How much does digital signage cost?

A single digital menu board runs $2,500-$8,500 installed including display, media player, mount, and first-year CMS. A restaurant location with 4-8 menu boards plus promo screens is typically $15,000-$45,000. Enterprise rollouts across hundreds of locations scale accordingly.

What's the difference between consumer TVs and commercial displays?

Commercial displays are rated for 16/7 or 24/7 operation, have anti-image-retention features, support portrait orientation, include RS-232 or IP control, and carry 3-year commercial warranties. Consumer TVs typically fail within a year in signage use and void warranty on commercial deployment.

Which CMS platform is best?

Depends on use case. For simple scheduled playlists: BrightSign or a SOC-based solution. For restaurants with POS integration: Stratacache or similar. For corporate with complex approval workflow: Poppulo/Four Winds or Scala. For enterprise with proof-of-play: Signagelive or Navori. We help choose — we're not locked into any one platform.

Can you install across all 50 states?

Yes. We have installer partners in every major metro plus traveling crews for rural locations. Large rollouts are typically done with per-location specs, so the same install quality shows up at every site.

What about interactive touch displays?

We install PCAP (projected capacitive) and IR touch overlays on commercial displays, plus dedicated touch kiosks (Kiosk Group, Kingston, IAdea). Use cases: retail product search, hospital wayfinding, corporate visitor check-in, trade show engagement.

How is content updated?

Depends on the CMS. Most modern platforms are web-based — you log in, upload content, drag-drop schedule, and push live. Changes typically appear on displays within 30-90 seconds. Some platforms (BrightSign, Signagelive) also support API-driven content updates from your own systems.

Digital Signage Installation | Menu Boards, Wayfinding

Typical Pricing

Ranges below are turnkey including design, equipment, labor, programming, and training. Every project gets a line-item proposal.

Scope	Typical Range
Single-screen digital menu board	$2,500 – $8,500
Restaurant location (4-8 menu boards + promo screens)	$15,000 – $45,000
Corporate lobby / wayfinding (3-10 displays)	$18,000 – $85,000
Enterprise rollout (50-500+ locations)	$250,000 – $8M+
Interactive touch kiosk	$6,500 – $35,000 each
CMS platform + licensing (annual)	$120 – $600 per screen per year

Engineering Approach

How we design these systems

Content management platforms: the real decision

The CMS is the system — the displays are almost fungible. Enterprise CMS options: BrightSign Network, Signagelive, Scala, Stratacache, Four Winds Interactive (now Poppulo), Navori, Screenfeed. For small networks, SOC-based options (Samsung MagicInfo, LG webOS Signage, Philips CMND) are built into the display. We match CMS to your org — scheduling complexity, user count, content approval workflow, integration requirements (POS, RSS, social media, emergency alerts).

Display selection and brightness

Indoor corporate and retail: 450-700 nit commercial-grade displays (Samsung QMR/QHR, LG UH5F/UHN, NEC M-series). High-ambient-light storefronts: 2,500-3,000 nit high-bright (Samsung OHF/OMF, LG XE4F, NEC X-series). Outdoor: 2,500-5,000 nit weatherproof (Samsung OH/OMB, LG XE4F). Commercial displays run 16/7 or 24/7 with proper thermal management — consumer TVs will fail.

Digital menu boards (QSR and fast-casual)

Menu boards have specific requirements: POS integration for dynamic pricing, day-part switching, item 86-ing, and kitchen display integration. We integrate with Olo, Toast, Xenial, HungerRush, Oracle Simphony, Aloha, and Square. Price changes push from POS to menu board in under 30 seconds.

Wayfinding and directories

Hospital, university, and corporate campus wayfinding requires interactive maps, ADA-compliant interfaces, event integration (room scheduling), and directory management. We use Vocam, Four Winds, Korbyt, or custom solutions. Data sources — Exchange/Google Workspace for room scheduling, HR systems for directory — integrate via LDAP, SCIM, or API.

Emergency and life-safety integration

Modern signage networks integrate with mass notification systems (Alertus, Singlewire InformaCast, Rave Alert) to override normal content during emergencies. We design the override path with proper prioritization and test it quarterly.

Proof-of-play and analytics

For ad-supported networks and compliance-required displays, proof-of-play logs (every play of every asset on every screen) are mandatory. We configure the CMS to generate POP reports that reconcile with ad insertion or compliance audit requirements.

Digital Signage Installation