events

Screen Media Expo: truly reflective?

Screen Media Expo was a strange affair this year, tucked away on the top of the Earls Court conference centre. Did it really reflect an industry said to be growing at 20% annually? AV News reports.

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ust when you think that you must have been to events in every corner of the Earls Court and Olympia exhibition cen- tres, up pops another one. This time it was the upper level of the Earls Court conference cen- tre – not a venue that did the event any favours. Compare it

tors that we spoke to seemed to appreciate.

Highlights

Pride of place as the standout exhibitor this year, although not necessarily for stand design or spend, went to the com- bined presence of Intel and Microsoft. Clearly sniffy about the efforts of specialist vendors to develop the killer signage appliance, the two giants of the IT sector have developed an embedded player technology for digital signage applications that includes Intel chips and Windows software. Intel Corporation’s director of digital signage for the Embedded and Communications Group, Jose Avalos explained that: “This is the first and current- ly only platform in the digital signage industry to offer remote manageability with a validated operating system. The Intel Core processor-based system with Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7 will enable solution providers to build more reli- able digital signage networks, faster.”

Intel and Microsoft pitched their case for increased standardisation in digital signage.

Mitsubishi showed its full range of displays, including a new 65” LCD

the Messe Essen venue for the forthcoming Digital Signage Expo and no further evidence is needed of the German venues’ commitment to making exhibi- tions something to be enjoyed rather than endured.

Putting the venue to one side, Screen Media Expo very much had the ambience of an exhi- bition supporting a conference. Whether that was intentional we are not sure, but the overwhelm- ing impression was that the maze of shell scheme stands lacked some of the pizzazz of last year’s huge Samsung presence. The upside was that the whole event had an intimate feel, which visi-

The Intel and Microsoft part- nership hope is intended to standardise a sector noted for its fragmentation and depend- ence on proprietary solutions. Lorraine Bardeen, regional mar- keting director for Microsoft’s Windows Embedded Business said that: “We’re excited to make the latest Windows Embedded Standard 7 technol- ogy for digital signage available to developers. The new opti- mised platform from Microsoft and Intel provides digital signage manufacturers and net- work operators the flexibility to define and rapidly create inno- vative applications that deliver richer and more engaging expe- riences for consumers.” The initiative already has received some support, with advo- cates including AOpen, C-nario, Harris Corporation, HP, Micro Industries, NCR Netkey, NEC and YCD Multimedia. Significantly, this list doesn’t contain too many of the digital signage developers that currently hold significant market share in Europe. Harris is claimed by Microsoft and Intel as their current poster-boy, with support for the new player included in its InfoCaster Player content playout software, but it’s not a name we come across too much over here.

The Intel / Microsoft stand featured demonstrations by those technology partners advo- cating the adoption of the new

player architecture. They also showed an interactive LCD and holograph glass touchscreen with anonymous video analytics, which would enable advertisers to target content to maximise the impact on viewers.

Displays

Screen Media Expo isn’t gen- erally a launch event display manufacturers, but there were some exceptions. Perhaps the most noteworthy was the UK debut of Prysm’s Laser Phosphor Displays (LPD) in conjunction with recently appointed distributor PSCo. Introduced at ISE earlier this year, LPD is to be made avail- able first here, with the UK launch predating the US event at Infocomm.

LPD technology contains a laser engine that uses solid- state laser diodes to energise phosphors on a surface emis- sive panel, generating seamless, high-resolution images for large format displays. The phosphors emit red, green and blue colours as the modulating laser beams scan across the surface to cre- ate a flicker-free image without motion blur.

There are a number of advan- tages for LPD (detailed in the March issue of AV News and in a video interview with Prysm’s Dana Corey on the AV News Video Channel), but the environmental argument is par- ticularly strong. Prysm’s new online ‘Environmental Cost of Operation (ECO) calculator, shows LPDs achieving over 75% in cost savings compared to some conventional display technologies.

Elsewhere, Sony Professional announced a range of Bravia digital displays at the show (see the News in this issue for details) and Mitsubishi showed its full commercial LCD range, including a new 65”.

Software

Otherwise, the event was dom- inated by software upgrades and content developments, as we would expect as the market matures. Sony, for example, announced a refreshed version of Ziris. Version 7 is described as “an enterprise-strength” digital signage software suite, and yet “easy to use”. Sony justifies this claim pointing to a new unified user which is said to make those familiar with “typical office software” feel at home.

Complementing its hardware

offering, Mitsubishi introduced a new version of Play-Out, described as a complete delivery system that enables creatives to deploy virtually any combination of Flash, HTML, video or graph- ics to their network. Mitsubishi says that it is one of only a hand- ful of companies able to offer a complete, hardware and soft- ware digital signage solution. C-nario was one of those who exhibited under the wing of the Intel / Microsoft alliance. The developer demonstrated its C- sign solution running on the Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7 OS on the Intel- based hardware platform. “C-nario is a strong supporter of Intel and Microsoft platforms and a leader in the adoption of their innovative technologies,” said Yael Elstein, VP of market- ing at C-nario. “Our support of Windows Embedded Standard 7 enables us to offer our custom- ers optimised solutions for their business needs.”

Kiosks

NCR Corporation announced that it is launching the NCR Netkey kiosk and digital signage solution in Europe. This is claimed to be the first single software platform that enables retailers to create, run and monitor multimedia content on both in-store digital advertising and self-service kiosks. The NCR Netkey digital signage and kiosk management platform is said to help retail- ers roll out integrated marketing and sales campaigns quickly across multiple channels in a consistent and controlled way. The example the company gives is that of retailers using digital advertising to promote new offers in-store and making it easy for shoppers to find out more or even pay for their pur- chases at self-service kiosks. The announcement is signifi- cant because the NCR Netkey solution is used by over 400 organisations, running more than 70,000 digital signs and kiosks in North America. NCR “anticipates similar demand in Europe where consumers increasingly want to be able to move seamlessly between online and bricks and mortar stores.” Apparently, by 2011, Deloitte predicts half of in-store purchases will be influenced by the internet.

Again on the kiosk theme, Sedao showed Kiosk Content Creator which, the company said, makes it easy for unskilled designers to create eye-catch- ing, attention-grabbing content

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for interactive screens, shop window displays and kiosks.

3D

It would be hard to visit a digital signage event and not mention Signagelive. At this Expo the Saffron Walden team announced a collaboration, with Magnetic 3D, to offer glasses- free 3D digital content through its web-based digital signage platform. Using the Signagelive platform, 3D digital signage provided by Magnetic 3D can be scheduled and played back anywhere in the world using a standard fixed or mobile Internet connection and web- browser.

“The emergence of 3D tech- nology for use in public locations is exciting and the glasses- free 3D displays developed by Magnetic 3D offer the best solution available today,” said Jason Cremins, CEO of Remote Media Limited. “We have been listening to our customers and the appetite for incorporating 3D support within Signagelive has been tremendous.” Also in the 3D arena, Screen Media Expo saw the debut of a new company specialising in 3D. Claimed to be one of the world’s first integrated 3D con- tent, software and hardware consultancies, Stereografix has been set-up by Saif Chaudhry. He said that it has been created to address, what the company says, is the big question cur- rently taxing 3D technology commentators – “We have the technology, now where’s the content?”. For more about how he plans to answer the big ques- tion, see Company news in this issue.

Exit poll

ABI Research predicts that companies will spend over $1 billion globally on digital signage solutions in 2010, growing at an average of 20 per cent per year for the next five years. They forecast that kiosk deployments will grow an average of 19 per cent per year over the same period. In today’s market, these are exciting numbers. But with just about every country in Europe having its own digital signage event, plus a number of generic and pan-European shows, the visitor experience is inevitably diluted.

There is a clear mismatch between growth in the digital signage market and the nature of the events in this sector.

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