Digital Signage

Digital Signage uses High Definition screens to strategically broadcast advertising and multiple media content in an eye-catching way.

No other media makes it possible to deliver dynamic content at the right location, at the right time and to the right people for maximum impact.

Compared to traditional printed signage, digital signage enables you to reach audiences more effectively and in real time. Using conventional methods it's almost impossible to make changes once the sign is in place. With digital signage you not only disseminate information faster and save on printing costs, but you also have the ability to update content on the fly… even from an off site location.

Digital signage is exploding in every industry from retail to corporate lobbies, from hospitals to hotels, from trade shows to educational institutions. Why? Because it grabs attention, whether you want to keep people informed of events or last minute changes, boost sales and brand loyalty, tailor marketing to a specific audience or set up emergency messaging.

And, it’s incredibly affordable even for small businesses.

How complex it gets depends of a number of factors. The number of people and sites you want to reach; how scalable you want it to be for future growth; how you manage, distribute and update content you want to show. And that content can be delivered in a number of forms, including static text, crawling text, still photos, graphics, flash files, pre-recorded and even live streamed video. This media can be delivered either from a DVD player, a USB flash drive, a media or file server, and even from the web.

So how do you get started? You can deploy a digital signage solution today by simply using an LCD or plasma screen and a standalone media player loaded with content. Typically players are attached behind the screen, allowing you to update content on a daily or weekly basis using removable media. It's the most economical way to get digital signage up and running, although it does have its limits.

With a standalone player you can only play pre-recorded content and if you use multiple displays the message is the same on every screen. But, if all you want is a PowerPoint®-like presentation with bullets, your logo, an image or two and a pre-recorded clip, a stand alone player may be all you need.

To play multiple messages at different locations, more managed control is required over your content. A more sophisticated type of player will allow you to show different messaging content on different screens, player RSS feeds from the web, streamline video, and make updates in real time without going to the screens themselves. These more advance media players usually include templates for setting up “zones” for recorded and live content. It's all pretty simple, and with some players it can even be done remotely through a browser-based connection or a wired network link.

What are Digital Displays?

Static and more traditional promotional methods are rapidly being replaced by all types of digital displays and signage providing maximum exposure for customers to products and services. By informing the customer of what’s available is important, and by using an innovative merchandising tool, such as a Digital Display System, this has proven to increase sales by up to 317%.

Selecting the correct digital display for your requirements can be mind blowing; there are literally hundreds of different configurations. JHDD Ltd has a wide range that is simple to use, designed to be updated by a non- technical person.

Digital Display Made Simple

When selecting a digital display it is important to consider:-
• The location of where the digital screen will be placed
• Who is going to view the screen
• How long will they will watch the Digital signage message for, as many people will not stop for more than 30 seconds
• The appearance of the screen and its contents needs to be eye catching by using vivid colours and movement
• Digital Displays can be used in a number of different places, using a series of full colour advertisements, easily grabbing the attention and catching the eye of whoever walks by in any location including, hotel foyers, receptions, showrooms, window displays and shopping centres to name a few.

Digital Displays can take the form of:-

Floating Digital Displays - when creating a Digital Display for a window or interior, it needs to integrate totally within the overall presentation. This is a system that enables ultra slim digital screens to be suspended on to pencil rods that are fixed between floor/ceiling or be wall mounted. The Digital LCD Screens can be combined with Cold Cathode Light boxes and acrylic poster holders. Free-standing Digital Display Units - create an instant presentation with the compact free-standing units which can be used in reception areas, on exhibition stands and at point of sale.

Digital Displays offer your business exciting new opportunities:-

• Schedule promotions during peak traffic periods
• Host and manage files yourself in house, as well as create your content
• Increase cross-selling and up-selling opportunities
• Manage your display from a central location

How Do Digital Displays Work?

Did you know that 60% of traditional marketing materials never make it up on the wall? Utilising digital display software, either you or JHDD can manage your network to ensure your messages get up on time and end on time. Your internet connection distributes files on a ‘real-time’ basis, can be monitored and the screen can be pre-programmed to turn the unit on in the morning and off at night based on your pre-programmed schedule.

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

How does an LCD screen work?

LCD screens are uniquely modern in style, and the liquid crystals that make them work have allowed humanity to create slimmer, more portable technology than we’ve ever had access to before. You probably use items containing an LCD every day. They are all around us - in laptop computers, digital clocks and watches, microwave ovens, CD players and many other electronic devices. This is only possible because of their thin, light LCD display screens. Liquid crystal display (LCD) technology still has some stumbling blocks in its path that can make it unreliable at times, but on the whole the invention of the LCD screen has allowed great leaps forward in global technological progress.

Although liquid crystals are not really liquid, their molecules behave more like a liquid than they do like a solid. These crystals are a unique middle ground between solid form and liquid form, which gives them the movement and flexibility of a liquid; but can also let them remain in place, like a solid.

Heat quickly melts a solid to liquid, allowing it to move and when cool, the liquid solidifies almost instantly. This sensitivity to temperature can be an advantage, or a disadvantage. For example, the highly successful uses of liquid crystals in devices like thermometers, where temperature responsiveness is a boon, but this same property can unfortunately make LCD screens unreliable in extreme climates.

In an LCD screen, electric currents work at a microscopic level to control the amount of light that passes through the liquid crystal molecules that make up the moving layer of the screen, which is sandwiched between clear glass panels. The currents can force the naturally twisted molecules to unwind or coil tighter, therefore changing the amount of light that can pass from the bulb behind the glass to the eye of the viewer.

It may help you understand this process by imagining that light filters through an LCD screen and comparing it to the way that sunlight filters through the leaves of a tree. Imagine the tree is being blown in the wind, and you will see how the amount and placement of the light that comes through the leaves changes. This is very similar to the dynamics that power an LCD screen, except that the sun is a small light bulb, the leaves are molecules of liquid crystal, and the wind is made up of electric currents sent by the computer, and designed to create a specific light pattern that your eye will interpret as words or images.

Plasma Screens

How does a Plasma Screen work?

Both Plasma screen and the conventional CRT-type display use phosphors to produce the display. The screen of these display systems is made up of tiny spots known as pixels which have a phosphor coat on their back.

A Plasma screen can also be compared with a fluorescent lamp although on a superficial level. Not only do Plasma screens use the luminous properties of phosphors, they also use inert gases like argon, neon, xenon which in a plasma state, produce invisible, ultra-violet photons. In a fluorescent bulb, these release photons strike the phosphorous coating of the inner wall of the bulb resulting in a radiant glow, which fills our rooms.

However, a Plasma screen, which works on the same principle, has countless tiny fluorescent lamps, which are called pixels. Each Pixel has three tiny sub-pixels coated with red phosphor, green phosphor and blue phosphor. The pixels or cells are filled with rare gases like neon and xenon and the entire network of pixels is placed between two sheets of glass.

Two sets of electrodes address electrodes and display electrodes form two separate grids, one along the rear glass plate and another along the front glass plate. Once electric current is passed between the electrodes, it stimulates the noble gases to release the electrons producing ions and free flowing electrons in the mixture. These charged particles rush towards electrically opposite charged electrodes, collide with each other and discharge invisible, ultra violet photons. These photons react with the coloured phosphors (RGB) in the sub-pixels and give visible light.

The overall shade of the pixel depends on the intensity of each sub-pixel which is proportionate with the level of electricity passing through it. To show a range of colours, these three basic colours, RGB, are blended in different combinations by varying the intensity of each colour. Plasma display panels have a special feature, PCM (pulse code modulation) which modulates the electric pulse at a rapid rate and enable the production of more than 17 million colours.,

HD Screens

What is a High Definition?

When hearing or reading about technology you have probably heard the phrase ‘high definition’ and how great it is. What does this mean exactly, and why should you consider it when searching for screens?

Most people have an idea of what high definition, or ‘HD,’ means. It can mean beautiful, crystal clear pictures with vibrant colours...it can even make the weather look amazing!

The technical definition of High Definition (HD) is largely a fluid term. The only real meaning being something with a significantly increased picture quality and clarity based on the resolution of the screen. For this reason, High Definition is, in reality, a synonym for high resolution.

High resolution means more pixels in your screen, which leads to a remarkably clearer picture. There are some standards now that allow a more concrete resolution of what it means to have an ‘official’ HD display.

There are four HD formats in use in the UK:-

• 1280 x 720 = 720i
• 1280 x 720 = 720p
• 1920 x 1080 = 1080i
• 1920 x 1080 Progressive = 1080p

720 or 1080 represents the number of horizontal lines that make up the picture. Standard definition TV is made up of 576 horizontal lines. 1080 lines will show more detail than 720 lines.

The ‘p’ is for ‘progressive’ and ‘i’ represents ‘interlaced scan’. This describes the process used to display an image on screen. 'Progressive' shows the entire frame in one go, whereas an Interlaced picture draws only half of the image in one go - all of the odd-numbered lines, then all of the even number of lines. The TV blends the two interlaced fields together. Progressive has been proven to be faster, clearer picture, less prone to blurring, whereas on larger screens, you may notice flicker with interlaced.

What is the difference between HD-Ready and ‘Full HD’?

The numbers 720 and 1080 are used when talking about HD, to represent the number of lines used on-screen. Then there's a ‘p’ or an ‘i’, for the ‘progressive’ or ‘interlaced’ format. Technically, ‘1080p’ is at the top end of the four HD variants, and it's this format that is called ‘Full HD’. You should be aware that, at the moment, the likes of Sky are only using 720p and 1080i for their HD service. There are many people that believe the average viewer won't see much of a difference between 1080i and 1080p, other than to their wallets!

3D Digital Screens

How does 3D TV work?

3D screens are spicing up today’s television market. These display devices are designed based on 3D technology which is basically presents picture in stereoscopic forms. Stereoscopic cameras will have two lenses at about eye-width. Here a single picture (taken by using Stereoscopic camera or virtually created) is projected differently to both the eyes. For right eye the projection will be from the right side lens of the camera and vice versa for the left eye. This creates a 3D image from the picture on the 3D TV screen by quickly flipping between your two eyes, creating and projecting an image on the brain, giving it a 3D impact.

To give 3D images a greater impact, there are some common technologies that are used. The core function is to project the image differently to both the eyes. One way of doing this is through glasses that are worn while watching. Another technology is to split the image directionally through light source and this is how 3D screens work, where the same impact is created without the glasses.

Some of the technologies that are used for 3D display this are:-

1. Crossed –Hatched Technology - In this technology, to one eye the image is presented into vertical format, and to another eye the same image is presented in a horizontal format. When these two images are combined together they generate a 3D impact. This is the main technology that is used in Cinemas.

2. Side by Side Technology - In this technology there are two different images created for both eyes respectively and to give them a 3D impact there is a pair of glasses that help in synchronization of these two images, which finally results into a 3D effect.

3. Top and Bottom Technology - This technology presents the same image to both the eyes from different angles. To one eye the image is presented from top angle and to other eye the same image is projected from bottom, so when they are synchronized well, they give birth to 3D image.

4. Frame Packing Technology - This technology is highly used in creating 3D impact in blue ray discs. This is the ruling technology in electronic and chip industry for creating 3D impacts.

Shutter Glasses are vital signs for creating a 3D effect. The shutter glasses are basically an expensive pair of glasses, which has a layer liquid crystal on lenses that turns dark when voltage is applied. Infrared help in signal transmission to sync the Shutter Glasses with the 3D TV set and it’s electronic circuits controls them in creating the 3D impact, when they are worn while watching TV. The content for 3D is basically pulled out from three major sources:-

• Blue Rays - The movies that are offered by major movies studios under Blue Ray titles are ripe with 3D content.
• TV Broadcasting - The 3D contents are pulled out from air with the aid of the television broadcasting services providers.
• 2D-3D Conversions - The 3D content is also obtained by converting all 2D images into 3D images.

Talking about getting 3D contents by converting all 2D images, means that the 2D images, with the help of a program or software are given an impact of 3D and this is what is very well applied in televisions. With the help of this all shows and movies of televisions get a new appeal.

Therefore, leave behind the old way of watching movies and shows and spice up your television watching with 3D effect.

LED (Light Emitting Diode)

What is LED?

LED is short for Light Emitting Diode. You might know LED lights for their use as the standby light in your digital alarm clock and your TV or as a bicycle light.

LEDs are tiny light bulbs that fit easily into an electrical circuit. But unlike ordinary incandescent bulbs, they don't have a filament that will burn out, and they don't get especially hot. They are illuminated solely by the movement of electrons in a semiconductor material, and they last just as long as a standard transistor.

LED lights are becoming increasingly efficient. LED lighting is now also available in daylight colour and as a strip light.

LED Screens – what are they and how do they work?

LED and LCD screens are one and the same thing. The difference between a standard LCD screen and an LED model is in the method of the backlighting. In LED screens, the Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL) lighting is replaced by a sequence of LEDs. As they are much smaller than CCFL lights, screens that are LED-backlit can be made much thinner and lighter than regular LCD models. Some are even under an inch thick! LED screens are also capable of greatly increased dynamic contrast - the ratio of difference between black and white - use less power, and are more environmentally friendly when disposed of.

There are two commonly used methods of LED backlighting:-

RGB Dynamic Models - a sequence of red, green and blue LED lights are positioned behind the screen. When an image is displayed featuring dark colours, the LEDs in that area are dimmed while the intensity of the colour is increased. These results in screens with RGB Dynamic backlighting have higher Dynamic Contrast ratios than any other LCD model, although they are still second to plasma technology when it comes to 'true' blacks. The downside of this method is a loss of fine detail on small, bright objects that appear against a dark background - an image of a night sky is a good example.

Edge LED – this method is a completely different, as the backlighting involves the placement of white LED lights around the outside edge of the screen. A light-diffusing panel is then placed behind the screen, which compensates for the lack of light coming from the centre. Edge LED backlighting is not capable of the same Dynamic Contrast ratios offered by the RGB Dynamic method, because it can't dim the backlight as precisely in a localised area.

The latter of the two methods is the cheaper, and screens with this technology are some of the thinnest and lightest on the market, making them extremely easy to wall mount.

Touch Screens

What are and how do Touch Screens work?

A Touch Screen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch either by a finger, a stylus or another object within a display area. Touch screens are becoming more commonly utilised in today’s world due to their price steadily dropping, and can be found in everyday devices such as all-in-one computers, tablet computers, satellite navigation systems and Smartphone’s.

There are three basic systems that are used to recognise a person's touch: -

1. Resistive

This system consists of a normal glass panel that is covered with a conductive and a resistive metallic layer. These two layers are held apart by spacers, and a scratch-resistant layer is placed on top of the whole setup. An electrical current runs through the two layers while the monitor is operational. When a user touches the screen, the two layers make contact in that exact spot. The change in the electrical field is noted and the coordinates of the point of contact are calculated by the computer. Once the coordinates are known, a special driver translates the touch into something that the operating system can understand, much as a computer mouse driver translates a mouse's movements into a click or a drag.

2. Capacitive

In the capacitive system, a layer that stores electrical charge is placed on the glass panel of the monitor. When a user touches the monitor, some of the charge is transferred to the user, so the charge on the capacitive layer decreases. This decrease is measured in circuits located at each corner of the monitor. The computer calculates, from the relative differences in charge at each corner, exactly where the touch event took place and then relays that information to the touch-screen driver software. One advantage that the capacitive system has over the resistive system is that it transmits almost 90% of the light from the monitor, whereas the resistive system only transmits about 75%. This gives the capacitive system a much clearer picture than the resistive system.

3. Surface acoustic wave

On the monitor of a surface acoustic wave system, two transducers (one receiving and one sending) are placed along the x and y axes of the monitor's glass plate. Reflectors are also placed on the glass. These reflect an electrical signal sent from one transducer to the other. The receiving transducer is able to tell if the wave has been disturbed by a touch event at any instant, and can locate it accordingly. The wave setup has no metallic layers on the screen, allowing for 100% light throughput and perfect image clarity. This makes the surface acoustic wave system best for displaying detailed graphics, whereas the other two systems have significant degradation in clarity.

The systems also differ in which stimuli will register as a touch event:-

• A resistive system registers a touch as long as the two layers make contact. This means that it doesn't matter if you touch the screen with your finger or a pencil.
• A capacitive system must have a conductive input, usually your finger, in order to register a touch.
• The surface acoustic wave system works much like the resistive system, allowing a touch with almost any object with the exception of hard and small objects like a pen tip.

The resistive system is the most cost effective of the three, the clarity is the lowest, and its layers can be damaged by sharp objects. The surface acoustic wave setup is the most expensive.