[CONTENT DESIGN TIPS] A Few Useful and Low-Cost Content Design Tools

If you plan to produce some rich media contents by yourself, it is necessary to learn to use a few graphics and Flash animation tools. If you don't already have or know how to use tools like Adobe Photoshop and Flash, you may want to look into a few tools described here. Those tools may not have all the bells and whistles you can find in Photoshop or Flash, but they are easy to learn and cost a lot less.

Graphics Editing Tool
Real-DRAW Pro 4, a nice and powerful graphics tool for only $55.
Common tasks you can accomplish for Dynasign include:

• Scale your images to the right size for publishing
• Design attractive Dynasign screen background layout images
• Add text messages and apply special effects to your images
• Export images in JPG and PNG format for publishing

You can find more info at www.mediachance.com/realdraw/.

Flash Tools
This is a category of tools that can be used to produce swf files for publishing into Dynasign.

Sothink (www.sothink.com) has a couple of Flash animation tools. Again they're very low cost and pretty easy to learn. Sothink Glanda and Sothink SWF Quicker are 2 of the tools you should take a look.

Amara Flash Software (www.amarasoftware.com) produces a set of special purpose swf generation tools. Check out Flash Slide Show Builder, Flash Intro and Banner Builder and Flash Photo Animation. They may come handy when you need to produce some quick and easy animation effects for your content.

Although all of those tools were designed for Web publishing, you can use them for digital signage in most cases. As the digital signage market continues to grow, I expect that we will see some grahics and animation tools more tailored to digital signage content requirements.

[CONTENT DESIGN TIPS] General Dynasign Content Creation Guideline

Aspect Ratio/Proportion - make sure to make the content to your defined partition/window's proportion. Use the resolution close to your window's resolution.

Image
Stay with JPEG, PNG format. Avoid BMP, TIF if possible.

Video
Try to use WMV wherever possible.
Bit Rate around - 3MB/s.
Frame rate - No more than 25 frame/s.

Flash
Allow exactFit scaling wherever possible - include the ActionScript code(stage.scaleMode="exactFit";) on the 1st frame.
Frame rate - No more than 25 frame/s.
Produce the content as Flash 7 format.

[INSTALLATION TIPS] Wiring Options for Display Panels

One of the digital signage network installation issues is the wiring between a local Dynasign Player and the display panels. Mini PC players can usually be mounted in the back of display panels and require less wiring.

However, when a regular size PC has to be installed in a backroom, the wiring has to be done between the PCs and the display panels. Here're a few options:

• Regular VGA cables for distances within 100 ft range.


• CAT5 cables with transmitter and receivers for longer-ranges. Some CAT5 solutions can support up to 1,000 ft.
  
• Wireless audio/video transmitter and receivers option works in most cases, but can be pretty pricy.
  

[DISPLAY PANEL TIPS] A Few Things to Consider When Purchasing Display Panels for Dynasign

Almost any display technology including plasma, LCD, projection and LED can be used for digital signage. Plasma and LCD are the most popular displays used for digital signage. Depending on the locations, panels of different sizes and types should be selected. LCD is still the best option for displays under 40 inches, while plasma has a better price for displays over 40 inches. Large LED video walls are usually used for outdoor digital signage applications.

There are a few things you need to be aware of when purchasing the display panels for your digital signage network:

• Select a mainstream brand name.
  
• Make sure it has PC input (VGA) resolution support - 1280x768 or 1366x768.
  
• Make sure it supports power management - Dynasign Player can be configured to turn the panel to standby mode during night time. Majority of panels out there conforms this standard. Verify that function works on the PC input of the panel.
  
• If you need a 42" or larger panel, Panasonic Plasma is a good choice.