LONDON — Microsoft and Samsung have announced that the companies will be present at KioskCom Self Service Expo Europe and the Digital Signage Show Europe. The show will be held for the third time in the UK in October, with a focus on the retail technology and interactive marketing sectors.

Joining Microsoft and Samsung on the exhibitor list are the likes of 3M, Cammax, Protouch, Dicoll, Box Technologies, Ritall, Verifone, GWD Media, YesPay, Rafi, St. Clair and Star Micronics, among others.

“With the announcement that both Microsoft and Samsung are exhibiting at Self Service Expo, we can safely say that both the way we shop and the way the advertisers want us to shop is set for a revolution,” said Phil Hunter, managing director, KioskCom Ltd.

China’s Growth in Out-of-Home Media Seen Across All Consumer Touchpoints
With just over 1.3 billion people, China is the world’s largest and most populous country, it is also home to the world’s largest out-of-home digital signage networks. China is a country on the move, from mass transportation systems to elevators to hotels and shopping malls, out-of-home media has experienced tremendous growth in a country where only one household in three currently owns a television.

If you’re attending the Beijing Olympics your first exposure to digital signage will likely happen at the Beijing Capital International Airport, Terminal 3. Terminal 3 was constructed to handle international arrivals and departures for the 2008 Summer Games and is the primary hub for Air China, Lufthansa, American Airlines, Air Canada, and British Airways. The terminal is expected to handle more than 43 million passengers per year with the addition of 120 gates. Air travel in China is currently growing at a rate of 10% annually, with 131 million inbound travelers in 2007. Growth in tourism and rising domestic incomes are expected to increase air travel to more than 200 million travelers in 2008. The government has announced plans to build 100 additional airports by 2020. It is with this background that Airmedia Group has become one of the major players in China’s digital signage marketplace.

Airmedia operates of the largest digital media network in China dedicated to the air travel industry. Airmedia currently has the concession rights to operate signage systems in 52 airports across China, including China’s five largest airports. In addition to operating digital signage networks, Airmedia offers advertisers other media platforms that include light boxes, 3D Displays, and 360-degree LED displays. It also places media on inflight screens on the routes of 9 Chinese airlines giving Airmedia more than 16,000 screens inflight. The length of AirMedia’s in-flight programing typically ranges from approximately 45 minutes to an hour per flight, approximately 5 to 16 minutes of which consist of advertising content.

At the Beijing Capital International Airport more than Five hundred thirty-eight digital signage displays have been installed with the help of several key suppliers. A major portion of Airmedia’s system uses DT Research’s WebDT Signage System that includes industrial-grade signage hardware, content management software, and device management software. Using the WebDT Signage System enables the delivery of dynamic advertising, information, news, and training that can be displayed in up to eight zones on each screen. Content scheduling and playback are all controlled remotely via secure wireless media players. Additional LCD panel suppliers also included Samsung, Haier, and HPC International.

Airmedia Group has grown through several key acquisitions and partnerships, in July it acquired Excel Lead International and Flying Dragon Media Advertising. The acquisitions diversified Airmedia’s offerings to include advertising on gate bridges in 10 airports in mainland China. Airmedia announced a strategic partnership with the WingsMedia, a division of Shanghai Media Group, one of the largest media companies in China to provide content for Airmedia’s network. AirMedia obtained the exclusive right to show selected news, theme programs, and documentary clips provided by SMG in airports and on airplanes from March 2008 to February 2010. AirMedia’s standard programs in airports currently include 25 minutes of advertising content and 35 minutes of non-advertising content during each hour of programming, and are shown for approximately 16 hours per day.

Business Media China (BMC), one of the largest media placement agencies in China reported that almost all of its inventory has been sold out at Terminal 3 through the end of 2010. Advertisers include Samsung, Coca-Cola, and Ferrari. BMC is also working with Zeno Global, a company holding a patent on a new kind of light box advertising. Based on a phenomenon known as “persistence of vision”, advertisements appears to move when passengers approach the panels from any direction, they see a sequence of moving images that react to each person individually. If a viewer stops, the image stops. If a viewer’s head moves back and forth, the image corresponds. Content can be sourced from film, video or computer animation, including TV commercials. Advertisers supply Zeno with a short video clip which Zeno converts to an encoded, 2D poster using proprietary software. Examples of image sequences might include car companies showing their products from different sides and changing the color of the car.

Through a combination of growth and acquisition, Focus Media has become the largest out-of-home provider in China with a broad portfolio of advertising platforms. Their portfolio includes more than 200 outdoor LED displays in Shanghai and more than 112,000 flat-panel displays in high-traffic areas, such as elevators, hotels, and shopping malls in over 90 cities across China. An in-store network with more than 50,000 flat-panel displays in approximately 4,000 hypermarkets, supermarkets, and convenience stores was established in 2005. In 2007 Focus Media acquired CGEN Digital Media expanding its in-store digital advertising network to large chain stores across China.

5.6 million people use the Shanghai Metro on a daily basis and view more than 4,237 flat-panel public information displays (PIDS) across 4 subway lines and 85 stations. The system includes platform-based and train-based displays and was developed and managed by Digital Media Group (DMG). DMG operates signage systems in six urban areas including Hong Kong with 308 displays on 11 subway trains. Programming includes news, weather, community and transportation updates. DMG has recently formed a partnership with New Media Information Communications Ltd. to operate more than 800 high-tech plasma displays at bus stops across Shanghai increasing DMGs reach to include more than 5 million additional passengers above ground.

The Hong Kong Airport Express is a high-speed rail link that runs between Hong Kong International Airport and Hong Kong’s Central business district. The 28-minute trip includes information and entertainment programs that reach more than 10.2 million passengers per year from The Elite Channel using 23-inch LCD monitors.

According to a study conducted by CTR Market Research (CTR) in September 2007, over 25 million trips were taken daily on public buses with digital television displays in China. VisionChina Media operates one of the largest out-of-home advertising networks using real-time mobile digital television broadcasts to deliver content and advertising on mass transportation systems in China. The company’s network consists of over 33,000 digital TV displays reaching 14 of China’s most affluent cities The company’s network offers the ability to deliver real-time, location-specific news, stock quotes, weather and traffic updates, sports highlights, and entertainment programs.

More known for its retail business, Samsung is using new, high-end offerings and a revamped channel approach to entice enterprise and midmarket customers.
Samsung has always been known for its high-tech, high-end offerings for the consumer market.

That is about to change.

The Irvine, Calif., vendor has begun paying closer attention to the commercial channel. At the IT ChannelVision conference in Phoenix, Samsung staked out a prime spot of the showroom floor to show off its latest wares, which included the Q1 Ultra Mobile PC and the next generation of LCD monitors that the company is packaging as a complete digital signage solution.

“We’ve been a little inconsistent, but we have always thought of ourselves as a channel-centric company,” Richard Hutton, senior channel marketing manager for Samsung, told Channel Insider at the event. “We want to start coming to more events like this. We want to start to move forward in the commercial channel.”

Samsung is looking to capture midmarket and enterprise space with its technology.

While the company does sell its digital signage as a complete solution, Hutton said VARs can add value when selling the LCD monitors to enterprises such as casinos and airports. Those businesses need highly specialized software solutions to fit their needs, and the company’s solution providers are the ones to add that value to product.

Dan Schwab, vice president of marketing for D&H Distributing, based in Harrisburg, Pa., said digital signage and advertising has become a much more affordable option for customers in the past two years. Once used primarily in casinos and airports, doctors’ offices, retail stores and other SMBs (small and midsize businesses) have begun to ask their VARs about the technology.

“A lot of customers have started asking their VARs: This is what they want to do and what I should get,” Schwab said, referring to digital signage.

Schwab’s company, which distributes Samsung products, has made begun to increase its presence in the commercial channel, while still maintaining its traditionally strong retail channel, he said.

Customers have responded to Samsung’s displays, especially the heightened resolution that the company has begun to offer in its monitors, Schwab said.

“What we have to do is offer a unique solution that our customers cannot get in traditional bundles,” Jason Redmond, manager of marketing communications for Samsung, said at the conference.

Hutton said that Samsung is also looking at revamping its Power Partner Program by the first quarter of 2007. It will then provide enhanced training and offer some new incentives.

“We want to be a one hundred percent channel company,” Hutton said. “We absolutely need solution providers to sell our product.”

HIGH-TECH SIGN DEVELOPER CHOSEN FOR VEGAS PROJECT

A Windsor developer of high-tech digital sign software has been selected to be part of a project outfitting the Las Vegas strip with innovative bus shelters displaying digital advertising messages.

EliquidMEDIA International, developers of firmCHANNEL digital sign software, will provide software and project management for 38 bus shelters along the strip, including 18 this year and another 20 in 2009.

Other participants in the project will be Samsung Electronics, Outdoor Promotions LLC, MRI Inc., the Vertigo Group, Alliance Financing Group and firmCHANNEL Digital Signage.

“We’re proud to be part of this group of innovative companies delivering world-leading technology in a city like Las Vegas,” said Douglas McKay, president of eliquidMEDIA.

The digital messages will be directed not only to bus passengers but also to the 1.5 million pedestrians and 1.8 million vehicles that pass the shelters every month.

“Typically, they would be advertising messages for international, national and local clients, and I’m sure the casinos along the strip will also leverage the exposure to promote their activities, including shows,” said James Messina, business development co-ordinator for eliquidMEDIA.

Messina said the company heard about the project from one of its distributors. “Winning it has been the result of a great deal of hard work,” said Messina. “Project co-ordinators ultimately decided our software was the best, easiest to use and the most innovative of all the companies seeking this contract.”

In order to co-ordinate with rapid vehicle and foot traffic movement, media clips will be limited to 71/2 and 15-second durations.

The shelters will stretch from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the south end of the strip to the Riviera Hotel and Casino at the north end.

The 70-inch LCD screens will be readable in sunlight and will have full audio and video in high resolution with 16.7 million variations of colour.
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Samsung Electronics Co. is teaming up with Outdoor Promotions to deliver what they’re calling the largest and most advanced digital signage displays in the world.

The companies will provide 18 70-inch, sunlight-readable LCD Digital Information Displays (DID) starting in October on several bus shelters along the Las Vegas Strip, from Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the south side to the Rivera Hotel and Casino at the north end. Each LCD will deploy localized audio as well as full video and be seen by an estimated 1.5 million pedestrians and 1.8 million cars per month, according to the companies.

“The launch of our digital curbside billboard network of TFT-LCD screens blanketing bus shelters along the Las Vegas Strip will mark the most comprehensive advertising opportunity yet in the 24-hour city to make use of high resolution digital signage,” said Gary Young, president and CEO of Outdoor Promotions, in a statement. “The Las Vegas Strip is unique because visitors come from all over the world staying on average just four days, therefore every four days, our curbside billboard screens essentially will be reaching a new audience.

Outdoor Promotions has a 20-year agreement with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) to provide digital signage for bus shelter curbside billboards on the Strip, maintain the signs, and manage the advertising content.

The 70-inch digital signs offer 1920 x 1080 resolution, which is considered the new 1080p, and are being customized to be brighter than average. Standard digital signage brightness is 600 nits and high brightness is 1500 nits; the customized signs will have a brightness level of approximately 2000 nits. Each one can display up to 16.7 million variations of color and seen from several angles. Comprised of driver circuitry and an LED backlight, the displays will be airtight to prevent dust intrusion and water seepage.

“This trend-setting application is an excellent example of how real-time digital advertising will command a lot of attention and replace the outdated medium of paper posters–even in the glitziest city on earth,” said Scott Birnbaum, vice president, Samsung LCD Business. “Samsung is extending the reach of advertisers from increasingly popular indoor displays to truly dynamic messaging in the most challenging of outdoor environments.”

ESSEX, England — Samsung and Remote Media have collaborated to provide a signagelive USBCard automatic update to the Samsung DXN range of 40-inch to 82-inch LCD/PC screens equipped with Remote Media’s Software as a Service (SaaS) digital signage solution.

“This is a tremendous partnership and the coming together of two established pioneers of digital signage,” said Jason Cremins, chief executive of Remote Media, the company behind signagelive. “The collaboration combines the new Samsung DXN series of network enabled LCD Displays complete with Samsung’s three years replacement warranty and the cost-effective scalability of the signagelive to create an all-in-one digital signage solution that can be managed from a Web browser and will operate anywhere in the world over a standard broadband or mobile data connection.”

The upgrade is supplied on a USB Card and when inserted into any DXN it will automatically uninstall the Samsung MagicNet software, install signagelive and present a registration page where the user can add their unique signagelive network code and site details.

Once details are entered the device will connect to the signagelive servers over the Internet, confirm validity of the network code and availability of a license and then issue a unique signagelive serial number to the device. For larger projects this process is automated so that devices are pre-configured with a network code so that the device automatically attaches to signagelive once it is connected to the Internet.

Once successfully attached to signagelive the device will automatically update any preloaded playlists, media, log-files and signagelive software/codecs and start running the required media. The upgrade will be available in the UK and Ireland through RGB Communications, plus all Samsung UK Distributors and will be available from Samsung Distributors throughout the world. In addition, Remote Media’s Global Strategic Partners will be able to purchase the combined Samsung DXN and signagelive bundle directly from Remote Media.