On Experiential Signage Day of LAVNCH WEEK 12 (a biannual, virtual event hosted by rAVe [PUBS] that educates members of the AV industry), Steph Beckett hosted as experts in digital signage shared their experiences with the evolving technological landscape. This is a short summary; you can check out the full day’s content on demand via the LAVNCH website.

How AI and Managed Services Are Disrupting Digital Signage

Florian Rotberg, managing director of Invidis Consulting GmbH, kicked off the day by presenting on the implications of AI and managed services in the digital signage industry, and what to keep in mind during this interesting time in tech.

“It shows how fast our industry has moved in the past five years from filming everything broadcast with really expensive content costs, to AI, where you just press a button, do a good prompt, and then basically you have it there.” he said.

Rotberg concluded with some considerations for management and cybersecurity within the rapid technological growth, as well as closing remarks on the future of digital signage.

“We expect more and more stuff coming now where AI is really fully integrated and really adds value,” said Rotberg.

How Planar’s Komodo Series Redefines Fine-Pitch COB MicroLED

Planar’s Robert Detwiler joined Steph Beckett to discuss the announcement of the brand-new Komodo Series COB MicroLED. Featuring high durability, precision and reliability, Detwiler suggested that this new technology will change the game of experiential signage and meet the demands of collaboration spaces.

The series is built on COB technology, which Detwiler mentioned has been around for a while, but Planar wanted to ensure that they could ensure optimum performance.

“COB itself inherently had some struggles with uniformity, both within a module and module to module, and that was one of the things that we really wanted to focus on trying to make better and to elevate that performance,” he said.

As for the timestamp on the release of the Komodo series, it is anticipated to be as soon as November.

Measuring What Matters in Digital Signage

On this panel, Steph Beckett chatted with McCann Systems’ Brandon Harp, AVI-SPL’s Mark Coxon, and BrightSign’s Misty Chalk about measuring the ROI of your digital signage installs.

Here are some key takeaways from the session:

• Measuring success in the world of digital signage can mean an array of things depending on the goal of the industry. The panel discussed the importance of actually knowing what that goal is before implementing the signage.
• Although there are varying ways of measuring this success in regard to number data, as Chalk pointed out, a large part of understanding if the signage is working is factoring in the importance of engagement and grabbing attention. Digital signage is about standing out in a world of screens, as well as evoking emotions in the viewer to better connect with them.
• Coxon pointed out that digital signage was born out of advertising, where quantitative data was used to measure if the signage was effective. It can be important, but qualitative data is now equally as valuable in its more widely adopted usage. Sometimes quantitative data falls short of describing the impact on a viewer.

Talking DSF Priorities and the NYC Signage Social With Michelle Montazeri

Next up, we checked out an episode of Rants & rAVes, in which Michelle Montazeri met with Steph Beckett to share the exciting future of DSF as well as some new and upcoming social events.

The State of Experiential Signage: Where Storytelling Meets Strategy

Fireside chat time for an update on the state of the industry! In this session, Hillary McVicker, business development consultant in the digital signage space, joined Beckett to talk about the importance of storytelling and evoking emotion across digital signage platforms.

McVicker shared that good signage has an emotional effect on viewers, but that the kind of storytelling may vary depending on the goal of the display.

“I thoroughly, strongly believe in starting with a story,” McVicker said. “I think when you put the solution and the overall experience over the tech, that’s when you have success.”

Designing QSR Signage That Works

For the last panel of the day, Robert Heise of Global Display Solutions, Bryan Meszaros of OpenEye Global, and Sean Hobday from Zones joined Beckett to discuss effective signage in the world of food.

The panel started with an open discussion of the importance of collaboration within franchises and between technology, design and operations in creating a well-functioning digital system. Meszaros discussed the trend of growing confidence in digital signage technologies by QSRs.

Robert Heise concluded the segment with advice for QSR companies. “Don’t just use a digital sign to replace your static sign. Think about what you can do with it.”

Each day of the LAVNCH week 12 was worth 3.0 CTS, CTS-I, or CTS-D RU credits, but the credits can only be earned live. To view missed content, watch the full event here!