Sound or no Sound – Common Digital Signage Questions

Digital signage is a fantastic new advertising media. The colourful imagery, animations and modernity of using LCD screens in place of traditional print media has so many benefits.

Whether it’s indoors or for outdoor digital signage, using screens for advertising is more engaging, eye-catching and can be changed in real-time or even adjusted for certain times of day providing a flexible advertising system.

There is also another unique aspect that digital screens can offer that static signage can’t – audio.
However, the sue of sound in digital signage applications comes with both advantages and disadvantages so deciding on whether to include sound in your advertising campaign can be difficult.

Sound used in outdoor TVs is not neccessarily a goo didea for digital signage

Advantages of using sound

There are several advantages in combining audio to your digital advertising campaign:

Sound will draw attention to your screen. This will provide more viewers than a silent campaign as many people who would have perhaps ignored the sign could be attracted by the audio.

Audio will also complement images and animations creating a more holistic form of advertising that people are used to seeing in the home environment.

Audio is also useful to help reinforce any textual messages. Slogans that are familiar to sight will also become familiar by sound.

Sound can also reach further than images and can introduce people who can’t see the digital signage screen to the advertising content.

Disadvantages of Sound

The main disadvantage with using sound in a digital signage campaign is the annoyance factor. Often repetitive sounds, music, slogans and voiceovers can soon become really annoying for those working near the sign or repeatedly passing it. This can have the effect of causing people to deliberately ignore the sign (and even choose another route). They can also fall foul to sabotage as people find they can’t cope with the repetitive sounds any longer.

Sound can also distract from the content and if audio is considered it is important it is used only to complement the visual image and not vice versa.

There is often another difficulty in using audio with digital signage and that is providing the speakers. Often, particularly with outdoor digital signage, the LCD enclosure will prevent the TV speakers from functioning (and similar problems occur with digital posters and other digital signage systems) so external speakers have to be used.