While the arrival of 4K display technology is starting to make its way to home theater systems—not to mention other breeds of display systems—the owners of these systems have raised concerns over technical issues, particularly when these display systems are put to work for businesses. But BrightSign LLC is out to handle some of these issues with upgrades to both software and firmware found in its BrightSign line of digital signage media players, including enhanced HTML5 features.

With the upgrades in place, the BrightAuthor 3.7 software, and its accompanying firmware version 4.7, gets some impressive new features that will likely prove very welcome for users. Users now have access to better IP streaming, and the ability to upscale currently-made 1080p video to 4K resolution, which will further help adoption of the 4K display systems as said systems emerge. The improvements in IP streaming allow for a variety of platforms to get involved on the streaming front, including SHOUTcast, HLS, and not only video streaming in HTML but also from real-time encoders.

Better yet, those using such signs can more readily take that 1080p content and use it to display, in real-time, the differences between a 1080p display and its 4K resolution counterpart, the kind of thing that will likely prove very useful to those selling 4K displays to those unsure of why an upgrade would be necessary or even desirable.

Perhaps best of all—and there's already plenty to like about the BrightAuthor and firmware upgrades—is the augmented support for HTML5, which in turn brings with it several new features that are hard to ignore. HTML5 rendering gets a boost, allowing for clearer video without the skips and stuttering that's been known to happen when using software-based rendering systems. JavaScript extensions allow for a new level of interactivity—always a plus when it comes to the presentation of digital signage—as well as a built-in Web server to supply a new source of content. There's even HTML5 video rotation, which makes displays much more versatile overall.

This combination of new features allows for a much improved ability to not only attract attention from potential users and customers, but also better keep that attention. Making signs more interactive steps up the usefulness of said signage, and makes users more likely to pay attention to that signage. When users are paying attention, the message on said signage is more likely to reach the user, and help to turn that user into a customer. Particularly at this time of year, when the biggest rushes of shoppers are hitting stores and then leaving stores for several months, businesses need better ways to not only get shoppers in the door when said shoppers are most interested, but also when said shoppers are least interested, as is likely to be the case in the January-March period.

There's plenty of value in using digital signage, and BrightSign is stepping up the value considerably with its newest firmware upgrades. BrightSign is making its clear to its own user base that a BrightSign system is not only likely to be useful today, but also useful tomorrow and well into the future.