Geny Caloisi | Geny Caloisi

Writing on the wall

December 15, 2012 by Geny Caloisi

InAVate, technology insight – Writing on the wall

Talking about the teaching wall will bring different images to different people, but the days of blackboard and chalk are over and the interaction between students and teachers today has to be multi-way and dynamic.

Having a focal point in the classroom is still important, all interviewees agreed; but there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. The benefits for teachers and students are similar. Prices and settings vary.

The buzzwords in this market are: interactivity, collaboration and tablets. As Neil Hartigan, NEC Display Solutions’ channel director puts it: “Using collaborative tools, the teacher can empower students to take ownership of the teaching material, helping to stimulate and engage young minds.”

Follow this link to see the PDF: Writing on the wall Dec12

Filed Under: Education, Technology Tagged With: dynamic, interactive, Multi-way, NEC Display Solutions, Students, tablets, Teachers

Can you hear me clearly?

November 15, 2012 by Geny Caloisi

Times have changed in the congress solutions and discussion systems arena. Openness and transparency is the mantra for public meetings. Private meetings also demand remote access and ease of use. Geny Caloisi talks to the lead manufacturers in this industry to find out the latest.

InAVate, technology insight – Can you hear me clearly?

Conference systems are used to increase speech intelligibility and clarity. The quality of the equipment and technology used is vital in achieving this. However, as John Hunnisett form congress solutions specialist Sound Advice points out: “If you use any of the equipment blindfolded you would not be able to tell the difference between one brand and the next.”

The manufacturers’ solutions available in this market differ on type of network connections; the sophistication of the user interface; integration with personal devices and the kind of data-sharing they allow.

All interviewees agreed that simultaneous translation is a growing requirement.

The main trend is a move towards wireless and paperless – sometimes even participant-less with people attending the meeting virtually.

Follow this link to see the PDF: Can you hear me clearly? Nov12

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: AV, Conference systems, Sound Advice, Wireless conference system

Hands on: Kiosk London 2012 review

October 29, 2012 by Geny Caloisi

Low-cost Android-based players were in strong evidence at Kiosk London this year

This month at the Barbican Centre’s exhibition halls in London, a group of companies gathered at Kiosk London 2012 to show what they know about self-service kiosks. Looking around the exhibits, I would say that kiosks and interactive touchscreens are now synonymous. Smartphone interaction was a significant part of the discourse, of course, but the other growing trend in this market is the use of dongles or Android mini-PCs to turn simple flat screens into digital signage displays.

Touchscreens are a key enabler technology for kiosks. They are intuitive almost everybody, from children of a tender age up to senior citizens, knows how to use their fingers to scroll and pinch technique. Still, it is surprising to see that in many places self-service kiosks are not so ‘self-service’; they still require supervision from store staff standing by to offer assistance. Some work is still needed on the usability side of these solutions.

But the show was not about people developing software for kiosks; it was more about the screens, clever kiosk configurations and solutions, and some media players.

Viru Patel, Fit-PC sales manager at andersDX, introduced me to the company’s fanless Intense-PC. The mini computer comes with Core i7 Ivybridge CPU, dual-headed Intel HD graphics and customisable Function And Connectivity Extension (FACE) modules. FACE modules are extension boards that integrate seamlessly into Fit-PC3 and Intense-PC to provide custom functionality and I/O extensions, implemented with an internal extension board and a simple sheet-metal panel. The extension board is connected to the PC motherboard with two board-to-board connectors featuring standard interfaces such as PCIe, USB2, SATA, and SMBus.

The company was also exhibiting one of its multi-touch displays with an embedded PC controller as a kiosk solution, but the display I found most attractive was its iDisplay tablet. It looks like an iPad and works like one, but it’s an Android table. Size options vary from 7″ (17.8cm) to 21.5″ (54.6cm); it contains a built-in camera and can be used in portrait or landscape mode.

My nose then led me to Airgoo and its Olfactive Spirit Pro, an aromatiser that can be fitter with different capsules to enhance corporate or brand identity through the sense of smell. Airgoo was also presenting its new MicroPlayer, a fully integrated Android-based digital signage player. The wireless internet-connected dongle comes with an integrated HDMI interface and self-power capability from a USB output, able to turn any flat-panel television into digital signage.

Franco-German point-of-sale solutions creator Vision & Synergies came to the event with a ‘virtual and physical’ combination in the form of a 40″ (101.6cm) touchscreen, which was integrated with a webcam and IR reader to provide a clever retail proposition. Using the touchscreen, customers could browse the catalogue at their own pace. But what happens if what you need to find is a small connector and you don’t know what its name is? With this screen you can scan the object and call a customer service person directly via Skype. Not only this, the assistant can then up-sell, offering the customer other products that are related to the one they were looking for.

Japanese screen manufacturer iiyama had the best resolution screens at the show, in my opinion. The company has been manufacturing screens since 1973 and these 40 years of experience have paid off. iiyama not only has single- and multi-touch panel solutions, but the 42″ (1.06m) slim-bezel LE4262S panel with IPS really caught my eye. IPS stands for In-Plane Switching technology; it has been developed to use on LCDs to solve the main limitations of these screens such as slow response times, narrow viewing angles and low-quality colour reproduction.

As part of this industry, there were also companies that sell and distribute POS- and kiosk-compatible printing devices, barcode and RFID scanners, such as Kestronics, which was was showing a very light Android PC available for a mere £50. Credit card payment enabler company VeriFone had a large stand and, amongst other offerings, was showcasing a neat petrol station kiosk. And Box Technologies had on display a large mirror-like gesture-operated interactive screen, where a few gentlemen at the show had the opportunity to try on some glamorous gowns.

Visitors to this show counted for quality more than quantity: just over 720 people attended the show but it included companies such as Tesco, John Lewis, Camelot Group and the Post Office. Next year’s event will be on October 16th and 17th 2013 and will return to the Barbican.

First published 29 October 2012 – Output

Filed Under: Digital signage Tagged With: Airgoo, andersDX, Box Technologies Share:, iiyama, Kestronics, Kiosk London 2012, VeriFone

OpenSplash: adoption and opportunity

October 23, 2012 by Geny Caloisi

OpenSplash’s only requirement is that its logo be displayed clearly for three seconds at start-up (image © Sergej Khackimullin / Fotolia, adapted)

It’s been over a year since Ayuda’s open-source digital signage player, OpenSplash, was donated to the industry. OpenSplash is a free, multi-platform media player designed to be driven by any network-based content management system (CMS). A few companies, including ComQi, Onelan, X20 Media and signagelive, have taken up the opportunity that this player offers. But the question is, why aren’t more businesses adopting it?

Andrew Neale is a digital signage expert who has been involved with OpenSplash from the very beginning, and Marc Benson, chief technology officer at cloud-based digital signage software provider signagelive, are both members of the OpenSplash steering committee.

“At signagelive we see OpenSplash as an opportunity for vendors, system integrators and most importantly innovative minds to create differentiating and engaging solutions using a solid foundation,” Benson explains. “OpenSplash contains all the core functionality expected of a media player whilst enabling developers to customise and extend virtually any part of the application.

“Although that sounds a bit like ‘techie marketing’, having a high-quality core solution enables new ideas to be delivered quickly and with confidence, knowing that your application is built on a solid foundation that can be connected to any CMS provider. This must be a compelling proposition for anyone looking to build a solution.”  The idea with OpenSplash is that companies will be able to use their content management system and build a quality media player without having to reinvent the wheel. Having a common player platform could also promote standards for within the digital signage industry, which would be highly beneficial, with the added benfit of making it easier for legacy networks to migrate into new, more sophisticated networks.

Neale points out: “One obvious benefit that has emerged when talking to vendors and network operators is that there is a need for standardisation. This is especially apparent when mergers and acquisitions mean that operators end up with running a number of platforms to manage their assets. This is inefficient and unnecessarily difficult to manage successfully.

“Because of the modular structure of OpenSplash, any migration process from one CMS to another would be much easier as there would only need to be an update to an existing OpenSplash player, rather than having to replace the player completely. We heard of a case where the operator had to deal with over ten legacy platforms in one portfolio.”

Interoperability and standardisation are two factors that have brought other industries forward, enabling better collaboration between businesses and reducing development costs.

“OpenSplash is not the first attempt at standardisation within our industry, and I doubt it will be the last,” says Benson. “However, I don’t believe we have yet seen the out-of-home industry fully embrace OpenSplash. I think this can probably be attributed to most vendors having a fear of losing control of the end point, but this fear is unfounded.

“Conversely, many screen manufactures bundle poor-quality software solutions to enable them to sell their panels as the software is free. By bundling OpenSplash, the consumer has choice of CMS to fit their needs – whether they opt for a commercial platform, such as signagelive, or a free platform.”

signagelive has invested heavily into ensuring that as much functionality as possible is available to any unit connecting to its platform, no matter how simple the end device may be. Benson continues: “Later this year we will be releasing our Player API that will enable any media player to connect to the signagelive platform. As part of this initiative we will add an open-source connector for OpenSplash and signagelive, which we hope will drive further innovation.”

Neale concludes: “Because the software is open source and freely available to anyone to use, we don’t know how many or who exactly is using the software out in the field, but we hope that people will give us feedback that we can announce publicly. There have been a number of interesting discussions that we have heard about, and we hope to be able talk about them soon.”

Benson’s parting tip: using Mono ensures that any solutions developed on OpenSplash have the potential to be delivered across multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, Android and iOS.

First published 23 October 2012 – Output

Filed Under: Digital signage Tagged With: Ayuda, ComQi, Onelan, open source, OpenSplash, signagelive

Android: digital signage for the masses

October 3, 2012 by Geny Caloisi

Caption: Android might offer a cheap route into digital signage – but is that its only advantage? (cc Compfight // Kham Tran)

Both players and software have developed significantly during the two decades that digital signage has existed; technology has become smarter, smaller and cheaper and this has, in turn, driven adoption. A new surge is starting now thanks to Android, the Linux-based operating system owned by Google. Yet, while often identified as a cheaper alternative, Android’s real strength doesn’t lie in its price.

“Many DS software companies have launched support for Android and in some cases, bundled their software with Android HDMI sticks and boxes,” explains Jason Cremins, chief executive of Signagelive. “The vast majority of these devices were intended for the consumer market and, even with optimised software, were never built for unattended 24/7 use in digital signage.

“The reliability and robustness of the player being managed by Signagelive is hugely important to our reputation and the ability to scale our business globally with minimum support issues. For this reason, we have decided against re-branding a cheap Android device as Signagelive. Instead, we created a player API that enables reputable device manufacturers, such as Dension, to develop dedicated Android devices from the processor up that work with our Signagelive platform and replicate the capabilities of our Display Edition licence.”

Martijn Bakker, sales and marketing manager at Dise, corroborates that being obsessed with Android as a low-price option can backfire: “Sure, there are big savings to be made on player hardware – but you get what you pay for.”

Dise has been eyeing Android up for a few years. Its small form factor and fanless designs allow installation flexibility, but it was the operating system that really enticed the Swedish software developer. “The open source approach gives us as a software vendor a sense of confidence, since problems are easier to investigate, solve or circumvent than with proprietary operating systems,” adds Bakker.

Dynamax’s founder and director Howard Smith agrees, identifying the simpler operating system as a major reason for his company taking the Android route in September last year. “The biggest challenge has been finding a hardware solution that is robust enough for digital signage, and cost effective enough to make a real difference,” he comments.

But Android doesn’t present an obvious development path for every manufacturer. After initial research, BroadSign realised that it could have a hardware conundrum on its hands. “In 2011, BroadSign decided to invest time and money testing several dozen Android devices,” recalls Brian Dusho, the company’s chief executive. “We quickly saw that we had a decision to make: either we built a universal app for Google Play, or we integrated with a small list of certified hardware devices. It was necessary to modify the firmware, so we abandoned the App Store approach and settled on the device direction.” Coinciding with the company’s tenth anniversary, it launched, this April, its own Android-based player, applying functionality from other products to create a more affordable but nevertheless fully-featured option.

An Android-enabled device, however, is not enough. As screens increase in resolution and size, sharper images are a must; the hardware needs to have at least 16GB of hard drive storage, play 1080p HD full motion video and the latest Adobe Flash and HTML5 content. Plus, wifi is not always available, or reliable enough, so devices must include an ethernet port as a redundancy.

“Android, as an operating system, is not designed for digital signage,” Dusho continues. “It’s missing basic configuration parameters that allow you to set it, then forget it. These include hiding the task bar, dedicated boot into the signage player and administrator access in order to perform auto-upgrades. All of these require modifications to the firmware. Due to Android’s security model, you cannot modify the firmware from an App and that is why you shouldn’t install digital signage software from the Google Play Store [which provides apps for Android].”

Yet Israeli company NoviSign wants to prove this theory wrong. It promises to make any Android-based device digital signage-ready; end users can buy into its media player app for $15 (£9.30). Avi Vashkover, founder of NoviSign, says that Android opens up digital signage to everyone: “Until now, digital signage has failed to provide a simple, cost-effective solution for SMEs. We believe SMEs should enjoy almost the same capabilities as the big players, such as McDonalds, but at a fraction of the cost. Android is the answer.”

Android-based digital signage hardware connected to mobile technology can provide a more fluid communication with customers using GPS locators, voice recognition, face-detecting cameras, wifi hot spots, 4G connectivity and gyroscopic sensors, thereby changing the industry rapidly and for the better. We have only seen the beginning of it. It’s not just about cheaper options – it’s also about the wide range of choices and applications that Android has to offer.

First published 3 October 2013 – Output

Filed Under: Digital signage Tagged With: Android, BroadSign, Denison, Dise, Dynamax Technologies, Google, NoviSign, signagelive

Exhibitionists on Exhibition Road

September 18, 2012 by Geny Caloisi

DanceToday – Exhibition road Oct12

Anyone who didn’t manage to get a ticket to see the Olympic or Paralympic Games could still enjoy the party atmosphere around London with special events popping up everywhere. One of particular interest was the Exhibition Road Show, or shall we call it nine days of partying on South Kensington’s Exhibition Road?

Free for all, the event saw over 60,000 visitors rendezvous on Exhibition Road to eat wonderful food, play table games, watch acrobatics, listen to music and dance.

Follow this link to see the PDF: DanceToday Exhibition road Oct12

Filed Under: Dance Tagged With: acrobatics, Dance, Events, Exhibition Road, Food, Live Music, Olympics, Paralympic Games

Objects and stories

September 15, 2012 by Geny Caloisi

Museums are places were objects and stories converge to introduce visitors to different ways of life, history, art and culture. In the last half century, AV technology has started to play an important role in this environment, providing new ways of engaging with the audience. Geny Caloisi reports.

InAVate, environments – Objects and stories

Museums collect, document, preserve and display objects. But this is not all they are about. A museum also tells a story. The layout and type of technology used, depends on the objective of the museum – is it a local museum; is it for tourists; is it object-heavy or is its narrative built just using audiovisual resources?

It’s also important to distinguish between traditional museums (scientific, historical and cultural), which are usually owned by the government or public organisations, and the private corporate and brand marketing-driven museums. Looking at the trends and technologies in this market, it’s clear that one size doesn’t fit all.

Follow this link to see the PDF: Objects and stories Sep12

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: AV, Digital media, exhibitions, Iteractive, Museum

Intevi: using digital signage to gather sales information

July 18, 2012 by Geny Caloisi

Intevi, a new digital signage company, is developing off-the-shelf solutions for today’s demanding retail market. Adam Wilson, co-founder and director of Intevi, talked to Output about the company’s new Interactive Retail Unit (iRU).

Intevi’s iRU can measure sales as well as attract shoppers

Seven months ago Wilson, formerly of dZine and AMX, started Intevi looking to provide end-to-end digital media solutions. Intevi’s iRU software allows digital signage screens to react to what is happening in shops, particularly where customers are encouraged to touch and feel products in an interactive way.

“The software is based on our Intevi Digital Poster solution which is a traditional digital signage product,” explains Wilson. “The content played can be managed in the cloud or it can be stored locally, or even a mixture of both. Our software also allows the media owner to schedule content changes in line with seasons, product releases, and so on, over the internet or via encrypted USB dongles.”

With this solution retailers are able to display an attractor content loop to engage dynamically with its customers. Once the customer approaches the display and a product is lifted from the shelf, a video specific to this product is triggered. So, for instance, if the shelf has female-orientated perfumes and male-targeted aftershaves, a suitable video will be displayed depending on the target gender of the product that the customer picks up.

“We first developed this solution for a couple of clients, and now it is an off-the-shelf product offering at Intevi,” says Wilson. “We have designed a physical interactive module, which allows for the various triggers to be connected and programmed accordingly. The interactive module communicates with the screen and stores the content ready to be played back.”

The content displayed can be triggered via a range of methods: product pick-up; pressure sensor; motion sensor; push buttons; gesture; or using analytical cameras which can determine the age and gender of the person in front of the screen. The content activated is specific to the action performed.

“Retailers are stepping up to the fact that consumers are more knowledgeable and tech savvy than ever before. Standard, non-interactive digital screens are seen by some retailers as old news and we are constantly investigating the latest solutions for our digital retail customers,” adds Wilson.

But the most interesting feature of this software is that it can provide retailers with real data on what products are most successful and which ones aren’t. They can then draw sales statistics and fine-tune their next order, change the location of the product and use the digital media displays for more insightful knowledge.

“Our system collates all information about what products were picked up, by whom, when, how many times. This is then cross-referenced with sales data to see what products where actually purchased,” concludes Wilson.

Screens are no longer just ‘moving picture decoration’ – they are real retail tools for information for the customer and the retailer. Retailers can improve products sales and get their numbers on the ROI from the screens.

first published 18 July 2012 – Output

Filed Under: Digital signage Tagged With: facial recognition, gesture recognition, Intevi, iRU, Retail

Making marketing more engaging: In-Store Show

July 15, 2012 by Geny Caloisi

If I had to define in a sentence what the In-Store Show pavilion at the Marketing Week Live event was about, I would say it mostly presented solutions to make marketing more engaging.

CDS 46" trasnparent display box and 4.3" TFT shelf edge displays

In terms of technology, it was very similar to what we already saw this year at Screenmedia Expo. Large thin-vessel HD displays, some LED, picture frame-type screens, a few holograms, 3D and transparent displays.

For instance, Crystal Display Systems (CDS) had already introduced its 22″ (0.6m) transparent showcase box at Screenmedia Expo. The ClearVue 220 allows the combination of a real product displayed in a presentation box and graphics or video content played in front on it, on a transparent display. However, what was new at this show was CDS’s 46″ (1.2m) box, also plug-and-play, but more impressive. Other companies showing transparent displays were Media Zest and Stratacache, with a large drinks dispenser fridge with a transparent screen.

: Pixel Project QR code for 4.3″ shelf edge screen

Something that caught my eye in terms of screen technology was the use of 4.3″ (11cm) TFT LCD displays used for shelf-edge applications or as mini video displays for counter advertising – or even inside a card. The screen is more or less the size of a smartphone screen, but is lighter. The resolution in that size is very good and the screens can display individual or joined content. The only fault, especially if the screens are used next to each other, is that they have quite a thick frame so the image is not continuous.

The mini displays inside cards were designed by Display Innovations and have a video that is activated when the card is opened, and that can play for the battery’s life of three hours. Pixel Inspiration has combined its version of digital shelf-edge display with a QR code reader, so the screens play content continuously until a QR code is scanned, which triggers information on the product to pop up on the screen.

CDS was also demonstrating its shelf-edge display. “The displays work like a desktop extension,” explains managing director Chris Bartram. “You can decide what you put on each screen or run an image across several. It’s a PC interface so you can use any media player from signagelive, Scala or any other. The maximum number of TFT 4.3′ (1.3m) screens you can put in one line is eleven, but we can daisy-chain them to link together up to 72 displays.”

Christie MicrTiles at Saville AV stand

One particular product that was being showcased by many companies was Christie’s MicroTiles. The versatile cubic rear projection display was present in at least six different stands, and not just on the In-Store Show pavilion, but the Live Marketing area, which was for companies offering exhibition stands, as well. Equinox Design had the largest Christie MicroTiles display, a five by eight array. The show’s entrance hall had a MicroTiles display, as did system integrator Saville Audiovisual, distributor Aztec and content designer Beaver Group, to name but a few.

TED - H Squared

An innovative store concept which attracted crowds was the one presented by H Squared. Its name was TED, the happy machine. TED stands for Technology Engagement Device, and combined screens and mobile technology. Visitors were handed a card to fill in, or by scanning a QR code they were taken to a website. Here they were given a virtual scratch card to reveal whether they had won, and what time they needed to go to the stand to get their ‘free stuff’. TED was a videowall comprised of several screens with videos of eyes and mouths. At the time arranged for people to come and collect their prizes, TED came alive as an interactive screen, seeing the bystanders (via a webcam) and talking to them. Winners needed to open a small box to find their goodies.

IBM future store

But how can these solutions work together? The entrance of the In-Store Show had concept stands, showing what the future of retail can be. I must say I didn’t think much of these. IBM had created a ‘shoe shop fusion’, with screens on the shop window showing tweets and live models parading in the window as if it were a catwalk. The twist, and where IBM technology came in, was that the public tweeted what shoes they wanted to see modelled. IBM proposes using a multi-channel experience to engage customers at various levels and feedback to the retailer through its analytics.

The show covered all areas of marketing and communications, and was worth a visit.

First published in Output Magazine

Filed Under: Digital signage, News, Technology Tagged With: Christie MicroTiles, digital sigange, In Store, Marketing Week Show, Technology Engagement Device, TED