Digital signage was used to promote government guidelines, such as the now famous ‘Stay home, save lives’
Digital signage and the global pandemic
Digital signage has become a large part of our lives over time and now, we can’t imagine shopping centres, motorways or the sides of large buildings without them.
More specifically, we are also used to having digital signage that helps us out in stores, doctor’s surgeries, when ordering food or going to a museum. However, following the Covid-19 pandemic and knowing that coronavirus can be transferred with touch, how has this affected our relationship with digital signage?
Some companies have turned to systems which allow for hands-free digital signage and others have developed protection which still allows for touching screens but with an even lower transmission rate. Videotel Digital, which is based in San Diego in America, offers touchless digital signage that slotted in nicely during the pandemic.
While Videotel’s other touchless options allow for users to initiate audio and video automatically by waving their hand, eliminating the need to touch the screen to access information, the new hands-free option is triggered by a QR code. This means that users can transfer control to their own smartphone and interact with the digital screen without the need to touch it.
Videotel’s digital EVP of marketing and sales, Lisa Schneider, explains: “Once the viewer takes a picture of the QR code with their phone, screen control automatically transfers to their smartphone allowing them to fully navigate, interact, mirror and control the display without touching it.”
O Factoid: PPDS created its first videowall back in 1984 O
Firms also had to think about other symptoms when it came to digital signage. Obviously, some of the main symptoms that were drilled into to us to look out for were a dry cough, a high temperature and loss of smell or taste. Crystal Display Systems thought about the high temperature and devised a way in which digital signage could take someone’s temperature before they entered a space.
The TAURI Temperature Check Tablet allows for customers and visitors to quietly check their temperature before entering a store, restaurant or nursing home for example. Temperature guns can be quite invasive and they still require a person to come and test you prior to entering. Digital signage can be used to scan a visitor’s temperature without the need for any contact.
The TAURI system does this by using a high quality infrared sensor that detects whether or not the person is running a high temperature. The system has a different chime for each outcome, meaning the owners or management are notified should a person need to leave the premises because of a fever.
TAURI combines a sensor and body heat algorithm to record a fast temperature – its accuracy is within 0.3°C either way. Because of other aspects that can affect a person’s temperature, such as a location and environmental factors, the system can attune to the environment of the room and calibrates frequently.
Not only this, but guests are screened in as little as three seconds and from up to three feet away – eliminating queues and congestion, which again lowers the transmission rate.
Touch is needed
When touching a digital sign or screen is completely necessary – for example when you need to take money out of a cash point – there are other options.
APA, an Italian manufacturer of self-adhesive films, introduced an antibacterial film that helps to lower the potential transmission of bacteria and other germs. The way it does this is by releasing the substances that prevent the proliferation of bacteria. Drytac also created an antmicrobial film that helped to limit the transmission of Covid-19 – Protac AMP Film with additional Microban antimicrobial protection.
Antibacterial films have been produced to protect digital screens like the ones used on a cashpoint
Following this development and recently, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that there is actually a low risk of contracting coronavirus through touch screens. A report was released confirming this and that businesses should continue to trade as usual. The report states: “The risk of SARS-CoV2 infection via the fomite transmission route is low, and generally less than 1 in 10,000, which means that each contact with a contaminated surface has less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of causing an infection.”
However, while the risk may be low, there is still a risk nonetheless, which means that innovative antiviral films are still as important.
Audio and visual
PPDS, which recently went through a rebrand, started life as part of Koninklijke Philips and sold Philips-branded digital signage and professional TVs across the world. In 2011, It was then transferred to TPV Group under a trademark license agreement.
Franck Racapé is the vice president for the Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) regions and says that despite the challenging conditions presented by the pandemic, the role of digital signage has now changed. “For us, working in the business-to-business arena, we provide displays across a range of vertical sectors, so our audience is incredibly varied, including corporate, retail, hospitality, healthcare, education, transportation, public venues and more – all of which have new and foreseeable challenges as a direct response to the current conditions,” explains Racapé.
Franck Racapé is the vice president EMEA for PPDS
He continues: “This, arguably more than ever before, is a time where the roles of digital signage have never been more essential – potentially making the difference needed for a business to re-open. Our customers need providers like ourselves to step up and, in some instances, present them with solutions that until recently were either entirely off their radar or didn’t even exist. We feel it’s our responsibility to help.”
This, arguably more than ever before, is a time where the roles of digital signage have never been more essential”
Racapé also says that PPDS keeps an eye on what is happening to make sure that the latest developments result in the right products. “This is certainly evident in our work to provide solutions to businesses with a need to comply to local regulations and bring their customers and staff confidence that it’s safe to be in their public settings,” says Racapé.
“For small retailers, bars and restaurants through to supermarkets, cinemas and more, we want to help bring customers back into those bustling environments with total confidence for their safety,” Racapé continues. “With governments and health officials across the world recommending social distancing of at least two metres, businesses – particularly those with a high footfall – are being urged to implement strict measures around capacity and crowding to help reduce the spread of Covid-19.”
The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that transmission of Covid-19 on digital signage is actually very low – as low as 1 in 10,000
One solution that Racapé mentions is the PeopleCount technology that has been developed with PPDS and its software and hardware partners, which helps to ensure compliance with government guidelines. This system is now being used in restaurants, retail chains and stores as well as offices and business space. Not only does this keep an eye on the number of people entering and exiting the space, but it can also double up as a point-of-sale solution.
“We can play a key role in facilitating change for many different industries and verticals by bringing to market truly innovativesolutions that support the current but also the future,” says Racapé, adding: “Businesses don’t want to, nor will many have, the financial ability to simply invest in a technology that may only be seen as a short-term fix or necessity.
“PeopleCount is a prime example of this, with digital signage being used equally as new opportunities to communicate messages, such as marketing – in retail – or internal news and announcements. That’s a fundamental shift for many and one that provides extensive new opportunities and multiple purposes.”
The future
As we are now half way through 2021, while we are still navigating our way out of the pandemic, it is important to keep looking forward. Not only do manufacturers have to provide products that are needed in the moment, but they also have to adapt to changing markets.
Racapé of PPDS explains: “The work we have done last year, accelerating our internal projects, adapting quickly to change and bringing new products to market that meet the new challenges being faced by our customers globally meant that certainly into the coming months, we have a promising pipeline ahead of us.
Temporary digital signage also provided information to the public
“We are doing all that we can to support our customers into the future too, with the creation of our InSync campaign channelling the marketing money we would have spent at events across Europe into providing solutions, commercial propositions, offers and incentives – designed for the needs of those customers and not simply to shift stock.”
Racapé concludes: “The full effects of Covid-19 are, for the whole world, as yet unknown but we look forward, standing on our strong foundations and with the ability to quickly flex to the ever-changing needs of our customers, with the hope that 2021 takes the AV industry back, step by step, towards a more stable business environment for all.”
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