Signage24 is a new service site from PresentationPoint, creators of several PowerPoint add-ins. In this Indezine exclusive, Kurt Dupont who heads PresentationPoint discusses this new hosting service, and compares it to some not-so-similar offerings.
Geetesh: Tell us more about Signage24, and how did this evolve.
Kurt: Signage24 is a new online service from PresentationPoint. With Signage24, you can distribute your presentations (information, advertising, events etc) worldwide in order to run as an automated billboard. In the Audio Visual world this functionality is known as 'digital signage'.
Just like Hotmail for email messages and hosting companies for websites, Signage24 is a hosted solution to upload your presentations to your company account, and schedule them to play on a given player or group of players. You can now design your advertising pages in Microsoft PowerPoint and distribute them automatically to your shops or POS systems.
The big advantage of digital signage and dynamic signage is that you can promote your products and offers much better. It makes for example no sense to promote a Scotch whisky in the morning. That is something you plan in the evening. In the morning you promote products like cereals and a healthy breakfast or lunch. So with digital signage, you can better target your audience -- that will result in much more sales than before.
Currently our service works with Microsoft PowerPoint presentations only, but soon new players can be expected like Flash, MPG movies, images etc.
Geetesh: How is Signage24 different from other sharing platforms like SlideShare, YouTube, etc.
Kurt: It's difficult to compare Signage24 with services like YouTube. Those services are interactive. Although it is a library of multimedia files, you always decide when and what to watch.
The service of Signage24 is also a system where you upload your files but in addition you set up your playlists and you specify when a playlist of presentations is shown at where and when. For the viewers of your playlist, there is no way to change that. If they look at a Signage24 monitor, they will see your advertising!
