This video shows the capabilities, which can be developed using NEC digital signs. This particular video shows interactive design using touchless technology. It was showcased at the Digital Signage conference in Chicago this week. To find out more about this solution contact www.necam.com/ecm group. Digital Signage Video
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Here is a video of the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas 2009. Digital Signs are everywhere! Companies that produce digital sign content & hardware were on display in Las Vegas. These digital sign expos are becoming more and more extravagant each year. Such a trip to see the industry progress since we started watching [...]
Friday, December 11, 2009
digital signage 1987 1987 – Founded in 1987, Scala pioneered the Digital Signage industry and today remains the world’s largest provider of software for creating digital signage networks, driving more screens than all competitors combined. The company’s InfoChannel product line is used for From Mennen Sports Arena Taps Pod Digital Promotions for Community
Friday, December 11, 2009
digital signage 2000 Jan 2000 – NEC Display Solutions, established in January, 2000, currently delivers high-quality large-screen monitors for public information and public display, award-winning desktop displays, and dynamic digital signage Digital signage is the generic name for any electronic From NEC to Merge Visual Display Businesses; Through Streamlined Operations
Friday, December 11, 2009
digital signage 2002 Sep 1, 2002 – Just as digital photography has impacted film photography, it’s expected digital signage networks will affect paper signage printing. The burning questions are: When will the emerging technology begin having an impact, and to what degree? Digital signage networks are displays networked From A sign of the times: what [...]
Friday, December 11, 2009
digital signage 2003 Jul 11, 2003 – Customers at some Washington Mutual Inc. branches don’t mind waiting in line as much as they once did. That’s because while waiting they can watch plasma screens that flash information about bank products interspersed with information on general interest topics like the weather, From Dynamic digital signage keeps [...]
Friday, December 11, 2009
digital signage 2004 Mar 1, 2004 – An emerging technology holds the potential to solve one of retailers’ biggest headaches: making sure that signs are put up at the right time and in the right place. “Digital signage eliminates the problems involved with getting signs up. Since digital systems can be managed or From Signage [...]
Friday, December 11, 2009
digital signage 2005 Jan 10, 2005 – When a customer looks up from his beer at Bru’s Room in Pompano Beach and gazes at the soundless images parading across a 42-inch plasma screen, he is helping an outfit called Bar-TV sell eyeballs to advertisers. In this New Age business called digital signage, Sarasota-based Real From [...]
Friday, December 11, 2009
digital signage 2006 Jan 25, 2006 – Minicom Advanced Systems, a leading provider of audio/video distribution systems for the last mile of digital signage displays, will demonstrate its audio/video The digital signage show will be held at Earl’s Court in London, February 1st and 2nd. Minicom’s booth is G17. FromAV distribution systems for the digital [...]
Friday, December 11, 2009
digital signage 2007 Jan 1, 2007 – One of the key components to a successful digital signage network deployment is a thorough understanding of the network and bandwidth availability. High-quality video files, such as those used in digital signage, are inherently large and can cause serious network congestion problems if From Digital Signage Distribution Methodologies [...]
Friday, December 11, 2009
Digital Signage 2008 Jan 2008 – The digital signage business is set to become very competitive, with a number of innovations likely to come to market over the next couple of years and new target markets opening up, says Kevin Lawrence, senior vice president, sales, for Helius, which was acquired by Jan 7, 2008 – [...]
Friday, December 11, 2009
The following represents an algorithmic timeline of “digital signage” news. digital signage 1987 1987 – Founded in 1987, Scala pioneered the Digital Signage industry and today remains the world’s largest provider of software for creating digital signage networks, driving more screens than all competitors combined. The company’s InfoChannel product line is used for From Mennen Sports [...]
Friday, December 11, 2009
Digital Signage 2009 Jun 15, 2009 – SEATTLE, June 15 /PRNewswire/ –.advancedMethod is proud to announce a new partnership with the Commercial Sales Group of Best Buy Canada Ltd. In conjunction with this partnership, Best Buy has selected .advancedMethod’s express digital signage system to offer to their customers. From Digital Signage Company .advancedMethod and Best [...]
Friday, December 11, 2009
I'd like to offer up an observation based on nearly a decade of experience in this industry: business as usual hasn't changed much for the small network operator since the turn of the 21st century. For one reason or another, things haven't gotten any easier for companies who manage 100 screens or less. And despite numerous advances in the marketplace, the longevity of a smaller digital signage company doesn't seem to have improved much, either. This baffles me, since in the 5+ years that I've been writing this blog and researching the industry, digital signage costs have continued to decline, the quality of the products and services that make up a digital signage network has improved, and people have generally become more accepting (and less incredulous) of the benefits of out-of-home digital media. I haven't completed an exhaustive analysis of the data, but at this point I want to throw out a couple of guesses as to why this might be the case. With your feedback, my goal is to turn this discussion into a more comprehensive study that can benefit network operators of all sizes. Why focus on the "little" guys? Image credit: Stefan Before I jump into this, I want to point something out: the digital signage business is probably quite difficult for everybody, large and small. I doubt the execs at industry heavyweights like CBS Outernet and PRN just breeze through their operations without a care in the world. However, there happen to be a lot more small companies in our space than large ones, and I certainly deal with many more small companies on a day-to-day basis. Thus, I have a much larger pool of data to work with there. If anybody from one of the really big networks would like to chime in with a comment or two about their own businesses, all the better. Also, there's nothing magical about the 100 screen or 100 venue cap on my analysis. That just happens to be my mental point for dividing networks into "small" and "large" categories, and is otherwise completely arbitrary. So, don't think that installing just one more screen or venue will catapult you out of the danger zone and into safety. Those who don't know history... ...are destined to repeat it, as the British philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke noted a few hundred years ago. Sadly, plenty of people in the digital signage industry seem hell-bent on trying to prove him wrong. Very few succeed in this endeavor. One of the biggest sources of angst in our marketplace -- to large and small digital signage companies alike -- continues to be the challenge of justifying the value of the screens (or screen time) to entities that might like to put some content on them. The entity might be an advertiser, a government organization, or a non-profit. But whoever they are, networks owners have to convince them that the audience viewing their screens is valuable. Furthermore, they have to prove that the screens can reach that audience in a meaningful way. As many experienced folks in the industry have said: if you haven't sold ads before, then starting out with advertising-supported digital signage is a very difficult path to take -- and one littered with the corpses of dead networks. Clearly, the gung-ho attitudes of new network startups hasn't changed. And while that continues to lend plenty of optimism to the industry, it also means that more companies are charging into the space head-first, often without the understanding of why so many of their peers have failed. Thankfully, I've talked to numerous institutional investors and angel groups recently who've noted they see many fewer "build it and they will come" propositions from network startups, even while the rate of new network formation (from my perspective) seems to be increasing. So my gut feeling is that more companies are testing the waters with smaller, self-funded pilots, and perhaps relying more on organic growth from real, actual revenues. Wait, I thought this was a cost-driven industry? Ask any digital signage vendor and they'll say it certainly feels that way sometimes. And as I noted above, costs have steadily declined since we started tracking them in 2004. But that trend only seems to be helping with the rate of new network formation, not the relative success or longevity of those networks. To me, this suggests that the reason for failure has to do with operating costs (or revenue shortfalls) that aren't related to the technology or initial installation expense (which is really all that we track). It might be content, it might be management, or it might be sales. But whatever it is, it's enough to sink network after network. Of course, the upshot for savvy firms is that once a digital signage company goes under, their screens remain in the field, so over time we've seen smaller networks grow inorganically by purchasing the assets of their defunct ex-competitors. Obviously, lower costs will continue to reduce entry barriers for prospective network owners. However, just because more companies get started doesn't necessarily mean that more will be successful in the long-term. In fact, I kind of expect the percentage of successful network operators to decrease as more new firms jump in, realize how hard this stuff really is, and then quickly make an exit (or die trying). But on the other hand, more new companies means more innovation, more new and different business models, and hopefully more paths to success. From WireSpring's perspective, we continue to see the strongest growth from new customers starting relatively small networks. But the next biggest growth area is from small- to medium-sized networks expanding their existing operations (which by some accounts is an indicator of their health). For all that, though, there are plenty of networks that have fallen by the wayside. What's the biggest reason that digital signage networks fail? Is there anything on the horizon that will make things easier for new network operators? Leave a comment and let us know! Click here to leave a comment What's WireSpring's Blog All About? WireSpring provides hardware, software and services for digital signage and kiosk projects. But our blog is a labor of love. Our posts cover everything from case studies to creative briefs, and are authored by some of the industry's most well-respected leaders.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
This week has been definitely a digital signage week in the business scenery of India. The Expert Tour event, hosted by Emarson IT Solutions, caused a lot of media noise. Depending on the source, prognosed is up to 400% industry growth until the end of...
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
One of the guys who spoke last week at that industry forum in New York is the CEO of an interactive agency, and not all that suprisingly, he said the future of digital signage is all about interactivity ... and therefore the better name to hang on this industry is Interactive Out-of-Home, or IOH. Trevor Kaufman, of the agency Schematic, suggested one of the reasons NOT to go with DOH is it is too reminiscent of Homer Simpson's DOH!!!, and DOOH is far worse for some reason. Now while I heartily agree that interactive is a big part of the future of this space, it's just a part. There are countless ways in which digital screen are going to be used that will have little or nothing to do with interactivity. They're just going to be a more efficient means of getting information across, and I can't even fathom the chaos of every screen in an environment beckoning to be touched or wireless devices constantly popping up invites to download coupons and more information, and on and on. I recently read a separate suggestion that the term In Store Digital Marketing be used, or ISDM. They're both good, but they're both just more words. The industry news portal AKA.TV was launched with that handle a few years ago because no one could land on the perfect name, so it was digital signage, Also Known As .... My impression is that there are lots of things holding back this industry, like good content, sustainable success stories and better customer education, but I don't think coming up with JUST the right name -- that encompasses it all -- is holding much back. Digital signage is well short of perfect. Same with Digital Out Of Home. But they're out there and I don't think confusion or derision abound. And I have never heard anyone use DOH.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
MediaPost handed out its first Digital Out-of-Home Media Awards last night following a day long conferencer in New York.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
The UK industry news watcher AKA had a post up last June about a US company called doPublicity that has a digital signage platform aimed at local businesses. The weirdness that can happen with alerts and industry portals is I just read about it now, and not by going to aka.What caught my eye was the reference to an online network assessment and profitability calculator that can help its potential customers figure out what a system might cost versus what it might bring back in new ad revenues.ROI calculators like this can be a really useful mechanism for starting to sort out the potential impact a DS install may have for a business, though it can be wildly imperfect. The one this Los Altos, California firm has pulled together is clever, and in many ways useful, but where it starts to fall down is on the advertising revenue side. It perpetuates the whole Pot of Gold theory about digital signage screens being amazing new revenue sources for small retailers. With some possible exceptions, it isn't happening like that, and probably never will.The calculator does a good basic job of sorting out the elemental site costs, asking how many locations, and baking in the costs of screens, players and installs. The player cost is pretty high, but not crazy-high.So using my cooked-up scenario of a five location dollar store chain, the start-up costs is $10,500 using the calculator.Now comes the part that doesn't work so hot. The calculator asks a series of questions intended to estimate advertising capacity and revenue, and therefore the profitability of the screens. Where it gets hung up is on what to estimate as the cost per ad. This thing is asking me to estimate the price per spot, as in how many cents per spot?Huh?This industry does media planning and sales using things like cost per thousand calculations and rate kits built around yardsticks like cost per venue per week. But costs per spot play?So let's say it is as low as you can go - one cent per play of a spot. The spots are 15 seconds, and the media loop is 60 per cent ads.That kicks back an estimate that the aggregate of ads will play out 302,400 times over a month, and therefore generate $3,042 in ad revenue, or $600 per store. After costs, including a pretty interesting rev share stab/grab by doPublicity, the margin is $1,800 to the good, or $360 per store.The calculator also includes a break-even point analysis, which is a nice way of either grounding expectations a bit or getting retailers more whipped up by thinking they only actually need to fill 14 per cent of the available ad inventory to break even.Now here's the trouble with this sort of thing. Selling local advertising is really, really hard work, and an intensely local system may end up being more of a barter network than one where checks are actually being written and passed around. Small business people are getting hit constantly by people wanting to sell them things, including advertising.The reality of this:A - Somebody has to sell this store network, which means either the retail owners or staff are taking time away from the core business, or somebody else is doing sales for probably 25 per cent of more sales commission. Those are very real hidden costs, either way.B - The filled inventory rate will be much lower than expected, and subterranean for six to nine months. Unless the planets somehow align immediately, these things are not revenue-positive for at least a few weeks ro months.C - Ad calcualations need to bake in audience size through some sort of report of foot traffic, percentage who notice the screen and dwell/loop time. The real revenues versus real costs are really hard for things like calculators to spit out. Calculators don't have perspective fields in them that can bake in what really happens.If it seems like I am kicking these guys around a little bit, I'm not. I actually think it's great when companies try to apply some business discipline to this stuff, and this is a pretty nice but imperfect run at things. They do stress it is not intended as accounting advice.But it has to be just a tool to start the analysis, not close the sale. It should not be regarded as some conclusive evidence of why a screen network is pretty much a money tree. It might generate some business early, but also nurture an ever-growing crowd of disappointed customers.The problem is people get all whipped up about how great this will all be, based on some simple calculations, and only find out once thewy're into it just how hard the advertising sales game can be.I've seen and also built some spreadsheet calculators based more on what well-placed screens in retail can do for boosting sales, and for a lot of retailers weighing the merits of investing in DS, THAT'S the sort of number-crunching they should be doing. That's immediately relevant and measurable for them, and in-store sales promotion (unlike ad sales) is something they know how to do.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Many people and businesses are entering 2009 with a healthy dose of trepidation about what lies ahead –and with good reason. Billions upon billions have been pumped into the financial system to keep banks afloat. The nation’s auto industry is on its knees, pleading for government loans. New and existing home sales are tanking. Foreclosures [...]
Saturday, November 11, 2006
DMN Newswire–2006-11-6–Over the past several months we?ve been speaking about the growth in the digital signage industry on the NAMC Newswire and how this growth will continue to move forward in 2007 and beyond, not only in the United States but also globally. We?ve spoken about the companies that are actually offering digital signage solutions [...]
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Why spend thousands on an expensive digital signage solution? With Iomega StorCenter, a wireless digital picture frame and a little creativity, your business can enjoy all the benefits of a digital display at a fraction of the usual cost. Learn how!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
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