Image credit: Andrew Michaels

• Discontinued hardware: The playback hardware you install at your sites (whether it's a PC or an embedded device) will eventually be discontinued and replaced with a new model, forcing you to update the operating system, integrate new drivers and re-test hundreds of scenarios before you can deploy on the new hardware.
  
  
• Security patches: Mandatory security patches for the underlying operating system (whether it's Windows, Mac OS or Linux) or the other programs you use on there will interfere with your existing playback tools, forcing you to re-write those tools to be compatible. Internet Explorer has been notorious for this, with even a small change in the IE security model requiring major changes to digital signage playback tools that rely on IE for showing any type of web-based content.
  
  
• New content formats: Your customers will eventually want to display new content formats that didn't exist when you first wrote your playback software, requiring you to integrate new codecs or upgrade the existing ones.
  
  
• Browser updates: The web browsers that your employees or customers use to access your management portal (whether it's hosted in-house or out on the cloud) will be updated to new versions, forcing you to update your HTML, Javascript, and other code to be compatible with the new browser releases.
  
  
• Bug fixes: No matter how much you test before releasing a software product, some number of bugs will crop up once it's in the field -- and it can sometimes take years before a given bug shows up. Like it or not, you'll probably be issuing bug fixes for the life of your product.

I was chained to a booth two years ago at DSE, when three guys wandered up and told me they were from Muzak and looking to expand their operations into video. Music they really knew, video ... not so much. 

It was Jon Luther and a couple of consultants.

A year ago they had a small booth towards the back of DSE, and had just officially announced they were in the game with a Visual Solutions wing, albeit at just about the same moment as they were heading into Chapter 11. I had a retail network client last summer sniffing around about a music and video solution, and spoke with Muzak. They were still, at that point, getting organized, with about 10 people in an office up around Charlotte, NC and plans to be something of an integrator.

Now two years out, Muzak has done a partnership with YCD Multimedia, an Israeli company with a large, growing office in NY. Muzak is effectively a YCD reseller.

I mention all this for a couple of reasons. It is a great snapshot of the real-world sales cycle in this space. Most deals take for-e-ver to come fully together. I no longer sell stuff, other than my services, but am aware of more than a few software deals that are well into year two now. My last brush with working for someone else involved a couple of guys who concluded, unilaterally, that closing deals in this space was a one-or-two meeting, done in days kinda thing. Nope.

It happens once in a while, but nope. So if you are new to this sector and expecting things to happen quickly, good luck to you!

I mention this, as well, because this is a good deal for all concerned. YCD has a direct background in marketing a full licensed music and video solution, so their platform was likely ready to go out of the box, with limited monkey work to get it all going. And Muzak is now out of Chapter 11 and pretty active. What they have, which should raise eyebrows, is a huge client base and a very solid brand.

Congratulations to Josh and Noam at YCD and Joe Hall down at Muzak. Looks like a smart partnership and a well suited pairing.

Side note: YCD does a really nice e-mail newsletter, which is how I learned of this deal. I know EnQii does one, as well, but very few companies in the sector do a client and industry-focused email newsletter. That's a missed opportunity, I think, to let people know what you are up to without it being a merciless sales piece. My guess is a lot of companies would like to but don't have the time or skills. A little shamelessly, I'll just mention I know someone who could do that stuff in his sleep.

Image credit: Purple Slog

1. Logistics Management: Hardware and software inventory control (possibly but not necessarily including purchasing), shipping and receiving management and RMA/warranty management.
   
   
2. Strategy Consulting: Figuring out what the network is responsible for, setting goals and objectives, establishing measurement criteria for determining whether said goals and objectives have been reached, and possibly translating valid business lingo into management gobblygook to get the deal sold.
   
   
3. Project Planning: Developing an itemized to-do list of things that must be done before, during and after each screen is installed, parceling these tasks out to the relevant teams/groups, and making sure each team achieves their goals (and dealing with the fallout when they don't).
   
   
4. Content Strategy Consulting: Upon figuring out the strategic purpose of the network, figuring out how to make content that will work towards those ultimate goals. May include aspects of content creation, but is often confined to a strategic and then editorial capacity.
   
   
5. Content Production: Making all the pretty content that fills up the screens, and (frequently) cleaning up the not-so-pretty content that other people give you to put on your screens.
   
   
6. Content Management: Assigning the content to the different screens on the network (and different areas on the screen) as appropriate, and then making sure that the content played correctly, at the right dates and times, and in the proper order and proportion.
   
   
7. Network/Operations Management: Once the network is up and running, making sure that the screens continue to function properly, watching for systemic errors, and dealing with the random errors and issues that crop up over time.
   
   
8. Initial Project Management: Some people choose to break out their project management into phases, and have a team dedicated only to the deployment phase. These people are responsible for coordinating site surveys, on-site construction (if needed), installation, shipping/receiving of the various parts that must arrive at each site, and generally making sure that each screen gets installed and turned on according to schedule.
   
   
9. Ongoing Project Management: For networks that continue to grow over time, these services are very similar to those listed under "initial project management." For those that tend to deploy all-at-once and then stop, the services might look more like those under "network/operations management."
   
   
10. Installation Services: The art of hanging screens, running power/network cables, drilling, hammering and otherwise making lots of noise all in the name of getting screens installed and lit.

• Nearly 80% of those working with large digital signage networks handle their content management in-house, versus 74% of small networks and 70% of those who have done both.
  
  
• Those respondents who had only worked on large network projects were slightly more likely to outsource their project planning (11%), versus just 3.5% of those who had only worked on small network projects.
  
  
• Likewise, those handling large and mixed projects were more likely to outsource logistics management (35%), versus only 21% of those working exclusively on small network projects.
  
  
• While those with both large and small network experience generally tended to answer more similarly to those with large network experience only, one exception is in the network/operations area. Those with mixed experience were markedly more likely to take care of that service in-house (76%), versus just 63% of those exclusively working on large projects, and 64% of those exclusively working on small projects.
  
  
• Not surprisingly, small network managers were significantly more likely to handle installation services themselves (though it was still only 30% of them). Only 20% of large network managers handled such tasks in-house. Those with mixed experience were split between these two at about 24%.

While our previous cost estimates and ecosystem components have closely matched those from other industry analysts (so we don't think we're too far off the mark), the myth of a "typical" network is more strained this year than ever before. More vendors and network owners are choosing to implement screens with new formats and more varied locations, injecting more diversity into the projects. Plus, the idea that there's a standard staffing requirement for any digital signage network is pretty ridiculous. While we and others have proposed a list of key positions that need to be filled when creating a digital signage team, some networks are still very heavy on content production, while others might be composed almost entirely of sales folks. Still, as we looked across a wide array of networks -- representing not just our products but also our competitors' solutions -- we were able to get a reasonable feel for what most companies needed as far as the human resources side of things.

• Digital Signage LCD and Installation Prices Are Falling
• Digital Signage Software, Management Services Costs Vary
• Digital Signage Services Mainly Handled In-House
• How Network Size Impacts Digital Signage Service Choices

This was the second time I have seen the gear and was impressed once again, this time by the scale. Bob Rushby (below), one of the inventors of the tiled displays, showed off a wall of tiles that was 16 wide and 6 high (96 tiles) that amounted to (I think he said) a 37 million pixel image. It was some crazy-big number like that.

The Christie folks also showed some other new designs and more content, including a huge display suspended at an angle and meant to emulate a 16-sheet out of home poster shape. 

Impressive stuff, and good event. Lots of familiar faces there, as well as a lot of people from the AV industry who will be all over this. 

(Disclaimer: I do some work for Christie, but I'd like it no matter the ties)