AI for Digital Signage: Transform Your Displays

Picture this: You walk into your favorite retail store, and the digital displays aren’t just showing ads, they’re actively learning about customer behavior, optimizing content in real-time, and helping the business make smarter decisions. This isn’t science fiction. It’s happening right now with BrightSign’s new AI-powered digital signage players.

The Business Challenge: Making Displays Work Harder

Digital displays are everywhere — from retail stores and corporate lobbies to airports and hospitals. But here’s the problem: Most of these expensive screens are essentially glorified TVs, passively showing content without any understanding of their impact or effectiveness.

Business leaders are asking tough questions:

• How many people actually looked at our promotional display?
• Are customers engaging with our content or just walking by?
• Can we personalize content without invading privacy?
• How do we measure ROI on our digital signage investment?

Until now, answering these questions required expensive additional hardware, complex integrations, and often raised serious privacy concerns. BrightSign just changed the game.

The Game Changer: AI That Runs Right on Your Display

BrightSign’s LS and XT Series 5 players, and all Series 6 players, come with something revolutionary: A built-in Neural Processing Unit (NPU). Think of it as giving your display its own brain — one that’s specifically designed for AI tasks while keeping your videos running smoothly.

Here’s why this matters for your business:

No Performance Trade-offs: The dedicated AI chip allows AI models to run in the background, while the CPU and the GPU focus on delivering seamless 4K video playback. Your customers see beautiful content while you gather valuable insights.

No Hidden Costs: Unlike competitors who charge premium prices for AI features, BrightSign includes these capabilities at no extra charge. Your existing budget now buys you intelligence, not just pixels.

No Privacy Headaches: All processing happens on the device itself. No images are stored, no personal data is collected, and no information leaves your premises. You get insights while respecting privacy — a win-win in today’s regulatory environment.

Real Business Value: Use Cases That Drive ROI

Retail: Turn Browsers into Buyers

Imagine knowing exactly which products catch customers’ attention. By running AI models on BrightSign’s AI-ready players, your displays could:

• Count foot traffic and measure conversion rates.
• Detect when customers stop to look at specific content.
• Adjust promotional content based on real-time demographics (age groups, not individuals).
• Alert staff when checkout lines get too long.

Corporate: Smarter Workplaces, Better Experiences

In office environments, AI-powered smart displays become workplace assistants that enable:

• Meeting room displays that know when rooms are occupied.
• Lobby screens that adjust content for visitors versus employee traffic.
• Emergency displays that can detect unusual crowd patterns.
• Digital directories that optimize based on usage patterns.

Healthcare: Efficiency Meets Compassion

Hospitals and clinics use intelligent displays to:

• Monitor waiting room capacity without invading privacy.
• Provide real-time wait time estimates.
• Detect when areas become overcrowded.
• Adjust informational content based on time of day and occupancy.

Making It Work: Surprisingly Simple Implementation

Here’s what surprises most IT managers: Implementation is refreshingly straightforward.

AI Hardware You Need:

• Series 6, LS Series 5, or XT Series 5 BrightSign player (with built-in NPU included).
• Basic USB camera for vision applications, or a USB microphone for audio applications.
• Your existing displays and network infrastructure.

Software Integration:

BrightSign’s AI approach is not proprietary. It works with brightAuthor connected, HTML5 applications, and third-party CMS software, making it easy to leverage pre-built AI models to get started fast.

The Partner Ecosystem: Solutions Ready to Deploy

BrightSign isn’t trying to be everything to everyone. Instead, they’ve created a platform where specialized partners can deliver targeted AI solutions. Quividi, a leader in audience measurement, has already ported their audience measurement model to run natively on BrightSign players. Moreover, BrightSign’s partner engineering team is already working with multiple partners to deliver solutions that meet the needs of our customers.

This means you can choose best-in-class solutions for your specific needs:

• Shopper analytics from companies that understand retail.
• Security solutions from surveillance experts.
• Healthcare applications from HIPAA-compliant providers.
• Custom solutions from your preferred integrator.