Introduction
Digital signage is a powerful tool that allows users to display advertisements, menus, corporate communications and more on an unlimited number of screens, and update them from anywhere. Signage platforms like XOGO are incredibly easy to use. Most of the time if there’s an issue, it’s related to the content that’s being uploaded to the system. To help our users avoid issues, we’ve put together the following best-practices guide.
Viewing Distance and Display Size
The first thing to consider when designing your content is where your screens will be placed and how large or small they will be. The further your screens are located from their audience, the more difficult it becomes to read small text or scan any QR codes that you may have incorporated into your design. Check out our guide to choosing digital displays if you’re not sure what type and size of screens are best for your space.
Display Resolution and Orientation
When designing your digital signage content, you should create content that has the same resolution as the display that you intend to play it on. Every display has its own resolution, which is expressed as the total number of pixels measured horizontally and vertically. High-resolution displays have more pixels, and look very sharp even when viewed from a close distance. They also require a more powerful media player, since a 4K video (for instance) contains 4X more moving pixels than a 1080HD image or video.
Nearly all TVs today have an HD or 4K resolution, while computers, phones and tablets tend to have their own custom resolutions. Designers should look up their display’s resolution and create content in that same size, in order to avoid graphics looking pixelated (blurry) or having letterboxing (black bars on the sides). Here are some common resolutions:
All Standard HD (“720p”) TVs & Devices: 1280 x 720 pixels
All Full HD (“1080p”) TVs & devices: 1920 x 1080 pixels
All 4K TVs & devices: 3840 x 2160 pixels
iPad (10th gen): 2360 x 1640 pixels
Microsoft Surface Go 3: 1920 x 1280 pixels
Bear in mind that if your display is going to be mounted in portrait orientation (vertically) rather than landscape, then your graphics should be designed in portrait mode as well. As an example, if your high definition TV is 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall, but you plan to rotate it 90 degrees and mount it on the wall in portrait mode, then you should design graphics that are 1080 pixels wide by 1920 pixels tall. When you set up your media player in XOGO Manager, you can select which orientation you want to use; we support landscape and portrait of course, as well as landscape-flipped and portrait-flipped (just in case your TV got mounted upside down!).
Supported File Types
Our platform supports images and videos in the following formats, as well as URLs from the web. You can use any graphic design app to produce your content, (even PowerPoint!) or start with an easy design tool like PosterMyWall, which offers thousands of templates for all types of businesses, already formatted for your 16:9 screens.
Images: We support .jpeg and .png image formats. If possible we recommend keeping your file sizes under 10MB each so your media players can quickly download playlist updates, even on a weak Internet connection. In general, .jpeg files tend to be smaller, while .png files have better color-accuracy and sharpness.
Videos: We support .mov and .mp4 video formats. We recommend rendering your video with the standard H.264 codec to ensure compatibility across most media player devices.
Video playback performance is affected by your video’s resolution, frame rate (measured in FPS) and bitrate (measured in Kbps). For the best performance across a wide variety of media players, we would recommend rendering your videos with the following bitrates. Most video editors will do this by default, but some apps (i.e. Adobe After Effects) tend to render videos with super-high bitrates, which causes them to stutter when they are played back on anything other than an expensive, high-end media player PC.
HD resolution 30 frames per second: recommended bitrate 3500 Kbps
HD resolution 60 frames per second: recommended bitrate 5000 Kbps
4K resolution 30 frames per second: recommended bitrate 5000 Kbps
4K resolution 60 frames per second: recommended bitrate 7500 Kbps
URLs: XOGO can display most URLs as well, provided that they are not password-protected. We highly recommend using feeds from Seenspire if you would like to display automated content like your local weather and traffic, world news, stock prices, or your business’ social media feeds. These content feeds are delivered as URLs that are already sized correctly for your screens. They can be dropped into any XOGO playlist, either on their own or sprinkled among your other graphics and videos. It’s a great way to keep your content fresh and engaging at all times, with a minimum of effort!
Fixing Common Issues
Letterboxing. If your content is designed in a different resolution than the screen it’s being displayed upon (i.e. your file is too wide or too tall), then your media player will put black bars on the sides of the content in order to fill the rest of the screen. This is called letterboxing. To correct this, delete the content from XOGO and then re-upload it in the correct resolution to match your screen.
Upload your content in the same resolution as your TV in order to avoid letterboxing (black bars).
Pixellated content. If your image or video appears blurry (letterboxing may or may not be present as well), it’s because your content has a smaller resolution than your screen. Please delete the blurry files, adjust their size (in your design app) to be the same resolution as your screen, then re-upload them to your XOGO playlist(s).
Bear in mind that you can always make an image or video smaller without affecting its quality, but to make it larger you will need to edit or recreate the original design file. Both Mac and Windows computers have free tools that allow you to crop image files. If you need to adjust the size or bitrate of a video, then we recommend using an app called Handbrake; it’s free of charge and available for Mac, Windows and Linux.
If your graphics look fuzzy and pixellated (at right), it’s because they are smaller than your TV’s resolution.
Illegible Text. It’s important that any text in your digital signage content has a contrasting color from the background, and is large enough to be viewed at a distance. Depending on the size of your screens and where they are placed, you may need to experiment a bit with your designs in order to make sure that your text is clear and legible when viewed at a distance.
Summary
Digital signage is easy to set up and use, and less costly than printing out large graphics or posters. By following the tips above, XOGO users can avoid common issues and make sure that their content looks crisp and legible on-screen. If you have additional questions about digital signage content after reading this guide, please contact our technical support team. We also offer design services via XOGO Studio, for those that would rather leave the design part to someone else!
