Digital Signage

The convergence of digital signage and Twitter

Posted on Aug 17, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Editor Bill Yackey at DigitalSignageToday.com posts about the increased presence of digital signage on the social media site Twitter:

Like many industries, digital signage is seeing an increased presence on the social media site Twitter. Just by searching the term “digital signage” or the #digitalsignage hashtag, users are exposed to candid conversations about trends, news and products that previously only occurred in one-on-one phone calls and tradeshow floor chatter.

Twitter, and its 140-character messaging style, is also beginning to find its way on to digital signage screens, opening up a new way of engaging audiences and providing user-generated digital signage content.

Perhaps the most forward-thinking company in this area has been LocaModa, which has integrated Twitter into its digital signage social media tool Wiffiti. Previously, Wiffiti served as a platform where users could text messages to a short code and have them show up on screens in bars, restaurants, cafes, etc.

Now, LocaModa president Stephen Randall says the company is “tagging” Twitter terms, allowing Twitter to automatically send relevant messages to the screen which users can respond to. Take the term “weather,” for example:

“The most mundane topics like weather can be brought to life with Twitter,” Randall said. “Many digital signage screens feature a weather banner. If you tag Twitter with weather and display it on a Wiffiti screen, you can connect people all around the world. It could be raining I Massachusetts, and you could see messages from people in California talking about how sunny it is or from Japan talking about how it’s freezing. It can still tell you today’s weather, but tell you in a way that makes you feel connected.”

There are other approaches to integrating Twitter into digital signage content without launching an entire platform. Gavin Stark, VP of product development for Real Digital Media (RDM), said that since Twitter offers several RSS feeds per account, they could be integrated into content similar to the way news and weather feeds are:

1) Create a server somewhere that pre-processes the Twitter feed for certain formatting or exclusion rules

2) Take the RSS data straight in as a ticker.

3) Develop a flash page to read the RSS stream and jazz it up

4) Create a Web page (either as a Web archive or live from a server), use Javascript to read the RSS feed.

Stark said that for the BarCamp 2008 convention, he wrote a Web page that pulled Twitter hashtags on an RDM player and showed it on a 42-inch screen with a sidebar showing sponsors and RDM company info.

How is your digital signage company using Twitter?

@signagelive: To keep a regular dialogue with users and followers and fill the gaps in info between blog posts. Also adding to signagelive software for alerts etc. (Remote Media)

@ghigliotty: We are using it extensively for our digital merchandising division; driving traffic to the YouTube channel among others. (Artisan Complete)

@stephenrandall: LocaModa tags Twitter on Wiffiti screens for DOOH and events. Also active Twitterers. (LocaModa)

@Keywest_Tech: Keywest Technology is using Twitter to connect to the DS community and for public relations. (Keywest Technology)

@NEOCAST: Try to use Twitter to create a point of view for our company. Try not to “overpimp” the brand. (Real Digital Media)

@devinimamura: We use twitter to send us messages on what our software is doing or any errors that occur. (.AdvancedMethod)

Digital Signage-oriented Tradeshows Make Tradeshow Week Magazine’s 2009 Fastest 50

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

According to editor Bill Yackey of Digital Signage Today.com, . . . digital signage-oriented tradeshows have made the list of Tradeshow Week Magazine’s 2009 Fastest 50.

JD Events and Exponation both announced today that their digital signage-oriented tradeshows have made the list of Tradeshow Week Magazine’s 2009 Fastest 50, which recognizes the 50 fastest-growing trade and consumer shows in North America based on total net square footage and percentage growth between 2006 and 2008.

JD Events operates KioskCom Self Service Expo & The Digital Signage Show, and Exponation operates Digital Signage Expo. Both companies will be honored on Nov. 15 at an awards ceremony in Houston, Texas.

“To be recognized by a publication that is so well-regarded by our peers and professionals in this industry is truly an honor,’ said Joel Davis, CEO of JD Events, the organization behind KioskCom Self Service Expo & The Digital Signage Show. “We are thrilled to be included as one of Tradeshow Week’s Fastest 50 shows and now with our fourth award honoring the shows, we are excited to join an extremely elite group of less than 20 events that have received this award four or more times.”

“We are honored to have again been selected as one of Tradeshow Week’s Fastest 50 shows,” said Angelo Varrone, CEO of Exponation, LLC, which produces Digital Signage Expo. “We won this award in 2007, which was the first year we were eligible. We are thrilled that our show has joined this select group of winning events for the second time in three years.”

Digital Signage Expo, which includes the Interactive Technology Expo, the Out-of-Home Network Show, The Digital Content Show, and The Mobile Marketing Show, will be at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas to run February 23-25, 2010. KioskCom Self Service Expo & The Digital Signage Show is scheduled for November 10-11, 2009, in New York City.

USA Today Features Pull-Out Section on Digital Signage

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

Last Friday, USA Today featured a special pull-out section on digital signage.  Editor Bill Yackey’s full article is here:

NEW YORK — USA Today featured a special pull-out section in its March 20, 2009, edition focused specifically on the digital signage and digital out-of-home (DOOH) industry. Published by Media Planet, the 16-page supplement was distributed in the New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles markets. Readership of two million is expected based on distribution of 750,000 copies with an estimated four readers per supplement copy.

The supplement was created in association with the Digital Signage Association, LG Electronics,
Wireless Ronin Technologies and Black Box Network Services.

“Savvy advertisers now see digital signage and digital out of home advertising as part of their marketing mix,” writes David Drain, executive director of the Digital Signage Association, in the supplement’s introduction. “With an 11.2 percent growth in 2008, making it a $2.43 billion industry in the U.S., according to PQ Media, digital out-of-home is forecasted to have a 12.9 percent compound annual growth rate through 2012 — making this hot trend very attractive to investors.”

The supplement includes commentary from digital signage, DOOH and retail associations, ad agencies and industry analysts reflecting on the high value, applicability and growth of the medium.

Access exclusive white papers featured in the supplement.

The supplement was edited by Lyle Bunn, a digital signage industry consultant and commentator.

“Consumers are telling marketers that place-based digital advertising is the number one way to grab their attention,” Bunn writes. “Digital and video out-of-home networks are a perfect storm of advanced technology platforms, presented in front of predictable and measurable consumer behaviors that offer marketing accountability.”

Digital Signage Expo: Buzzword Is “Small to Medium Businesses”

Posted on Feb 27, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

The Digital Signage Expo started yesterday, and according to Digital Signage Today.com, , “Economy makes the big players take the low–cost route.”

The article, edited by Bill Yackey, follows:

LAS VEGAS — The buzzphrase of the first day of Digital Signage Expo seemed to be “small-to-medium businesses,” or customers that have only a small number of screens or deployments. There has always been a segment of the digital signage industry focused on this long-tail market, but the economy has no doubt lead even the big players in the digital signage industry to reconsider their target customers.

That was highly evident when Scala issued a press release this morning, announcing six new initiatives to “lower the barrier to entry to digital signage.” Most notable of the six is a partnership with FASTSIGNS, a traditional signage provider that announced in January that it is offering a packaged digital signage solution using NEC hardware and Scala software. FASTSIGNS CEO Catherine Monson said that in the six weeks since the product announcement, the company has received $2 million in quotes for the system.

Scala’s other initiatives consists of:

• A partnership with Frame Media to launch SignChannel, a new low-cost, self-service, easy to use, entry-level digital signage service based on wireless photo frame technology.

• Scala as a Service, a hosted version of Scala Content Manager that provides an online digital signage network for a monthly fee.

• The “Ultra Low Cost PC” (ULCPC), at approximately half the cost of traditional PCs.

• Support for several all-in-one devices that include a “PC built into the Screen” form factor.

• An initiative to support cost-effective video appliances (aka “MPEG Players”) reducing the total cost of ownership of both the hardware and software per Player.

Although NEC Display Solutions was highlighting its impressive 82-inch LCD and its ultra-thin bezel MultiSync X461UN for video walls, Mike Zmuda, director of business development, made a point to emphasize the release of NEC’s MultiSync 15 Series and the 46-inch LCD4615, designed for entry-level digital signage applications.

“You have to give up the thin bezel for the 15-series, and there is less firmware, but the 15-series easily allows the addition of touch overlays and protective panels at a cheap price,” Zmuda said.

In the sense that time is money, Omnivex’s next release of its Moxie software (due March 1) is engineered to save users time scheduling content using a system similar to iTunes’ Genius, where songs are given attributes and tags and play when those attributes are selected. Here digital signage content is given meta-tags and assigned to play based on the user selecting relevant tags.

Black Box Network Services has had the SMB customer in its mind all along, offering a complete digital signage solution and emphasizing its 24/7 tech support specific to digital signage. Although the company has more than 180,000 SKUs in its catalog, it showed the iCompel, a player designed for small deployments which comes with software already installed in the player. Brian Kutchma, director of marketing, also said that although the software is licensed, customers aren’t charged for future upgrades.

Check back to Digital Signage Today all this week for constant coverage of Digital Signage Expo. For live updates from the show floor, follow us on Twitter.