EASY DIGITAL SIGNAGE FOR THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: A 'Sharp' Review

The Unit: Sharp LC-13E1U/S 13" LCD display

Price Range: $380.00 - $445.00

SPECS:

Why are we using this model? We were asked to find a very economical signage solution for a very small business owner. We do not usually recommend a consumer model for a signage solution but based on the criteria of use, we felt that the consumer model offered the small business owner some awesome features. (see below)

Great Signage Features: Unit has a handle on the back which allows the small business owner to move the display from one sales counter to another. If the owner goes to a trade show, this unit is easy and quick to get up and running. The unit has built in speakers on the bottom and a built in tuner which allows for integrated sound and allows the owner to switch the display over from a digital signage solution to a regular television. * This monitor has NO VGA connection to hook straight up to a computer but for our application it did not matter as we were using a DVD player to push content.

What we did: This display has a 640X480 resolution. We worked in Paint Shop Pro and we used some of our own sale ads and changed it to 640X480 resolution and burned it to a CD. Any CD burner will work. Important to remember is that you need to create your files in the exact screen resolution of your specific screen so it matches. If you don't the picture will not fill the screen or will be distorted. This is the only drawback by going this route.

How did we get the sales ads to the display? We used a very inexpensive $69.00 Progressive Scan DVD player (Fisher DVD SL35) and hooked it up via component cables (a medium quality cable costs approx $40.00) then we put the burned CD into the DVD player. Component cables are red, green, blue. ( See Picture) The DVD player you choose should have these options:

Must Play: CD-R, CD-RW or DVD-R what this means is that the DVD player can read the written format of the CD you created in your computer.

DVD Player Signage Features:  Has a repeat function that automatically cycles through all of the ads and pictures that are on the CD. We hit 'repeat all' on our DVD player  remote and the DVD player displayed the words :PHOTO ( see picture) which means the DVD player recognized the format of the content on the CD and that it was to cycle pictures. It was that simple!

Digital Signage Forum Ingredients For Economical, Simple Signage Solutions:

(1) PC- Most people have this at work. Must have a CD Burner. If not, you can bring your pictures into Kinko's and tell them what kind of words you want on top of the picture and they will create it for you. Web site designers are also a great source for creating and editing pictures and they understand resolution issues. You do need to know your screen resolution so you can relay that information to them.

(1) Design program like Paint Shop Pro® - or you can just use product pictures from your digital camera or scanner and save the files as a .jpg and then just burn the pictures to CD. Then you can suggestive sell product pictures if you do not have a design program. You can also take them to Kinko's and have them burn your pictures to CD for a very reasonable price. Also, most scanners now have a way to edit and add text to your pictures. So if you want to write Holiday Shoe Sale $10.99 and then save as holiday 'shoesale.jpg' and you can use that as well.

(1) 13 Inch Screen- Most Economical for small business counters such as jeweler's shops, beauty salons, flower shops and any retail situation where sales people are waiting on customers in one area and need to communicate sales and info to the consumer at other sales counters. You may use any screen size you like; however, the larger the screen the more weight - and not as easy to transport. We used the Sharp display model in our example, but any display in this same range would work.

(1) DVD Player- with CD-R, CD-RW and DVD-R

(1) Component cable- If you do not have one you can purchase one online or at any local electronics store.

(1) CD's- You can use re-writable CD's which means you can burn content over old sales ads to replace with new ones. I recommend CD-R's, this means you cannot re-write over them. This allows you to save your sales promos and review what promo's worked the best and re-create them with new prices on to a new CD. This allows for a virtual library of your advertising, but if you want to save even more money you can use rewritable and just burn over last months sales ads on the same CD.  You can find these at any electronics store and now grocery stores as well as drug stores carry them.

Sharp 13 inch with DVD Player Running Sale Advertisements.

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