By Richard Lebovitz
Digital Signage Connection

Almo Professional A/V took a novel approach to its booth design at InfoComm 2013, showcasing what the distributor described as its “Digital Canvas Collection,” featuring fully integrated displays as art and signage in the Almo “Gallery.”

With 25 brands represented in one booth, the Almo Gallery highlighted stunning AV installations designed to bring together top products into one space to ignite creativity and imagination. The displays showed decorative motion graphic animations of digital art images.

“A first for InfoComm, the Almo Gallery is designed to inspire integrators to think outside a traditional installation and look at the displays in a more creative and artistic way,” said Melody Craigmyle, vice president of marketing for Philadelphia-based Almo Professional A/V.

Craigmyle said this approach is sometimes referred to as ‘techorating,’ with integrators using displays to create a more immersive, emotional experience.”

“Our visitors will see transparent displays, tilted configurations and abstract designs to create a gallery-like feeling,” she said, adding, “An additional benefit is that in 15 short minutes, visitors can see displays, media distribution players, software and more in various applications from 25 major brands.”

Almo had its six specialized business development managers on hand to walk visitors through each display, but except for the displays, the hardware, as it is in most digital signage installations, was invisible. Not to take away from the originality of the Almo approach, a media player or connection device displayed museum style in a glass pedestal case would have added a nice product touch to the exhibit.

Among the technologies visitors could see in the Almo Gallery and what they could learn from them were the following:

• LG’s new 4K ultra-high definition 84-inch display, which gave visitors the chance to learn about the right type of hardware and cabling required to drive content to these displays.
• Eye-catching video wall designs, where a visitor could learn how Samsung’s MagicInfo video wall software allows for non-traditional display layouts and flexible content manipulation.
• A range of interactive digital signage displays from Elo Touch Solutions, showing how the company’s embedded PC options allow for a clean and cable-free install.

Regarding the stunning visual art itself, the company said many of the video clips shown were the work of Visual Ambrosia, a Northern California video studio focused on producing video animation programs. Visual Ambrosia’s movies featured animations of art images, all 19th Century era prints, from a variety of cultures and subjects. The company said such movies can add decorative appeal and ambiance to hospitality, healthcare, transportation and other commercial settings.

This column is reprinted with permission from the Digital Signage Connection and originally appeared here.