Article
London's Screen Media Expo in review
The U.K.'s largest digital signage show highlights the latest in video wall technology.
April 11, 2009
LONDON — Samsung and Sony, the largest companies represented at Screen Media Expo, also featured video walls at their booths that turned out to be the highlights of the show.
Samsung showed a video wall made up of the company's recently announced UT screens. UT stands for ultra-thin, as the screens' bezels are only 7.3mm screen to screen. The result is what Samsung is calling a "near seamless" video wall.
PHOTO GALLERY: Screen Media Expo 2009
The video wall is built on the Samsung ID, a hardware device that allows walls to be built by stacking and locking the screens on top of each other. With the ID, users can build video walls in a matter of minutes, not hours. The system also allows video walls to be angled concave or convex, or placed in three- or four-sided totems. Content is run by Samsung's MagicInfo Pro digital signage software.
Sony featured a video wall in a non-conventional shape — a nine screen "football" arrangement that was concave. All screens were running content powered by Sony's Ziris Canvas digital signage software. Most interestingly, the players used to power the screens were based on hardware from the PlayStation 3 gaming console. The players, which feature firmware from the console, also have very similar casing.
Here are some other highlights from Screen Media Expo from both U.K.- and international-based companies:
Conracis a display manufacturer that buys panels from some of the top providers, and then customizes them to their customers' specifications. The company featured a lineup of displays designed for outdoor use. All sported a cooling feature to lower the temperature in the screen enclosure and laminated safety glass. Furthermore, a special sealing method avoids dust accumulation in the display.
The Digital Signage Expert Tour |
Minicom hosted the Digital Signage Expert tour that left several times throughout the show, designed to give attendees a look at the top manufacturers providing all pieces of the digital signage puzzle. We caught up with Bjorn Christiansen from Minicom Europe, host of the tour, to find out what attendees thought were the highlights. - Directional sound from Panphonics. Sound was being directed up and down the aisles as if to guide people into the booth, but was not obtrusive to other exhibitors. - Audience measurement from Quividi – signagelive powered Quividi's audience measurement system to target ads to male and female shoppers. The system could determine the viewers' gender, and then would show either a cologne or perfume ad. - Data gathering from Omnivex. Using a cell phone tethered merchandising display, Omnivex was able to use its digital signage software to not only power content based on which phone the customer picked up, but gather data about each interaction for use by the retailer. - Automatic content updates from Scala. Attendees were impressed at the control that Scala software gave users to instantly change prices on digital menu boards based on sales of certain products. Scala used a cinema menu board application to demonstrate.  |
Displaxspecialized in the customer experience, showing a transparent touchscreen film for use in store windows and a gesture-based all-in-one projector package called the MoovIt. The company has installed interactive touch technology at the Optimus concept store in Portugal and Ikea shopping centers across Europe.
Dynamaxrepresentatives said that the company is going to continue to build on its Web-based digital signage software with a version 4 release at the end of June.
Dynamax also announced that it is going to release videos from a digital signage roundtable discussion at Screen Media Expo in conjunction with DDR magazine. Digital Signage Today will also provide links to these videos when they are released.
Navaho, a Hampshire, England-based hardware/software provider, demonstrated a tower of point-of-decision screens from DecisionVision, for which Navaho had OEM-ed the software. There are currently 1,500 of the shelf-edge units placed in c-stores across Europe, running on Navaho's Linux Web-based MediaCat platform.
Dirk Hulsermann, president of OVAB Europe, gave a presentation in the BroadSign Presentation Suite on the work that OVAB Europe has been doing in the European digital signage industry. The group has recently named three new members — BroadSign, Infox and Faktor 3 — and has a rigorous 2009 schedule. OVAB Europe will begin agency tours around Europe, launch a magazine, host a networking event and issue a revised version of the OVAB Audience Metrics Guidelines tailored for the European market.
Premier Mounts introduced the ECM ceiling mount. Unlike traditional ceiling mounts, which attach the screen several inches out from the pole, the ECM connects the screen flush with the pole. This means the center of gravity is balanced and the screen doesn't want to swing backward due to its weight.
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Roku demonstrated the BrightSign HD1010 player. |
England-based Saturn Communications has 25,000 screens in deployment in all, but in 2009 was highlighted for its digital signage system for Volkswagen. The network started out for corporate communications purposes, but is now also being used for retail applications in Volkswagen dealerships. There are three content zones on each screen: one is controlled by Volkswagen headquarters, one by the regional offices and another by each individual dealership. This allows tailored messages with a consistent brand feel.
Signagelive, a U.K.-based software provider, last year installed an RFID-enabled digital signage display for Estee Lauder, which was demonstrated at the show. The solution is comprised of LCD screens and RFID-tagged products, which when picked up, play back video specific to the selected product along with cross-recommendation to other products in the range. Signagelive reps said that the solution had 800 customer interactions in the first two days it was installed.
Stratacache was running its new audience measurement system which is built natively into its ActiVia for Media digital signage software. The unit uses a standard Web cam and fits into Stratacache's media player platform.
Symon Dacon Ltd., like its U.S. counterpart Symon Communications, is emphasizing digital signage in hospitality. Symon highlighted digital signage software that can control all hotel signage, from meeting room signs to lobby screens, from a single location.
True Colours Distribution, was present at the show, acting as the exclusive U.K. distributor for Magenta Research player-to-screen connectivity products. Magenta's transmitters and receivers were set up to send video over 2,000 feet via CAT-5 cable. True Colours also had Magenta's Mondo Matrix switching system on display for multiple screen installations.
Wututu demonstrated the company's audience measurement system, the PersonCounter. Using small cameras mounted on the screen, Wututu software can tell how many people were looking at a screen, for how long and what ads were shown. Those analytics were coupled with the InOut counter system, which measures how many people pass through a certain zone.
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