We are all familiar with mainframe based airport flight information systems where you have to go through two dozen small CRT display terminals to find your flight. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to look at one large screen and see your flight along with baggage, rental car, weather, and local traffic information? In addition to airports, a passenger information dashboard can be used in train, bus, and subway stations.

Large screen plasma and LCD displays are a natural fit for employee communication dashboards that can be situated in common areas such as cafeterias, entranceways, and the employee lounge. Company news, community events, and human resources information are typical content areas for this type of dashboard application.

The growing market in large size plasma and LCD displays presents a great opportunity for digital signage dashboard applications. Locally targeted ads and dynamic customer service and product information can be combined to produce an effective marketing tool. Malls, retail outlets, hotels, restaurants, banks, theaters, fitness centers, and sports facilities are among the many business types that could profit from a large screen digital signage dashboard application.

A dashboard should be "always on" so that the user can see the most recent information that is available. If the dashboard application times out or encounters an error, a facility should be provided so that the dashboard can reset or reinitialize itself and continue processing.