Posts Tagged ‘Signage’

ViewSonic(R) Delivers One-Stop Solution Portfolio at Digital Signage Expo

ViewSonic(R) Delivers One-Stop Solution Portfolio at Digital Signage Expo
LAS VEGAS, NV–(Marketwire – 02/23/10) – 2010 Digital Signage Expo, booth 2031 — ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual display, computing and digital content solutions, today at Digital Signage Expo (DSE) 2010 announced eight digital signage products, further expanding the company’s leading digital signage portfolio. “We make great efforts to ensure ViewSonic’s signage solutions …

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Digital Signage: Digital Advertising Networks Emerge as Valuable Addition to Media Mix

Since beginning this column last fall, I’ve attempted to point to trends, analysis and reports that gauge the development of digital signage and identify the strengths and opportunities for this emerging medium.

I’m not alone on this mission. An excellent white paper from Profitable Channels makes a strong case for digital signage networks as an effective advertising medium with the ability to compensate for deficiencies in television advertising manifested in increasingly fragmented audiences, digital video recording and its accompanying commercial “zapping,” and the lack of certainty in measuring audience metrics.

The white paper presents highlights of a larger in-depth report entitled “Adding Out-of-Home Digital Advertising Networks to the Marketing and Media Mix” by Profitable Channels partner Stephen Diorio.

The white paper makes a strong case that marketers should take digital advertising seriously. It’s in the best interest of their companies, the white paper contends, to “make sure their agency partners are considering” digital advertising networks “as part of the marketing/media mix.” Additionally, it recommends marketers should be setting aside a portion of their marketing budgets for this emerging new medium.

According to the white paper, emerging digital advertising networks offer five advantages over traditional media offerings, including:

• measurable sales impact

• proximity to the sale

• better ways to target media

• greater relevance to the product being sold

• tighter integration with local selling efforts

Many marketers have begun to recognize those benefits. The white paper points out that as of August 2006, 37 of the 50 largest supermarket chains “are rolling out, piloting or planning” for in-store digital signage networks and that more than 4,000 “big-box retail stores” display in-store video advertising. Further evidence supporting that marketers see the value of digital ad networks comes in the form of budget allocation.

Referencing research from Veronis Suhler Stevenson, Carat Media and others, the document asserts that by 2011 “up to $40 billion of traditional media spending” will be shifted into new media. Obviously, a large portion of this will be devoted to Internet advertising and other new media, but digital advertising networks stand to benefit as well.

“This reallocation of media spending reflects a shift in consumer “attention” away from traditional newspaper and broadcast media to the Internet and new digital media, including cell phones, video games, podcasting, and out-of-home digital advertising networks,” the white paper says.

It is important to note that the report lumps “cinema” into the overall digital media networks category without distinguishing between commercials and still ads projected on-screen by digital projectors and digital signage in and around motion picture theaters to promote films. Equally important to understand is that the former is likely to be significantly larger than the latter at this point. Regardless, the white paper identifies the overall strength of digital advertising networks, of which digital signage is an important part, and the likelihood that they will only continue to grow.

Perhaps best of all, the white paper identifies five separate research organizations that have found consumers like digital advertising networks. All show these networks have “value to, acceptance by and positive response from consumers.”

If you only have time to read one report this summer, spend it reading “Adding Out-of-Home Digital Advertising Networks to the Marketing and Media Mix” by Stephen Diorio.

C-nario Demonstrates New Digital Signage On Industry Standard Platform At NRF

C-nario Demonstrates New Digital Signage On Industry Standard Platform At NRF
C-nario, a global provider of digital signage software solutions, recently announced its support for the Intel® Core™ i7 Processor and the Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 2011 platform, by basing a new digital signage solution on these innovative processor and platform. C-nario demonstrates its support at Intel’s booth (# 1361) at the 2010 National Retail Federation’s (NRF) 99th Annual …

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Digital Signage: Don’t Forget About Projectors

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of digital signage? If it’s a flat panel LCD or plasma display hanging in some public place like a retail store, corporate lobby or museum, you wouldn’t be alone. For most indoor digital signage networks, these two display technologies dominate the landscape.

However, they aren’t the only solution, and in some cases they might not even be the best or most affordable solution. Equally appropriate in some circumstances are projected images played back from the same sort of media server as those used to drive LCD and plasma panels.

Video projectors offer some advantages over flat panel displays. For instance, in terms of price per square inch of display, LCD and plasma panels can’t compete. In other words, projectors, which can produce much bigger images than LCDs and plasmas, can be significantly less expensive than the largest flat panels per square inch of displayed image.

Additionally, projectors can create images in unexpected places or ways that are sure to grab the attention of those nearby. For example, some projectors can be used to project onto fog to create an ethereal look that just can’t be recreated with flat panels.

Traditionally, projectors haven’t been used widely in digital signage applications for at least a couple of important reasons. First, there’s the problem with high ambient light. In full daylight conditions, the relatively dim projected light withers, creating a washed- out look at best, and at worst a completely unviewable picture. That’s why you’re far more likely to find them being used in settings where there’s a high degree of control over ambient light, such as in museums.

Another traditional objection to using projectors for digital signage is the relatively narrow range from which they can work to create plumb and square images. In a retail setting, where a store owner doesn’t want the public accidentally coming into contact with the projector, working in that useable projection range can often be nearly impossible. That’s not to say that projectors aren’t built with circuitry to correct keystoned images, but rather that the only placement option in a retail setting may be well out of the area where keystone correction will work.

Fortunately for those who wish to consider projection as a realistic alternative to flat panel displays, the traditional limitations of projectors –high ambient light and projector placement limitations- are vanishing.

Making practical their use in high ambient light environments is a whole new generation of projection screen technology that intelligently accepts the projected light for reflection to the eyes of viewers but rejects ambient light reflection. So successful is this technology that demonstrations of the new screens have been done in the atriums of large retail centers with light streaming in from glass ceilings and at hotel hospitality suites during trade shows where the curtains are thrown wide open during the day.

Correcting for extreme geometric distortions is now possible and affordable thanks to new computer software applications that can be used to determine the severity of distortion and automatically correct the geometry This is no small feat, given where projectors in retail stores must be placed to remain safe from the public. Still, such geometric distortion engines can make the necessary compensation, and in some cases give their users such a high degree of control that images can actually be wrapped around cylinders or onto globes.

Will video projectors replace LCD and plasma panels as the dominant display technology in digital signage networks? Probably not. That said, given the rapid advancements in technology needed to overcome their limitations for digital signage networks, it is a smart idea for anyone planning a digital signage network to consider how projectors might make sense.