Article

InfoComm14: Observations through a digital signage lens

A dynamic digital signage expert analyst looks at the country's largest pro A/V show from a digital signage perspective.

June 23, 2014

By Lyle Bunn

BUNN Co.

InfoComm is all about the selection and deployment of media — and the June 14-20, 2014, annual conference was inspiring. More than 37,000 delegates from 114 countries attended; 5,700 education seats were filled; and 947 exhibits presented a wide range of innovations.

Early in the week, the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration reported on its study of roadside dynamic display safety, declaring that Commercial Electronic Variable Message Signs do not impact driver safety.

"Is this a new descriptor?" I wondered. Surely not for wide use, but it did point to an ongoing concern about what to name the media. “Digital Signage” seems dated; “Screenmedia,” though increasingly used, is commonly too broad a descriptor; and terms such as “Dynamic Place-based," “Enterprise Media” and others are applied. As the media applications broaden, we can assume that a wider range of names for this media application will emerge and be used.

“Who are those people?” I asked myself while touring the digital signage area of the show floor, as there were many new exhibitors.

For Your Consideration:The digital signage supply base continues to grow with providers of technology elements as well as supply partnerships and consortium. Numerous new patents have been filed and granted over the past few months including iSign for its ecosystem linking place-based display and mobile devices for commerce; impulseGuide for content management approaches and multi-choice/trivia authoring; vertiGo Digital Displays for outdoor display/kiosk; and Digital Factory for convection cooling. The fact that most of these suppliers did not exhibit, and nor did many of the larger digital signage providers such as Scala and Stratacache among others, suggests that these providers are moving forward with day-to-day relationships and projects without the need for trade show floor exhibit presence.

Further, it would appear that the majority of AV/IT Integrators that will add digital signage to their portfolio have already done so. As they have selected core products and continuously scan for new and better products as needed, one could believe it is less important to await the InfoComm show floor while attending Digital Signage Expo or distributor events to gain the greatest benefit in supplier connection.

But, many of the top 25 AV/IT Integrators do not yet have a corporate-wide offering as many branches depend upon their search/learn/apply approaches. These firms are encouraged to get their offerings to the next level if they wish to enjoy supply to larger deployments or be part of taking existing networks to the next level of value.

Digital signage education sessions delivered some of the best value that I've seen to date. Most went far beyond the “101” level, as delegates were typically in the situation where they had already deployed and were looking to move the value and benefit from their installations to new levels.

For Your Consideration:Place-based message display and engagement media has been embraced by organizations in virtually every sector and use for patron, shopper, traveler, staff and students communications. The medium has proven its merits, and end-users, as well as suppliers, are realizing that objectives, processes and the technology that served them at the initial levels of operation typically require refinement and change if improved economies of scale are to be realized.

Some other insights offered during InfoComm14 related to digital signage include:

• Statistics about the digital signage sector that would describe its proliferation or growth are not easy to come by. NPD DisplaySearch analysis based on the flat panel supply chain do not consider display size of less than 26 inches, which discounts the deployment of service counter, shelf level, elevator or other smaller form factor displays. Intelligence on the installed base of DS, the number of users, total sector employment, etc. can only be achieved by extrapolating or calculating based on the available data.
   
• Typical display size for deployment is increasing and is now generally 52 inches or greater based on the price performance. The narrowing of display bezels is enabling more visually effective video wall use.
   
• 4K displays do present stunning imagery when the content and the media fueling approach support 4K resolution. The uptake of 4K in digital signage is expected to be slow as these elements develop further with the most immediate term applications being fashion display, museum and attraction exhibit.
   
• Laser-based projection, with its 20,000-hour lamp life (versus about 600 hours on projectors currently), offers significant potential for large space dynamic media projection, which has so far been cost prohibitive due to mounting and maintenance needs.
   
• Content drives business value. Never has this been so broadly understood and taken as a “given” in a large conference setting.

Lyle Bunn is an independent analyst, advisor and educator in North America’s Digital Signage – Place-based Media sector. He has assisted over 300 enterprises and helped to train over 10,000 professionals to benefit from the media. He has published over 280 articles and whitepapers and was named among 2013's 11 Most Influential People in the industry by DigitalSignageToday.com. He can be reached at Lyle@LyleBunn.com.