Screens in the Wild

The research provided insight into how location and audience can affect interaction with DOOH

The research provided insight into how location and audience can affect interaction with DOOH

For the past two years the University College London (UCL) and the University of Nottingham (UoN) have been working together on a project called Screens in the Wild. Researchers from the UCL’s Space Group and the UoN’s Mixed Reality Lab investigated how media screens located in urban space can be designed to benefit public life.

The research team includes architects, human computer interaction designers, computer scientists, anthropologists, developers, artists and curators. Notably, it doesn’t include anyone currently working in DOOH. The reason for this is simple; they wanted to have total independence in order to be able to invite companies to try their test platforms in the second phase of the project, which began recently.

Ava Fatah gen Schieck, lecturer at UCL and head of the project, explains: “We built a series of architectural interfaces in Leytonstone, east London and Nottingham which use broadcast media and interactive technologies to foster community participation and ownership of the urban space.”

A total of four screens have been installed: two are in Nottingham, at the New Art Exchange and the independent Broadway Cinema, while the other two are in East London, one at Leytonstone library and another at volunteer-run community centre The Mill. The displays run as a network and, from the moment the first screen went up, the project has been running 24 hours a day. Each of the four nodes contains a touchscreen, a CCTV camera and a webcam, a microphone and a speaker.

Dr Holger Schnadelbach, the principal investigator and senior research fellow at UoN, was in charge of creating the technical platform for the project. The displays, which are NEC MultiSync screens, run on a Windows 7 platform using a Union Server and a touch foil overlay from Visual Planet.

“We tried various technologies, such as an Xbox for gesture interaction, but they didn’t work,” says Schieck. “We wanted to bring interactivity into the public realm and a simple touchscreen was the best.”

The research results show that slight distinctions in a screen’s surrounding area can provide remarkably varied results. Nottingham’s Broadway cinema is situated a few metres back from the street; here, people tend to stay and interact with the screens for extended periods, or just sit around and passively watch others play. In east London, where the screen is on the high street itself, the dwell time is briefer.

The project’s aim is to invite people to get more involved with their local community. With this in mind, researchers invited local digital artists and residents to workshops and events in which participants generated their own relevant content.

“A key element for engaging the public, besides creating simple interaction mechanisms, is to focus on locally generated content and to collaborate with communities to generate and develop the content,” believes Schieck.

One of the most popular interactions is a photo booth application, where pictures can be shared between the four locations, while another – a game – saw a high level of participation from children.

“Depending on the time of day you can get a very different picture of the interaction taking place,” explains Schieck. “For instance, inhibitions seem to disappear in the evening.

“There is an interesting case with the community centre screen where, for the past two years, a man has visited the screen every other day and had his photo taken. The picture only shows a snapshot of the interaction, but through our CCTV camera observation we can see that what he does is a whole performance: he dances in front of the screen!”

The research and development phase has ended; however, the screen network with its scheduled experiences continues to run and is available for any interested party to run tests on. Local venue owners and the residents involved in the project have expressed their continued interest in supporting the project.

“We have developed knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work, knowledge of the urban setting and the types of community around the screen locations, ” concludes Schieck. “We would like to test the possibility of offering the screen locations as a research test bed for developing novel ideas and supporting new ways of engagement with the public, which might be of interest to media owners and advertising agencies.”

The DOOH industry has a gap to bridge between academic research and the practical application of screens in the urban landscape. The Screens in the Wild network could be an ideal platform for identifying useful information about specific locations and engagement levels. This controlled environment can provide an outline of the social and technical challenges and opportunities for further developing out-of-home advertising and permit the transfer of this knowledge to other networks.

First published 12 December 2013 – Output

Flexibility meets strength

InAVate, technology - Flexibility meets strength

InAVate, technology – Flexibility meets strength

Commercial venues, corporate organisations and education establishments face a similar challenge: they want the latest technology but budgets are squeezed and space is at a premium. Geny Caloisi talks to the leading manufacturers of mounts and brackets to find out how they are addressing the needs of the industry.

Mount and bracket manufacturers need to provide versatile, strong and flexible solutions. But, as Rachel Hunt, Unicol marketing director says: “This is not new. Mobile devices in the form of trolleys and stands have been around since the AV industry began. In situations where CRT (the new technology of the time) was a costly commodity it was necessary to make the most of it, so the education and other industries could use one device across many locations.”

Follow this link to see the PDF: Brackets & Mounts Nov13

The debutant steps out: European Sign Expo preview

Pyramid Computer's polytouch solutions can pair with receipt printers and other peripherals to create new customer-facing propositions, including this concierge solution

Pyramid Computer’s polytouch solutions can pair with receipt printers and other peripherals to create new customer-facing propositions, including this concierge solution

The buzz is gathering pace for European Sign Expo (ESE), which, in only a few hours, will open its doors for the first time at London’s Excel exhibition centre. Presented in colocation with FESPA’s wide-format print show, which carries the same name as the organisation, and having acquired Screenmedia Expo a few months before, ESE draws in old and new exhibitors from the analogue and digital systems worlds, representing a new way of looking at what each calls ‘signage’.

Inurface Media was one of the first companies to sign up. Director Joshua Bunce explains that the positive exposure the company received last year at Screenmedia Expo, plus the fact that this is a new show, encouraged him to participate. “The signage industry is changing and we have lots of bespoke solutions of interest to people from the print industry that are thinking about jumping into digital,” he elaborates. “Print and digital complement each other, but the latter provides more flexibility and the opportunity of having dynamic content.”

Bunce is hoping the colocation of ESE with FESPA will bring more visitors to his stand. This year, Inurface will showcase videowalls using technology from NEC and Christie MicroTiles, plus a 46″ (116.8cm) IP65-rated outdoor screen developed by the company itself. Also on display will be an interactive, gesture-based rugby game created for the Heineken World Cup, as well as wayfinding solutions.

As a franchise-based network of sign-making companies, Signs Express doesn’t originate in the digital signage arena but decided a month ago that a stand at ESE might help it reach into a new market. Headquartered in Norfolk, Signs Express has 70 franchise centres across the UK and Ireland and has become a household name since its inception 20 years ago.

“Our goal for the show is to speak to specifiers and end users about our signs and graphics services, and in particular our national account and project management solutions,” comments marketing manager Rebecca Dack. “We are interested in finding out more about opportunities in digital signage, as well as changes in wide-format digital print machinery.”

Pyramid Computer’s business development manager for polytouch, Florian Pagendarm, will be at the show’s Digital Lounge demonstrating the company’s 22 and 32 Classic kiosk terminals. “ESE provides us with an ideal platform to reach a wide range of vertical markets that are key for us, such as tourism, transportation, retail, hospitality, banking, public sector and events,” commends Pagendarm.

Pierre Gillet, BrightSign’s vice-president for Europe, is also excited about the event. BrightSign’s XD Smart Menu Board makes its debut at the show: an all-in-one, integrated digital menuboard solution for fast-food outlets, cafeterias and restaurants, the package has been specified to make it simple for novice installers to construct their first projects cost-effectively and without specialist knowledge.

“[ESE] promises to take digital signage to a whole new audience,” he states. “We are very much part of the signage industry as a whole. The key audience for us is not only end users, but the integrators and installers that they rely on for effective signage.”

Meanwhile, on the FESPA side of the show partition, established software vendor Caldera will be showing its own digital signage proposition. Having spent many years in the wide-format industry developing its RIP platforms, Caldera wants to build the bridge between print and digital with its Variable Display product. New templating features, in particular, now promise to make the creation of an effective campaign based on original print artwork even simpler.

For some, the success of the show doesn’t lie in the crossover between formats, or even the presentation of new offerings. Former exhibitor Richard Corbett, founder and chief executive of Eyetease, which launched its iTaxitop at Screenmedia Expo three years ago, is looking for diversity in the visitor base: “Last year distinctly lacked a presence from the media owners,” he explains. “The million dollar question is whether or not they will be present this year to assess their options across print and digital formats.”

The show’s exhibitors, and therefore the products on offer, weigh in at an easier point of cross-over for the sign and display producers treading the halls next door at FESPA. Seminars – including those from our editor-in-chief James Matthews-Paul – on digital signage basics should also help with this ambition. If delivered well, it may not matter that there is less at ESE specifically for the DOOH (digital out-of-home) crowd, and instead could create a show that serves the new digital signage channel well enough to earn its place on the must-attend list.

First Published 24 June 2013 – Output

 

Rocking the Tobacco Dock: NEC Showcase preview

Now in its fifth year, the NEC Showcase 2013 will be held at East London’s Tobacco Dock, seeing NEC partners teaming up once again to demonstrate how their digital signage offerings work in different ecosystems. Visitors will reportedly be able to see more than 100 solutions represented through the two floors of the show across eleven applications zones: DOOH, retail, education, transport, 3D and leisure, 3D cinema, media, healthcare, control rooms, corporate communications and the NEC innovation zone.

London's Tobacco Dock was built in the 19th century as a secure warehousing for tobacco arriving from the New World

London’s Tobacco Dock was built in the 19th century as a secure warehousing for tobacco arriving from the New World



Since its conception, the showcase has focused on providing end users with a tangible example of what it possible in a real-world situation, and an opportunity to talk directly with manufacturers and system integrators in each vertical market.



“The showcase is a unique event; where else can you see more than 50 different AV and IT vendors working together to show complete solutions?” asks Simon Jackson, vice-president at NEC Display Solutions. “We already have 600 people registered to visit.”


NEC itself is using its event as a launchpad for an 80″ (203cm) screen in its entry-level E series, plus the new P series 70″ (178cm) display with NFC and NEC NOC, a remote service network operating centre. Also new this year is a sensor-driven signage offering, the NEC Leaf Engine, co-developed with NEC Laboratories in Heidelberg.


“We’ve added a couple of NEC zones so we can show off our new technology but the really exciting zones are where the collaboration takes place,” enthuses Jackson. “Look out for retail and 3D – they should be fun.”



Ultra or 4K will feature heavily at the showcase, promised as a complete workflow. Content will be filmed live, edited, exported and displayed around the event. This will be shown on 2×2 and 3×3 video walls and a new high-end laser projector. What content? Watch out for the dancing girls!


Welcoming visitors at the entrance hall with a projection-mapped tunnel will be 7th Sense. Using its Delta media server solution it will show fully uncompressed 4K content on the NEC 4K projector. Richard Brown, principal engineer at 7th Sense, comments: “This is our first showcase and it provides us with an opportunity to demo our products as an integrated solution with NEC’s displays. The uncompressed nature of our video servers means that we can show them off at their best.”


Regular exhibitor PSCo will exhibit a videowall using five different screen formats. Driven by a Harris player, the wall will be arranged in a structure designed by Unicol and put together by PSCo’s engineers. It’s not all about what’s flashy, of course: Unicol is supporting NEC Displays throughout the show with its mounting solutions. There will be a number of coloured Axia lectern stands supporting 46″ (117cm) screens and Axia Titan stands built to carry 100″ (254cm) screens on different videowall arrays.


A newcomer at the showcase is Monster Media, whose managing director Liam Boyle is excited by what the event can offer. “Partnering with NEC is the perfect marriage of intelligent technology solutions and practiced content creation. One thing is to have the shiniest-looking kit on the block; another is to provide a valuable experience for the consumer.”



Exhibiting for the fourth time, White Space will be showing its latest version of 3D-Hub at the retail, education and events zones. 3D-Hub is an interactive media player with 3D content. Its features include rotating, exploding, animating, highlighting and labelling media. The 3D-Hub also works with regular 2D displays, which can be viewed in stereo 3D using Anaglyph or ColorCode 3D technology.



Also looking to take advantage of NEC’s outstretched arm to end users, IHSE will have a presence for the first time. IHSE is a manufacturer of advanced KVM and video extenders, which allow the remote location of auxiliary computer consoles at very long distances from device. Its KVM matrix switches enable different computers to be accessed through one or more consoles – all equipment vital to larger installations.


NEC is also giving visitors a voice. Attendees can submit questions upon registration or at the show via touchscreens, which will be displayed on screens across the show, offering food for thought. Running alongside the Showcase will be a conference organised by DailyDOOH, with ten speakers, in morning and afternoon blocks. And when the show’s done, don’t forget to prepare for a well-deserved drink reception after 4pm – which, some say, is when the business really begins.

First published 13 May 2013 – Output

NEC Showcase 2012 at the O2

NEC Display Solutions Europe organized its third Showcase at the O2. Its doors opened at 10am and there was a queue to get in. Last year, the showcase was held at Battersea Power Station. The exhibition space was smaller, brighter, and very hot; but it was also well attended.

NEC has been a partner of the O2 since it re-opened in 2008 and it managed to get a prime position for its showcase. The hall, which was at least 50% bigger than last year’s, was divided in nine zones: DOOH; Education; Professional Office; 3D & Leisure; Innovation; Colour; Healthcare; Transport and Retail – these last two were new zones. The zones were consistent with current vertical markets and all but two, featured digital out of home solutions, demonstrating how widely used this is.

Visitors were able to meet face-to-face with a total of 47 partners. Some of these companies included Intel, U-Touch, Smart, Scala and Onelan; and internal NEC units such the IT solutions division.

Seeing the different technologies integrated in real life situations was ideal to provide NEC partners the chance to show existing and potential clients their latest solutions. Half of the total attendees were end users.

At the show was also VUKUNET, NEC’s automated ad delivery platform and marketplace for DOOH media. VUKUNET was formally launched in Europe this year at ISE 2012 in Amsterdam, and at the NEC showcase it made its UK debut.

Dirk Hülsermann, manager of DOOH Solutions for NEC Display Solutions Europe, did a presentation at The Screen Briefings* conference, which was held also at the O2 at the same time as the NEC showcase. He said: “Until now, there was no way for an advertising agency to communicate with all the different networks – because they speak different electronic languages and also because the market is too fragmented. For the first time, VUKUNET brings together advertising agencies and digital-out-of-home media owners in one single cloud-based solution. Media owners can aggregate their networks into a nationwide buy with VUKUNET. VUKUNET turns any internet connected screen into an advertising face, which can generate incremental revenue for the screen owner.”

VUKUNET’s first UK partnership is with Wonderworks Walkway Media Ltd. The contract will see Walkway Media supply a DOOH, signage, information and advertising network across a target of 30 mall locations in 2012 commencing with the recent installation at several independent sites, including the Criterion shopping malls at Slough, Dalston and Sutton.

New to the show was Wonderworks 3D, also part of the Wonderworks group but separate from Walkway Media, was welcoming visitors by the entrance of the showcase with a ‘Pepper Ghost’ holographic display. Using Mussion’s Eyeliner film screen, and an HD NEC projector, the company has packaged the holographic solution to be used in luxury shop windows and other applications where companies want to wow their clients.

Matrox Graphics, a manufacturer of graphics cards, had its finger in the pie in several zones at the showcase. Its high-performance Mura MPX Series video wall controller boards and M-Series multidisplay graphics cards were featured in a variety of environments as go-to multidisplay solutions.

At PSCo’s corner the Matrox’s Mura was integrated on a four-by-four video wall made up of 16 of NEC Display Solutions’ new X463UN 46-inch, ultra-narrow-bezel displays. The setup stood at 4.5 meters high in portrait mode at the show’s DOOH zone. The Professional Office of the Future zone, featured a two-by-two, Mura-powered video wall leveraging an Exterity codec as well as a player from VisioSign. Matrox was integrated in video conferencing solutions, working with HD VC LifeSize; in transport information displays and others.

Matrox is just a good example of how NEC partners work together across the board to enable great solutions.

Over 850 people, from clients to AV professionals – and some of NEC competitor companies, walked the floor and networked at this year’s NEC Showcase.

*As mentioned before, the Screen Briefings took place simultaneously at the O2’s Cineworld Cinema. There was a morning session presenting: ‘A Digital Journey’ and ‘Digital Engagements’; and in the afternoon there was the VUKUNET presentation and some applied technologies talks touching upon: ‘Augmented Reality’, presented by Grand Visual, ‘The Wolrd According to 3D’ from White Space and Burner Mobile gave an insight on ‘Mobile Interaction.’

 

First published on Output magazine

 

Tools for schools

AV Magazine, education case study - Tools for schools

AV Magazine, education case study – Tools for schools

The use of a-v in the education market is becoming a must-have feature. There are both opportunities and rewards to be had by providing teachers with new tools so that their students can find lessons more engaging. Geny Caloisi reports on a range of different projects.

Follow this link to see the PDF: Tools for schools Dec08

A space to grow and learn a trade

AV Magazine, training case study - A space to grow and learn a trade

AV Magazine, training case study – A space to grow and learn a trade

When an outreach programme providing multimedia for young people in deprived areas launched its latest campaign, it equipped a mobile studio with the latest a-v. Geny Caloisi climbed on board.

RollingSound is an education and training project aimed at less advantaged youngsters who may have not had the chance to express their creative potential. With a specially converted bus as its mobile base, a new outreach scheme was launched in central London at the start of November, offering users the chance to experience a wide spectrum of audio and video technologies and produce original pieces of work. The bus was unveiled in Lewisham at a family-friendly ‘urban’ themed event that showcased the available courses: 3D animation, video game design, photography, film editing and web design.

Follow this link to see the PDF: A space to grow and learn a trade Dec08

At the feet of Eros

AV Magazine, applications - At the feet of Eros

AV Magazine, applications – At the feet of Eros

Attractive, intelligent, well connected, clear to the point and beautiful. No, that’s not the description of your next date, although if you follow Amora’s advice it might be. Amora is a new permanent exhibition at London’s Trocadero shopping centre, just a few minutes from piccadilly’s Eros.

London’s latest a-v based visitor attraction is particularly sexy. Geny Caloisi reports.

Follow this link to see the PDF: At the feet of Eros july07