Digital Signage

Ninety Percent of Shoppers Polled Notice Adspace’s Smart Screens

Posted on Oct 5, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

PRNewswire.com has some some great news about Adspace’s Smart Screens:  People are paying attention!

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ — Ninety percent of American shoppers notice Adspace Digital Mall Network’s Smart Screens located throughout 105 Class-A malls nationwide, said a study released today.

The findings also demonstrate that of that 90 percent who noticed the Smart Screens, 74 percent recalled viewing them, and of those viewers, 35 percent recalled viewing the “Today’s Top Ten” features. These features, Adspace’s editorial content, highlight the Adspace Personal Shoppers’ hand-selected ten best sales throughout the mall. Further, a full 18 percent of those shoppers made a purchase in the past month based on the information they saw on the screens.

As the leader in in-mall digital advertising, Adspace has 1,400 Smart Screens nationwide that display both advertising and editorial content. For this study, Adspace worked with General Growth Properties, the network’s largest mall partner, to query a panel of their mall club members. Via an online survey fielded by Insight Express, shoppers were asked to recall the screens’ content including the “Today’s Top Ten” features.

“We are constantly fielding research with mall shoppers to understand what network content they will find most engaging on the Smart Screens during their trip to the malls,” said William Ketcham, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Adspace Networks. “We know from prior research that sale information is the highest rated content, and found it particularly encouraging in this most recent study that 95 percent of all respondents felt that sale information is ‘extremely important’ or ‘very important,’ with very little variation among age or gender groups.”

Adspace has developed unique technology to deliver the “Today’s Top Ten” features, using a database of sale items to automatically populate the 12-second spots.

“Producing more than 1,000, 12-second spots each week isn’t practical, or scalable,” Mr. Ketcham continued, “Our patent-pending technology is critical to optimizing the consumer experience.”

Other key findings include:

* New sources of sale information are gaining traction, particularly among young females age 13-24. Digital screens in malls are used by 27 percent of women 13-24 for sale information and are rapidly approaching the level of newspapers and magazines at 33 percent each.
* Shoppers were asked what retailers they want to see in the “Today’s Top Ten” features on the Smart Screens and Macy’s, Victoria’s Secret, J.C. Penney, Gap and American Eagle were the most popular stores.

How the study was conducted

Adspace Networks engaged Insight Express to interview a total of 978 General Growth Properties’ mall club members across 34 geographically dispersed malls in June 2009. Each had visited their local GGP mall at least twice in the past 30 days. Panelists were queried via email to take an online survey about their recent shopping experience.

About Adspace Networks, Inc.

Adspace Networks, Inc. (www.adspacenetworks.com) owns and operates the Adspace Digital Mall Network, the largest in-mall digital billboard network in the country. Currently located throughout more than 100 Class A malls across the United States, the network consists of 1,400, eight and nine-foot-tall plasma screens- called “Smart Screens.” The Smart Screens display show programming which combines a mix of the top ten sale items in the mall, the hottest seasonal items available, mall events, and local and national advertising. The network reaches over 100 million affluent (source: Directory of Major Malls(R)) consumers each month, and is particularly effective at reaching teens, young adults, and women. Adspace is also a charter member of the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB), an organization that will help provide standards and best practices for the burgeoning out-of-home video advertising industry.

CONTACT: Anne Donohoe/Charlotte Maumus
KCSA Strategic Communications
212.896.1261 / 212.896.1269
adonohoe@kcsa.com / cmaumus@kcsa.com

SOURCE Adspace Networks, Inc.

C-nario Is Busy In Germany and NYC

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

The Daily DOOH brings us some news about C-nario:

C-nario has been a bit quiet recently but has obviously been working furiously behind the scenes…

First off is their own announcement with regard a new partnership with SDI in Germany but much more interesting than that is, following on from our find-everything-out-we-posssibly-can-in-NYC-trip we can exclusively reveal they have a big deal new deal in NYC itself – big well known, respected brand too!!

The other deals that they are rumoured to have won are concept stores for a mobile phone business, a couple of museums and a TV channel.

Rami Bahar, C-nario’s Vice President Sales and Strategic Planning told us “The distribution agreement with SDI is part of our strategy to become a pan-European provider of software-based digital signage solutions. The German speaking countries are one of the most exciting AV markets and we see great demand for digital signage in this region”

Under terms of the agreement with SDI they will offer C-nario’s digital signage software products combined with SDI’s professional services such as digital signage project management and system integration.

Thomas Klukas, Sales Director, SDI told us “We are confident that the combined expertise and experience of both companies promise great opportunity for us to provide state of the art digital signage solutions and services in the German speaking countries. We share the same vision of customized digital environment for every client, and the partnership positions both companies to meet a new range of challenging application demands, enabling the most creative use of digital signage.”

About SDI

SDI Gesellschaft für Medientechnologie mbH, located in Munich, Germany, provides professional services for production and broadcast studios, media technology, and audiovisual communication platforms. In addition, the company provides products for Pro AV, broadcasters, signal management products and solutions for digital cinema and digital signage. SDI services in the digital signage sphere include consulting, creating content with media agencies, answering tenders, installation and maintenance.

Adrian J Cotterill

Audience.Campus™ Provides Effective Digital Signage Communication and Emergency Messaging for Educational Institutions

Posted on Sep 30, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

From Digital Signage.com:

Capital Networks Ltd (CNL), a leading global provider of broadcasting and dynamic digital signage software, has announced a new market initiative into the US Education sector. The Audience.Campus™ offering has been designed specifically for educational installations, enabling high schools, colleges and universities to improve communication with students across multi-site campuses, as well as within individual faculties or departments. The solution can run up to 100 channels simultaneously through a single deployment – which ensures that individual departments can control the content on their broadcasts and deliver hyper-local information like room schedules, or class notifications – all of which can be uploaded easily by staff or students.

And from Digital Signage Expo:

Audience.Campus, the latest offering from Capital Networks Ltd., focuses on providing educational facilities with all the tools needed to enhance campus communications and emergency messaging through digital signage.

According to the company, an increasing number of educational establishments hoping to create and display broadcast quality information and emergency channels on a limited budget are looking to take advantage of the Audience.Campus solution. Colleges already using the Audience software platform include Purdue University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Regina, and NAIT – Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. vendor to synchronize emergency messaging. As well as delivering a vast array of day-to-day information, a dynamic digital signage solution can save lives in emergencies by ensuring the students are aware of events and have real-time information about where they should go.”

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.

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

NHL’s Minnesota Wild to Implement RoninCast Digital Signage At Xcel Energy Center

Posted on Sep 16, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Reuter’s has posted an excellent article about Wireless Ronin Technologies’ contract with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild team:

MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wireless Ronin Technologies, Inc.
(Nasdaq:RNIN), a Minneapolis-based digital signage provider, announced today
that it has been contracted by the NHL's Minnesota Wild team to provide digital
menu boards throughout its home at the St. Paul Xcel Energy Center.

"We are very excited to be having our technology added as yet another factor
that will enhance the exciting sports and entertainment experience at Xcel
Energy Center," said James (Jim) Granger, CEO of Wireless Ronin Technologies.
"We look forward to delivering a system that will bring excitement to the
concession areas by incorporating branded content customized for specific
events, sponsors and promotions.

89 RoninCast(r) digital menu board displays will be implemented prior to the
Minnesota Wild home opener on October 6th. The Xcel Energy Center maintains a
reputation of being one of the best stadiums in the country. ESPN The Magazine
recently announced it in the "Ultimate Standings 2009" list as the "Ultimate
Crib," "Best Stadium Experience" in the NHL and runner-up for "Stadium
Experience" out of the 122 major league sports franchises among the NHL, NFL,
NBA and MLB.

"With the RoninCast technology, we not only intend to add to the exciting
technology-driven environment for our fans, we also see back-end management
benefits by allowing customized content for each sporting and entertainment
event at the arena," said Jack Larson, vice president and general manager for
the Xcel Energy Center.

The 89 RoninCast enabled displays will be installed across three levels of the
arena including the main concourse which will house 43 screens, the Treasure
Island Resort and Casino Club level with 19, and upper level with 27 screens.
Content for the digital signage network will be maintained through the RoninCast
system by Levy Restaurants, food service partner at the arena. Digital menu
boards will allow Levy and the Xcel Energy Center the flexibility to adjust menu
offerings and provide different options depending on the time of day or event.
Wireless Ronin will provide RoninCast software, custom software development,
content development, networking, hosting and training.

The Xcel Energy Center, with configuration capabilities to accommodate more than
20,000 guests, is also home to the Minnesota Swarm National Lacrosse League
team, Minnesota State High School League tournaments as well as more than 150
entertainment events annually, including well known acts like the Rolling
Stones, Prince and Billy Joel, among many others.

About the Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild recently completed its eighth NHL season after bringing
hockey at its highest-level back to Minnesota for the 2000-01 campaign. The Wild
claimed its first-ever Northwest Division title in 2007-08, has sold out every
home game in franchise history (365 in all), set an NHL record for attendance by
an expansion team and created a buzz across "The State of Hockey" with its run
to the 2003 Western Conference Finals. For more information, visit www.wild.com.

Xcel Energy Center

Regarded as one of the finest arenas in the world, Xcel Energy Center is home to
the NHL's Minnesota Wild, the NLL's Minnesota Swarm and a multitude of premier
sports and entertainment events annually. The one-of-a-kind, multi-purpose
facility is located in the heart of downtown Saint Paul, owned by the City of
Saint Paul and managed by the Saint Paul Arena Company, an affiliate of
Minnesota Sports & Entertainment. For more information, visit
www.xcelenergycenter.com.

About Wireless Ronin Technologies

Wireless Ronin Technologies (www.wirelessronin.com) is the developer of
RoninCast(r), a complete software solution designed to address the evolving
digital signage marketplace. Wireless Ronin provides clients with a complete,
turnkey digital signage system which allows the ability to manage a digital
signage network from one central location. The RoninCast(r) digital signage
software suite allows for customized distribution with network management,
playlist creation and scheduling, and database integration. Wireless Ronin
offers an array of services to support RoninCast(r) software including
consulting, creative development, project management, installation, and
training. The company's common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Market under
the symbol "RNIN."

The Wireless Ronin Technologies, Inc. logo is available at

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3208

-0-
CONTACT:  Wireless Ronin Technologies
          Holly Heitkamp, Marketing Specialist
          (952) 564-3560
          hheitkamp@wirelessronin.com

          Xcel Energy Center:
          Kathy O'Connor, Director, Public & Media Relations
          (651) 265-4819
          koconnor@xcelenergycenter.com

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.

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.