Oct
Digital Menu Board – Various Types
Digital menu board solutions.
A digital menu board is a unique way to display advertising content for any company, a digital menu board can provide a cost effective solution for this new technology.
Digital menu board – definition.
When restaurants wanted to promote a food product or special of the day, they usually added them to “the specials board”, this was a black board, however as time and technology has advanced we are now seeing an increase in digital menu board installations in quick serve restaurants.
As a digital menu board can be mounted in either landscape or portrait mode and includes images so the diners know what they will be getting. Have you ever been in a restaurant and seen a waiter with a dish, just about to give it to the consumer and wondered, “that looks nice – what is it?” Now a digital menu board takes the guess work out of ordering a meal.
Two types of digital menu board.
These LCD advertising displays are used both indoors and outdoors, however there are some challenges, because if you put an indoor unit outdoors the electronics inside the unit are prone to attack from the elements. This is why there are specific units for indoor digital signage as well as for outdoor use.
The outdoor digital menu board comes complete with a steel housing that protects the hardware from vandalism and the weather. If used indoors this would look out of place due to the protective housing.
Digital menu board solutions.
Both types of digital menu board have a screen and a media player, the media player can on the entry level units stores the ads on a memory card and updates are done manually, by either replacing the memory card with an updated one or by updating the ads using a Flash drive and over righting the previous ads or there are network enabled solutions that will be discussed later.
Digital menu board – sizes.
Usually digital menu boards add impact to a quick server restaurants, so the size needs to be able to display text and images so that they can be seen from a distance of 10 feet, so the digital menu boards have to be as large as possible.
The standard range of digital menu boards start from 26” (ideal for a sandwich bar) to a 65” screen perfect for any major QSR (Quick Serve restaurant).
Network enabled digital menu board.
A network enabled digital menu board are increasing in popularity, due to the flexibility and functionality compared to the other standalone digital menu board. As large companies can create a digital signage network throughout a country, or even the world and control the content form one central office. Updates are done using the internet and the content is stored on an internal hard drive with a capacity of 250GB.
These high tech digital signs are being installed in high end fish and chip shops, so they can promote “that days freshly caught fish”. Up selling this fish at a premium price, or by take out stores that promote a meal deal, mainly in the USA when the franchisee signs up to the brand their outlet is equipped with these digital menu board solutions so all the brand owners does is update the content and everything throughout the outlets is the same no matter what state, town or country you are in.