What digital signage may look like in five years

Businesses and retailers big and small are readily acknowledging the benefits of digital signage. Vital in not only increasing brand exposure but also for improving customer experiences. As the technological landscape changes, digital signage as we know it today is certain to evolve in the coming years. This will give consumers new ways to display and control the content they wish to consume.By 2024, the digital signage industry is forecast to be worth an eye-watering $29.6 billion. This will be driven partly by increasing infrastructural developments in emerging countries, increasing the prevalence of digital signage worldwide.If the digital signage market is expected to grow from $20.8 billion in 2019 to almost $30 billion in the next five years, what are the trends we are therefore likely to see emerge in that time?

Advanced LED and OLED displays

The digital signage industry will almost certainly move away from expensive LCD displays. The replacement for these will be advanced fine-pixel LED and OLED displays. Demand is rising for crystal-clear picture quality and visually appealing designs. This means that brands are having to use LED and OLED displays to achieve their high-specification displays.Direct view LED panels are going to become increasingly popular, delivering immersive, customisable consumer focus points. Kevin Christopherson, director of product marketing, NEC Display Solutions, says the “pixel pitch options” for direct-view LED panels will allow brands to cater for captivating “close-up viewing” as well as “distant viewing for larger venues”.

The next generation of personalisation

Machine learning will mean that digital signage systems will soon be much smarter and more agile. They will have the ability to personalise on-screen content based on the personality and recognition of individual users. Some of these factors will be based on a user’s age, job position, lifestyle, and personal tastes. However, the next generation of digital signage will also seek to use facial recognition to determine what a user wants.This is likely to incorporate a blend of sensors, cameras, and devices that will work in the background simultaneously with the personal data users input into digital signage systems to improve the accuracy of data personalisation.

Increased reliance on artificial intelligence (AI)

The use of AI should help to increase the autonomy of digital signage in the coming years. Brand marketers are looking to adopt AI to help perform functions and monitor the usage of digital signs by consumers. AI will be relied upon to decide whether specific content should be displayed to a user. It will do this by analysing their responses based on real-time indicators and databases.AI will analyse the short and long-term goals of a user to help define and therefore display what kind of advertising and content is best to be displayed at a single point in time.Is your business researching and testing new ways of innovating digital signage for your consumers? Whether it’s digital menus in restaurants, giant AV systems or passenger communication signage at train stations, research and development (R&D) tax credits incentivise firms looking to create smarter, more energy-efficient digital signage across the country.