivity, targets, goals in real-time on screens in your offices and factories. This could result in a good and healthy competition between your employees and team members. Monitor, inform and motivate them with the latest information and figures.
Notice Boards
Next to scoreboards for games, you also have scoreboards or leaderboards for businesses. What sales team is performing best? What production team has the least complaints and faults?
Motivate personnel by showing their productivity, targets, goals in real-time on screens in your offices and factories. This could result in a good and healthy competition between your employees and team members. Monitor, inform and motivate them with the latest information and figures.
Dynamic Menu Boards
Many take-away restaurants now use digital menu boards. This has the advantage that they can easily change the menu options, or show lunch at noon and dinner later on, at the evening.
But with real-time information, they also have the possibility to hide a menu option when it is out of stock. That saves drastically on user satisfaction because they only see what they see, and they avoid that phrase that they don’t want to hear: “No, that we don’t have anymore. Sorry!”.
Or on the other side, restaurant owners can better promote a product when there is still a large stock and it needs to be sold.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many examples of showing real-time data on television screens. Look around you. You can see or implement it everywhere. For presentations you use Microsoft PowerPoint. DataPoint is a plugin for PowerPoint that you can use to connect your slides to data sources and display information in real-time on screens. iPoint is used to schedule, distribute, launch, and monitor your presentations on your remote screens.
