I explore the emerging trend of screens being used on delivery mopeds, discussing their potential dangers and the implications for advertising. I share my thoughts on why this may not be the most effective or safe advertising method.

The Rise of Screens on Delivery Mopeds

From London to Cairo the humble moped got a screen glow-up. So recently I've seen a few videos and images of screens attached or embedded into delivery mopeds or in one case in Cairo strapped to the guy's back. What do I think about this? Advertising is clearly getting everywhere and before you come at me in the comments I'm not advocating for this. I think that it's probably a bit too invasive and distracting. Drivers should not be looking at adverts when they should be driving and people on mopeds certainly shouldn't have big black screens strapped to their back because if you crashed that's going to be really dangerous. So I'm not advocating for this. I've seen people try this a lot in Uber cabs in the past. We've had millions of inquiries about people trying to do the same. I think there is some time and place when it comes to advertising. I've learned my lesson from advertising in the sea and so I'm going to give this a one out of five. This is not a sign of genius for me.

I explore the mixed reactions to an innovative screen display by the seaside. Whilst many found it invasive, I see the potential for screens to be a powerful medium when used thoughtfully. My aim is to promote healthy screen usage rather than provoke negative sentiments.

The Impact of Screens on Holiday Experiences

It was kind of funny and kind of weird, right? They're all for over a week. I just kept seeing people moaning about how much they hate to see a screen on holiday. I had a hit post on LinkedIn. It was a recent post. It was actually someone else's content. I'd seen a video of screen floating on a boat by the seaside advertising. For me, it was quite interesting because just as an engineering feat, putting a screen on the sea is actually quite difficult. So I was kind of impressed with it and didn't really think much more about it. I stuck up the post, and then the views started to get through the roof. But more importantly, the comments came in thick and fast. The vast majority of the comments were negative. People did not like the idea of seeing a screen at the seaside, and I kind of get that, although I must admit some seaside views are not that beautiful, if you ask me. People were interpreting it as something that was invasive to a moment of relaxation, which being on the beach with your family or friends really should be. Anyway, I suppose if you look at my data on LinkedIn, this is one of the most successful posts I've ever had. However, this is not really what my mission is. I want to promote the use of screens in a healthy way. I want screens to be understood as a medium that can be really powerful and useful rather than annoying people. So I'm gonna resist the urge to show you screens flying with drones. Okay, maybe this little bit. Have a look at that, it's quite fun. But my job is not to divide people's opinions and make them hate screens. I want to educate people. I want to promote really healthy screen usage, and I think they can be a real force for good. So I'm not gonna do many more videos like this, even if the statistics show me that it was a hit post. Doesn't matter.

Explore how Dubai is transforming construction sites into attractions with imaginative displays. Discover how this approach can inform and engage the public, setting a new standard in construction communication.

Innovative Construction Displays in Dubai

Only in Dubai would a construction site look this premium. I recently saw that the Dubai fountains were being closed for refurbishment but they've been very imaginative with the way that they have reconstructed the construction site. They've put a ring of screens all around it which are in themselves something worth looking at and visiting but also can be used potentially to inform customers as to what's going on in the location. I think this is really smart. I've actually seen a few of our own customers in construction use external facing screens to inform the public about what's happening and what's coming. So I fully support this. I think this is great. It's quite bling but that is Dubai and therefore I'm going to give this a four out of five. It would be a five if I saw any evidence of them just giving a bit more information to the people in front of the screens.

Explore how Puma flagship stores in America are transforming the retail experience using RFID technology. By integrating digital screens and interactive content, they create a unique, informative brand journey for customers.

Innovative In-Store Experience with RFID Technology

This digital shelf turns browsing into a brand experience. In Puma's flagship stores in America, they're using screens very elegantly as a backdrop to a shelf of their main shoe line. Now, this in itself isn't unusual. However, what they have done is then tie the shoes using RFID technology back to the content. So if you pick up a shoe, you will actually then see the qualities of that shoe and the specs of that shoe change on the screen. I really like that because it's actually useful. It's something that's happening in connection with the experience, and that is a key buying and decision-making moment. So other retail stores who've been using screens to be very flashy with their branding should take note of what Puma are doing and trying to take this experience further in their interactivity. I'm gonna give this a Science of Genius score of five. I've been very generous in this series, but actually I think some of the big retailers out there are stepping up. Let me know if you agree in the comments.

Discover how ScreenCloud's unique features enhance health and safety communication. From emergency alerts to air quality monitoring, learn how our platform supports compliance and informs employees effectively.

Innovative Health and Safety Solutions on ScreenCloud

So when you're considering your health and safety content, it really isn't that much different to any other type of content. It needs to be clear and easy to understand for anyone who is looking at it. However, on the ScreenCloud platform, we do have a couple of features which are uniquely built with health and safety in mind. Firstly, we have the emergency alert system. So this is where we use the CAP protocol to integrate into the system from your existing emergency alert platform to take over the screens and help direct and inform people on the ground when something happens. In addition to that, we have an app that we released late last year, which is an air quality app. In certain states in America, it's actually mandated that you record and report the air quality of the workplace. Now, obviously that's going to change multiple times during the day. So a screen makes a lot of sense. Our team's actually built an app that takes local air quality information. You just put your location into the app and it will record that on screen for you during the day. So you're compliant, but also more importantly, people know the environment that they're working in.

Discover how a Croatian bus stop uses live webcams to correct posture, transforming idle wait times into opportunities for physical improvement. This creative approach highlights the potential of digital signage to enhance everyday experiences when implemented with user consent.

Innovative Use of Digital Signage for Posture Correction

Walk past this screen and you'll leave two inches taller. In a recent Signs of Genius video, I praised TFL for having screens at all, but our friends in Croatia have taken this up a level. At a bus stop, they have a live webcam, which is correcting people's posture as they stand idly at the bus stop. I think this is brilliant. We all have idle time there. We're normally just doing scrolling on our phone anyway. So actually correcting people there and getting them into the right position, whilst they can actually benefit from it, because they may be there for five to ten minutes, is really, really good. I think assuming that this only comes on when a user has actually asked for it to come on, that would be a key condition for me. I don't think you should just randomly tell people they're standing incorrectly, but I really like this. It's creative, it's useful, it's timely, and it works in its environment because it's something you would probably consider practicing there and then. So this is excellent use of digital signage for me. I'm going to give that five out of five, so long as they're behaving themselves with user permission.

Discover how digital signage transforms safety communication. Learn from ScreenCloud's insights on reducing workplace incidents by 38% through effective information display.

Enhancing Safety with Digital Signage

A lot of customers and prospects come to us at ScreenCloud with the hope to make their environments safer by putting health and safety information up on screens. Now, this is a new way of working and probably something that they haven't done a huge amount of in the past. However, a team member at ScreenCloud recently shared with me this amazing statistic, that environments that were using digital signage to promote health and safety as a priority recorded 38% fewer incidents than before. That's quite compelling and I think is alone a good reason to get started. I've recently given another video explaining how this medium can help, so do check that out in the comments.

Explore why traditional print mediums for workplace safety are becoming obsolete in a digital age. Understand the benefits of shifting to digital solutions to engage a millennial and Gen Z workforce effectively.

Revolutionising Workplace Safety Through Digital Mediums

When it comes to workplace safety, we often will go in on a site visit and see posters on a wall or on a notice board talking about a degree of safety practice. This is really no longer the right medium for this, for a few reasons. Firstly, we're in a majority millennial and Gen Z workforce and this medium of print just doesn't really resonate with them and I think they're more likely to ignore it. Secondly, because it's been printed, it cannot really be personalised or changed. You're going to do a print run of thousands of the same thing, which means it's not specific to its location. If it was digital, of course it could be and therefore it would be much more relevant. And then I think we're also learning in a different way now. So if we don't have a digital medium where we can tell stories, we can show data, we can explain things in a much more rounded way than you can in just a few words and put this on a poster, then I think you're going to be much more effective. So really, it is time to retire the print and move to digital.

Discover how European supermarkets are revolutionising digital signage with creativity and interactivity. Learn about the UK's position in digital signage usage and how it compares to European counterparts.

Exploring Innovative Digital Signage in European Supermarkets

Step inside an Italian supermarket where the screens are as fresh as the produce. Did you know that in the world the UK ranks third in the number of screens used for digital signage behind America and China? Quite a long way behind but certainly ahead of other countries. However I'm not sure that's going to stay that same way for long. This summer I've been travelling around Europe and in Poland and in Italy, you'll see some examples here, I've seen some exceptional use of digital signage. Much better than I've seen in the large supermarket chains in the UK, although that might be changing soon. Now I was particularly impressed by the quality of the design, the thoughtfulness of the content, it was quite interactive, there was kiosks, there was also tips on how best to use the produce and everything felt very slick and very thought through. This experience was not alone, I continue to be impressed with how European countries are taking on digital signage and being extremely creative with it. If the UK is going to hold on to third place then it is time for us to match that in the way that we work and it is coming, we're seeing that with our customers now but I am really impressed with what I've seen on my holidays so I'm going to give that Sign of Genius score of five out of five. Well done to Conad.

Discover how effective preparation can transform your AI projects. Learn about leveraging prompt engineering to streamline your workflow and minimise repetitive tasks. Engage with innovative strategies for achieving AI excellence.

Mastering AI: Efficient Preparation Techniques

By failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail. With AI, it's all about the research and the upfront work that you do because the output comes out in seconds. You don't need to worry about that anymore. It used to be the majority of the work. So here's how I do it. I am someone who enjoys talking. Are you surprised? I will often then brain dump the situation, the idea, the project, and just record my voice on my computer. Now, this is not something you would ever want to hear back. I often disagree with myself. Sometimes I just don't say anything for 20 seconds. It's not about entertainment like these videos. It is about trying to get all of my thoughts out of my head. I then take the transcript, and I go into a prompt engineering project that I've built for myself, which will then listen to what I'm trying to do, and then AI itself will engineer for me the very best prompt it can do to help me. At that point, I go into a new chat with this fresh prompt, and we really get started. When I have finally got myself into a good position with what I'm trying to do, if the task is something I'll repeat in the future, I turn it into a project, and I hold all of that information in a project so I can easily come back and repeat the process again, but this time with almost no preparation work required because I've done all the preparation work before. So if you want to know more about those prompts and those projects, I'd be happy to share them with you. Just DM me or comment, and let's go and make some AI magic.

Explore how AI is revolutionising both office and frontline environments, particularly through robotics in manufacturing. Discover the changing dynamics and job implications in this evolving landscape.

Impact of AI on Frontline and Knowledge Workers

As you know, at ScreenCloud, we have focused on digital signage communication, particularly to frontline and deskless workers. So it's pertinent that we consider the impact of AI both in the office environment and the knowledge worker environment, but also on the frontline. Now, until recently, I would have said that it will impact the frontline much, much less than it will knowledge workers, and that's probably still true. However, we are now beginning to see the emergence of AI in robotics, and I have visited multiple manufacturing plants where they are heavily using robotics, and there's far fewer people working in those environments than you might think. When I have visited manufacturing environments, I am surprised to see how few people are there working on the ground because most of it is automated and is using robotics extensively. So although there's going to be a lot of new jobs created as we re-industrialize, as America is re-industrializing apace, it won't quite have the same numbers that it would have had back in the 1950s. So I think AI is ultimately going to impact everything, and on the frontline, I think we'll start to see that emerging in a few years' time. But first, it's going to be the people working on computers.

Discover how effective preparation transforms AI project outcomes. Learn about utilising prompt engineering and the benefits of recording initial ideas to optimise future projects. Engage with us for more insights into making AI magic happen.

Streamlining AI Projects: Efficient Preparation Techniques

By failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail. With AI, it's all about the research and the upfront work that you do because the output comes out in seconds. You don't need to worry about that anymore. It used to be the majority of the work. So here's how I do it. I am someone who enjoys talking. Are you surprised? I will often then brain dump the situation, the idea, the project, and just record my voice on my computer. Now, this is not something you would ever want to hear back. I often disagree with myself. Sometimes I just don't say anything for 20 seconds. It's not about entertainment like these videos. It is about trying to get all of my thoughts out of my head. I then take the transcript and I go into a prompt engineering project that I've built for myself, which will then listen to what I'm trying to do. And then AI itself will engineer for me the very best prompt it can do to help me. At that point, I go into a new chat with this fresh prompt and we really start to get started. When I have finally got myself into a good position with what I'm trying to do, if the task is something I'll repeat in the future, I turn it into a project. And I hold all of that information in a project so I can easily come back and repeat the process again, but this time with almost no preparation work required because I've done all the preparation work before. So if you want to know more about those prompts and those projects, I'd be happy to share them with you. Just DM me or comment and let's go and make some AI magic.

In this video, explore how integrating AI into daily processes has transformed work routines, shifting focus from execution to preparation. Learn about the benefits and challenges of collaborating with AI to optimise productivity.

Transforming Workflows with AI Collaboration

I've been working a lot with AI personally over the last year, and as a result, a lot of the processes I previously had have changed quite radically. The fundamental shift is that I now spend a lot more time preparing my content and researching my content and collaborating with AI on that, rather than actually doing the work of writing and executing and designing it. That happens very, very quickly because AI can handle that at speed. However, it doesn't produce great results if I don't do a lot of the preparation and thinking in advance. So I now have the same amount of time in a day, and I'm still as busy as I ever was, but I spend more time preparing and less time doing.

JD Sports has made a splash in Las Vegas with a stunning 3D screen installation. This visually impressive setup aligns with the youthful, fashion-forward audience, offering a unique retail experience in the city known for its vibrant displays.

JD Sports' Innovative Retail Experience in Las Vegas

In the City of Lights, JD Sports just stole some of the spotlight. Scrolling through social media, I came across a video of JD Sports in Las Vegas. They've clearly done a very impressive implementation of screens externally, and not just flat, they're actually 3D too, showing a huge amount of branding and latest products. This fits very well with the audience, which is likely to skew younger and towards more of a fashion trend. And it entices them to come in and enjoy a slightly different retail experience. Obviously, it fits that it's in Las Vegas, where there are screens everywhere as well. And this is probably a conditional of even having a shop there. But overall, I really like this. Well done to the way it was installed. And let's see if they can make it even more interactive in future. I'm giving this four out of five. Let me know what you think of the comments.

Explore how leading enterprises optimise their digital signage strategies by using strong content calendars and innovative screen applications. Discover the benefits of integrating live broadcasts to engage millennial and Gen Z workforces effectively.

Maximising Impact with Digital Signage Strategies

Without disclosing specific names and examples, I do have a few enterprise clients that we work with who are really nailing their digital signage strategy. Some of the tips that you could lift from this would include having a really strong content calendar. They plan out their digital signage, their evergreen content, which is usually automated and integrated into the sources of information, but also they run either quarterly or monthly campaigns that are measurable and impactful. They're thought about and considered from a screen point of view first, and therefore they have outsized returns. We've seen some amazing statistics coming back when they have measured them. The second group that comes to mind are the ones who stop thinking of screens as just a playlist of images and videos and start to actually try and push the envelope in terms of what's being deployed on those screens. Sometimes they're building their own applications and integrations just so specific to their business that it could only be for them. And they're seeing huge results from that because they know that this is going to make an impact inside. And there's one customer that comes to mind where their head of internal comms actually comes from broadcast media, and she has implemented a full broadcast system across all of the screen networks, joining up leadership with frontline workers using live broadcast, which ScreenCloud supplies, and also augmenting that with extra information to give it context. For the first time, the whole organization bears witness to what the leadership are actually saying, the company strategy and the direction. And this is happening live in a truly modern way. Now, when you consider that most of the workforce now are millennial and Gen Z, this actually would be a much more effective way of communicating to them rather than printing out a notice board and sticking up the five bullet points on the wall.

In this video, we explore the innovative idea of placing screens in unexpected locations, like urinals. Discover how dwell time can optimise advertising impact and consider how this technology could be applied in your environment.

Innovative Advertising: Screens in Unusual Places

This screen is really taking the piss. So an old friend of mine John sent me a humorous picture from Amsterdam where he was visiting of a screen embedded in a urinal in a men's toilet. Now there's obviously something quite funny about this but actually it is really impressive. One of the most important things about where you place a screen is dwell time and when you are taking a piss you have a certain amount of dwell time and downtime. The reality is these screens are going to be seen, you can guarantee that the person will be there for a while and that the message will almost certainly land. Whether it's the most appropriate setting for some content it probably isn't but when it comes to advertising this is probably going to work pretty well. It's also kind of cool that you can make screens that small and they are that versatile now and maybe that makes you think a little harder about where you could place screens in your environment. I think it is a sign of genius. I'm giving that four out of five. Without the toilet humor let me know in the comments.

Discover how ScreenCloud is transforming digital signage to focus on employee and student communications. By leveraging cloud-native and AI-first technologies, ScreenCloud is setting itself apart from traditional providers. Learn about the modernisation of technology in workplace communication.

Revolutionising Digital Signage with Cloud and AI

So it would be remiss of me to say that ScreenCloud is unique in having an enterprise digital signage offering. Obviously, that's not true. There is the incumbent market that has been around for almost 40 years now. The difference between them and us is really the emphasis of what those screens are being used for. Traditionally, digital signage has been used for commercial use cases. So that's retail, quick serve restaurants or outdoor advertising. This is what you already see every day. We focus on screens that communicate, employee and student facing screens. And that is a completely different set of requirements and use cases that you need to focus on. Linked to that is really the modernization of the tech stack. We are obviously going through a massive paradigm shift in technology with AI. Some of the incumbent providers are not even yet on cloud. We're obviously cloud native, the clue's in the name, but we're moving quickly towards cloud native and AI first. The incumbents will have quite a lot of technical debt to catch up on, and I don't think they'll catch us. And of the more modern enterprise offerings, you're probably looking now at the workplace communication space. These are great products, but they're multifaceted. They're not pure screen digital signage. They will often be an intranet product, a meeting room product, an entry system, an app, an email platform and more. Now, as we go through the era of AI transformation, they have to upgrade all of those products. We have to upgrade one. Who do you think is going to have the superior platform?

Discover the latest upgrade to the iconic London Red Bus. The new screens offer more information and potential for enhanced user experience. Share your thoughts on this innovative change.

London Red Bus: A 21st Century Upgrade

The world-famous London Red Bus just got a 21st century upgrade. I was recently riding home on the bus in South London and I noticed there had been an upgrade to the screen from those very very straightforward looking text-only versions to actual screens. Now, although this doesn't look that amazing yet, it is more informative and gives a canvas to the network to do more. So I thoroughly applaud the rollout and I think that there is loads of potential in this. I'm giving this a Science of Genius score of 4 out of 5. Let me know what you think.

With the rise of online shopping, high street retail needs to reinvent itself using clever technology. This video explores innovative solutions like virtual try-ons that could redefine the traditional shopping experience.

Can Technology Revitalise the High Street Retail Experience?

The high street may be dying, but can technology bring it back? I think it would be fair to say that retail does need to reinvent itself in the modern era. A lot of more people are shopping online, and therefore the use of our physical retail space has come under question. Now, there's still a role here for retail environments to play. And if they use clever technology like this, a screen where someone could actually try on the clothes outside of the shop and see themselves on it. I think they might be onto something. There is a fine line between making technology actually helpful and gimmicky. I think this errs a little bit towards the gimmick. But that said, I'm probably not the target audience for this. And this may become increasingly common and a simpler way to try things on without having to physically go in, ask and do it. So I consider this to be quite a sign of genius. I'm giving it three out of five. What do you think?

Discover the creative merger of art and technology at Schiphol Airport with a unique clock installation. This masterpiece by a local artist uses screen technology to transform the concept of time-telling into an engaging and artistic experience.

Innovative Art and Technology Fusion at Schiphol Airport

It's about time that art and technology merged. If you were passing through Schiphol airport in Amsterdam you may well see a man trapped inside a large clock painting on the hands of the time. Now no he's not serving some bizarre prison sentence this is in fact the work of a local artist who filmed himself painting on every single minute of the hour and then using screens and technology to turn that into a constant piece of art to show people the time in a super creative way. Now I absolutely love this I think it's a really innovative use of screen technology and I imagine that it catches most people out when they see it and they certainly will walk away knowing what the time is. So I'm going to give this a huge five out of five signs of genius score. What do you think?

In this video, we explore the challenges facing the digital signage industry, from the lack of common standards to the barriers posed by traditional business models. Discover how collaboration and innovation can drive the industry forward.

Why Digital Signage Needs Industry Standards

I recently saw a post on LinkedIn by Lee Dido where he said digital signage is dead. He wasn't talking about the technology, he was talking about us as an industry. And a lot of the points that he made resonated with me. I think that he might be being a little bit too pessimistic, but if we were to unpack it, the main problem with digital signage is, why isn't it already bigger? Why do most people outside of our industry not even know what the term means? Often people thought it was to do with signing a PDF online. Now, we see screens everywhere, we know screens work, people want to use screens, and it's certainly much more modern than putting bits of paper on a notice board. But it is fair to say that our industry is still in a cottage state. I think that there are a couple of big reasons for this. Firstly, the industry has not come up with a common set of standards. This means that in every project or with every bit of hardware, we are starting from scratch. If you look at the web industry, where I came from previously, over time, standards were made. Open source projects were put out there, and everyone adopted the same terminology and the same ways of working, and that lifted the whole industry up. And look how that's flown. I think that as a digital signage industry, we do need to get together and collaborate more, even if we are competitive. The second big problem I see is in the business model. The vast majority of digital signage projects are sold through the channel. Now, I do not have a problem with the channel per se, I think there is a lot of value there. But if you're a smaller company with a smaller budget, the likelihood of you having a channel-ready project is unlikely. This means that you have to have a large capex and a big project in order to be taken seriously. And for most people just starting out, they don't have that. There isn't a line item for digital signage in most budgets. I've mentioned that in a previous video. So companies like ScreenC

Exploring the ethical implications of technology in influencing behaviour, this video analyses a case of public shaming in China and discusses potential positive applications in workplace safety. It challenges viewers to reconsider how tech can be used responsibly.

Evaluating Tech's Role in Behaviour Modification

Sometimes technology takes things a little too far. So I saw a recent post on X about how a Chinese screen implementation was working on a busy road crossing. Effectively, if pedestrians were jaywalking, the screen showed pictures of them and shamed them in a way of maybe getting them to conform to more safe behavior. Now, I think it's pretty obvious that that is way overstepping the mark and most people would find this authoritarian and creepy. It doesn't matter so much in China, but it certainly would matter in the West. However, beyond obviously just saying that that feels wrong, there is something in this as an idea. If you are in real time observing unsafe behavior, say in a workplace that could and should influence the content that goes up on screen. Now naming and shaming might not actually be that productive in terms of helping people, it might even make them double down. But what if you could see that people were, for example, regularly not putting on health and safety goggles and hats, and that started to influence a higher frequency of explanations as to why this was the right thing to do to try and influence that behavior back in. So obviously, I'm going to give this a very low zero out of five score for the implementation. But in terms of the idea and how this could be better implemented, I'll give it a three. And if I saw a good implementation, I'll give a four or five. So that's my signs of genius score. Let me know in the comments what you think

Discover a clever tip shared by our Chief Customer Officer on how vertical screens can prevent misuse at the workplace. Learn how a unique approach to screen orientation can enhance employee engagement and optimise content presentation.

Creative Use of Vertical Screens in the Workplace

So I was talking with Jane, our Chief Customer Officer, and she told me this amazing story that a customer was actually using vertical-oriented screens, but not because it was fitted to a pillar, which is normally the case. It was actually to stop employees from turning the screen into a TV, because TV is in a horizontal 69 format, and vertically, it just doesn't fit and look good. So I thought this was a really clever tip. In addition to that, I actually think vertical screens look really great. We recently did an employee challenge at a hair studio with a vertical screen, and I thought the outcome of that was excellent. So if your employees are considering hijacking the screens for sports or entertainment, maybe just consider turning it round and designing your content that way as well.

Exploring an innovative advertising method using projections in train tunnels, this video discusses the future of digital signage and its integration with environments. Discover how this technology might revolutionise advertising strategies.

Innovative Advertising in Underground Train Tunnels

We've seen adverts on platforms and in tube carriages, but what about in the tunnels? I recently saw a video of an underground train in Prague that was showing a continuous advert by projecting onto the wall of the tunnel as the train went from station to station. Thought this was a really innovative idea and a great use of screens without actually having a screen. It's my firm belief that the screens in digital signage will begin to mould and meld with the environment in which they're in and these black boxes on the wall will no longer be needed. That doesn't change the mission of what we do. And I think this is a great example of how that might evolve. So I genuinely think this is a sign of genius. I'm going to give this a five. What do you think?

Explore how screens in manufacturing environments can improve health and safety by delivering timely and location-specific messages. Learn about integrating signage with emergency alert systems and the psychology behind effective safety communications.

Enhancing Workplace Safety with Strategic Screen Use

Health and safety content is one of the key use cases for screens in manufacturing. We are always trying to prevent slips, trips and falls. They affect productivity. But more importantly, we want a safe working environment, not just for the employees, but we have to consider their families as well. A poor health and safety record is a huge risk for a big employer. So screens do play a role here. One of the things I like about using signage in that environment is that we know that when the person sees the screen, where they actually are. Giving the right message just before they go out on shift is more likely to influence behaviour than sending them an email or a notification when you don't know where they'll be. We can also make the messaging very location specific. This will make it more relevant, more memorable and may just change a small piece of behaviour when people go out and consider taking a shortcut just to try and get something done a bit faster. ScreenCloud also integrates with all major emergency alert systems. So whether that be extreme weather or fire or gas leaks or anything else, we can immediately take over all of those screens and guide people back to safety. There's also a lot of subtle psychology you can use in your health and safety messaging. If you can make your message rhyme, it will be more memorable. And if you're talking about wearing a hard hat, show a picture of someone in the hard hat. It's a bit more suggestive. There's lots of tips and tricks that we can help you with. If you'd like to find out more, please get in touch.

As countries re-industrialise, effective communication within manufacturing is crucial. Learn how technology, particularly screens, can enhance employee engagement and safety in this evolving industry.

Enhancing Communication in Modern Manufacturing

So it's fairly clear that most countries are re-industrialising and bringing critical manufacturing back onto their own shores. We're going to see a boom in this industry and technology is going to play a vital role. However, what is crucial is that we can also communicate to those teams effectively as well. Often when I visit manufacturing plants, I'm seeing bits of paper on old notice boards, workers who don't have access to email or any other IT login. And this is where we think screens play a key role. Now, some of the challenges here is getting the actual content mix correct, especially if we haven't been communicating effectively before. We need a blend of employee engagement, job opportunities, training, recognition, and even functional information like rotors, shifts and when trucks are arriving. In addition, we need to give these workers data. They need to understand how their shift is performing and what's happening next, so they can make informed decisions on the line. And lastly, we need to keep everyone safe. These are dangerous environments and health and safety is absolutely paramount if we're going to look after our teams and be efficient and responsible companies. ScreenCloud works a lot in the manufacturing sector. We have learned a huge amount about the do's and don'ts. So if you're interested to hear more, please get in touch.

Explore the challenges of outdated screen technology and the importance of remote device management. Discover how modern solutions can enhance digital displays and reduce operational costs.

Transforming Digital Screens: From Disappointment to Delight

So why have screens been digitally disappointing in the past? Well, firstly, I think that they haven't been sufficiently updated. The firmware is very rarely updated on the screen, and normally to update it, you have to buy a new one. The embedded browsers installed on screens are also out of date and rarely get updates. So modern web technology just does not work on the screens. In addition to that, there's many different points of failure. Often the screen may be on and connected to the internet and think it's working fine, but not displaying the content that it should be, but it doesn't know. And finally, we haven't had sufficiently strong remote device management or RDM tools to enable IT teams to control these screens and fix them over the air, through the cloud, and not have to go out for expensive site visits, sometimes at $800 per visit. That mounts up pretty quickly. So there's multiple factors at play here, but ultimately we need to switch digital disappointment to digital delight.

Discover how the Elizabeth line in London is revolutionising digital signage with dynamic, context-aware displays. This video explores the advantages of personalised information for travellers and how it enhances the commuting experience.

Innovative Digital Signage on London's Elizabeth Line

TfL said mind the gap, but clearly they didn't mind the gap between basic digital signage and this masterclass. So I was recently riding on the relatively new Elizabeth line in London and I was actually very impressed with the digital signage that they had. It was a combination of advertising content, information content, and of course dynamic content relating to the arriving trains and their destinations. I like that the experience continues on the train and is dynamic based on the station that you're stopping, giving relevant information to the travelers. Now you might think this all sounds rather basic, but look around the transportation that you go on every day. Most of it is completely static, maps that include every line, not just the line you're on, and certainly not personalized to where you are. If you're new to the city or unfamiliar, it can be extremely confusing. I'm really glad to see TfL using screens in this way. I give the Elizabeth line digital signage five out of five. You've done our old Queen proud. I think this is a sign of genius. Let me know if you agree in the comments below.

Discover how Rain's rain jacket store uses cutting-edge technology to captivate customers and differentiate itself. By wrapping its storefront with interactive screens, the store creates a unique brand experience that stands out in a traditional market.

Innovative Storefronts: Embracing Curiosity and Technology

When your store forecast says 100% chance of innovation with showers of curiosity. On LinkedIn I saw a post by Corral where he made a video of the Rain's rain jacket clothing store who do screens very cleverly to wrap around their storefront and immerse customers in their brand and their main use case. Now obviously what I like about this is it's very much on brand. I suppose it does compete somewhat with the British weather which may also be raining at the time. Additionally it certainly makes the customer curious about what's inside. It deliberately doesn't show any product. A high risk strategy but I guess it would make me go in and check out what's going on. And thirdly in a category where some of their competitors have been around for a hundred years they make their brand stand out as being innovative by making the shop front technology first from the outset. I give Rain's store a four out of five score. This is a sign of genius for me. What do you think?

ScreenCloud has developed Pixi, a low-cost device that offers comprehensive remote management capabilities for digital signage. This ensures consumer-friendly pricing without compromising on functionality, making it ideal for managing extensive networks.

Revolutionising Remote Device Management with Pixi

So as you might be aware, ScreenCloud has been working on low-cost devices for the last 10 years. Now, most of these devices were intended for consumer use. So this means they didn't come with full features for digital signage. Now, if you're just running a few screens, that wasn't a huge problem. But today, people want to remotely device manage every single device on their network. Pixi enables that. We will have full remote device management capabilities from the outset with this device and we'll be improving and adding more over time. So you still have that consumer price point, but with a lot more functionality.

Discover how ScreenCloud's Employee Challenge offers small businesses in London and Charlotte an opportunity to benefit from free digital signage strategy development. Our team members gain hands-on experience by helping you optimise your content strategy, while you enjoy the advantages of our digital signage solutions.

Enhance Your Business with ScreenCloud's Employee Challenge

Calling all small businesses, at least those in London and Charlotte. At ScreenCloud, when we onboard new members of the team, I want them to get really hands-on with digital signage, not just the ScreenCloud product, but also digital signage in general, and helping customers with their content strategy. So we invented the Employee Challenge. This is where we take a small business, it could be a school, a small shop, a little office, or whatever it might be, and we give them ScreenCloud for free. We'll supply media players and ScreenCloud licenses all they have to do is have the screens all ready, and one of the team will come in and deploy and develop a full digital signage strategy for you as part of their training in joining the company. Now, not all members of our team know a small business that they can go and help, so this is where you come in. If you would like to be involved in the ScreenCloud Employee Challenge, there's gonna be some information in the comments below, and it would really help out a ScreenClouder.

This light-hearted video explores the quirky use of screens in social media. While not a long-term strategy, it's sure to capture attention and be widely shared online. What do you think of this creative approach?

Screens That Bite Back: A Fun Social Media Phenomenon

I have proof that when screens bite back, nobody is safe. So while scrolling through social media, I came across this video. It's a bit of fun. It's a bit silly. I hope the guy is okay and hasn't bruised his bum. But I do like this use of screens. It's kind of fun. It's a bit quirky. It's probably not what I would call a long term strategy, but it certainly will get attention for the venue and it will be heavily shared on the internet. As you can already see, it has been. So I will give this a signs of genius score of three out of five. What do you think?

Explore the clever use of interactivity in public spaces as seen at Manchester Piccadilly train station. A creative QR voting system engaged fans in a fun debate over Manchester's football allegiance.

Interactive Screen Strategy at Manchester Piccadilly

Manchester will always be red. Sorry, City fans, Bertie is not blue enough for this screen. This was seen at the Manchester Piccadilly train station following a football match. Now, some will argue it was all the Man United fans going back to London, but I thought this was quite a clever screen strategy where they asked people to vote via QR code to show whether the city was red or blue. So, it's a bit of fun. Clearly, the United fans are more engaged, more technically adept, and better looking. They can't even fill their stadium, let alone get people to vote on screen. So, clearly, the United fans were heavily engaged. I love interactivity with screens. I love people thinking a little bit more creatively in how they use screens. So, I will give this a Signs of Genius score of five out of five, because, obviously, I'm a United fan as well. If you disagree, let me know in the comments.

Explore the 2025 product roadmap of ScreenCloud, featuring innovative solutions like the Pixy Android device and an AI-infused content management system. Discover how these advancements aim to transform your content and enhance integration with popular services.

Exciting 2025 ScreenCloud Product Roadmap Unveiled

So on the ScreenCloud product roadmap for 2025, we have three big, exciting things coming your way. Firstly, the low-cost Pixy Android device with full remote device management. Secondly, in early summer, there'll be a big unveiling of our vision for a feeds-first, AI-infused content management system, how we can transform all of your content into beautiful screen content. Look out for that, it's gonna be super exciting. And then along the way, we'll be improving the platform, and of course, we'll continue to integrate with the services you use the most, like monday.com, ServiceNow, and the Microsoft product suite.

Explore how Pixee addresses the crucial need for secure, modern, and affordable web-based digital signage solutions. Discover how Pixee ensures a seamless experience for its customers by delivering on key promises.

Enhancing Digital Signage with Pixee's Secure Solutions

The most important Pixee pain point is to provide our customers with a really secure and up-to-date modern web-based digital signage experience at an affordable price point. Pixee delivers on all of those.

Discover how our team is revolutionising digital signage solutions for retailers and offices. With over 10,000 customers, we're committed to enhancing screen communication and pushing boundaries in technology for the next decade.

Innovating Digital Signage for Retailers and Offices

The devs have been working on an interesting technology hack, and we think that there might be something interesting here, probably for retailers, large offices with multiple screens. It was exactly 10 years today that my co-founder, David, and I first publicly spoke about screen cloud, a prototype digital signage product that Luke, our other co-founder, and the team were building. We're trying to make it better, or easier, to connect up multiple screens and push content to them. So, in this case, we're looking to push HTML5 content, because that gives us the greatest variety of things we could then do with said screens, and really looking at a whole range of devices, from phones and tablets, computer screens, to just smart, inverted commas, because they're really not that smart when you get under the hood, TVs, and we think that there might be something interesting here, probably for retailers, large offices with multiple screens, and even small offices as well, I mean, just really any kind of company or retailer that's trying to get messages out there, and also maybe control them from the central point. So, definitely looking a little bit older, and certainly a bit wiser when it comes to digital signage. Developing that product was way harder than we could ever have imagined, but it's also been incredibly fulfilling. We have over 10,000 customers, a fantastic team of over 100 people, and every single day we get up and continue to innovate the platform and try and bring that vision to life. We're focused these days more on screens that communicate, this is a huge passion, and this year we want to educate our customers even more so they can get the most of those screens in their environment. So, we're excited for the next 10 years.

3D screens in Tokyo, like the floating cat in Shinjuku, are visually striking but often gimmicky. While they attract initial interest, their practical effectiveness as signage is limited due to location constraints and the need for prolonged viewing. This video explores their role as PR tools rather than functional displays.

The Gimmick of 3D Screens in Tokyo's Urban Landscape

Tokyo has 3D pandas, lions and Nike shoes, but first Shinjuku had a floating cat. So we've put this one in here just to trigger Dave Haynes. He absolutely hates these 3D screens and to be honest he has a point. These screens are quite gimmicky. On first look everyone likes them but over time they just become slightly annoying and slightly odd if they're trying to shock people or scare people who are passing by. So generally this is really more of a PR gimmick that people may share online. Actually as a screen and a sign in its environment they're not really very effective. One of the problems is also you have to be standing in a certain location and you have to give it quite a lot of time, usually an area where you're trying to walk past quite quickly. So these are probably better shared on the internet and wowed than actually what they really do in real life. My screen score is 2 out of 5. Sorry Kitty. Is this a sign of genius? I don't think so but let me know in the comments.

Discover how London's top pub revolutionised its kitchen operations through digital transformation. By integrating screens into their process, they have optimised order handling while maintaining a human touch. Their choice to avoid AI highlights their commitment to leveraging experience over technology.

London Pub's Digital Transformation Success Story

How does London's most popular pub handle all those orders? For every kitchen I've worked in, they're all paper driven tickets. Yeah. We built a screen system. When an order comes in, it goes to a specific place in the kitchen and they crack on. So it's not a conventional kitchen where you've got someone calling the order out. Yeah, we should. Wow. This is a small business, although a very successful business, and they have totally digitally transformed their operations. So going from a paper-based system and a Yes Chef into digital transformation with screens, I mean, that's very impressive to begin. The kitchen will fire that when the mains away. You will see that the chef will see that on the screen. Yeah, he'll fire it. That appears on the screen. Lobster. Lobster goes on. The second thing I like here is that they have infused the technology with their many, many years of delivery and experience. They've thought a lot about the timing and ordering of these processes. They haven't just said, all right, technology can handle that and forgotten about it. They've really put a lot of human thought and experience into making this just perfect. Does that have like AI involved? No, thank God, probably. That would have been harder. If you put in time, this should take this long. So therefore, yeah. And you sit in a room with the company and there's like about 10 screens up there and you start putting through these orders. And it's, I tell you, it's pretty challenging. Lastly, they rejected AI. And personally, I think that's brilliant. At the moment, AI isn't really proven in things like this. And I'm glad that they leaned on their own experience and didn't just hand off to technology without thinking much further. So good job, guys. It's very hard to find fault with this. The one thing I would say is I didn't pick up in the video if there was any way of acknowledging or overriding the system. They probably have thought of that. So I'm going to give them the benefit of th

Join the ScreenCloud team as they gather in Thailand for a week-long deep dive into their product roadmap. Discover how they are innovating to serve the digital signage market in 2025 and beyond, and learn about the collaborative process that fuels their creativity and execution.

Collaborative Product Planning at ScreenCloud

So as you may know, at ScreenCloud, we have hubs all around the world. In January, I spent several weeks out in Thailand with the product and engineering team, and we also brought a substantial part of our Belfast engineering team over as well. For one week together, we did a deep dive into the product roadmap. We spent extensive time together, all in one room, going over our roadmap and all of our backlog of features that we've been working on, and coming up with new ideas for how we're going to serve the digital science market in 2025 and beyond. There is nothing better than getting everyone around together for several days to go really deep on this subject. It fires everyone up, the imagination goes really wild, and we came up with some amazing ideas, and now it's about execution time.

A detailed review of the information screens aboard the Heathrow Express, discussing their design, functionality, and areas for improvement. The discussion includes live updates, design transitions, and specific content for passengers.

Review of Heathrow Express Onboard Information Screens

This was once the most expensive train line in Britain but do the screens live up to the cost? As you can see these screens have been professionally designed both in portrait and landscape mode by clearly a very talented graphic design team so they're winning there as well as those calls to action so you can get online and take advantage of those shopping offers or more information. The other thing with these screens is they do contain live updates of connecting trains so that when you arrive at Paddington you know if the trains you're connecting to are on time and where to go. Now it's not completely perfect but what is? So I think the transitions between the content are a little clunky where it goes to black screen I'd look for a transition there just to make it feel more smooth and in addition it's not just trains that people get from Paddington it's also the tube so is that running well? Is there congestion in the area? I think you could have a little bit more of a transport update. The last thing I do like is that as you pull into the station the content changes and you know that you're arriving now and the information gets very specific about what to do next. Overall I think these screens are very well done. My screen score for Heathrow Express is four out of five. Is this a sign of genius? Let me know in the comments.

Exploring how minimalist design in workplace recognition screens can drive real-life interactions. Learn why less information can lead to more meaningful engagement.

The Power of Minimalist Recognition at Work

This is interesting, isn't it? Because you could argue, looking at this, that the slide on the right with the extra text is, in fact, celebrating Rebecca better, right? Because it's trying to, like, although the words itself actually don't really say that much, it's attempting to explain why she's employee of the month. Whereas on the left, it's just sort of acknowledging that. Yet we know for a fact that the left one will be more impactful. And why is that? It's because the screen itself doesn't have to be the answer. Like, what we're really trying to do with this screen is, well, one, when Rebecca sees that, I'm sure she'll feel that recognition that I was talking about earlier that I felt when I walked into the lobby of my customer. But actually, what we're trying to do is prompt people in real life to go and have an experience with her. So if they see her, you know, in a cafeteria, to sort of maybe acknowledge, hey, well done, or maybe even share on why I feel you've done so great. Because Rebecca does a lot of things for a lot of people, right, and so, you know, if you celebrate one thing on the screen, you might actually be missing a lot of the other things that she does that you weren't aware of. So it doesn't have to be a one and done answer. It's about trying to trigger moments and trigger things to happen in real life. And therefore, we don't need to share everything. And in fact, in this case, people are much less likely to remember or engage with the content on the right because they don't, they actually understand it less because it involves a lot of effort in reading that text.

Discover innovative ways to make workplace communication more interactive and engaging. From safety trivia to creative weather forecasts, explore how companies are transforming traditional content into shared cultural experiences.

Creating Engaging Workplace Content

And I love what Kimberly just posted here, what she's saying that they've been posting safety trivia questions specific to their industry, and employees love it. So they potentially, it's a dry topic, making it interesting and engaging. And actually, I saw a picture from another customer visit yesterday, where they were doing onscreen polls, just asking people, you know, even just like, like, it doesn't always have to be kind of too serious. It's just, you know, asking people about what they're wearing for Halloween and things like that and stuff like that. It shows that this is a medium that is fluid, and you can be experimental with how you do this. And you, you know, you don't have to think of it like a poster anymore. It can be interactive, it can be more engaging. So I really like what Kimberly was saying there. Yeah, I can give a few examples that I think really show that just a little bit of thought. Some of my favorite screen content, I had one utilities company that, obviously the weather is very important, but instead of showing the weather every day, what they did is they superimposed their main weather guy in the company in front of an image. They just literally had, I think his name was George or Graham. So every day it was Graham in front of snow or Graham in some bizarre photograph. And honestly, it just got people talking about, where's Graham today? And it literally was just a weather forecast. Another one was for a large shipping company. So people are really, really distributed firms, organizations, people just sending in sunrises and sunsets in different locations around the world. And it's striking content that drives people. It doesn't achieve a communication benefit, but it achieves this cultural benefit that your workplace is something that everyone shares and everyone, everywhere someone wants to be. And I'll give you my favorite one though. My very favorite piece of screen content was just the celebration when the Belfast hub defeated the L

Exploring the potential effects of AI on workforce requirements, especially in developing countries. Discusses how AI could reduce the need for large teams, but also highlights the opportunities for upskilling and innovation.

AI's Impact on Workforce and Outsourcing

I think with AI, it means that the negative part of AI is you're not going to need as many people, right? So that's probably quite bad for developing countries. I mean, I think it's super interesting, say, in Nigeria, it's having a population explosion, there's a lot of talent there, time zone is quite good. This could be its time. But then it might be that actually you don't need 100 people, you just need 10 who really understand how to use AI very, very well. And so that might be a bit of a negative to people trying to get into the industry. So we'll see. Yeah, I suppose to a degree, AI might become your outsource. You know, if you know what you're doing, you have the skills to do it. But I think in technology, we forget that we are still the minority, right? You know, out in the real world, there are not that many people who really know how to code, there are not that many people really confident with building web products. And so even if they had AI to do it for them, they wouldn't even know where to begin. So I think there's many, many, many problems that need to be solved. And some of the problems are really small problems that don't warrant a whole SaaS product. But if someone was available to kind of just use AI to spin up and build a product, we've actually done it recently in ScreenCloud. We had one of our customer success team build an app on top of ScreenCloud for an events company in two weeks. And one of our front end developers helped a bit. But the majority of the code was developed through AI and prompting. He's a technical minded guy, but he's not a developer. I think that's pretty cool. Where that affects outsourcing, you're definitely going to need less people. So possibly that's a problem. But then I also think that people who are coming from kind of up and coming countries, they're pretty resourceful, and they're not dumb, like they're going to see that this AI is happening. So right now, maybe they're upskilling themselves on how to use AI and

This video explores the potential of global tech talent, particularly in Eastern Europe and South America. It highlights the benefits of embracing diverse skills and the educational systems that foster technical expertise.

Embracing Global Tech Talent in Outsourcing

I haven't really, like, obviously, I can't talk about every region in the world because I don't have experience. Like, obviously, there's a vast amount of tech talent in India, for example, and we actually have very, quite a large number of Indian nationals working in our Bangkok team, but I've never had a team in India. So I don't know. I mean, I know it's pretty big and stuff like that. I've obviously had experience in Ukraine through personal relationships. I've also experienced teams in Bulgaria. I think there's a very interesting kind of Eastern European skill, like, range there. And I think a lot of that comes from a much more sort of rigorous academic upbringing, especially in maths and science, which we don't have so much in the UK and America, I think. So I think that there's just people are naturally kind of, like, more technically minded because of the way that they're educated. I think the education system in the East, from what I can tell, and I think I can talk to that relatively, you know, as an outsider, I'm very impressed, like, and I wish we had more of that here. I wish we had more emphasis on science and key skills like maths, which we let go way too easily. I think there's just obvious talent there. And then, you know, I think you've also got to be honest. It's like, it's coming from countries where, like, you know, this is a very good route towards making more money, right? That is useful and powerful. And I think IT outsourcing is quite possible. There's other skills that wouldn't be so easy to outsource, such as sales, right, for example. So yeah, I guess Eastern Europe lends itself to that. I'm hearing a lot of US companies having great success in South America, Latin America, but like, I mean, I can only really talk from my own experiences, but I think the world is full of much more talent than maybe a lot of the West realizes. And I think being able to kind of embrace that, I think it's good for everyone if we really embrace the talent tha

Screens are often unreliable, posing challenges in using them as a communication channel. Despite improvements, recent issues highlight the need for better collaboration between software and hardware vendors to enhance reliability.

Addressing Screen Reliability in IT

Okay, so if we're honest with ourselves as an industry, screens are seriously unreliable. Do you know of any other IT in your world that fails with the same frequency that you see broken screens, black screens, blue screens of death out in the world? It's crazy, right? And that probably is why screens are not being used as a reliable communication channel as much as I think they should. We have to work really tightly as software vendors, with hardware vendors, and it is improving. It is a lot better today than it was 10 years ago. But obviously over the summer, we've seen the CrowdStrike issues and my error messages of the week show you that this is still a big problem that we really need to solve. If we're going to build faith and trust from people that screens should be used and won't just cause IT a massive extra headache, the reality is screens are really unreliable and we need to get better at this.

Many architects design modern spaces with screens but often overlook their practical use. This video discusses the gap between planning and execution phases in workplace environments, focusing on the effective utilisation of screens from day one.

Optimising Screen Use in Modern Environments

So, I'm not 100% sure if I'm right about this, but this is just a hot take and a hot guess, which on the internet these days means that I'm definitely sure. Architects draw out their plans for modern environments and buildings, and they put screens up, but they never really think further down the line exactly how is that screen going to be used, who's going to be used by, what is the point of this screen. They're just putting it up there to make the space feel modern, and then really it's someone else's problem down the line. And in fairness to them, that is really, they're brought in at the planning stage, at the early stages, but I'm not so sure at what point in that execution that people do start to think about these things, because I go into so many workplace environments that have all of these screens, and they're just blank, or they're showing cable news, which if you've seen one of my earlier videos, you'll know is not a good idea. So, there is a missing point in the chain between the planning and ideation phase of a new building or new environment, and then when people move in and have to take on that environment, where they probably need to think a little bit earlier about how they're going to be using screens, and get ahead of the problem so that on launch day, day one, they're actually using screens properly.

Exploring the practicality of using USB sticks for digital signage, this video discusses their reliability and cost-effectiveness. While limited in functionality, USB sticks prove to be a dependable choice for those starting out in digital signage.

USB Sticks: A Viable Option for Digital Signage?

I actually think USB sticks for digital signage are not a terrible option. Why do I think that? Well, we encounter many customers who are already using screens and digital signage, but powered by a USB stick, which is obviously limited. It can only show images and videos looping around, and it's really hard to update. It's not internet connected. But first of all, they've proved out their use case. They've got the content up there. They know it's working and they want to take it further, which is why they've engaged ScreenCloud to help them take this to the next level. The other thing is USB sticks don't fail. They work 100% of the time. They're super reliable and incredibly cheap. So your digital signage is never going to be black screen, blue screen, error screen, or anything like that, which actually bringing software into it will make it more complex and give it more points of failure. So if I was starting out with digital signage and just wanted to prove that it really could make an impact, I don't think using USB sticks is a terrible idea at all.

In this video, we explore the potential of optimising digital signage by considering varied audiences throughout different times of the day and week. The discussion highlights the importance of tailoring content to specific groups, like retail customers and staff, to enhance relevance and engagement.

Reimagining Digital Signage for Diverse Audiences

So should we moderate the use of screens? It's quite fashionable right now for people to monitor their screen time and try and reduce that. And to be honest, I think society could probably benefit from that. Should we apply that to digital signage as well? Well, unsurprisingly, I think no. The reason is that content up in digital signage is usually in the background. It's not taking our attention away from other things. It's really there to populate the environment with extra information. What I think we could do better is not fatiguing the same content as much. So maybe we should start thinking more about the different types of audience that are there at different times of the day, how that evolves over a week, or if that's even seasonal. An example might be in retail. The screens are there very much for the customers, but the customers are not there all the time. So when there's cleaning staff or teams on the ground who are restocking and things like that, should we then repurpose those screens to talk to those people and not just continue to show the customer information on an endless playlist? So I think we can be smarter in thinking about the audiences we're reaching and when we're reaching them, which by its very nature would mean that not everyone is looking at the screens all the time because they're not so relevant to them. But I don't think we have to worry about screen time in general because it's really in the background.

Discover how the Middle East is leading the way in futuristic city developments with ambitious digital signage projects. Learn about the challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving market.

Exploring Future Cities: Digital Signage in the Middle East

So I was recently listening to a podcast interview hosted by Dave Haynes of 16.9, the digital signage industry blog, and Nita Odedra from Blue Rhine Industries. And she's a strategy director. Now, they're based in Dubai and work across all of the Middle East region. This stood out to me because I was actually born in Dubai and grew up in Dubai and also in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. But that was a long time ago, too long. A few things jumped out to me from the interview. Firstly, I've talked a bit in the past about when we are imagining workplaces and environments of the future, we often look to cinema and TV and science fiction to visualize what these environments might look like. But actually out in the Middle East, a lot of these are already being built today. So we're seeing cities of the future being built before our very eyes. And the good news for me, at least, is that they love screens. So here the market is a little bit different because we've got so many project development that are new. They're trying to do things different. You know, you've got cylinder LCDs, we've got pillars being clad, etc. They do have this pride in trying to put developments out there that are new, ambitious, something that is the largest. So yes, you know, that is there. And what that means is sometimes it comes with a bit of flash and you've got all bells, all whistles kind of installations for screens. And Dubai Mall is an example where I think that's the largest indoor screen in Dubai Mall. And you'll have other ones coming up in the next couple of years trying to beat that, I'm sure. So if you want to see future trends for our cities, I would advise going to take a trip. But she also highlighted some of the challenges they face. The biggest challenge she mentioned was that often the screens will be delayed because the whole building is delayed. Now, out in the UK and America where we normally work, the buildings we're operating in already exist and we just have to put the screens u

The digital signage industry remains heavily hardware-driven despite advancements in technology. This video explores how the industry has slowly evolved and the increasing consumer expectation for digital solutions.

Evolving the Digital Signage Industry

Yeah, well, in many ways, I'd say the digital signage industry hasn't evolved that much. And strangely, like, it's very similar to the industry that I kind of came into and sort of wanted to disrupt a little bit. And I don't mean this in an aggressive way. I think that digital signage evolved out of the audio visual industry, right? So it's not web developers that started this, because back in the day, that absolutely wasn't possible. It was very much a hardware driven industry. And still, if you look at it, if you go to the trade shows, it's still very much a hardware driven industry. And they're not talking about really about web content. It's more like internet connected screens, a bit of web content. But it's not really truly embraced digital, which is surprising, given what it is. And so I don't think things have moved on as much as I'd like. What I have seen change, I think, one, people understand digital signage. When I first started, I say digital signage, people like, oh, is that like signing, you know, Adobe contracts, like, you know, DocuSign or whatever. It's like, no, no, no, it's screens. They're like, oh, all right. Okay. So I think it wasn't very aware. And I think most people sort of know about it now. And I think the other thing is, in our lives as consumers, we are seeing screens absolutely everywhere. But it's in retail, outdoor advertising, quick serve restaurants like McDonald's walk on full screen, airports, anything, transportation. So I think as consumers, we are seeing screens like proliferate all around us. And screens actually, the cost of a screen over the last 25 years has really dropped out. It's super affordable to have just a screen. So I think that people are seeing the use of screens more in their lives. And they're kind of expecting a modern environment would have screens in it. And a less modern environment would have printed posters or something up instead. So I think the expectation from us as the public, as consumers, has rise

Exploring recent regulations in Melbourne that mandate screen curfews above ground level at night, this discussion highlights the environmental and health benefits of such measures. The conversation draws parallels with similar rules in Germany and emphasises the potential for energy savings and improved well-being.

Balancing Screen Usage for a Greener Future

So I was reading a recent Guardian article about our friends down under in Melbourne who had introduced a new rule, putting a curfew on screens above ground level in public places at night. So basically saying they need to be turned off or severely dimmed down. And I thought actually this is a really good idea. We don't need to pollute environments where people, generally speaking, are not going to be there in the middle of the night and interrupt people's sleep and circadian rhythm. We wouldn't do the same with noise. We have rules and regulations around that. And I believe this law already exists in Germany and has been very popular. It's also greener, so you're not going to consume as much energy. And with modern hardware, we can easily control those screens remotely, powering them on and off as and when we wish to. So although I obviously advocate very much for screens, I don't think they necessarily need to be on all the time, especially at night.

Discover how minimal UI can enhance user experience by removing unnecessary steps, and learn about the impact of real-time updates on customer satisfaction. Explore insights from ScreenCloud’s approach to intuitive UX design.

Creating Magic Moments in User Experience Design

Well, I have this little phrase, which is that the best UX is no UX. And what I mean by that is, um, the more, the more invisible the experience feels, um, I, the more you could remove and anticipate the better the experience. And I think that's one of where ScreenCloud has been really good. So you're one of the UX principles was, was, was minimal buttons. You know, like, uh, if you're editing a title, just click on the title and edit it and then press return or whatever, and click off it and it saves rather than have loads of extra kind of cancel approve, you know, you still got buttons there, but buttons do key things and everything else is just drag and drop and kind of click. And, and it just, it removes everyday workflow, which is what creates the delight in the experience of a product you're using every single day to update content, you'll appreciate those kind of little smooth outs in the workflow, that intuitive kind of anticipatory nature of the UX. So I think that was extremely important. That's something that people that wasn't in a lot of the legacy systems, it was just buttons everywhere, you know, click, click, click, click, click. And, and, you know, that's fine for one round, but often, you know, you'll maybe uploading and configuring 20 pieces of content at a time. That's going to get really laborious. So, so minimal UI, I suppose created the best UX, uh, is probably the best way of doing that. Yeah. And, and I think the other thing was this, um, this delight moment that we created. I've got to credit Luke, uh, my CTO co-founder for this one. I didn't think that the industry norm was screens would update maybe after five or 15 minutes, once you'd updated them and they would sort of eventually the whole system would update. And so that was an industry norm. And I, I wasn't that compelled to change that, but for Luke, it was really important to him that, that when you made an update, the screen updated almost immediately. Um, so he used like a Firebas

In today's fast-paced market, the expectation for first product versions has evolved. This discussion explores the importance of focusing on key philosophies rather than releasing subpar initial versions. Emphasising consumer-friendly features can set a product apart and buy time for further development.

Crafting First Products with Key Philosophies

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I think there's an interesting, I saw an interesting tweet the other day, which said like the days of like, you know, ship your first crappy, embarrassing product over. And I sort of agree, I kind of think that actually, no one really should ship anything truly embarrassing. I think the tolerance for like terrible first versions is pretty low, because I mean, like really life's too short to just be testing out terrible products and have them kind of fail on you. So I think that was a bit of an old trope. But what I think what how I think it really should be at the moment is that you should probably hang your first product on a couple of these key philosophies. So you know, what I was talking about there was works with consumer hardware, it's really nice and intuitive interface. And it has this real time magic moment. And then to be honest, the fact it had didn't support vertical screens, didn't support like zones, it was only full screen. And all of the other stuff, which was kind of table stakes didn't even work offline originally, which is quite important in that environment. But all of that stuff was like, to be added. And people were like fine with that, because they could see that your product philosophy stood out as something slightly different. So that bought you the time. At that point, apart from them saying you need to do the table stakes of work, which everyone just kind of usually intuitively knows, then you start getting that feedback loop.

Discover how Wrexham Council is embracing digital transformation with the installation of large touchscreens to promote local events and retailers. While the initiative is forward-thinking, questions arise about the effectiveness of touchscreen technology for public use.

Innovative Digital Transformation in Wrexham

So I recently saw a story where Wrexham Council in the UK had installed large touchscreens in the town center to promote the Wrexham app, local event information, and local retailers and commerce. And I think overall, this is fantastic. This is the digitization of a city center, which is probably being re-imagined for the future. The one reservation I have is that these are touchscreens. And in my experience, most people still don't really use touchscreens that much. They can be prone to sort of technical difficulty. And so I wonder if the budget may have been better used just putting a greater number of screens up across that location. So maximizing the visibility of that information rather than just having it the more technically advanced and more expensive touchscreen kiosks. But I haven't seen them myself, so I might be completely wrong. But I do very much applaud the fact that they are embracing screens in a city center and being innovative in their environment. Thank you.

Delve into the misconceptions about digital signage displays. Discover why consumer TVs can often fulfil your signage needs without the hefty price tag of professional-grade options. Learn from industry insights and real-world applications.

Challenging Norms in Digital Signage: Consumer vs Professional Displays

So I've been doing these videos for a little while now and I decided to take it up a level and come up with some spicier takes about the digital signage industry. So my take number one will be you do not need to have a professional display. If you speak to industry veterans they will say that you can only use professional grade displays for your digital signage and that really is just more expensive TVs which are actually better. They are 24-7, maybe weatherproof, a little bit more robust etc. But not every use case needs that. So actually the TV in your lounge these days is really powerful and has survived many a Netflix binge probably and can be used for internal communication in regular environments that are not hitting the weather or the public just as easily. And they're very affordable, accessible and simple and we have many thousands of them being used by ScreenCloud customers and the reality is you just don't always need a pro display.

Exploring the importance of personalised health and safety messaging in manufacturing and logistics settings, with a focus on using screens for enhanced engagement. Discover how tailored content can improve resonance and effectiveness in hazardous environments.

Personalising Health and Safety Messaging in the Workplace

So when we use screens to communicate in industries such as manufacturing and logistics, health and safety comes up as one of the number one topics for content, which is pretty understandable. These are dangerous environments. Now, traditionally, health and safety has probably had a blanket approach. Think of a poster that's been printed. That will probably be one design, printed multiple times, and then sent to all locations. But actually, it's been proven that if you can personalize health and safety messaging to the very environment and people that are there, it will be taken more seriously. So imagine that there's a health and safety notice where the CEO of the business is explaining why health and safety matters. It would probably resonate more if that picture wasn't the CEO, but in fact was maybe the facility manager instead, someone you actually have a relationship and actually have some trust and respect for. Not to say that a CEO who doesn't have that, but they probably wouldn't even be able to name that person, let's be honest, right? And if the pictures of the environment you're showing are not just a generic thing with like an oil spill or water spill saying, you know, don't do it, but with the actual venue that you're in now, maybe with a real example of something that happened recently, it will resonate more because it's more real. And the more real you make something and the more relatable you make something, the more likely people are to take notice of it and action it. Now, with screens, we have the opportunity to personalize every single screen in that way, in a way that doing a print run of hundreds of variations just wouldn't have been feasible in the past. So I encourage customers to think about personalizing these messages as much as possible if they're really serious about getting them taken seriously by the intended audience.

Explore how partnering with Google Chrome OS enables greener digital signage solutions. Discover the benefits of recycling old hardware with Chrome OS Flex, reducing landfill waste and saving costs for IT companies.

Sustainable Digital Signage with Google Chrome OS

So we partner with the team at Google Chrome OS for a lot of our digital signage projects. One of the benefits of working with Chrome OS is that it's actually very green. There's multiple reasons for that. So the system itself has been built in such a way where you can easily power cycle the device and has quite a low CPU threshold. So it's not burning lots of energy, which is green. But actually, the bigger thing they have is something called Flex. So Flex is the ability to recycle previous hardware. So you might take an old Intel NUC, which is no longer being used. You can flex Google Chrome OS onto that device and effectively turn it into a Chrome device, which you could then use for digital signage. The thing is, digital signage doesn't necessarily need the latest and greatest computer hardware. It needs amazing software on it, which is screen-focused, in order to power up that screen. And the panels last for ages. So you may have a very outdated screen running potentially really outdated software. But recycling an old NUC device and then attaching that to the screen, launching on Chrome OS brings it right up to a modern spec and standard, and it should work perfectly. So as IT companies start to think about, like, how are we sending too many devices out to landfill, we can recycle so many of these for digital signage. It also saves you a lot of money, too. Microsoft Mechanics www.microsoft.com www.microsoft.com

Explore how top SaaS companies achieve rapid growth through strategic planning and innovation. Learn about the 'core and explore' approach to product development and the importance of anticipating market trends to maintain a competitive edge.

Mastering SaaS Growth with Strategic Product Development

like the very best SaaS companies, when they kind of start to generate revenue, they do the triple, triple, double, double, right? Tripling in revenue annually, tripling, and then doubling and doubling. That is kind of like, that's like the gold standard for doing SaaS really, really well. And we were on that trajectory pre-COVID. But we actually took the bold decision is whilst we were even tripling in size, to actually start rebuilding our whole platform to anticipate the needs of enterprise, knowing that probably the defensive moat around the SMB was going to end up being a race to the bottom on price once they caught up a bit. So we kind of got ahead of ourselves. And thankfully, we did do that. Product market fit is almost like, it's not like a single thing. It's like you have it for a period, and then you've got to almost like anticipate what it's going to be again. So you've got to both catch current product market fit, but you've also got to have one eye down the road for like, what are the trends that are coming? And I call it, I call this thing core and explore, right? And it's how we generate, generally divide our kind of design and development product resources, basically. So 80% goes on core, which is like what you're building now, your roadmap, and 20% goes on these experimental down the road ideas. And right now, one of our biggest products, which is our own operating system for screens itself, it was an explore idea for a first year for one year, just with a couple of developers on it, just working out the viability and testing it a bit with some customers. That's now one of our core. So it does move, explore moves into core, doesn't always do that. We've had other things which have kind of been dropped and not developed further.

We partnered with 130 West for the America's Cup in Barcelona after they secretly tested ScreenCloud on a live event, streaming content from sea to space via Starlink. It worked brilliantly. We're working together to enhance the fan experience with innovative screen usage, going beyond just race streaming to make the event come alive for onshore spectators.

Innovative Digital Solution for America's Cup

So you may have seen recently that we partnered with 130 West to be the digital science solution for the America's Cup in Barcelona later this summer. You might be wondering how that all came about. The actual team at 130 West were secretly using ScreenCloud without us knowing on a stealth project testing us out for live events where they were using Starlink internet connections to stream content from the sea up to space and back down again to screens using ScreenCloud and it worked extremely well so they got very excited about that and then we had a meeting in Barcelona we're talking about this summer and the work we could do together. We thought this was really amazing just stretching the use of the technology being quite innovative with how we were using screens to show people on the land what was really going on and try and make the fan experience come alive a bit more not just with streaming the race but with other content as well. So we've been working with the team for a few weeks now we're now just getting the sponsorship content all ready setting it all up and it'll be launching later in August and once it does I'll show you more of what we've done. So the America's Cup kicks off on the 22nd of August and runs all the way through to the 20th of October.

Explore how ScreenCloud and Google Chrome are innovating to streamline digital signage deployment. Learn about pre-provisioning and auto-enrolment techniques that simplify the setup process, making it as easy as plugging in a device.

Simplifying Digital Signage Rollout with Pre-Provisioning

In a previous video, I talked about the challenges rolling out to a large network with many locations and maybe even international locations as well. One of the things you can do to try and ease the pressure of that rollout without necessarily having IT people who are trained up on digital signage on the ground is to pre-provision your devices or have them auto-enroll when they connect to the screen. So pre-provisioning is something that we've done at ScreenCloud, but actually our partners at Google Chrome do exceptionally well, and so this is where the device is actually adjusted at the manufacturing level before it's even shipped, so it knows what account and what network it's going to be joining when it's plugged into the screen, so it's really just as simple as plugging it in. We also have auto-enrollment tokens, which we've enabled for things like ScreenCloud OS. If you do this correctly, the screen can basically launch straight into the account, into full content, rather than having to go through a pairing system as well, which someone would have to understand. So we're doing a lot of innovation, so is our partners at Google Chrome, around making provisioning and setup of screens as simple as possible, so as soon as you plug it in, everything just works.

In this video, we explore the evolution of ScreenCloud's messaging strategy. Discover how we refined our focus from a broad idea to a clear software platform for digital signage, aimed at communicating important information within organisations and campuses.

Simplifying ScreenCloud's Digital Signage Solution

I don't think I was very good at explaining what ScreenCloud was at the beginning. I think one of the challenges is that you want to throw as many ideas out there in the hope that one or two of them stick, and it's really, really difficult to narrow down to something very simple. One, it makes the product seem a bit devalued because it's so simple, and two, you just feel that I might be missing out on something. So early stage, founders tend to say many, many things in the hope that something lands. As you get bigger and more confident in what you're saying, you tend to hone that down. So in the case of ScreenCloud, I really just say ScreenCloud is a software platform for digital signage. You'll know digital signage because out in the world, you see outdoor advertising screens, screens on transportation in the airport, you see those screens in retail, in quick serve restaurants, on the menu boards like McDonald's. We do that, but we don't tend to do it so much for that category. We're actually focused on screens that employees and students will see in their organizations and campuses, and we're using screens to communicate company information, employee information to them. So trying to keep it kind of analogous to what people will have experienced in their everyday life, and then honing in on what we're actually trying to achieve, which hopefully gets a bit of an aha moment from them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

I reflect on the portrayal of AI and futuristic technology in the new Jennifer Lopez movie, Atlas. The film illustrates our growing reliance on interactive screens and envisions a future where digital displays are integral to everyday life. This depiction aligns with ScreenCloud's mission to bring such innovative concepts to reality.

Exploring AI and Futuristic Interactions in Film

So at the weekend, I was relaxing, watching TV with my dog, and I watched the new Jennifer Lopez movie, Atlas, on Netflix, which is all about the future and AI and whether we should or shouldn't trust AI. It's quite topical at the moment. And inevitably, there was an opening scene where news is breaking in her apartment, which is this modern, futuristic place, and I could predict three, two, one. There is a load of screens, right, virtually on the wall, and she's going up and interacting with them. It kind of felt like a reboot of Minority Report in many ways. And it just proves, yet again, what we always see is that any depiction of the future comes with screens involved and a degree of interactivity and more reliance on those screens in our everyday life. We are all envisioning this, and actually, even the external scenes, there was projections of advertising to show that the buildings were more futuristic. It's not just film directors that are coming up with these ideas. I think they are using them in their art and their creativity because it's a vision of a future that we've all subscribed to. It's just a case of trying to get there, and that's what ScreenCloud's here to help you all do. ScreenCloud is a proud sponsor of Second Opinion.

Explore the value of community in fostering collaboration and innovation within organisations. This video highlights real-life examples of cross-disciplinary teamwork and the importance of communal learning in driving business success.

Building Community for Greater Collaboration

Felly, yn ôl i Lundain, o Siarlet, o'r cyflwyniad cyntaf i'r Green Cloud. Roedd cymdeithas cyffredinol a'r cymdeithas sy'n helpu ein cymdeithaswyr yn Siarlet. Roedd yn anodd, ond hefyd yn anodd. Felly, rydyn ni'n dod yn ôl wedi treulio amser gwirioneddol gyda'n nifer o'n cwmnio. Yn ystod y flwyddyn nesaf, bydd yna fwy. Rydyn ni'n mynd i fynd ymlaen. Yr hyn sy'n mynd allan i mi yw'r syniad o gymuned. Roedd cymdeithaswyr IT a chymdeithaswyr cyfathrebu o wahanol cymdeithaswyr yn cydweithio, rhannu syniadau a helpu'r un arall. Ar un pwynt, roedd un gyfarwyddwr IT yn helpu i ddewis y cod o'r ddewis gwefan sy'n ceisio ei adeiladu ar gyfer y sgrin, a oedd hynny'n hafodol i'w weld. Roedd llawer o'r cymdeithaswyr cyffredinol hefyd yn rhannu'r heriau y maen nhw'n eu cymryd, yn cyfathrebu'n aml i'r gweithwyr cyffredinol. Roedd hynny'n ymddangos i'r diwedd, ac roedd hynny'n ddiddorol i'w weld, efallai eu bod nhw o gymdeithaswyr cyffredinol, ond yn y pen draw, maen nhw i gyd yn gweithio ar y math o heriau. Mae'n gwneud i ni feddwl mwy am yr hyn sy'n rhaid i ni ei wneud gyda'r cymuned hwn sydd gennym ni yma ym Mhrifysgol Sgrin, a sut y gallwn ei helpu i gynhyrchu mwy o ddysgwyr cymunedol a chyfathrebu, felly edrychwch am llawer mwy ym mis nesaf. Diolch yn fawr am wylio'r fideo.

Discover how digital screens can enhance employee engagement, productivity, and more. Learn about the four key pillars of effective screen communication and how they can transform your organisation's environment.

Maximising Impact with Digital Screen Content

So when it comes to screens that communicate, there are multiple different pieces of content that we could show on a screen. But we find that customers usually have one key pillar that they're most focused on initially, and they're usually one of these four. So firstly, employee engagement. We're trying to celebrate the work that's going on of our teams, greet new joiners, happy birthday, work anniversaries, and also job opportunities. Secondly, is more functional information. So here we're thinking about health and safety, wayfinding, practical information that people need to see on a screen in order to know what's going on next. Thirdly, we look at productivity. This is where we're showing KPIs, dashboards, data, maintenance schedules, rotors. This is about making the whole environment more productive and more aware of what's going on in real time so they can make adjustments through the day. And in the fourth bucket, we call game changers. Now, this is deliberately loose. Most companies have an internal process or system they may even develop themselves, or it might be running on some ancient PC in the corner that no one's allowed to touch. And this is just running the system that makes everything tick. They want to take information out of that, push up onto the screens, and if everyone can see that, then everything is just gonna run that little bit smoother. Normally, we learn about the game changers once we've had a chance to visit the customer and get them more on board with digital signage because this is information they probably never thought that they could get up onto a screen.

Luke and I were shocked by the poor web experience on TV screens when we entered digital signage in 2014. ScreenCloud's founding principle is bringing modern web standards to screens, enabling the global army of web developers to build screen apps without learning new skills. We're opening up this small category to a massive software market.

Revolutionising Web Development for Digital Screens

So Luke and I have been developing products for the web for well over 20 years, despite appearances. And when we came across the digital signage category back in 2014, we were pretty shocked at the quality of the web experience natively on TV screens. And to be honest, it hasn't improved much. When you're actually trying to run a modern, fast, secure web environment, most of the screens don't work that way. And you'd actually have to build back several years, which is both insecure, but also very difficult for modern web developers to build their products. So if you do ask a web developer, how do I build a product for screen? Normally they'll just shrug their shoulders and say, we don't know. The founding principle of ScreenCloud is to try and bring a modern web experience to screen to enable this army of web developers around the world to start building their own products for screens. We're still on that journey. And I think we've now got to a point where utilizing our product, most web developers could now build an app for screen without having to learn something new. We want to keep on opening this up and bring in this huge part of the software market into our small little category, because when that happens, we can start to solve so many more problems using screens. Thank you.

I recently heard Kunal Shah discuss his Delta 4 framework for evaluating startups, and it really resonated. When a product delivers a 4+ point efficiency improvement, it creates irreversible behaviour change and natural advocacy. I'm thinking about how we can apply this lens to ScreenCloud as we enter the AI era.

Exploring the Delta 4 Framework for Startup Success

So I was listening to an interview recently with extremely talented Indian entrepreneur called Kunal Shah, and he was talking about his Delta 4 framework for assessing new startups. Let's say I asked you that, what do you think is the efficiency score of booking a cab through Uber on 10 or versus the old method that existed of booking cabs, whatever that method was, most people would say, maybe this is seven, eight on 10. That is maybe two on 10, one on 10, three on 10. So the framework was very simple that every time the Delta of efficiency score is greater than equal to four, three things happen. Uh, it's an irreversible behavior. Once you experience a Delta 4 product or service, you cannot go back. Uh, there is obviously very, very high tolerance. Uh, that's the second thing that, uh, you will hate Uber, but you're not going to like, dammit, I'm going to delete this app and I'm going to move to a more inefficient behavior. The third thing is what I call a UBP, a unique brag worthy proposition. Humans, when they discover something Delta 4, they can't stop bragging about it everywhere. So there's several things I like about this framework. Firstly, I think it's true. Um, and that actually we probably don't try and stress test new companies against something like this, uh, anywhere near as much. And he also goes on to talk about how this is local and how something that's worked very well in America hasn't necessarily worked as well as in India, because the way that people operate is just so vastly different. Um, but what really got me was that, um, we could also apply this to our own products. So ScreenCloud isn't a startup anymore, but we are about to go through a massive period of change, um, with AI and generative technologies. So the ways of doing things previously through content management systems, uploading files and all of that, probably is going to look pretty archaic quite soon, however, um, although we are all aware of AI being around us right now, we're 

In this video, we explore an unconventional use of PowerPoint for real-time updates at an airport. Despite its simplicity, this approach allows immediate communication, outperforming traditional systems. It also highlights the need to consider non-traditional competitors in product development.

Innovative Use of PowerPoint in Real-Time Updates

So on the ScreenCloud Slack group, the team shared a viral video going on Twitter of a screen in an airport being powered by PowerPoint. Let's take a look. So I think you'd probably be expecting me to slam this, but actually I quite like this use case. Obviously, it's not exactly a slick update of the screen, but it is done in real time. And it is being done by the person who knows that this flight boarding is getting delayed. So compared to other systems, which sometimes take upwards of half an hour to update, at least the customers are fully aware of what's going on. And the person managing the screen is fully capable of doing so. This could obviously be much slicker, but actually I think this is quite interesting. And it reminds me of one other thing. We often think that our competition is just literally our competitors, our brand competitors. But in fact, our competition is usually a homegrown solution like this, the PowerPoint or Excel, or even doing nothing at all. And it's always worth remembering that this is the kind of use case that we need to be thinking about as much as whatever our competitors are building as well.