Why not use a USB to Update your TV screens?

TVs are becoming very popular in businesses. Most businesses use a USB to plug into the USB port of the TV screen. Most new TV screens have a USB port, so why not use it? Why use a more expensive media player?

The typical use of a USB or flash drive is someone will create a whole lot of images or videos and copy it onto the USB. Then he/she will plug the flash drive into the TV set which starts playing the images and videos.

Sounds easy? Not so fast! Very often the designer works from an independent office. He then has to upload the images to Google drive or dropbox, or to the local server. Someone has to copy the files from the cloud onto the flash drive and get it to the location of the TV screen. This could be a shop or a branch of a business. The USB must then be inserted into the TV.

This raises many problems. Multiple people have to be involved, with the important one being the person in the shop or branch. Many TV screens are mounted high up on a wall so the person has to climb a ladder or stand on a chair in order to get to the TV screen. Very often it is difficult to find the USB port on a mounted TV screen. Either you have to take the screen down or you have to fiddle around the side of the screen to get to the USB port.

It is no wonder that many businesses using the flash drive approach do not update their screens very often, it is just too much hassle.

There are good arguments why screens should be updated every day or at least once a week. New information becomes available in a business every day. It will be good to add it to the screen playlist. The screen should also be updated for special events, eg Valentines Day, Mother’s Day. Some businesses have a special price on a specific day of the week. That should be advertised and changed every week. If you are ine the food industry then you may want to advertise breakfasts from 7am to 10am, and then change the screen to reflect a lunch screen. Maybe there is a chef’s special each day, and it will be better and easier to put it onto a screen or multiple screens rather than writing on a chalk board.

Our managed screens have current local news, weather, exchange rates on them. This makes it more interesting for the customer and will grab his attention. Your aim is to get him to look at the screen and decide to make a purchase.

Whatever is put onto the screens needs to be changed before the target market gets bored. It is impossible to ask a shop manager to change images on a USB at 7am and then again at 10am. It is virtually impossible to ask a manager to change images every week.

What of the situation of a chain of stores or multiple branches. It may be very good to have the same images on all the screens in the country or even in a large office. It will be good to update all screens simultaneously. Only a remote controlled media player system can ensure this. USBs become redundant. Imagine changing one image and uploading it instantly to all the TV screens in the region, province, the country, the world. Imagine scheduling the change so the system automatically updates at the required time.

Summary:
USBs drives will work, but are an inflexible method of updating TV screens.
As more screens are used, a better method is required.
This method is via remote access to a media player
When you add in the cost of time and hassle to the employees who have to update the screens manually, a remote controlled media player becomes very cost effective.