Article

Tech distributor becomes its own client in digital signage overhaul

Technology distributor Ingram Micro teamed with digital signage partners NEC Display, Peerless-AV and SurgeX for a complete revamping of its Buffalo campus's corporate communications digital signage network.

February 10, 2015

If you provide digital signage and AV solutions around the world, your own offices better have topnotch digital signage and AV installed. When you tell clients how much digital signage can improve their image, it certainly carries a great deal more weight when it's doing the same for yours.

Ingram Micro is one of the world's largest technology solutions providers, representing 1,400 suppliers and serving more than 200,000 customers. It used digital signage at its Buffalo campus for years to communicate corporate messages, educate sales reps on new offerings and promotions, and add visual interest to public areas.

The only catch: The displays came from a patchwork of vendors, so there was neither a unified look nor a cohesive method for pushing out content to every screen.

"There was no single point of ownership in the organization," Kevin Prewett, Ingram Micro's senior director of vendor management, said in a recently released case study from NEC Display Solutions of America, which provided displays for a project overhauling the Buffalo campus's network.

So Ingram Micro decided the best course of action was to go about treating itself like a client and partner with a team that carefully considered each element of the project. As a result, the Buffalo campus is itself now a showroom for Ingram Micro's digital signage expertise, according to the case study.

The new signage needed to showcase the high-quality installations Ingram Micro provides its customers. It had to consistently and reliably display images around the clock in various locations and lighting conditions throughout the campus, including the public lobby, private employee entrance, lunchrooms and open office areas.

"On our end, it was all about having a display manufacturer who consistently delivered a minimum failure rate," said Cary Goldman, vice president of sales at VS Networks, which provided the media players content management system and partnered with Ingram to provide content. "We needed to ensure we were at 100 percent, 365 days a year."

Ingram Micro wanted to be able to centrally push out content, such as global marketing or HR messaging from corporate headquarters. At the same time, it wanted to give managers localized control to program messages to individual areas, such as a congratulatory note when a representative made a large sale. Vendors also regularly share promotions and contests with salespeople through the signage, so Ingram Micro wanted a streamlined way for ads to load and route through the approval process.

"We wanted to be sure we brought an entire solution together," Prewett said. "We had to be confident the operation would be solid."

Ingram Micro picked longtime supplier NEC Display Solutions as the provider for the digital signage, and chose Peerless-AV for custom mounting solutions and SurgeX to help ensure clean, stable power to provide maximum uptime and picture quality.

A total of three video walls were mounted in the main lobby and employee entrance using 55-inch NEC X551UN screens in a two-by-two configuration.

Four 65-inch NEC V652 displays were also placed in public areas. And 38 55-inch NEC V552 digital signs were installed throughout the Buffalo campus.

Content can be pushed out campus-wide or tailored to specific zones, the case study said, and the signs display a rich, vibrant picture that makes a striking impact on customers and employees alike.

"It was a pleasure to be the end-user in this case and to see NEC's level of detail and interest in delivering the right solution, and to know our customers are going to get the same treatment," Prewett said.

VS Networks built a custom content management system based on the environment where Ingram Micro would use it. It also designed 70 percent of the content in the form of interactive content and passive content via animated graphics, while Ingram can create and load static JPEGs on its own. The media player runs two operating systems so that content appears uninterrupted to viewers, even if updates are happening behind the scenes.

VS Networks also monitors the displays 24 hours a day through the RS232 control to ensure they continue to perform consistently into the future.

As part of the video wall installation, Peerless-AV designed custom mounts for a seamless appearance. The process went smoothly from start to finish because of the partnerships involved, said Scott Slubowski, channel manager at Peerless AV, in the case study.

"It really makes a difference when you work with people who want to do the job right and make sure everything is in place," he said.

Ingram and NEC said that any reliable installation must start with a foundation of clean, stable power. To ensure maximum uptime and picture quality, SurgeX provided power protection designed to eliminate catastrophic surges without any negative aftereffects. Rather than just suppress power surges, SurgeX prevents them from reaching the displays and controllers in the first place, and its Multi-Pak product readily attached to the Peerless mounts to protect the entire solution.

"With the significant investment we were making with our campus refresh, we had to be certain that our choice in power protection was not only effective, but flexible," said Tom Jones, Ingram's senior tech solutions engineer for pro AV and digital signage who was assigned to the project. "We needed to better understand the conditions that could affect our digital signage that we couldn't visibly see, and SurgeX has technologies already integrated into their products to do so. We wanted to be able to run analysis on line conditions and gather data to ensure that we always have a clear picture of our whole digital signage environment."

And that whole digital signage environment is now one that's much more conducive to the business of digital signage, according to the case study.

"We've got more than 70 people at Ingram Micro dedicated to the digital signage business," Prewett said. "They live and breathe it every day. Now the signage on our campus makes it even easier to sell those solutions."

Included In This Story

---

Peerless-AV

Peerless-AV is a leading designer and manufacturer of audio visual solutions, including award-winning outdoor displays and TVs, indoor/outdoor kiosks, video wall mounting systems, and more.

Request Info

Learn More