Article
A/V integrators represent surging group in digital signage industry
Installing digital signage networks puts traditional integrators to the test - and they welcome the challenge.
October 28, 2008
Digital signage is proving to be a growth segment for audio-visual (A/V) integrators, even in the current economic times, as corporate offices, schools, public spaces and the likes continue to recognize the technology's value proposition.
"It's the exception these days and not the norm that a project goes out without digital signage," says Jim Huber, director of sales and business development at NOR-COM, a national systems integration firm.
Some integrators are entering the industry as demand for their business in traditional A/V services and products are declining. For others, it is merely the grown-up version of what they have been providing to their clients all along, be it a lobby screen to welcome guests or video walls in operations centers.
As hub-of-the-wheel, integrators are taking on an increasing influential role in digital signage deployments, as they help their clients navigate the hundreds of available products and solutions.
For NOR-COM, the majority of its digital signage business comes from existing customers and their referrals, with the largest percentage in corporate, followed by healthcare, then government.
"It's mostly word of mouth," says Huber, "we really don't advertise." Clients initiate the conversation 70 percent of the time although the sales team is directed to ask about digital signage if it makes sense.
Strategy Institute will feature Huber and others in a panel entitled "Building Relationships with Integrators and Winning New Business" as part of its 4th annual Building Your Digital Signage Business Summit, Nov. 19-20 in Chicago. Click for more info.
Another vertical A/V integrators are traditionally involved in is higher education, which along with corporate, makes up the main client base for PA-based Advanced AV. According to Kris Vollrath, general manager of the company's Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) division, half of the leads come from such established clients. His roster includes Johnson & Johnson, the healthcare products and pharmaceutical giant and SCA, a producer of disposable paper products.
The ATG division, which oversees digital signage, video over IP and rich media has also increased its presence in retail integration, mostly via c-store and banking projects. Such leads are typically generated by Vollrath's team or provided by manufacturers. Other common verticals include manufacturing, spiritual and hospitality.
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No easy task
While digital signage can be a natural extension and create new revenue streams for A/V integration firms, the complexity of putting it all together and doing it well is no easy task.
"Digital signage is one of the last few bastions for a true integrator to prove his worth," said Mike White, a 20-year veteran of the A/V industry and governor-at-large of the InfoComm board of directors.
Everything else has become commodity oriented given the availability of screens, projectors and AV parts that can be purchased from retailers, says White, who is also president of Multi-Media Solutions.
In addition, compared to a traditional boardroom project, an A/V integrator can have 10 times the variables to deal with in a digital signage project. This is partly due to additional content and network connectivity elements for consideration, on top of the equipment, software and hardware.
For example, a software package deployed for multi-retail locations without throttling — the ability to recognize the busy-ness of the network — can cause the store network to collapse every time new content is pushed through. As a result, the credit card processing doesn't go through. This is not typically on the radar of traditional A/V pros.
While client knowledge of digital signage is increasing, it remains they often "don't know what they don't know." An experienced integrator can thus save the customer nightmares related to unexpected costs, delays and headaches.
"I will keep them out of the ditch," says White, whose digital signage portfolio includes The Carolina Basketball Museum and the USGA Golf Museum.
While an end-user may consider taking on a digital signage project by itself, it often makes more sense to work with an integrator given the level of complexity.
"It's a separate expertise than a typical corporate IT shop," said Jeff McDowell, global internal communications and health care external relations at Procter & Gamble, whose team had started some pieces of its digital signage project in-house back in 2006.
Eventually McDowell sourced the technical expertise and content management capacity from NOR-COM, the preferred vendor for A/V integration for its various facilities. The two organizations continue to enjoy a close partnership and recently rolled out the second-generation signage.
Similarly, Bryant University (RI), an early adopter of digital signage back in 2002, also found value in working with an integrator to evaluate, pilot and install its system. HB Communications not only brought the expertise, it also connected the project lead with Suffolks Law School and Stonehill College who had already implemented digital signage.
"It was very helpful for us," says Phil Lombardi, director of Academic Computing and Media Services. "We spoke to them. We visited at least one of the schools to see how the signage system was being utilized."
Given the products and solutions available on the market, getting a handle on them requires considerable investment of time and experience.
White has a spreadsheet of 200 available digital signage packages. Huber has at least 70 for each of the software and hardware categories. It has also been suggested that from a broad swipe of the brush, there are 800 packages that call themselves digital signage.
"A true integrator in digital signage is completely product agnostic, across the board," says Vollrath, who stresses stability of product is key and will not allow "line card" salesmanship for digital signage. He sets up R&D like environments to run through all products before installation to ensure they work the way they are suppose to.
Huber is similarly hands-on and asks for 30-days when manufacturers send products his way. "I'm very upfront with them. I'm going to try and break it. That's what I tell them…and if I can break it, I'm going to send it back."
It is expected that more pro A/V integrators will start to or continue to offer digital signage solutions to their clients. However, to truly stand out from the pack, new skills sets, knowledge and experience are needed.
"There are stripes on the back of a digital signage integrator that cannot be acquired by reading a book," White said.
Christie Liu is a conference producer at Strategy Institute, host of the 4th Annual Building Your Digital Signage Business Summit on November 19th and 20th in Chicago.
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