Fifth screen
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The Fifth Screen is the most recent in a historic line of communication screens. It is commonly called Digital Signage or Digital Out Of Home.
The Fifth Screen represents the combination of the World Wide Web and mobile 2G and 3G technologies or data delivered via physical uploads at screens placed in various environments.
The Fifth Screen is typically found in three main categories; Point of Sale, Point of Wait and Point of Transit. It is expected that millions of these screens will be deployed over the next five years in places like Retail outlets to promote sales of products, or while waiting in line (UK queueing) as at a bank, and in transit, e.g. Digital Billboards on a highway (UK road).
The Fifth Screen represents an unprecedented new medium that requires a number of elements to support it, whether it is content, software, networks and hardware.
History
The history of "screens" may be categorized as follows:
- First screen, (the Silver Screen, Movies)
- Second screen, Television
- The Third screen really came about after the advent of two technologies melding together - the Personal Computer and the publicly available World Wide Web in 1995
- Arguably the Fourth screen is related to mobile hand held devices.[1] It followed in 2002 with the advent of Hand Held technologies and Wi-Fi, 2g and 3G mobile services.
- The Fifth screen is described in this article
The Fifth Screen is the digital screen that is seen outside the home in many different venues. Screens are installed in elevators, malls, airports, train stations, on a subway platform, in retail stores, banks and are used in back office corporate communications. The Fifth Screen is a new and separate medium.