Challenges in Managing Digital Signage Networks at Airports
Want to see how difficult digital signage is at scale? Walk through an airport past security and count the broken screens. Engineers need extensive security clearance to get airside, so failed screens just stay broken. It's the perfect manifestation of our industry's reliability challenges - fragmented hardware, different operating systems, and connectivity issues everywhere.
Key Takeaways
- Airport environments highlight digital signage reliability challenges at scale
- Security protocols make physical screen maintenance extremely difficult
- Fragmented hardware landscape and connectivity issues compound the problem
Topics
- Digital Signage
- Engineering
- Infrastructure
- Product Development
Transcript
I often say to people, if you want to see how difficult it is to run a digital signage network at scale, just walk around the airport when you're past security. You'll see so many black screens, broken screens, error messages all around. In any other environment, you would never see this many broken screens. Why? Because it's really difficult to get engineers airside. They have to go through a lot of security protocols in order for them to go and visit. So you're seeing just the number of screens that fail and need some kind of physical assistance. It's a really good manifestation of the problem that we're trying to solve. Screens need to be way more reliable, but they're not. It's a hugely fragmented hardware landscape, all running different operating systems, and connectivity issues are also rife. The airport is a really good example of this, but it's actually true for every environment we work in. So next time you're in the airport, have a look around, see all those broken screens, and think there needs to be a better way, because there really does.