Digital Signage Central

Next month, thousands of A/V integrators, supplies and enthusiasts will converge on Las Vegas for InfoComm08, the annual tradeshow for the professional audio and visual industry (pro A/V). Although systems integration exhibitors will inhabit most of the show floor, the digital signage industry is set to have a stronger-than-normal presence.

“The whole show is related to digital signage in one way or another,” said Jason McGraw, senior vice president, Expositions, InfoComm International. “Aside from the digital signage systems exhibitors there are screens, cabling, hardware and other components.”

InfoComm is the annual tradeshow for InfoComm International, an association of about 4,500 companies in the pro A/V market. Members include system integrators, manufacturers and end-users.
“InfoComm has been around since 1939 but has evolved greatly in the past 20 years,” said Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D, executive director, InfoComm International. “The ‘90s changed things with the evolution of video and recently we have seen the growth of new markets like digital signage.”

With 950 exhibitors registered, Lemke and McGraw expect to hit record numbers this year, much like the other digital signage tradeshows thus far in 2008. The show is offering more than 500,000 square feet of expo space in the Las Vegas Convention Center. InfoComm has also converged with the NSCA Systems Integration Expo and is co-locating with NXTcomm08.

Also held in conjunction with InfoComm will be the Strategy Institute Digital Signage Technology Summit, a series of seminars and panel discussions designed to turn attendees into digital signage experts. The sessions will be held on June 16-17 and will focus on case studies, creating effective RFPs and other intricacies of digital signage deployments.