Digital Signage

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.

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.”

Datacasting For Digital Signage

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

The following article, from Digital Signage Today.com, is by Lyle Bunn, principal and Strategy Architect for BUNN Co.  Bunn is highly regarded as an advisor and educator in North America’s digital signage industry.

Datacasting is emerging as an attractive alternative to DSL, satellite and cellular connectivity for digital signage/DOOH network operators because it combines the cost-effectiveness of multicasting with the addressable media transport associated with DSL/Internet. Datacasting offers the rapid, low-cost deployment that makes cellular attractive, but can provide much higher connectivity capacity and speeds.

One of the major players in this area of the digital signage industry is National Datacast, a commercial, wireless data broadcasting subsidiary of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). NDI has acted as a content delivery provider since 1988, but is turning its capabilities in connectivity service and media management to the digital signage and digital out-of-home sectors. National Datacast provides regional or national connectivity through partnerships with PBS member stations and their satellite networks.

While digital signage software from firms such as BroadSign, EnQii, Harris, Scala, STRATACACHE and others can provide flexibility and ease of use in designating display groups and specifying content spots for playout on even individual displays, I believe past connectivity options have not offered a cost-effective combination of network-wide media fueled with fast, player-targeted download.

Today’s connectivity model is a fundamental element of digital signage, in-store TV and DOOH dynamic displays since centrally-controlled networks are “media-fueled” to present information or ads according to pre-defined, often day-parted playlists.

The typical architecture is to forward media spots and a playlist file from a network operations center to media players at display locations, and then to add live inputs from databases or external feeds such as weather, news, sports scores or financial information.

Internet connectivity, such as DSL, and cellular treats each media transfer as a separate connectivity transaction, and as such requires large connection capacities to process network traffic.

Multicasting, the transmission of the same files to multiple locations at the same time, can offer media transfer value, but can add an overhead to media management at each location.

The datacasting model NDI’s datacasting network (short for “data broadcasting”) uses digital file transfer techniques that are similar to delivery of content via other means – that means a digital signage player can readily utilize content files delivered by datacasting. Datacasting applications are numerous and include transfer of video and audio files, corporate digital file transfer, updating of software, gaming and information, training and education, alert notification, safety and security and information services.

Datacasting empowers the capabilities of available software tools and offers operational cost-effectiveness that can allow digital signage/DOOH network operators to expand networks and better apply their day-parting capabilities.

This reliable, national infrastructure of commercial-grade digital connectivity has been used by a long list of clients such as Movie Gallery, Update Logic, TV Guide, Microsoft, Disney, VISA, IBM and others.

The receiving equipment is also very simple in nature. A standard antenna is connected using coaxial cable to a specialized digital television receiver which is then connected by USB to a media server or on some other type of content processing computer/ display. The antenna and receiver typically costs under $200 retail.

Other datacasting service features important to digital signage/DOOH network operators include:

Nationwide coverage that allows network operations in multiple regions to be provided by a single connectivity operator.

Transmission reliability is not affected by user volume, cable breaks or environmental conditions such as rain, snow, smog and dust.

Multicasting allows satellite transmission to deliver value to a large network deployment.

Multiple file formats can be transported, reducing the need for transcoding or file re-formatting, which increases overheads and can degrade playout quality.

Security at the highest level associated with an enterprise application.

The NDI Network Operations Center (NOC) can manage media distribution in any predefined display architecture.