Player hardware is a controversial topic in digital signage. It's hard to find someone in the industry that doesn't have a strong opinion about what type of device makes the most sense. There are really two schools of thought on this one that PCs are the way to go and the other that non-PC players work just fine.

So which school of thought do I think is right? Honestly? Both. There's an upside and a downside to both camps. PCs give you the most flexibility and stability in your network. Non-PCs give you great prices. The answer depends on the network needs. What type of networks should use non-PC players?

• Networks that have little or no need for customized content
• Networks with lots of available bandwidth (you’ll need it to download or stream all those video files)
• Networks with no local data interaction (POS Systems, etc)
• Networks that have simple content that changes infrequently

When do PCs make sense?

• Most of the time PCs are the right choice especially with hardware costs dropping daily.
• When you really want to leverage all of the benefits of digital signage and really target your message to your audience.
• When you want to customize your content based on local data like the weather or inventory or the number of people in front of the screen.
• When live data like an RSS feed is needed.
• When bandwidth is restricted, unreliable, or not available.

It is inevitable that choosing a PC will cost you more money upfront. Even with the introduction of Ultra Low Cost PCs (ULPCs), the prices for PCs still far outweigh their non-PC counterparts. This leads many companies to the logical conclusion that spending less makes more sense - sign me up for the non-PC option. But... I'm not convinced that this upfront hardware savings can really turn into long term savings because what you are really doing is sacrificing the quality of the content on the screen for lower upfront costs. Creating content for MPEG players can be more expensive and/or less effective since the MPEG can't be very targeted. If you want targeted MPEGs you'll have to create millions at an astronomically high cost (See Jeff Porter’s whitepaper on Feeding the Monster) or you'll have to settle for generic MPEGs which will be less effective. So if you chose non-PC players, be careful not to be too enamored with the upfront savings if the end result is a less effective network or more content creation costs.

Currently, the vast majority of Scala digital signage licenses are run on PCs - ranging from the low end to the high end. As we announced in February at DSE, we are working towards several low cost alternatives. You can read about our new initiatives here.