2024 June | 5 mins

Introduction

Selecting the appropriate content management system and the inability to consider the content required to engage the audience are the two main obstacles when establishing a digital signage solution. People now admire remotely managed digital signage solutions due to their flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Remote management ensures real-time updates on fresh content. This is especially true in industries where information frequently changes, such as retail, hospitality, and transportation. Hence, it is inevitable to find the appropriate content management system for your digital signage solution.

Key Features of an Effective Digital Signage CMS

Campaign

Your entire digital displays are stored inside the global configuration called Campaign. Configuring multiple campaigns allows you to switch between configurations for your signage players easily.

Timeline

Your playlist's order of media resources is sequentially represented in the timeline. The final output of your digital signage presentation is a collection of all your timelines.

Sequencing

The sequencer is helpful to serially set the play list order for all the timelines. A simple drag-and-drop operation is needed to do that.

Scheduler

A scheduler is used to set your timelines to play on any day and anytime. With a graphical interface, you will get a summary of all future playlists and easily resolve conflicts.

Resources

Any media content that loads onto your digital signage player is a resource. It comprises video, sound, signage components, and scenes. Social network profiles are also there to retrieve shared files. These portals can be either social networks or our own built in digital signage social network.

Components

The components are valuable tools that can be used to enrich your signage presentation. These consist of RSS news, stock tickers, RSS weather, RSS video podcasts, HTML components, TV tuners, capture cards, clocks, and more. You can directly use components on the timeline or within a designer scene.

Scene Editor

You can combine various components and resources in a scene editor on a canvas. A scene is assigned to one or more screen divisions (also known as zones). The Scene editor can be used as a fully customizable widget editor with built-in animation, effects, and control of the X and Y coordinates of all the items it holds.

CSS

Select the color and font scheme that best suit you. With the flexible CSS controls, it is quite easy to set the SignageStudio to match your style and preference.

Catalog

A catalog is a powerful tool that can be used to easily display an unlimited number of items in a common format. You can view the items inside any number of catalogs. sub-players such as carousals, book flipping, 3D floaters, and more.

Multi Language

The multi-language feature in the digital signage content management system allows you to select the language of your choice. To reach a wider audience, enterprise members can display the application in multiple languages.

Benefits of using a digital signage CMS

• More user-friendly than building and updating a website or app in the traditional way
• Quick and secure deployments are possible.
• Regular updates and maintenance are done seamlessly
• A vast array of extensions and plugins that let you personalize the CMS with SEO capabilities.

How do I choose the right digital signage CMS?

Choosing the right digital signage CMS requires a lot of attention. The CMS market is filled with hundreds of products; hence, it is difficult to find the right one for your application. In such a situation, remember this: It’s not all about the price. You have to find the ideal balance between cost, ease of use, and features.

Avoid products that feature obscure or complex user interfaces. Also, never assume that free CMS products are totally "free,” because you need to factor in training and support. Don’t buy a CMS that people won’t use. Seek the help of your creative team, as they will probably be the ones who manage the content and scheduling. At least get proper input from your technical and creative teams.

Always define your content strategy before you even think about the size of the screens and their locations. 'Content is the king'. It must be frequently updated to avoid your screens becoming stale and having to buy expensive digital wallpaper. If you do not have interesting, engaging content that is frequently updated, no one will pay attention to it.

There are certain things to note before purchasing a digital signage CMS. Those are the following:

• Easy setup and deployment
• Simple content creation, organization, and display; possibly smart automation programming and display
• Technical reliability (open language, scalability, security, etc.)
• Interface (hardware or data) with other IT systems
• Device management and monitoring options
• User-rights depth
• Cost
• User-interface
• Trial
• References

Swift Signage is the best content management system for digital signage today. It offers a user-friendly platform for managing and displaying content on TV screens. With Swift Signage, you can create stunning contents within the application using the in-built editor and integrated PosterMyWall plugin in order to attract your audience. Moreover, the system is versatile, customizable, and designed to meet the needs of businesses in various industries. It’s a simple cloud-based digital signage software for your content management. And Swift Signage has an inbuilt media player to save your digital signage playlist for future use. Overall, Swift Signage is the pick of the bunch for businesses looking to enhance their digital signage strategy.