Commercial Integrator February 2022 - 21

Information of Every Sort
Pandemic aside, travelers in an airport
need access to information at nearly every
turn - information about the location of
gates, flight statuses, security procedures
and more. All of it is critical data that
airports must display. When you throw a
deadly pandemic into the mix, travelers require
even more information about how to
navigate the airport. In the COVID-19 era,
key information includes mask requirements
and social-distancing guidelines.
" Instead of just showing flight-information
displays or baggage-information displays,
airports need to also make sure that
content is supplemented with reminders
about distancing and things like that, " Ben
Hardy, senior product manager at Sharp
NEC Display Solutions, explains. " That
comes down to content management and
how easy it is to either change content or
make sure that you have backup content in
mind so you don't have any down screens
when a source goes down. "
Essentially, it comes down to using integrated
displays to make sure that travelers
are well informed at all times, according to
Hardy. If the digital signage strategy is executed
successfully, it can help ensure safe,
smooth travel. " The only way to do that is
to make sure that people are following the
rules, " the digital signage expert says.
Yuki Yu, vice president of sales and
marketing at display manufacturer Absen,
says that airport signage must meet both
practical and commercial functions. In
that way, displays will not only provide
information about flight schedules but also
showcase advertisements.
" And nowadays, end customers' demand
for creative products increases the
need to maximize a landmark or brand's
attraction, " Yu says. " With a creative display
shape [i.e. irregularly shaped, curved, a
circle], content will help to better demonstrate
the landmark or brand and create
more commercial revenue. "
Having Failover Sources in Place
Another key trend that is emerging in the
use of digital signage in airports is having
a failover source in place, just in case
the main source goes down. According
to Hardy, this is often overlooked when
commercialintegrator.com
a digital signage network is still in the
design phase.
Think, for example, about a flight-information
display. There is a main source
of such information, with data that is constantly
changing from the front end. If that
source goes down for whatever reason,
airports must have a failover source that either
provides similar information gleaned
from elsewhere or delivers other valuable
content (e.g., COVID-19 safety guidelines
or airline branding). To be specific, if the
HDMI 1 source goes down, the display
could automatically switch to DisplayPort
1. Then, when the main source comes
back online, the display could switch back
to the HDMI 1 source.
" That's been very helpful because it's a
lot more automated, " Hardy says. Automatic
failover not only helps keep displays
online and operational but also helps to
eliminate the need to send technicians out
to fix displays manually. But he emphasizes
that the display can't switch over to just
anything. " Displays need to automatically
sync to something that is equally as
important, " Hardy emphasizes.
Functionality of that sort has traditionally
been reserved only for higher-end
displays, but it's now becoming more necessary
for airports and other transportation
hubs - in fact, it's becoming important for
virtually any use case. " It allows airports
to at least know their screens are up, even
though the source goes down temporarily, "
Hardy explains.
'Instead of just showing flight information or
baggage information, airports need to also
make sure that content is supplemented with
reminders about distancing and things like that.'
- Ben Hardy, Sharp NEC Display Solutions
Digital displays have become ubiquitous throughout transportation hubs. That makes
them powerful tools but also potential targets for malicious actors.
FEBRUARY 2022 Commercial Integrator
21
COURTESY SHARP NEC DISPLAY SOLUTIONS.
http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator February 2022

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