Volume 2, Issue 5 — May 28, 2010
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The Digital Signage Logjam: Revenues Through "De-jamming"
By Lyle Bunn A “logjam” has been holding back Digital Signage deployments and revenues. Though the problem does not appear to exist because the sector at large has been growing at a reported 23+ percent compound annual growth rates (CAGR) and flat panel shipments for commercial use in particular digital signage is reported at 40+ percent CAGR as almost a million displays of 27” and larger have been deployed in North America.
Many suppliers are enjoying double digit growth and have been through the economic hardships of the past several years. Synnex Corp. for example has had 74 percent year-over-year growth in digital signage.
Digital Signage has the proven ability to generate sales lift, service enquiries, reduce perceived waiting times and dramatically improve communications to staff, students, patrons, visitors and add substantially to their experience at a location at points of purchase, transit, working, study, entertainment and gathering.
The numbers look good — particularly in this economy — but a logjam exists. Despite proven results and clear growth, substantial pent-up demand of projects and purchasing still exists. This means that intended projects are slow to move to deployment, build-out rate is retarded.
This means that the full benefits of DS and place-based media are under-realized by end users while many individual suppliers and integrators experience slower revenue growth, challenges in forecasting and higher cost of sales due to extended sales cycles.
The logjam is an economic tragedy from every perspective, but is a huge opportunity to “de-jammers.”
The logjam appears to be caused by five problems:
Insufficient knowledge about digital signage by those who could advance its planning, supply, deployment and ongoing operations. Knowledge of the application, its technology ecosystem and how to get the most from the investment lead the list of knowledge requirements.
Lack of accurate information about return on digital signage investment: While every suitably planned deployment shows significant results and achievement of communications goals, the competitive value of the deployment results in little performance information being placed in the public domain. Non-disclosure requirements placed on suppliers mean that often this information cannot be used to advance similar projects.
Confusion about technology and sourcing options: Many projects have long “product investigation” and sourcing cycles, often resulting in greater confusion. Since the response to confusion is always “no,” the time and energy needed to plan and advance projects is increased and the “return on time” invested decreases.
The lack of use of proven structures for advancing digital signage projects: Digital signage is a business application that applies information technologies. By cutting corners on System Development Life Cycle processes that are typical of business application planning and deployment, and focusing on technology selection and sourcing, the milestones and checkpoints of investment do not occur as project elements, which stalls and distorts project progress.
A mountain of information about digital signage is available: The logjam is caused by it being cumbersome to navigate in order to pull useful information from, it being too high level, not specific enough, supplier-biased or more opinion than fact-based.
At the same time, there appear to be solutions to each of these problems and the digital signage “de-jammers” that bring solutions will reap the rewards.
End users are willing to listen, draw from, hire and source from credible sources of perspectives and experience. So doing just a few things positions suppliers as a credible “go-to” resource – resulting in projects moving forward, revenue flowing and unfilled demand being met. These few include, for example; - Become knowledgeable about digital signage in the area of the market and uses that most applies to you – and then leverage this growing knowledge into new areas.
- Drill deep and keep searching for return on investment (ROI) information. “Seek and ye shall find.” This ROI information is a key tool to assessing project opportunities, winning credibility and defining/monitoring project success while refining, “tuning” and advancing the project.
- Learn about the technology options generally and then deepen your knowledge of a range of tools applicable to your focus. It is of critical importance to know how technology elements inter-relate and interoperate, in particular as applies to the total cost of ownership and the operating costs associated with different options.
- Learn and use proven structures to identify, plan, deploy and operate DS. These are available from programs such as “SPEED” and sites such as www.LyleBunn.com (author of this article). Look for programs provided by those who have actually planned and deployed networks, can provide vendor-neutral instruction and are approved by industry associations. Programs included as part of a conference or multi-supplier event are also useful.
The rewards always go to “the capable” and capability in Digital Signage, as in other areas is defined by knowledge and experience.
The logjam is real, as are the problems that are causing it and the rewards of addressing these problems.
The fastest path to the rewards is by drawing on knowledge, experience and proven best-practice.
Lyle Bunn is an independent consultant and educator in North America’s digital signage industry. He is a member of the Academy Faculty of InfoComm and serves on the Advisory Boards of Digital Signage Expo and Customer Experience Technology World. He has assisted hundreds of organizations to plan and deploy digital signage and has published over a hundred articles and industry whitepapers. He is author and presenter of the SPEED Digital Signage Training Program which has been used by over 1000 professionals and his CD ROM ebook “Digital Signage Planning Guide will be released in its 5th edition at InfoComm. Lyle@LyleBunn.com
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DSE's Q1 Business Barometer Report Shows Big Time Growth In addition to forecasting big-time growth for the rest of 2010, it also shows: - 97 percent of all survey participants continue to be positive about the future of the DS industry.
- DOOH business projections for revenues in Q2 are anticipated to be higher.
- While the average spend may be smaller, end-user companies report that more dollars are being committed to new or upgraded installations.
- Hottest industry growth categories for the next twelve months include: Retail, Healthcare, Restaurant, Transportation, Education, Corporate Campus, and Public Spaces.
- Close to a third of Ad Agency participants indicated that Q1 advertising spending was up over Q4, while over two-thirds of that same group forecast an even higher spend in Q2.
- Top DOOH Network categories that Ad Agencies are investing in include: Retail, Restaurant, Transportation, Entertainment, Healthcare, Hospitality and Stadium/Arena.
If you want to read the entire study yourself, go to: http://www.digitalsignageexpo.net/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=q823Ddpiths%3d&tabid=609 Back to Top NEC Adds 52" Digital Signage Display to P Series NEC Display announced the addition of the 52-inch P521 to its P Series, joining the 40-inch P401, 46-inch P461 and 70-inch P701. This display is designed for 24/7 digital signage environments such as airports, public information, rental and staging and healthcare. The 1080p native LCD includes 2000:1 contrast ratio, a 700cd/m2 brightness, analog and digital ports as well as RS232, IP and IR control, lists for $2999 and will ship this month.
The P521 will replace the MultiSync LCD5220 by supplying new features and connectivity to previous 52-inch customers. Additions to the new model include DisplayPort for maximum connectivity, Ethernet connection for ease in remote monitoring and more than 30 built-in features as part of its Enhanced Digital Signage Technology Suite. The Quick input change feature provides fast and easy switching between inputs for customers that require content to continuously run with near-uninterruptible flow. For even more flexibility, customization options allow users to personalize input names by creating individual titles up to eight characters, such as “Menu PC” or “VidConf.”
For complete specs, go to: http://necdisplay.com/Products/Product/?product=54c421b3-017c-4d73-a07c-7ea52d59a61f
Back to Top Sony Showcases New DS Displays Sony Professional brought a new range of BRAVIA digital displays to Screen Media Expo. Research and says that by 2012, 60 percent of the digital signage market will be covered by consumer TV products. In response to the proliferation of televisions used in the digital signage market, Sony Professional has created a Bravia range with the functionality of a pro display and the usability of a consumer TV. By including RS232 control and IP networking capability in the new BRAVIA B2B range, Sony offers the capability of performing self-diagnosis and timed power saving. The B2B BRAVIA range has what they are calling a “hotel mode” so user can select a default channel, show the time and limit the sound volume. The new BRAVIA B2B comes in 32", 40", 46" and 55".
Also at Screen Media Expo, Sony has a refreshed version of its Ziris software. The all-new Ziris V7 is an enterprise-strength digital signage software suite, which Sony says is easy to use and has streamlined features for content delivery. A new, unified user interface pushes usability to new levels so that anyone familiar with typical office software will feel at home with Ziris 7 immediately.
Sony also showed its new digital signage player, the BKM-FW55, an eco-friendly full HD embedded digital signage player that actually fits inside the display for tamper-proof, simple, plug-in-and-play digital signage.
See it all at: http://www.sony.co.uk/biz/view/ShowPressRelease.action?section=SB+SS+ALL+Press+Center&pressrelease=1237478357190&site=biz_en_GB Back to Top Sanus Shows Even Thinner Tilt Mount for LCDs Sanus Systems has an even thinner mount for LCD TVs in the new VLT15 Super Slim Tilting Mount — placing LCD, plasma and LED TVs just .82" from the wall and allows up to 10° of tilting capability. Geez…
Featured on the VLT15 is the Adjustable Virtual Axis tilting technology, making the VLT15 the only mount in the industry to accommodate all types of flat panel TVs with various depths. The VLT15 supports TVs from 37" to 65" and up to 150 lbs. It is currently available for a list price of $219.99 USD.
See all the specs here: http://www.sanus.com/us/en/products/visionmount/tilting-mount/VLT15 Back to Top Barco Ships Field-Level LED Screens – LED Ad Borders for Screens Barco has entered the “Sports Perimeter” market in launching the SP-4816 LED field perimeter ad boards. Made popular at European Soccer matches where the pitch (field) is lined end-to-end and side-to-side with banner advertising at eye level, field perimeter signage is going digital with this new Barco LED solution.
Barco tells rAVe the system was designed specifically to meet the demands of outdoor signage while being creative in the way it displays advertising as the sports perimeter can be genlocked with camera equipment – thus, making it flicker-free on the television screen at home and to the live audience. Barco also claims to color-balance the two.
Go here to learn all about it: http://www.barco.com/en/sports/product/2255
Back to Top Wireless Ronin's Earnings There are very few public companies in the DS market, so we try to show you the earnings of a few of them to give you a success barometer; however, keep in mind, some company’s product offerings suck, so their earnings may not be indicative of the market as a whole:
Wireless Ronin reported revenue of $1.1 million for the first quarter of 2010, a 25 percent decrease from $1.4 million in the first quarter of 2009. As of March 31, 2010, the Company had received purchase orders totaling approximately $1.1 million for which it had not recognized revenue. The year-over-year decline in revenue was primarily the result of fewer digital signage deployments, partially offset by an increase in services revenue, as the Chrysler iShowroom initiative continued to expand.
To read their entire earnings report, go to: http://www.wirelessronin.com/6.0_news_141.html Back to Top |
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Holland's Ambulance Worker Problem The Problem
Apparently in Holland they have a problem where public violence against ambulance workers is not only prevalent, but onlookers do nothing about it. So, the Dutch government came up with a plan where they literally married augmented reality and digital signage together against this rising trend.
The Solution
Using cameras shooting people walking on the street and then overlaying that video footing in real-time to pre-recorded video of violence against ambulance drivers, they created a digital signage billboard that shows people what they would look like if they were just standing around watching violence against emergency workers – and doing nothing about it. It’s an amazingly good integration of both augmented reality and digital signage technology.
Here’s a video you can watch that totally shows you how it works. Back to Top News from Visix, CoolSign, DSE… Visix has relocated its Atlanta headquarters to a larger facility that is twice the size of its previous facility, at 14,000 square feet… CoolSign has signed a master reseller agreement with Jeff Burgess & Associates (JB&A) for the United States and Canada… DSE is accepting speaker proposals for its 2011 show February 23 – 24 in Las Vegas. Click here to download a PDF of the Speaker Proposal Form. Back to Top So, that's rAVe DS [Digital Signage] for this month! Remember, we are here to HELP the AV market penetrate the DS market. Only 12 percent of the DS market is integrated by AV companies. The other 88 percent is IT-based. Now, there are AV publications and even an association that would like to draw those IT people in to AV (it would increase readers, right? – and more readers means they can charge more for ads). That is NOT what we are doing. rAVe DS is specifically designed to pull AV into the DS market and teach AV companies how to take business away from the currently dominated by IT market.
For those of you NEW to rAVe, you just read a 100% opinionated ePublication that's designed to help AV integrators. We not only report the news and new product stories of the digital signage industry, but we stuff the articles full of our opinions. That may include (but is not limited to) whether or not the product is even worth looking at, challenging the manufacturers on their specifications, calling a marketing-spec bluff and suggesting ways integrators market their products better. But, one thing is for sure, we are NOT a trade publication that gets paid for running editorial or product stories. Traditional trade publications get paid to run product stories — that's why you see what you see in most of the pubs out there. We are different: we run what we want to run and NO ONE is going to pay us to write anything good (or bad).
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To send me feedback, don't reply to this newsletter — instead, write directly to me at gary@ravepubs.com or for editorial ideas: Editor-in-Chief Sara Abrons at sara@ravepubs.com
rAVe [Publications] has been around since 2003, when we launched our original newsletter rAVe ProAV Edition. rAVe HomeAV Edition, co-published with CEDIA, launched in February, 2004. rAVe Rental [and Staging] launched in November 2007. rAVe ED [Education] launched in May 2008. rAVe DS [Digital Signage] was launched in January 2009.
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Back to Top Copyright 2010 – rAVe [Publications] – All rights reserved – All rights reserved. For reprint policies, contact rAVe [Publications], 210 Old Barn Ln. – Chapel Hill, NC 27517 – (919) 969-7501. Email: sara@ravepubs.com
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