Internal communication has never been more complicated than it is right now. Teams are scattered across offices, home setups, and hybrid arrangements. Email inboxes overflow. Slack channels multiply. And somehow, the message that actually matters still gets buried under everything else.
This is why so many organizations are turning to something decidedly low-tech in concept but high-impact in execution: screens. Not the ones on desks, but the ones mounted in hallways, lobbies, breakrooms, and production floors. Digital displays that broadcast information to everyone who walks by, no login required.
The Case for Getting Off the Screen (And Onto a Different One)
There’s a certain irony here. Employees are drowning in digital communication, and the solution is… more screens? But the distinction matters. The problem isn’t screens themselves. It’s the fragmented, opt-in nature of most workplace communication tools. A window OS media player mounted in a common area doesn’t compete for attention in someone’s inbox. It just exists, visible to anyone in the space, delivering information passively but consistently.
Think about how this plays out in practice. A manufacturing floor needs to communicate shift changes and safety reminders. Sending emails to workers who spend most of their day away from computers doesn’t work. Posting paper notices gets ignored. But a screen near the time clock, cycling through relevant updates? That gets seen.
Why This Is Gaining Momentum Now
The market for these systems has grown steadily over the past decade. According to Grand View Research, the digital signage industry was valued at roughly $28.8 billion in 2024, with projected growth of about 8% annually through 2030. That’s not a niche category anymore.
Several factors are driving adoption. Hardware costs have dropped, making it feasible for small and mid-sized businesses to deploy multiple screens without major capital investment. Cloud-based software has simplified content management, so you don’t need dedicated IT staff to keep things running. And the rise of hybrid work has created new communication gaps that traditional tools don’t address well.
When half your workforce is remote on any given day, the office becomes less about individual work and more about shared presence. Screens in common areas can reinforce company culture, highlight wins, and keep distributed teams feeling connected to what’s happening at headquarters.
Beyond the Breakroom
The obvious use cases are internal: company announcements, meeting room schedules, cafeteria menus, and HR reminders. But the applications extend further than that.
Retail and hospitality businesses use customer-facing displays to reduce perceived wait times and promote services. Healthcare facilities display wayfinding information and patient education content. Warehouses and logistics centers show real-time operational metrics to keep teams aligned on priorities.
Gartner’s research on employee communications emphasizes that reaching deskless and frontline workers remains one of the biggest challenges for internal communicators. These employees don’t sit at computers all day. They don’t check email regularly. Digital displays placed in the physical spaces where they work provide a direct channel that doesn’t depend on individual engagement with digital tools.
What Actually Makes This Work
Not every screen in a lobby is doing its job. Plenty of them cycle through the same stale content for months or show information so generic that nobody pays attention. The technology is only as good as the strategy behind it.
A few principles separate effective deployments from expensive wallpaper:
Relevance matters. Content should change based on location, time, and audience. A screen in the sales department should show different information than one in the warehouse. Morning content should differ from afternoon content.
Freshness counts. Static displays become invisible. Regular updates, even small ones, signal that the information is current and worth paying attention to.
Simplicity wins. People walking past a screen have seconds, not minutes. Dense text and cluttered layouts defeat the purpose. The best content communicates one idea at a glance.
Integration helps. Pulling in real-time data from other systems, like calendars, dashboards, or news feeds, keeps content dynamic without requiring constant manual updates.
The Infrastructure Question
For organizations considering this kind of investment, the practical questions often come down to hardware and software.
On the hardware side, commercial-grade displays designed for extended use tend to last longer than consumer TVs, though they cost more upfront. Media players, the devices that connect to screens and run the content, range from dedicated hardware to software that runs on existing computers.
On the software side, most modern platforms are cloud-based, meaning content can be managed from anywhere and pushed to any number of screens instantly. Pricing models vary, but many providers offer tiered plans that scale with the number of displays.
The learning curve is generally shallow. Drag-and-drop content builders and pre-made templates make it possible for non-technical staff to manage updates. That’s a significant shift from a decade ago, when deploying digital signage required specialized knowledge and significant ongoing maintenance.
Where This Is Heading
The line between digital signage and other workplace technology is blurring. Conference room displays increasingly pull in calendar data automatically. Lobby screens recognize visitors and display personalized greetings. Some systems incorporate sensors to measure foot traffic and adjust content based on who’s actually watching.
AI is entering the picture too, enabling content that adapts in real time based on context. Time of day, weather, current events, and even the demographics of the audience in front of the screen can influence what gets displayed.
For most businesses, though, the value isn’t in cutting-edge features. It’s in solving a straightforward problem: getting the right information to the right people at the right time, without adding another notification to their already overwhelmed devices.
Screens in shared spaces accomplish that in a way few other tools can. And as workplaces continue to evolve, the organizations that communicate effectively will have a real advantage over those still relying on email blasts and hope.