Frequently, in our culture, we are bombarded with the latest technology buzz words, like high-def, 1080p, and, my personal favorite, digital signage. It is often difficult to discern whether we should incorporate the latest buzz into our church facilities and worship experience. The exciting thing about digital signage is that it truly can become an effective tool for communication to your congregation at a cost far less than you might expect.

With digital signage, it is possible to display real-time information, scroll text regarding an upcoming event, and play full motion video simultaneously on different sections of a display screen. These features allow churches to leverage materials such as sermon notes created in PowerPoint or a promotional video for an upcoming conference for display on the signage network. This integration, combined with more powerful scheduling engines, helps ensure communication is timely, relevant, and, most importantly, effective. In addition, administrators spend less time creating and managing signage content and more time on their primary job responsibilities.

Essential Features
There are six essential features that should be considered when evaluating digital signage solutions. Depending on the goals and criteria defined for your specific application, some of these features may receive greater emphasis than others.

1. High-Resolution Content Creation
The leading signage solutions offer fully customizable templates that create a consistent look and feel. Look for systems that allow integration of custom template graphics and the ability to define custom font types, logo marks, and other unique graphics. An increasingly important consideration is the quality in which content is generated and output to displays. Evaluate signage solutions based on their ability to render text, scroll messages, and play video content smoothly. The ability to define the output resolution, aspect ratio, and orientation (horizontal or vertical) is a key consideration.

2. Powerful Scheduling Engine
The ability to schedule individual messages, announcements, video clips, and other content is essential in the management of information. Look for the ability to create a message, submit it for approval, and have it displayed for a specified time interval. Control over scheduling all content displayed on your system will really enhance the effectiveness of your communication, as well as reduce the time required for administration.

3. Simple User Interface
Pay close attention to the complexity of the user interface used to create and schedule messages. A well-designed, straightforward user interface will make training much easier and allow your church to enlist the services of several individuals in the creation of messages. The use of templates and predefined fonts will help ensure the messages are presented properly on the screen. Some packages will even count the number of words in a message to determine the length of time the message should be displayed.

4. Support of Popular Plug-ins
Many churches have begun developing communications, promotional materials, and advertisements in a variety of media formats. These materials are often presented as a Flash animation their Web site or a PowerPoint presentation during the church service. Many churches now incorporate video clips as sermon illustrations. Look for a package that offers plug-ins to support playback of Flash, PowerPoint, and video. An RSS feed plug-in is a tremendously valuable feature when the goal is to provide fresh and relevant content. RSS is a method of delivering syndicated content like news items, the weather report, and other information. There are many organizations that offer subscriptions to their RSS feeds, and, many times, they are free of charge.

5. Network BasedThe ability of the signage solution to reside on your church's network will allow for the remote updating and management of display content. Remote management is a great feature when managing a signage solution on a large church campus. It is also very convenient to access the scheduling and management features from a remote location, such as another church campus or at home. A solution that resides on a network can easily leverage your church's Internet connection. Remote access to a signage solution requires an Internet connection. An Internet connection is also required to take advantage of RSS feed plug-ins as discussed above.

6. ExpandableThe ability to cost-effectively expand your signage solution as your ministries and facilities grow is perhaps the most important factor for consideration. Look for a system that allows for future expansion through addition of equipment vs. replacement of equipment. The focus is not on how many displays are in your solution, but rather how many different channels of content can be created. You may want to display general church announcements, events, and news in the common areas, while the youth center is highlighting the next outreach event and teen-related news. Perhaps a video is displayed in the children's wing along with the nursery schedule for the upcoming week. This would require three channels of content to be planned for your solution.

Components of a Digital Signage Solution
The majority of this article has focused on the creation and management software platform, which truly is the backbone of a signage solution. Selecting the right platform will help ensure a solution that provides effective communication, simple administration, and future expandability. Additional components of a signage solution must be planned for and carefully considered.

1. Video Distribution Network
There are a variety of video transmission systems available on the market. Historically, the use of modulated signals over coaxial cable enabled cost-effective installations with signal distribution over long distances within a campus. Modulated signals are not capable of high-definition video transmission, and the quality of the video content can degrade significantly as the video signal is split. Video distribution via Ethernet (Cat5) cable provides the ability to send VGA or component video signal up to 1,000 feet while maintaining high-definition quality. In addition, the signal can be split without degradation of signal quality. This method of video distribution is quickly gaining wide acceptance due to performance and cost-effective installation.

2. Displays
While the traditional signage installation featured CRT displays, we have seen tremendous price drops in both Plasma and LCD flat-panel technology, which now make both viable options for consideration. A few benefits of flat-panel technology are display quality, ease of installation, and overall aesthetic appeal. The natural progression in this discussion is to begin debate over plasma vs. LCD technology. In terms of price, both technologies are pretty close. Plasma still has the edge in overall screen size availability, but LCD panel manufacturers are closing the gap. There are three areas where LCD technology holds an advantage over plasma technology. First, LCD panels are less prone to "burn-in" caused by static images. It is important to note that newer plasma displays have incorporated technology to mitigate the "burn-in" issue. Second, LCD panels have a longer life expectancy than plasma panels. Third, LCD panels consume less energy than plasma panels.

3. Mounts
There has been an explosion in the availability of flat-panel mounts. The most important considerations when selecting a brand of mounts are the quality of construction, ease of installation, security features, and safety features. Choose a mount company with a strong history, a good reputation, and a product line that offers a full set of solutions.

4. Audio Distribution (Optional)
With the historical use of modulated signals, the audio was distributed along with the video signal. If your signage solution requires audio, you will need to plan for distribution of the audio signal. In addition, you will need to consider displays that have integrated speakers or budget for stand-alone speakers that can be mounted with the display.

5. Control Systems (Optional)
One final consideration is the ability to control displays remotely. The primary function is to turn displays on or off. This feature is more important on church campuses where a large number of displays are used. This feature will increase the cost and complexity of the signage solution since it currently requires the addition of a third-party control system.

Hopefully, this article will help you move you beyond the buzz of digital signage and into a high level understanding of the features and components to consider when planning and selecting a signage solution. Careful planning and consideration will lead to the ultimate goal of effective communication with your congregation.

Eric Henry is the chief executive officer and Jim Morical is the president of Kodo James, www.kodojames.com, an independent manufacturer's representation firm based in Minnesota.