In a simple set up, you may have just one person managing your digital signs. More likely, your distributed network requires several people to take ownership, set policies and manage your system. Here are some of the more popular roles and requirements for digital signage managers.
Technical Manager
This is often the person who purchased the system, so they already have a working plan in place. The Technical Manager is usually someone from your IT department, and they’ll be responsible for implementation, licensing, system security, and technical and network issues.
Since the Technical Manager will implement your system, they’ll set up your software and hardware default settings right out of the gate, and handle software and hardware updates over the life of your system.
Content Manager
This person is often someone responsible for employee/student communications, marketing or public relations. They drive your overall communications strategy.
The Content Manager should determine the overall look of your screens, the content displayed, and what goes where on each display layout. They’ll also need to define naming conventions for the various parts of the system – layouts, playlists, players, tickers, media, etc. – and assign user roles and privileges.
Layout and Template Designers
Your Content Manager can stipulate logos, color schemes, fonts and other elements they want to remain consistent, and Layout and Template Designers can bring those ideas to life.
Message templates within your digital signage software are standard designs that limit what Content Creators can alter. A template is usually a predetermined background, title and font styles – just like blank form. This protects your branding and saves your Content Creators time, since they just have to write in their text (and maybe add an image) and their message is ready to go.
Layouts are the placement of items on the screen – blocks for messages, tickers, date/time, etc. – with a branded frame that matches your standardized look. These are created by your Layout Designers to ensure that you always have a good mix of content on your displays.
Asset Designers
Asset is just a fancy word for all of your images, videos, PowerPoints and other file types that you bring into your digital signage system. Asset Designers are your creative team – sometimes students, often a graphic design or marketing department – who use third-party software (Photoshop, PowerPoint, etc.) to create digital communications.
Content Creators
The beauty of a distributed content management system is that you can invite a lot of different people to submit digital signage content. These Content Creators usually have permission only to create messages within your software or PowerPoint templates. In some cases, you may also want to give them the rights to import other types of assets.
Template Users
Template User is the most basic role for a digital signage system. These folks can only submit messages that they create within your fill-in-the-blank message templates. This is a quick, easy way to let less experienced communicators/designers contribute to your communications.
Content Approvers
Content Approvers can be department heads, lead designers or your Content Manager. They review anything submitted by Content Creators and Template Users and confirm that their messages are accurate and appropriate.
For more detail, read our white paper.