For example, in a retail setting, RFID tags can be used for multi-way communication between a user, a digital display, a 5G network, and a back-end data repository. If a customer in a clothing store picks up a pair of pants, an RFID tag in the pants can instantly activate nearby digital displays to show shirts that would complement the pants. As the customer scrolls through the options on the display and picks out a shirt in his size and color preference, a feature built into the display pings a store employee to bring the item over.

Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality

Augmented and virtual reality tied into digital signage offer new ways to present content and assist in advertising, education and marketing by showing a viewer a new reality – not just telling her about it. 

These interfaces eventually could take over many existing digital signage protocols, including those used in retail, education, and entertainment. 5G will create opportunities to incorporate interactive technologies such as Microsoft HoloLens and Oculus Rift, which reside in a mobile environment, into digital signage.

OPS: Enabling IoT in Digital Signage

To ensure that today’s digital signage investments are still useful when 5G technologies become fully possible – in 2020 and beyond – users can select digital signage that uses Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) computer modules.

OPS simplifies device installation usage and maintenance while making it easier to upgrade digital signage equipment. It standardizes the system architecture between signage and media players – as well as slot size, display connection and power supply specifications – and offers multiple interchangeable solutions, including computing technology, signal distribution, media playback, and wireless data transmission.

A business can easily standardize display hardware (compatible displays and projectors) across their enterprise and use multiple computing cards to fit the specific content/software demands. As a company’s network and capability needs grow, the digital signage solution can grow with it through deployment of newer computer modules while still utilizing the investment on the displays.

For example, a business that wishes to someday take advantage of future IoT and digital signage pairings, but does not need such a high level of OPS functionality at the moment, can utilize an Atom-based or Celeron processor, which provides all the base benefits of OPS as well as superior graphic representation and content playback.

Later, if the business wants to capitalize on some of the digital signage trends 5G will facilitate – IoT, 4K and high-res, touch interactivity, motion trackers or facial analytics – the i5 or i7 “Skylake” processors are the most powerful OPS options. They are ideal for applications like IP-based video wall solutions – where every screen has a computer tied to it and requires powerful processors to form seamless images and graphics – and IoT connectivity, interactivity and analytics.

Moving Toward the Future

While true 5G might still be a couple of years down the line, businesses are champing at the bit to get the seamless content streaming and instant data collection and analysis 5G promises, which will allow them to interconnect more devices, connect with more customers and deliver higher-quality content through new technologies and IoT.

Digital signage technologies will continue to advance to help businesses engage with their audiences, and they will need a powerful next-generation network technology behind them. These rising trends are not the end of what’s to come – they are just the beginning.