5 Great Digital Lobby Sign Tools [+Setup Guide]
Lobbies are the first thing people encounter. Be it an office building, mall, airport, hotel, or any of the spaces people meet and congregate, lobbies make the first impression and set the tone of the experience to come.
That first impression is so important that 40% of consumers feel that a bad lobby experience results in damaged brand perception.
Digital lobby signage allows you to take advantage of that first impression. With them you can create interactive and engaging spaces that enhance the experience of those who visit.
In this guide, we discuss digital signage for lobbies and how to launch your own signage. We also include tools and use cases to help you get the most out of your new digital lobby signs.
What is a digital lobby sign?
Lobby digital signage is an electronic display that is installed in your lobby or hallway. Programmed content is loaded onto the display with the purpose of informing and engaging the people who visit the space.
These digital lobby displays are created by combining smart TVs, tablets, computers, or other digital screens with digital signage software. The software allows you to generate custom content that you can tailor to your building or business.
The benefits of digital lobby signs
Some of the key benefits of including digital signage in your lobby are:
- Improves visitor experience: Dynamic and visually appealing content attracts attention and entertains visitors. News, weather and curated content engages visitors. Providing helpful information like building directory signage and wait times enhances the visitor's journey.
- Improves corporate culture: Displaying internal communications such as company updates, upcoming events, and meetings keeps your employees informed. Public shoutouts for employee achievements, promotions and birthdays boosts morale. And, sharing the company’s history and mission can impart a sense of purpose.
- Brand awareness: Displaying visually appealing branded content boosts brand awareness. Providing consistent messaging in lobby signs, hallway signs, and elsewhere also builds brand recognition.
- Communication efficiency: The programmable nature of digital displays allows for real-time updates. Wait times, queue call numbers, short-term promotions and other time-sensitive information can be easily displayed and changed ensuring the right information is being shared at the right time.
- Analytics: Digital signage allows you to obtain analytic data. This allows you to optimize your content and maximize its effectiveness.
- Cost-effective: Digital signage saves on the printing costs of traditional signs. Programmatically changing content also reduces the labor costs of repeated sign installations.
- Sustainability: Programmatically changing and updating your signs produces significantly less waste than printed signs.
4 common use cases for digital lobby displays
There are many use cases for digital signage. Here are some of the common ones for digital lobbies.
Welcome signs and notifications
Welcome signs are a great use of digital lobby signage. With them you can create a warm welcoming reception for employees, guests, customers, or anybody visiting your lobby.
You can also include notifications with—or next to— these welcome signs. These notifications could be moral boosters for employees, directional information for guests, or promotional information about events and activities in the area. The choices are endless, but they can really add a personal touch that improves those first impressions and supports your team.
Queue management
Digital signage for managing queues is a game changer. First off, digital signage can reduce perceived wait times by over 35%. This can be done by providing content that distracts and entertains. This could be music videos, movies and TV shows, or news and weather updates (depending on who is in your queue of course).
Queue management itself is directly improved as well. With digital kiosks, your visitors can check-in and receive a spot in the queue instead of waiting in line. Overhead displays can inform them of who's being served and approximate wait times as well.
Wayfinding
Customers and visitors shouldn’t have to ask for directions. And employees shouldn’t have to waste their time telling people where to go. Utilizing digital signage for navigating the premises provides a convenience for everyone. The other benefit is the programmable nature of the signage makes it easy to update for special events, different times of the day, or based on crowd size.
Video walls
Video walls are a definite attention grabber. They utilize multiple screens to create captivating displays for ads, branding, live feeds, or artistic installations.
For example, Terell Place in Washington DC has gone all out in creating an interactive video wall in their lobby. Not only does it span the entirety of the wall, but it extends through the depth of the building. This creates a fully immersive and memorable experience.
How to setup a digital sign in your lobby
The first step is to consider and define the purpose of the signage. This will determine what features you need and the capabilities of the system. For example, if your purpose is advertising, social media content curation, or wayfinding, then a simple browser-based digital signage solution and a smartTV is all you’ll need.
Simple digital lobby display setup
For a simple straightforward process to launch digital lobby signage, you’ll need:
- WiFi connection: A WiFi connection to the internet allows you to access online apps and connect your hardware and software.
- Hardware: A WiFi enabled smart TV with a web browser is all the hardware you’ll need to create a digital sign. If you want to mount your display then you’ll have to obtain the appropriate mounting hardware as well.
- Software: All the software you’ll need is a subscription to an online digital signage app that is accessible through a web browser.
Once you have the supplies, the next step is to install the smartTV where you want to display your digital sign. Then set up the content for your display through your digital signage app. Finally, connect the smartTV to the internet via the WiFi and launch your created content using the web browser. That's it.
As you develop more content for your lobby you can schedule the times and durations of the displayed content in the app. This will automatically play the content you want when you want it and help you get the most out of the digital signage.
This simple method for digital lobby displays is the most cost effective method, and is the ideal choice for lobbies of medical buildings, office buildings, community banks, conference centers, and other businesses where display interactivity or custom layouts are not required.
Enterprise-level lobby display setup
If you're an enterprise business wanting large elaborate lobby displays. Or you have your eyes set on creating interactive experience with your lobby signage for things like wayfinding and check-ins. Then you’ll need more features included with your signage.
If this is the case, then the setup of your system begins with finding the right software for your needs. Once you have established what software you want to use, contact the sales team about the hardware and setup of the system. Leveraging the successful setup of digital lobbies is in their best interest so use that to your advantage.
Top 5 digital lobby sign tools
Here are the top lobby signage tools to consider.
1. Juuno
If you're looking for an incredibly simple, effective, and wallet-friendly digital signage software, then Juuno is the way to go. Setting up your looby signs takes almost no time at all. First you make your playlist. Then you set your schedule. Lastly, you curate your content.
With Juuno, your playlists can include images, videos, Canva designs (which simplifies designing your own digital sign boards), and more. And, being a browser-based signage solution means there is no additional hardware beyond your smartTV. All you need is WiFi and a web browser.
The simple pay-per-screen pricing format also makes Juuno easy to budget, easy to scale, and easy to manage.
Pricing: The cost for Juuno is $5 per screen per month.
2. Userful
Userful is an enterprise-level platform that offers data dashboard distribution, video walls for lobbies and experience centers, operational signage, corporate communications, and collaboration environments. Their API allows for both cloud and on-premise deployments and includes automated failover options—which is a plus for keeping your wall signage running. If you are looking for a digital signage platform that goes beyond the lobby display and facilitates corporate connections, then Userful is worth checking out.
Pricing: Userful is an enterprise-only platform. You’ll have to contact sales to learn about pricing options.
3. Rise Vision
Rise Vision is an affordable digital lobby signage solution—especially for k-12 schools. Their auto-updating, and easy-to-use templates make it a good option for teachers and staff who need quick design solutions.
Pricing: For k-12 schools, you’ll pay $999 per school per year for unlimited screens.
4. Screenly
Screenly offers a suitable digital lobby signage solution for those who don’t mind some extra hardware. The extra hardware is the player you connect to your screen to render content. Once connected, you can remotely control your content on their dashboard. While Screenly does provide a good option for lobby signage, you’ll have to watch your budget if you want to scale—hardware has to be purchased for each device.
Pricing: The cheapest solution is $11 per screen per month when paid annually (not including hardware).
5. LobbyTV
Designed specifically for lobby signage, LobbyTV offers a simple lobby sign solution. Their CMS provides an easy drag and drop interface and they directly incorporate radio stations into their app for the added audio appeal. You will need extra hardware (media player), and if you have multiple locations, you’ll have to upgrade to the enterprise plan.
Pricing: LobbyTV’s pricing starts at $15 per month per screen for one location.
Get started with digital lobby signage
Digital lobby signage improves the visitor experience and enhances your brand’s image. Creating a digital lobby doesn’t have to be complicated or overly expensive. Taking advantage of the right software (like Juuno), makes the process even easier by providing you the versatility to meet your current and future needs.