Hyper definition: 4K screens in DOOH

December 2, 2013 by

Display products such as PsCo’s hyperwall have put digital signage companies at the fore of 4K development

4K is undoubtedly expanding. Video production houses welcome the format and, even if they often have to use down-converters from 4K to HD, the image quality is still better than what can be captured via HD. Most video camera manufacturers have already launched 4K cameras and creative advertising agencies are adopting it in an attempt to future-proof their work.

Sony’s latest professional monitors, the PVM-A250, 25″ (60cm) and PVM-A170, 17″ (43cm), have been designed to be 4K ready. Using organic LED (OLED), these lightweight, slim screens have high colour accuracy, contrast and picture quality.

“Higher resolution content creation – 4K and beyond – requires monitors with larger screen sizes for accurate colour evaluation on site,” says Daniel Dubreuil, senior product marketing manager for professional monitors at Sony Europe. “Yet bigger monitors are harder to carry and take up more space. These new models have the screen size needed for critical evaluation, with a thinner and lighter design that’s perfect for live broadcast and outdoor shooting. They even have a handle for easy carrying.”

Danish broadcast production start-up Nimb TV has recently unveiled Denmark’s smallest Ultra HD Outside Broadcast van. The unit is built around a number of Blackmagic Design’s raft of Ultra HD products, which includes the ATEM Production Studio 4K and Blackmagic Audio Monitor. Housed in a three-wheeler moped van, it can be positioned at the heart of any live production, not simply feature films. But it is not necessarily the broadcast market that is paving the way forward in 4K.

“The AV and digital signage markets are leading on Ultra HD, 4K adoption,” believes Patrick Hussey, senior communications manager for EMEA at Blackmagic. “Meanwhile, the broadcast industry is, for once, playing catch up.”

Stuart Holmes, chief executive at AV distributor PsCo, corroborates this: “In the professional AV world, 4K or Ultra HD is nothing new; it made huge waves at CES and is now one of the latest buzzwords in the consumer market. Consumer expectations of image quality are through the roof as they compare the fine detail they get on their tablets, smartphones and home TV sets to displays they come across daily in the out-of-home world.

“As experts in videowalls, targeting vertical markets such as broadcast, public sector, retail, rental and corporate, we understand 4K and, from a multi-display angle, we have been delivering videowalls with higher than 4K resolutions for a long time. Our focus has always been more on delivering according to the required display size, shape and pixel by pixel performance required for a specific environment.”

In the AV manufacturing sector, the projector industry leads the way on 4K, particularly for 3D applications. Some manufacturers are already claiming they use 8K, although most of the time that means two 4K projectors, which gives better definition, but not at 8K standard. 

In the residential market there are 55″ (140cm) 4K screens available for under £4,000, but in the professional market this quality of screen is not so widespread. Many LED manufacturers say that their HD screens are 4K ready, they just need the content to match. That said, there are plenty of HD DOOH screens already on the streets and, if the image is already fit for purpose, then why change them?

French creative company MovingDesign, which designed the amazing 4Temps mall in Paris, says that its clients are not worried about definition as long as it looks good, while Monster Media has made similar noises concerning 4K. However, BrightSign’s XD line software and firmware upgrade to support and upscale into 4K would indicate that the format is coming to DOOH. The company’s BrightAuthor 3.7 software and its companion 4.7 firmware XD can upscale 1080p video content to 4K and offers enhanced IP streaming and some very useful HTML5 support features. 4K-display manufacturer Seiki Digital recently demonstrated the impact of BrightSign’s XD video engine, paired with the new software features, at the IFA trade show in Berlin.

4K is a technology that is relevant to large videowall displays, rather than close-up screens. For screens that are used for interaction or large displays, such as roadside billboards, 4K is irrelevant. In cases where flat-panel displays are used to create large videowalls, the better the definition, the more eye-catching and effective the signage will be, so expect to see more 4K making its way into the DOOH market.

First published 2 December 2013 – Output

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The debutant steps out: European Sign Expo preview

June 24, 2013 by

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

 

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Watching and waiting: European Sign Expo

April 25, 2013 by

European Sign Expo will co-locate with FESPA 2013 at London's Excel – but who is actually exhibiting?

European Sign Expo will co-locate with FESPA 2013 at London’s Excel – but who is actually exhibiting?

European Sign Expo will co-locate with FESPA 2013 at London’s Excel – but who is actually exhibiting?

European Sign Expo (ESE), organised by FESPA and the European Sign Federation (ESF), will open its doors in two months. But who will be on the show floor?

For those outside the print market, FESPA is a global federation of wide-format print associations with events running world-wide. In November last year it teamed up with ESF to launch ESE. FESPA acquired Screenmedia Expo (SME) at the end of January, adding digital signage to its new mixture of print and signage systems. Resultantly, it will now form part of the main FESPA/ESE colocation at Excel on June 25th to 27th, expecting to welcome 23,000 visitors; the majority will be print-related but 28 percent of those pre-registered have expressed interest in the new zone.

Neil Felton, managing director of exhibitions and events at FESPA, says the show will demonstrate the full spectrum of print and non-print display technologies, giving exhibitors the chance to reach a new key audience not addressed by other events. He also emphasises FESPA’s role as a not-for-profit and, therefore, an educational entity. This sounds like a promising proposition – so what support has there been from the digital signage side?

BroadSign has been confirmed as platinum sponsor for the event, and Felton says more than 20 digital signage companies have already signed up, with some 15 more in the pipeline. However, this is not yet apparent when looking at the floor plan: only BrightSign and Barco add to the list of heavyweights. A further dozen offers everything from embedded computers to digital scoreboards – products which may appeal at the lower end, but none is a major name.

For Brant Eckett, director of marketing EMEA at Christie, there is one concern that overrides all others. “In these cost-sensitive times, tradeshows need to deliver not only brand promotion and opportunities to educate the market – they need to deliver new business,” he emphasises.

Steve Robinson, product manager for Onelan, notes that the digital signage market is changing rapidly. “Once the hardware and services are fully commoditised, I strongly feel that digital signage will simply become part of the wider digital marketing landscape,” he warns. “If the ESE and FESPA can fulfil their goal of bringing ‘marketers, advertisers, brand owners, buyers and specifiers of advertising’ together, then this will be great for Onelan and the industry as a whole.”

Denys Lavigne of Arsenal Media is also cautious, but for a different reason. Arsenal Media was an exhibitor at SME but works broadly across the visual communications spectrum, and is a company indicative of the target audience FESPA and ESE both would like to attract. “I haven’t seen any event where print and digital have truly been successful together as an integrated solution context,” he says. “I think it hurts the digital side to be too closely associated with print because of the culture shock and different market interests.”

For two years in a row DOOH taxi-top creator Eyetease exhibited at SME, but its chief executive, Richard Corbett, doesn’t believe that a marriage with print is the way forward. “DOOH is a powerful medium and holds a key position in the consumer’s daily journey,” he states. “We should encourage the association of DOOH exhibitions with online and mobile – rather than with print.”

Jason Cremins, chief executive of signagelive, was one vendor ‘disappointed’ with last year’s SME; he says his company will wait to see how the new show performs. Others, however, are more positive about the combination – including NEC’s Northern Europe vice-president Simon Jackson, despite his company not intending to be present. “The purchase of SME makes some sense for FESPA, as the print world is rapidly being absorbed by digital media,” he says. “It will be interesting to see how many of the brands on board [with SME] migrate to the FESPA show.”

These observations from key stakeholders are ones that FESPA may very well answer. However, it has two other challenges. The NEC Showcase, now in its fifth year, lists 44 sector-relevant ‘solutions partners’ as exhibitors. Marketing Week Live, which runs at the same time as ESE, has added a new out-of-home section and appears to be more in keeping with the type of interplay the digital signage sector is looking for.

Digital signage vendors are looking for a real business proposition, and ESE must meet this in order to succeed. So far, the event hasn’t projected a clear enough profile or thorough understanding of the market to convince the major
screen, media player and software manufacturers onto the show floor.

First published 25 April 2013 – Output

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Driving force: top-end media player options

March 18, 2013 by

Is the future of media players in HTML5 or NUC, or will technology remove the need for media players altogether?

Is the future of media players in HTML5 or NUC, or will technology remove the need for media players altogether?

Media players are media-processing modules that play digital content onto digital signage screens. But with hundreds of options available in the market, finding which one is the most appropriate can be a bit daunting. We spoke with experts in the industry to see what they think and asked them what they consider to be the top-end options.

Kevin Goldsmith, director of Digital Media Operations at USA-based Ping HD defines it: “A top-end media player will have more memory, a faster CPU and sometimes a dedicated, discreet graphics card. As performance increases so do the capabilities in terms of multiple video zones and the smoothness of animated and scrolling ticker playback.”

“For Intevi, there is no such thing as a top-end player, it depends more on the application and project requirements and finding hardware that fits,” says Adam Wilson, director at Intevi. “From knowing the project requirements we will then source, or build, a player that has the right operating system, size, heat output, power consumption and number of outputs. We also ensure the hardware is fully tested and support by the software package it will be operating. We use a range of different players for different projects. Spinetix manufactures some great products and we have recently been building our own Scala media players based on the Intel NUC (Next Unit of Computing) bare bone, very powerful and cost effective.”

Spinetix’s HMP200 is a non-PC based media player with no moving parts and no need for maintenance. It can display a full HD video combined with multiple live news feeds and animations. The HMP200 comes bundled with the embedded Fusion software, a multi-lingual browser-based content manager that provides instant results, out of the box.

The Intel NUC is a 4 x 4″ (10 x 10cm) box with a third generation Intel Core i3 processor. At ISE 2013, Ingram Micro was also very enthusiastic about this mighty player. The NUC DC3217BY can be daisy-chained with Thunderbolt technology connecting several displays and the DC3217IYE can drive two digital displays at once with dual HDMI.

Inurface Media director Josh Bunce says: “One of the top-end options we sell is the Advantech ARK-DS762. Powered by the latest Intel i7 processor it can handle HD content on three independent displays thanks to its three HDMI outputs. This is more cost effective than using three separate media players and easier to configure. This is typically used with digital menuboards, and when you are looking at stretching content over several screens.”

An alternative for installations that require sophisticated video capabilities is BrightSign’s recently launched XD media players. Its advanced video decoding engine delivers up to two 1080p60 signals simultaneously, supports 3D content and is capable of displaying live HDTV content using an ATSCor Clear QAM tuner or HDMI input. All of the new XD models support HTML5 for easier content creation. BrightSign’s usual touch-screen interactivity has been enhanced on the XD players with the addition of swipe and gesture control.

AV distributor Steljes uses MediaTile’s Media Player, a cloud-based display-independent solution that integrates everything you need to run a digital signage network, allowing interactivity, HD and SD content and standard audio.

Steljes’s head of product management, Sam Baker, gives as an example a digital signage installation that Steljes carried out at Oldham Council. The council wanted to have an innovative modern approach to communicating with its residents, so the company advised on MediaTile’s cloud-based digital signage solution which uses a combination of mobile phone 3G connectivity and a web-based software offering.

“A key benefit of the MediaTile solution is its flexibility – the type of messages delivered by Oldham Council vary widely from day-to-day information about core services to more specific and localised communications, such as charity fundraising events,” explains Baker.

Goldsmith comments, “We consider a media player based on the expected content the customers think they will want to playback. When we get involved with multiple screen arrays or interactive content we spec higher performance media players that can cope with this type of content. Key is making sure we provide a media player that meets today’s objective, but also has the flexibility of what might be required in the future.”

So what next? Baker likes the options that MOOH (mobile out-of-home) offers; Goldsmith is excited about a new wave of HTML5 based media players that are standalone boxes or integrated within some of the newer LED monitors; Williams is looking out for signage on a chip. But then, some say no media player is the future.

First published 18 March 2013 – Output

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Facilitate and innovate: driving acquisitions and partnerships in digital signage

February 22, 2013 by

Mergers and acquisitions can be powerful for growth in a young market, but must address market demand first and foremost (© Fotolia / alphaspirit)

Mergers and acquisitions can be powerful for growth in a young market, but must address market demand first and foremost (© Fotolia / alphaspirit)

Companies have two ways to grow: organically, where they expand into new markets, launch new products and take on more people; or inorganically, through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The latter can bring expertise and market share without having to re-invent the wheel.

Whether the software or hardware involved is intended for transit, retail, internal communications or out-of-home, the key to M&A in this young industry is to create easier ways to implement a digital signage solution. With so many options on the market, interoperability and ease of use are driving both innovation and acquisition in order to appeal to new markets and applications.

This is a driver behind many recent investments and moves. In mid-December last year, USA-based SCG Financial Acquisition Corporation (SCG), which is in the process of merging with RMG Networks, unveiled a letter of intent to acquire digital signage and communications company Symon Communications.

HH Global is a world-wide marketing company working in a variety of markets to deliver cross-channel communications strategies. Digital media development director Chris Heap considers this acquisition: “SCG/RMG/Symon could make real sense. Companies that embed others to improve their overall offering may make good business sense if it makes it easier for the client to buy – on the basis that the relationship makes sense in the first place.”

But Heap sees some other alliances are more confusing – including that announced by Samsung, signagelive and Scala at ISE. “For instance, when you are working on a project, who recommends which platform makes sense for an end user – Samsung? And do allies compete with each other within Samsung’s ecosystem?”

Every merger, acquisition or alliance needs three questions answered, according to Heap. Is the combination helpful? Will it add value? Will it drive down the cost for end users?

”The issue is that most companies don’t really have a clear vision regarding where they’re going and what the customer wants,” he argues. “Partnerships and acquisitions are somewhat confused and predicated on existing tech, not on the new services they can create once brought together. My personal view is that the market needs to become much more service-orientated than product driven and I didn’t see a great deal of services being offered at ISE – just more product, albeit, arguably, slightly advanced over last year’s offering.”

An example of this focus on services was in last year’s acquisition of LCD display manufacturer Hantarex by Global Display Solutions (GDS) from Sambers. GDS stated that this deal would give its customers the benefits of international competitiveness, but with the responsiveness and flexibility of a local contact point.

In spring 2012 we also saw these principles exemplified in the joining of Israeli companies YCD Multimedia and C-nario. YCD’s Retail Advertising and Merchandising Platform (RAMP) was paired with C-nario Messenger digital signage software to provide a multi-display playback engine with a user-friendly graphical interface – a web-based solution that has been developed for marketing professionals. Digital signage specialist and ThinkAndMake founder Giuseppe Andrianò comments: “Incorporating the market knowledge of C-nario with the power of YCD (especially using the RAMP solution) offers a very new and innovative approach and solution to the market.”

YCD built on this approach at ISE 2013, announcing with BrightSign an integrated digital merchandising solution, combining the latter’s media players with RAMP. The move furthers the merged YCD vision: to provide easy and cost-effective digital signage solutions based on application-specific demand.

Microsoft’s interaction in this sector has seen it adopt both approaches. During his Reddit AmA (Ask Me Anything) session, Bill Gates used an 80″ (203cm) Perceptive Pixel (PP) touchscreen to show off the native touch capabilities of Windows 8. Microsoft bought large-scale, multi-touch hardware and software developer PP last summer, hoping to unlock new collaboration and productivity opportunities. However, it is Samsung that currently manufactures the behemoth’s multi-touch table Surface, now known as PixelSense.

It’s not just manufacturers that acquire: diverse media and store experience company Mood Media has been at it, too. Recently it brought acquisitions BIS Group, Technomedia Solutions, GoConvergence, multi-sensory outfit DMX and the eponymous Muzak under a singular brand, Mood. This demonstrates that economy of scale is up to each company to identify and assess, and mergers and acquisitions are a process, not just an event. However, they must always bear the end user in mind if they are to create a successful rationalisation of the portfolio – and we are likely to see more of the same in this sector.

First published 22 February 2013 – Output

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NRHA invites industry to Rethink Retail

May 3, 2012 by

 

BrightSign's digital signage has been used in retail environments including FNAC stores in France

BrightSign’s digital signage has been used in retail environments including FNAC stores in France

This week, the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) is holding its Rethink Retail Conference in Las Vegas, addressing two hot topics: digital technology for retail, and loyalty marketing. The focus on technology is not surprising, in particular since the association’s recent studies show real increases on sales when digital signage is used in shops.

The NRHA has published the results of research that compared sales of specific products in stores that used digital signage for promotion against stores that did not. For the research, the NRHA teamed with BrightSign customer Aubuchon Hardware, a large hardware retail chain with 130 stores in the USA. The results of the NRHA test confirm that product sales increased when interactive digital signage is used.

Aubuchon Hardware branches saw unit sales rise by 23 percent for interior paint, 45 percent for smoke detectors and a remarkable 178 percent for air filters in stores with BrightSign-powered digital signage promoting specials on those products, compared to Aubuchon stores without digital signage.



“The information we’ve received shows every hardware retail location using our BrightSign players reported significant sales lift,” said Jeff Hastings, BrightSign chief executive. “The hardware store trials clearly support the fact that highly visible product information with moving graphics and streaming content creates a measurable ROI for store management. When you see such a substantial increase in sales of paint and air filters, certainly not what you would consider impulse buys, the impact of digital signage over printed signs becomes obvious,” he emphasised.

For the test, Aubuchon placed Endcap digital signage displays powered by BrightSign players in six stores and ran interactive presentations produced by the NRHA for one month. The sales results were then compared to six other stores in the chain that historically had similar sales for the products tested.

Intel Digital Signage Endcap Concept is based on second generation Intel Core processor technology, and uses the Intel AIM Suite built specifically for anonymous audience measurement. Endcap works two ways: not only does it provide retailers with valuable information about its customers, but it also allows them to send offers, recommendations and promotions to smartphones, PCs and other devices.

BrightSign is making waves in the market. In April it launched smaller, lower cost HD solid-state digital signage controllers. The new HD line comes in three flavours: BrightSign HD120 – a basic interactive model; BrightSign HD220 – networked looping model; and BrightSign HD1020 – a networked interactive model. The company will be exhibiting at Screenmedia Expo in Earls Court, London on May 16th and 17th.

Back in January, BrightSign and signagelive announced their collaboration. Jason Cremins, chief executive of signagelive explains: “We selected BrightSign players for their proven reliability, advanced features. BrightSign range of networked devices can be integrated with signagelive to provide a solution that rivals the technical capabilities and stability of more expensive PC-based solutions.” Screenmedia Expo visitors can also see how BrightSign works with cloud-based digital signage solutions from signagelive on the latter’s stand.

First published 3 May 2012 – Output


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