FAQs - LiveSpace digital signage
What is LiveSpace?
It is a comprehensive digital display solution. Digital signage is a growing area occupied by large numbers of companies all providing similar solutions. LiveSpace provides all major features common across most systems. But through many successful years of supplying systems to the betting industry we are expert at handling and distributing live data to thousands of screens in real-time. For example our biggest client has over 37,000 screens, all of which show continually changing prices, promotions and special offers seven days a week. LiveSpace is the most dynamically changing, active solution available within the industry.
What could LiveSpace do for my business and for my customers?
LiveSpace gives you the facility to display your messages how, when and where you want them. These messages can be for customers, employees or any other group for whom your content is relevant. This content can be timed using the LiveSpace scheduler, or can use local data available to make the message more relevant to your audience. Perhaps messages for different times of day would be a requirement. LiveSpace fits a wide range of business interests from retail, food and beverage through transport information systems and the travel sectors to health and the banking and insurance industries. Imagine if you could harness this power to test your market and tease out better margins on sales. Through your automated data feeds LiveSpace provides a platform on which price changes can be tested quickly to determine a new price point for a product. For large companies it is easy to test the market in a small number of stores before rolling it out to the whole estate. The frequency of special promotions and product highlights might be increased which in turn provides you with the potential of additional sales.
What does the licence fee cover?
The licence fee gives you the right to use the software, remote support of the system (subject to internet access to the units) and ongoing upgrades. There are two elements to the licence fee – for the central server software and for the software in your shops, outlets or offices, referred to as clients. If you use our cloud-based service, there is no separate central server fee as this is absorbed in a higher client fee. If your business is of a sufficient size to host and maintain the service yourselves, then you would pay a separate licence for the central server and a much-reduced licence for the clients.
What is grouping and localisation?
Grouping, as the name suggests, allows the user to put screens into different groups, whether by region, type of outlet, nature of office and so on, enabling different messages to be displayed. Localisation allows for local information or messages to be displayed, which could range from welcoming guests to a particular office or making a special offer at just one location. We provide our clients with the tools to manage groups centrally but also allow the display of localised offers and promotions.
Can I use my existing screens?
Yes the system will drive any modern screen that has an HDMI input. If you have particular requirements outside of a normal installation we are happy to discuss these with you.
Do you have any interactive solutions?
We have several touchscreen solutions with different clients. For instance we have over 800 units already installed in various retail shops in the UK & Ireland. We also have 10” tablet devices providing interactive service to visitors to several government offices.
What is installed at each location?
This depends on what you want to do. Most installations will probably use a mini PC capable of driving two HD screens independently or a single 4K screen. But if you want to create a video wall, for example, then a unit with multiple video cards is required. Then there are plug-in PC devices which provide HD browser capability to screens. In short there is no simple answer to this question as it very much depends on what you want to do and the scale of the implementation.
Can I show live TV with my messages?
This is certainly possible, and the solution will depend on how much control you need over the channel being shown. For example some of our clients use Freeview or Freesat and some have IPTV capability.
I don’t have any design skills, how do I get great looking content on my screens?
LiveSpace has a suite of standard templates which fit most requirements. These can be branded with your own designs and colours. We can also arrange for specialist graphic designers to help with your particular requirements. Further, there will be an editor that will allow you to design templates specific to your own requirements.
Can I schedule the content to be displayed on the screens?
Scheduling is a key feature of the system with its ability to display pages and playlists hours, days, weeks or even months ahead. The purpose of a schedule is to simplify and automate the content for display at an appropriate time for your audience. This might comprise different menus being displayed throughout the day. Additionally, it will be possible to enable the displays to respond to specified events in a data feed.
What is a playlist?
A playlist is a group of templates that will carousel on the display that it has been assigned to. The user will be able to control how long each template is displayed for and the order of the templates displayed. The transitions between templates can also be chosen.
How quickly can LiveSpace be installed?
We offer a next day delivery service for a small operator running on the MRG cloud server. For large customers the process can take as little as four to six weeks depending on individual requirements and the size of the task.
How much training will I need to operate the system?
No special skills are required by the operator of a LiveSpace system. It is designed to be operated by anyone with reasonable experience and understanding of operating a web based user interface. Typically, a single half-day session is all that will be required.