Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to read the Popstar Blog! My name is Steve Hagenlock, I am one of the founders of Popstar Networks, where I’m the Chief Technology Officer. I plan to use this space to carry on a dialog on topics concerning the Art and the Science of Digital Signage.

For nearly 20 years, I’ve been involved in the creation of products which display computer generated graphics on televisions. From the earliest Interactive Television applications, to cutting edge Broadcast Animation software to the state of the art Digital Signage software products we have available today, I’ve been privileged to be involved with this business of digitally turbo-charged mass communication technology.

Looking back, many of the communication challenges that we faced are the same as today, such the effective use of text and graphics formatting for specific resolutions. The lack of computing horsepower, broadband networks and modern core technologies focused your energies, as a producer, toward making sure your message was delivered clearly through the limited capabilities available. This often meant tight loops, low resolution graphics, highly compressed audio loops and very creative packaging techniques.

Looking forward, our industry is faced with a dizzying array of options for digital communications on large format television screens. Our industry deals with an acronym soup that would bring even the most hardened government bureaucrat to declare alphabet bankruptcy. Want some MPG you say? H.264, DiVX or MPEG2? Making sense of all of this activity can be a mentally draining and time consuming task; this space will help demystify the Art and simplify the Science of Digital Signage. After all, it’s all about communication, and effective communication is what we do around here!

As mentioned, I plan this space to be a dialog, so please feel free to ask a question if you wish to. I’ll do my best to respond without using acronyms. Next up is “The effect of Internet Scale on the Digital Signage Industry”. Until then, keep your screens lit and your weekends free!