The Digital Signage Show promises new content for NYC edition

Posted on Sep 28, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Digital Signage Today has posted about November’s The Digital Signage Show and KioskCom Self-Service Expo:

November’s editions of the The Digital Signage Show, along with KioskCom Self-Service Expo, co-located at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City, are set to offer a slate of content that includes new educational opportunities and two significant keynote speeches.

“This is the year of new everything,” said Lawrence Dvorchik, general manager of the two shows, which are organized by Connecticut-based JD Events. “It’s been busy. It’s going to be a really exciting event.”

Contest, live demo among fresh programming

The “new everything” Dvorchik describes includes a competition for entrepreneurs in the kiosk and self-service space that is the first of its kind for the event. In its “Next Big Idea” Contest Coinstar Inc. will give $10,000 to the entrant with the best new concept in retail-based kiosks. Coinstar also may consider investing in the winning concept.

“There are a lot of people out there with a lot of good ideas who either don’t have access to funding, especially now, or don’t have access to the people that can make that happen,” he said. “And this gives them an opportunity to be in front of executives at a company like Coinstar, who can do all of the above, if they believe the idea is worth rolling out, and really take it to the next level.”

Entries must be submitted by Oct. 8 on the contest’s Web site.

On the digital signage side of the show, attendees can view a content-creation demonstration, “Cooking up Content: From Concept to Screen.” Digital signage industry expert Lyle Bunn will host the demonstration, and Dvorchik says three companies will participate in creating individual digital messaging campaigns in a “fishbowl” environment, with attendees literally watching the process in action.

“It will be a really, really good demonstration of the content-creation process, the content-management process, from the creative briefing all the way to the play loop being created and broadcast,” he said.

Dvorchik said the participating companies aren’t yet confirmed. The demonstration, which will span the two-day event, is another part of show organizers’ goal of constant education.

“Relevant content is so important for any of these networks that we need to make sure we’re helping people understand not just what they want to show, but how that process is going to unfold strategically and creatively in order to be successful the first time out of the box,” Dvorchik said.

Visix Names Expression Award Winners

Posted on Sep 25, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Over at the Daily DOOH, writer Gail Chiasson has posted a list of the Visix Expression Award winners:

AV distributor Steljes enters digital signage sector by adding MediaTile products

Posted on Sep 23, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Over at AVInteractive.co.uk, Paul Milligan tells us that Steljes has added digital signage to its product portfolio:

Steljes has added digital signage to its product portfolio with the announcement of a deal to distribute products from MediaTile. In line with ongoing Steljes strategy the products will be aimed at digital signage within the education sector.

MediaTile provides 3G digital signage products such as Digital-Sign-in-a-Box and Mediacast. The Digital-Sign-in-a-Box system integrates the three main components of a digital signage network including: a commercial-grade display with embedded media player, network connectivity using mobile 3G broadband services, and a web-based broadcast portal for content management.

Graham Wylie, group product marketing director, commented ‘We have been monitoring the digital signage market for some time. Many of the systems we looked at were designed and developed for the retail sector and had limited potential for updating on a screen to screen basis. In addition we wanted a solution that could be deployed in large scale installations such as those associated with Building Schools for the Future programme and Further Education and Higher Education establishments. MediaTile offers something different – scalable out of the box solutions that are easy to implement and maintain and can be deployed virtually anywhere using 3G connectivity.

Products

Digital signage in a box

• A commercial grade, HD LCD display available in 19, 32, 42 and 47in configurations; also available in touch screen versions

• A built-in embedded computer with a media player that supports media formats including: mpeg, vob, wmv, swf, jpeg, and ppt

• Built-in and activated internet connection

• A web-based Broadcast Portal that eliminates the need to download and install software ; network control from any internet browser

Pricing and availability

Non-touch solutions

19in Digital Signage Box – SRP £1,699

32in Digital Signage Box – SRP £1,999

42in Digital Signage Box – SRP £2,649

47in Digital Signage Box – SRP £3,199

Touch solutions

19in Digital Signage Box – SRP £1,799

32in Digital Signage Box – SRP £2,649

42in Digital Signage Box – SRP £4,999

47in Digital Signage Box – SRP £6,999

Digital Signage – Portal

Broadcast Portal Service – 24 months SRP £999

Black Box’s iCompel boosts potential of digital signage

Posted on Sep 21, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Erich Schwartzel posts about Black Box Network Service’s new product:

Lawrence-based digital communications company Black Box Network Services has rolled out a new product meant to improve on how people view information in the airport. Or the doctor’s office. Or the bar. Basically, everywhere.

The iCompel arrives at a time when the digital sign industry is evolving rapidly. Digital signs are already used to tell people when the movie is seating, or when the plane is landing — any evolving screen of information.

But the iCompel creates signs that look like those boring boards on steroids.

Like Apple’s iPhone, this technology can handle multiple media forms. On one screen, the iCompel — a small box that transmits displays designed through a Web site — can simultaneously display text, live television or video, photos, HTML and constantly updated RSS feeds such as scrolling headlines or weather reports.

When the box is attached to a screen, it transmits what looks like a tricked-out Power Point presentation.

Online controls allow users to manipulate what the iCompel screens look like from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection.

The iCompel starts at around $1,700 and costs up to nearly $3,500 as features are added.

With a presence in 142 countries, Black Box specializes in data and voice infrastructure systems. The public company employs about 5,000, with 500 employees at the Lawrence site in Washington County.

The company reported revenues of approximately $1 billion in fiscal 2009, with a net income of $45 million. The government comprises the largest portion of the client base, at 23 percent. Black Box has more than 175,000 customers.

The new product launch comes at a good moment in the digital signage world. A 2009 study by Arbitron found digital video displays reached 67 percent of U.S. resident age 18 or older.

Most reported remembering signage in airports, bars, convenience stores and even elevators.

Black Box wanted to create a product that would work for businesses that don’t have a creative staff but want expensive-looking signs, said regional sales manager George Borden.

“Anyone half-dangerous with Photoshop can run this product,” he said.

The iCompel is designed to make digital signs more financially and logistically accessible for smaller companies. Mr. Borden said he could envision the signs in venues such as a bowling alley — clearly a departure from such places as PNC Park that typically use such technology.

Black Box already has seen some more unorthodox settings for iCompel-created signs.

It’s been used to replace archaic displays that highlight which bingo numbers have been picked (replete with a live video feed of the announcer’s hand choosing a ball).

The iCompel even has been set up in funeral homes, where directors can run a slide show of memorial photos alongside a movie, or a quote, or some music.

Of course, there are advertising implications. Director of Marketing Brian Kutchma said companies with iCompel screens could sell space to advertisers looking for a targeted audience.

Erich Schwartzel can be reached at eschwartzel@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1455.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09259/998243-96.stm#ixzz0RPv5i4Vl

Crunch Health Club Chain Employs Health Club Media Network’s Digital Signage

Posted on Sep 14, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

The Digital Signage Expo blog has some news about digital signage for health clubs:

Health Club Media Network (HCMN), a provider of advertising and marketing opportunities for national brands in health clubs, recently announced that Crunch has joined its network.

The long-term and exclusive media and marketing agreement begins immediately and will include installation of HCMN’s static and full suite of digital media offerings in all Crunch clubs, including mobile messaging and dedicated video channels that can be viewed by Crunch members during their workouts, according to the company.

“Crunch has long held a unique place within the industry and the marketplace with its forward thinking and innovative group exercise programs,” said Ken Williams, CEO for HCMN, Los Angeles. “We are equally excited that Crunch sees the added value our suite of digital signage and information products brings to their members.”

“[HCMN's digital signage and information system] is much more capable than anything we have experienced or seen previously, and it is uniquely capable of bringing the essence of our brand to life,” said Keith Worts, COO for Crunch. “We also are pleased to see that HCMN is able to deliver high-quality music videos and a Crunch branded video channel highlighting our corporate partners, something we had been unable to do easily with our prior technology solution.”

All Crunch health clubs will utilize Health Club Media Network’s digital media platforms to deliver high-quality music videos and Crunch’s branded video channel highlighting its corporate sponsors to club members.

This announcement follows the news of New York Health & Racquet Club joining HCMN’s network, and also of HCMN’s acquisition of the Alloy Fitness Network, which expanded the company’s network to nearly 4,000 health clubs in 120+ DMA’s across the country, said the company.

Noventri Completes Lancaster County Convention Center Digital Signage Project

Posted on Sep 11, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Digital Signage Expo tells us about Lancaster County Convention Center’s new digital signage project:

Noventri recently completed the installation of the Lancaster County Convention Center’s

Working closely with Mark Moosic, the convention center’s general manager, Noventri mounted screens in selected high-traffic areas such as near escalators and elevators on all levels of the complex. According to the company, the screens are linked to the convention center’s Delphi databases so that visitors are dynamically informed of meeting times, room numbers, speaker names and more. digital signage, which included six 52-inch LCD screens controlled by Noventri SF-3000 digital signage media players and powered by Harris Corp. Infocaster software.

Live video feeds are integrated within the digital content, offering entertainment value to visitors. Noventri created all the digital content and will continue to update and manage it for a fresh look, the company said.

Conveniently located at Lancaster’s historic Penn Square, the Lancaster County Convention Center showcases its ability to offer the latest in technology and visitor experience and is the ideal facility for groups of up to 5,000.

“Noventri served as a single source for all stages of the project by providing everything from site survey to installation and content creation to technical support,” noted Tim Rollins, project manager for Smithsburg, Md.-based Noventri.

Dept. of Education and Early Childhood Development Uses Digital Recalls Free Digital Signage Software

Posted on Sep 9, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Digital Recall has added the Department of Education and Early Childhood development to the growing list of schools, universities and businesses that use its world-first Free Digital Signage Software.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 28, 2009 – Melbourne, Australia. The Company that introduced The World’s First Free Digital Signage Software has just added The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to its list of users of its Free Digital Signage Software.

Michael Marcus (CEO) says “The growing list of schools and universities around the world that use our digital signage software is a further step in achieving our commitment to make affordable digital signage software available to users of all sizes and financial means ”.

“Our philosophy of providing a low-cost and useful free digital signage software solution to institutions & businesses of all sizes is an objective we take seriously. We invest substantial resources in constantly improving and adding functionality to our Software. This is evidenced by the recent release of our newest version which adds both substantial Free and Optional (paid) features.

We know that many businesses and institutions may not have the substantial funds to invest in the “typical” digital signage infrastructure in order to set up a digital signage network. With our free software (and the ability to add functionality at a very low cost if required), as well as users ability to use their own Hardware and LAN or Internet connection, we make a digital signage network exceptionally affordable. Even for the smallest business”.

“IT MAKES BUSINESS SENSE – WHY PAY MORE IF YOU DON’T NEED TO?”

Marcus also reports that Digital Recall will soon make available an exciting new feature that will enable users to schedule and play from Cable Box; IP camera; External DVD and many other devices.

Digital Recalls Free Digital Signage Software may be downloaded directly from their website.

For additional information please visit www.digitalrecall.com.au

Digital Recall. The Worlds First Free Digital Signage Software.
www.digitalrecall.com.au

# # #

Worlds First Free Digital Signage Software.
Supplier to businesses small & large; educational institutions; government departments

Frame Media Becomes Thinking Screen Media!

Posted on Sep 7, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Xconomy.com’s Wade Roush has posted a wonderful article about FrameMedia’s new name and additional new goals! As Thinking Screen Media, the former FrameMedia is still the leader in content delivery to connected screens worldwide.

Wireless digital photo frames, considered one of the hot new categories in consumer electronics back in 2006 and 2007, haven’t taken off as quickly as expected. People love digital frames, but they’ve tended to buy them as gifts pre-loaded with photos they uploaded to the Web, meaning many frames still don’t come with their own connection to the Internet. That’s a problem for Wellesley, MA-based Frame Media, whose whole business, when I last profiled the startup in 2007, revolved around providing fresh digital content for the frames, such as news and sports headlines, weather, and photos shared by friends.

But while Wi-Fi-equipped frames are still playing catchup, another channel for the company’s programming is emerging: so-called “connected screens,” meaning a whole variety of Internet-ready displays that are turning up in homes and offices. As a result, Frame Media is rechristening itself Thinking Screen Media, and going after what CEO Alan Phillips calls “a whole category [of displays] defined primarily by the fact that, unlike PCs, they are limited in their ability to easily search and configure content.” That includes not just digital frames but high-definition TVs, cable set-top boxes, game consoles, Internet radios, and even printers.

Through its FrameChannel platform, Thinking Screen works with publishers such as Time magazine, the New York Times, People magazine, and Weatherbug to offer more than 1,000 channels of content customized for such screens. (Users choose and configure the information feeds at Thinking Screen’s website.) The company is also partnering with virtually every consumer-electronics company on the block—names like Kodak, Motorola, Nintendo, Philips, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba—to make it easy

“Most of the connected screens haven’t hit the market yet, but they will over the next six months,” says Phillips. In particular, Phillips says, “We’ll see an aggressive push by TV manufacturers to enable TVs to go beyond video.” A taste of what he’s talking about already familiar to millions of video game fans is the home screen of the Nintendo Wii, which, in addition to games, offers links to news, weather, shopping, and photos.

The 15-employee startup collected $5 million in Series A funding from Longworth Venture Partners and CommonAngels in May 2008, and there are plans to raise a Series B round this fall, Phillips says. When it comes to supplying content for tomorrow’s connected screens, Thinking Screen has both technical and strategic advantages over existing and potential competitors, he says.

San Diego-based Chumby, whose interactive media player displays information through “widgets” analogous to Thinking Screen’s channels, is the company’s closest competitor, in Phillips’ judgment. But he thinks Chumby will have a hard time delivering content to devices other than its trademark soft-sided appliance, since the widgets depend on Adobe’s Flash video format, which most other connected screens can’t handle. Thinking Screen’s data, by contrast, is delivered using the Media RSS format, created by Yahoo in 2004 and used by thousands of content publishers.

Thinking Screen also has a network of content and manufacturing partners that would be hard for any other company to match, Phillips says. “The barrier to entry is about partnerships on the content side and more importantly on the screen manufacturer side,” he says. “As we create a critical mass of users, the revenue from advertising is shared with both content providers and screen manufacturers, so there is a stream now that encourages the screen partners to make sure that FrameChannel is enabled on their devices.”

Two new products set to emerge from Thinking Screens in the coming months are designed to widen the service’s appeal to consumers. One is a line of inexpensive digital frames dedicated to a single type of content—examples might include a frame that just shows celebrity news from People magazine or news and scores for the Boston Red Sox.

The other is a selection of 35,000 channels aggregating local information. For example, Phillips says, “You could have a Hopkinton, Massachusetts channel, where we’ve licensed content from local news sources, traffic, weather, relevant sports scores, stock quotes for companies, lottery numbers, a Twitter feed from your state representative—everything to do with Hopkinton. So you can imagine watching the Today show at seven in the morning and as a picture-in-picture experience you’re also getting your local town’s feed.”

Wade Roush is Xconomy’s chief correspondent. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com, call him at (617) 252-7323, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wroush.

INTRALOT and Nebraska Lottery Launch Digital Signage Pilot Project

Posted on Sep 2, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

According to Digital Signage Expo.net, the Nebraska Lottery and its on-line network provider, INTRALOT, are working with display provider Blast Panel on a digital signage pilot project that will change the way advertisers and retailers reach consumers.

The pilot involves a new digital signage program for qualifying lottery retailers. INTRALOT service technicians have recently installed 32-inch high-definition, LCD screens (referred to as Blast Panels) at select locations in Omaha and Lincoln to determine how much this new technology can help the retailers increase sales.

Headquartered in Athens, Greece, INTRALOT is a supplier of integrated gaming and transaction processing systems, innovative game content and sports betting management to state-licensed gaming organizations worldwide.

Vanten And Quividi Team Up in Japan

Posted on Aug 31, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Chris Phelan at the Daily DOOH has posted an article about the first integrated digital signage  measurement service in Japan:

Vanten K.K. (Tokyo, Japan, CEO: Neil van Wouw) and Quividi (Paris, France, CEO: Olivier Duizabo) recently formed a strategic partnership where Vanten will act as an integration and sales partner to assist Quividi’s entry in the Japanese Digital Signage market with its automated audience measurement solution.

As part of this strategic partnership, Vanten will add audience measurement metrics to the existing Ad reporting in EngageMedia, Vanten’s Intelligent Signage Platform. The new service will be available starting Sept. 30, 2009. Both technical teams will work together to increase their competitive advantage in the market and investigate further options such as localizing and jointly operating Quividi’s VidiCenter service in Japan.

EngageMedia currently stores playback information in a database for all content and includes location, time, and actual duration as well as a time-stamped screenshot of each content playback. Customers can easily create reports for any content, time period, or group of displays. New functionalities will add information from Quividi’s VidiReports, keeping track of how many people looked at each content item and for how long. It will also record how many people in the vicinity of the displays have an Opportunity To See (OTS) the screens and how long they remain in range (dwell-time).

Vanten started testing Quividi’s audience measurement system at Yodobashi Camera’s in-store media, YodobiTV, in December 2008. The test period showed impressive results with a very high data collection accuracy and remarkably low requirements in terms of computing resources.

Until recently, audience measurement systems have been slow to detect faces and have used significant amounts of computing power, often requiring special, dedicated computing hardware. The accuracy was also insufficient for producing reliable metrics or quality customer reports. The high price tag also proved to be a major barrier to widespread adoption of the technology. Whereas alternative systems are usually deployed only in key locations, Quividi’s affordable pricing model makes it possible to consider audience measurement with each and every display.

“We’re very excited to be working with Quividi”, said Neil van Wouw, CEO of Vanten , “Our evaluation showed them to be a best-of-breed solution. Quividi showed commitment to standardization by quickly demonstrating consistency with the OVAB audience metric guidelines, and in our estimation, Quividi is currently the only practical way to bring true audience measurement to every display in a large scale deployment. Together we can leverage EngageMedia’s ability to bring more content and advertising variations than ever before, and Quividi’s ability to provide automated and precise metrics at fine grained, single content play level. This is the vision we are striving to realize.”

“Vanten is rapidly emerging as the leading player in Digital Signage in Japan, and we’re delighted to be teaming up with a such a visionary company”, said Olivier Duizabo, CEO of Quividi. “Vanten’s plan to include audience measurement in its standard offer is perfectly tuned to our own vision: ubiquitous real time metrics will generate trust and sharpen the execution of marketing campaigns to ultimately boost the performance of Digital Signage networks. We’re confident that, jointly, we will deliver a superior solution to the Japanese market”.

About Vanten

Vanten has been operating since September 1998, and currently delivers a full suite of digital signage services and solutions. Vanten’s Intelligent Signage Platform, EngageMedia, offers world class digital signage advertising and content management, data network management, security and dynamic content feature modules. Vanten also makes award winning content for Digital Signage, and with its AdChoice division, is a leading DOOH Agency in Japan.