Smart cities on the rise with Outdoor Digital Signs

Outdoor digital signage is undoubtedly changing the perspective of towns and cities across the world.

Businesses trying to increase revenue is not the only aim with outdoor signs nowadays. City officials are working together to make that shift to smart cities, which they believe is essential for a city’s growth and development.

According to 2018 statistics, 55% of the global population resides in urban areas. This figure is predicted to rise to 68% in another 30 years approximately. As a result, there will be 2.5 billion extra people in search of jobs, services and homes within urban areas that are already crowded.

A smart city is one that makes use of technology to improvise on services provided to the public and thereby become more efficient overall.

Outdoor electronic signs are developing in alignment with technological, physical and environmental trends. As a result of these developments, outdoor digital billboards are proving to play a key role in the shift to smart cities.

There are plenty of examples where outdoor LED signs have improved quality of life in urban areas by providing better services and keeping people informed and safe.

Providing improvised services

In the world of digital signage, self-service is becoming more and more common. Touchscreen kiosks are introduced in several settings so as to reduce the burden on service providers and to improve customer service at the same time.

• Self-service ticketing machines
• Interactive kiosks for wayfinding
• Self-ordering displays at drive-thru
• Through window retail touch screens

The next advancement in the self-service category will be facial recognition. In China, KFC branches are already trying out self-service displays that suggest what a customer should order based on his/her gender and age.

Another example in Shenzen, China – outdoor facial recognition displays are outwitting the police in terms of monitoring intersections and identifying jaywalkers.

Safety of the citizens

Outdoor displays in the United States are considered a major source of information when hurricane season comes around. This is a perfect example of digital billboards being transformed to non-commercial use in desperate times. With the help of such digital signage networks, city authorities can dispatch weather alerts across several states with just slight delays of a few minutes maybe. Soon we will be seeing the entire world using these outdoor digital displays in times of crisis.

Having a better quality of life

Transforming into a smart city means more than just efficiency, safety and better services. With digital signage technology, urban areas can also become a nicer place to live. One good example is how Arkansas recently swapped many of their static billboards to digital ones. Since digital billboards have the facility of multiple advertising on one space (with the help of a rolling loop content), the overall number of billboards in Arkansas reduced and there was a better look and feel in the area.

Trends that concern the environmental, technological and physical features of an outdoor digital signage make way for governments and businesses to provide better services to more people. These trends most certainly guarantee that outdoor LED signs will continue to be an important part of daily life in urban centers.

Businesses can make use of this increased demand, adopt to these trends and engage more customers without incurring heavy financial burdens:

• Regardless of how large these LED displays are, it is the user-friendliness and accessibility of signage that will be more important in engaging customers on a daily basis.
• Most of the important advancements in technology can somehow be incorporated into your existing LED signage campaign.
• Having LED displays that are better for the environment as well means that by adopting to digital signage you will do good not only for your business but for the planet too.

If you still haven’t made the investment for outdoor digital signage, it is high time you think about it now. Pay more attention to the trends and make the investment in a cost-effective and future proof manner, hence resulting in positive ROI for years together!