Why and How to Create a Scrolling Ticker Tape Display

Ticker tape screens are a familiar sight in many business environments, from bustling stock exchanges to modern workplaces. Unlike static screens, these scrolling displays provide a continuous stream of information, offering real-time updates on various topics and live data feeds.

What's more, these can make screens more engaging for your audience. For example, you could add a scrolling news feed below your DOOH advertising screens, safety information to airport flight schedule screens or financial feeds to your office digital signage.

In this guide, we explore the concept of ticker tape displays, their diverse applications and how you can integrate LED tickers into your own digital signage strategy.

What is a ticker tape display?

A ticker tape display is a digital screen showing a continuous flow of information that scrolls across a screen. These systems are designed to catch the eye and keep viewers updated with dynamic, real-time information. They are commonly found in financial institutions, newsrooms and public spaces, like airports and shopping centers, though they can also make a creative addition to any work site or corporate office space.

Ticker tape displays were originally inspired by the paper ticker tapes used in the early 20th century to transmit stock prices over telegraph lines – but we've come quite a long way since then.

What types of ticker displays are there?

Today's ticker displays are often embedded at the bottom of a screen, for instance during a news broadcast or on a huge billboard display. These are some of the most common places where you'll spot stock or news tickers either online or on physical screens:

• Breaking News – News tickers often scroll along the bottom of a broadcast screen and can help people stay informed with the latest headlines and important updates, whether that's within the business or around the world.
• RSS Feeds – Ticker tapes can be used to display updates and information from any RSS feed, whether that's the New York Times, NASA or your own business. You might see these embedded on websites, but they can also be added to real world TV screens using digital signage.
• Google Alerts – Integrating scrolling ticker displays with Google Alerts allows you to automate content delivery on topics of interest for your workforce or customers, such as competitor updates, customer feedback and other targeted content.
• Currency Exchange Rates – Monitoring real-time changes in foreign exchange markets and financial data is one the most common uses for an LED ticker display, for example in Times Square or other central hubs within a city.
• Stock Prices – You'll often see stock tickers on screens in financial centers, but also on broadcasts or certain websites. These display the latest movements, trends and changes in stock market data.
• Weather Updates – Real-time temperature and weather updates are useful to keep employees and customers informed. This can be either in the form of a scrolling ticker feed, or often as a box or section within digital signs.
• Sports Scores – A ticker display can also keep track of live scores and updates from your favorite sports - whether that's soccer, basketball or any other sport.
• Traffic Updates: Whether it's traffic congestion, local diversions or the impact of local weather, traffic tickets can be a useful way to inform. These might be displayed on the base of billboard signage, or as standalone displays in transport hubs or on traffic intersections.
• Local Updates: It's also possible to add customized messages into ticker feeds on digital signage displays, for example local news updates or location specific announcements.

As we've seen, ticker tapes can be a great way to effectively deliver information to a broad audience. And if you already have screens installed it's actually a few simple steps to add this information to your displays.

How do you put a scrolling ticker display on your screen?

If you're already managing screens - whether this is in a public space or a workplace environment - adding scrolling news or stock tickers is simply a case of using your digital signage software to add the information you want.

If you're using external digital signage, such as an OLED screen or billboard, this information can often sit seamlessly alongside your standard content. So, for example if you're running advertising content then scrolling ticker tapes should enhance communication, rather than detract from the message.

For those with a captive audience, it can be a great way to share the news or even add in important messages.

Here are the steps to integrate a ticker tape display into your digital signage

Step 1: Consider your audience and display type

Factors such as screen type, placement, size, resolution and viewing distance are all important considerations when deciding where to locate your ticker tape displays.

While bigger is often better when it comes to streaming your digital signage content, you can often share ticker tapes on any sized screen, so long as the screen is well placed.

Take into consideration whether you have a captive audience or passing traffic, as the size of the screen will matter here. In a waiting room, you could have a 43 inch indoor digital screen with your standard content streaming, and a ticker tape feed across the bottom and that would be perfect.

With your signage facing bustling streets or a busy location, you'll need to have larger displays to ensure that your content is readable.

Step 2: Choose your content sources

Once you've decided on your ideal screens, the next step is to decide what type of information you want to display on your scrolling ticker display.

This depends largely on the context in which a ticker feed is being used. For instance, if you're a financial institution, you'll want to display stock tickers or financial news tickers such as:

• Currency app
• Stocks and Exchanges news

In public facing spaces, such as a hospital waiting room, a departure lounge for a bus or train station, or even in the foyer of a hotel, you might want to include breaking news tickers or display useful information.

You'll find digital signage apps for various types of feed, including:

• Breaking global news
• Local Transport information
• RSS Feeds

You'll find lots of other great ideas for versatile displays for digital signage in our app store.

Step 3: Customize your ticker tapes

Using digital signage software such as ScreenCloud will allow you to customize the appearance and behavior of your scrolling ticker tape display. It's worth experimenting with adjustments such as scrolling speed, font size, colors and the type of transitions used between updates.

This ensures that the ticker matches the aesthetic of your signage, while every ticker symbol remains readable.

Step 4: Schedule and automate content reels

With your ticker customized, you're now in a perfect position to start scheduling when and where certain content sources will appear on your screens.

Modern display software such as ScreenCloud allows you to manage multiple screens and schedule dynamic content to play at specific times and locations. Once you've mapped out a schedule, you can simply press play and your digital signage software will start broadcasting fully automated reels without any need for further intervention.

Your ticker display should run alongside your standard signage displays until you turn it off, or schedule it to switch off.

Can I create a custom scrolling ticker tape feed?

Yes. There are a few ways you can create custom messages or information feeds on your digital displays using ScreenCloud.

One method is to use our Noticeboards app. With this, you simply create your content and then send it to your ticker tape feed.

Check out this short walkthrough guide to create ticker tape feeds with Noticeboard.

You can also do a similar process using our Quick Post app.

And also, it's possible to use RSS feeds to create customized messages on your signage from your choice of online sources.

How to start using news tickers on your digital displays

ScreenCloud is the ideal digital platform to deliver and manage your ticker tape news displays, while also guaranteeing easy integration with a wide range of applications and content sources.

It's simple to add an LED stock ticker for financial institutions, a news feed for DOOH screens or display scrolling messages for any workplace or public facing business.

Find out how ScreenCloud's market leading digital signage software can support your business today by signing up for a free trial, or feel free to request a demo to find out more.