Brawn Consulting in conjunction and cooperation with the commercial AV industry, its manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and designers, is announcing the founding of an industry wide organization, the Digital Signage Experts Group, dedicated to providing education and certification programs for the complex digital signage industry, and the technologies driving it.
Digital signage is one of the most exciting and fastest growing segments of the commercial audiovisual industry. It has far reaching implications and opens expansive new markets for systems designers, integrators, content creators, and end users alike. From the obvious "explosion" of the retail signage market, to the unique applications for indoor venues such as corporate communication and way finding, to education and transportation, digital signage cannot be ignored. In short, the opportunities within digital signage are significant.
The problem faced with this market, is that digital signage appears quite simple on the surface, but becomes a tangled web of interconnected and complex technologies that all act together in unison to produce the image we see on screen. The challenge this poses to the designers, installers, and service providers wanting to enter into this space, is one of immersion and full understanding. Many companies have parts of the technology they understand, be it displays, networking, or content but few understand the whole "picture" of what digital signage requires. To truly succeed in this space, a company must understand all of the disparate parts that make up the entirety of a digital signage network, and understand how to properly sell the value in those networks to the customer.
The heart of the Digital Signage Experts Group is a one day digital signage certification utilizing an on-site or webinar approach, the Digital Signage Certified Expert (DSCE) program. The newly created Digital Signage Experts Group is an impartial and agnostic standards body offering the DSCE certification to the industry as a whole. The DSEG is advised by a council of manufacturers, distributors, software providers, and content creators. There will be a technical version and a sales version of the certification. The course will cover the following areas of concentration:
1. An overview of the digital signage along with the individual segments that make up the industry.
2. An overview of the digital signage marketplace
3. Understanding digital signage customer
4. The fundamentals of digital signage system design
5. Digital signage hardware
a. Displays
b. Mounts
c. Cables and connectors
d. Signal distribution
e. Players
6. Networks
a. Wired
b. Wireless
c. Cellular
7. Digital Signage software
a. Player/client software
b. Server software
c. Management, distribution and scheduling software
d. Content management
8. Content
a. Creation
b. Availability
c. Sources
9. Fees and Service models
10. Digital signage ROI
11. Selling value in digital signage
Tests will be conducted at the completion of the course and certificates issued.