A visual commentary on the state of digital signage reliability in public spaces. This video captures 10 broken advertising screens on the escalator at Old Street tube station in London, set to Benny Hill music. It highlights the widespread issue of screen failures in high-traffic environments and the importance of proper maintenance and reliable digital signage solutions.

10 Broken Screens at Old Street Station

[No voiceover - visual content only with Benny Hill music showing multiple broken advertising screens on tube station escalator]

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.

Challenges in Managing Digital Signage Networks at Airports

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.