Several years ago, tout le monde was talking about dynamic digital signage (DDS), and while the hubbub and hullaballoo have died down a bit, DDS has been quietly expanding. “From our standpoint, the demand for it has done nothing but increase, at least in our world,” says Wayne Rasor, Director of Digital & Exterior Technology for FASTSIGNS International, Inc. “The technology continues to get cheaper and easier, so there are people still trying to do it themselves, saying, ‘OK, I can get a TV for this and I can sign up for thisservice and I can try and do it.’” But with DDS, the hardware is the easiest and cheapest—but least important—part of the equation. “I think they miss the content piece of it, and that’s always been our focus.”

Content in the context of dynamic digital signage has also been evolving, and the emphasis now is less on a static menu board or even piping in a deck of PowerPoint slides, and more on integration with external databases and content that is, well, dynamic. “I would rather do a menu board up on a screen that’s connected to a database that I can change from anywhere in the world and my screens change and update in real time with either availability of items on the menu or pricing changes based on demand, promotions in the area, that kind of thing,” says Rasor.

The hardware has of course been getting cheaper, but in some cases has been switching from LCD-based screens to LED displays, although not necessarily in single-screen displays, but in “tiled” video walls. “We’re seeing much, much fewer multi-screen LCD video walls and more large, fine-pitch LED video walls. A single, 55-inch display still is probably better just to go with an LCD screen,” says Rasor. But, like anything with technology, they will only get better and cheaper and it’s not hard to envision a time when LED-based DDS displays take over, even for single screens. “Eventually, those LCD screens will most likely just go away,” he adds. “It may take four or five more years, maybe 10 years, but they’re eventually going to go as the LEDs continue to cheaper and cheaper.”