Retailer FASTSIGNS Adds Digital Signage to its Offerings

February 3, 2009 - DS Digital Signage, rAVe [PUBS],

Why do I even cover this story? To demonstrate the fragmentation of the market and how everyone’s going after a market that we, the AV channel, should CLEALY dominate.

FASTSIGNS International Inc., the worldwide franchisor of FASTSIGNS sign and graphics centers, announced the addition of digital signage to its sign and graphics offerings. FASTSIGNS digital signage offering is the first mainstream, readily available digital signage system for local installations (trust me, FedEx is next), whether a customer needs one digital unit or thousands. FASTSIGNS has selected to work with two of the leading innovators in dynamic digital signage, Scala Inc. (a content software provider) and NEC Unified Solutions (you know them well), to implement this program. You can’t blame NEC or Scala for doing this when we, the AV channel, are doing less than 5% of the market.

However, I think FASTSIGNS will be in over their heads trying to implement and manage these systems. It’s very different than printing a giant paper sign and there is creativity and technical AV knowledge involved — more than your average teenage part-time jobber will be able to tackle for these stores.

My recommendation? If your office is near a FASTSIGNS office, go talk to them NOW. They will not be able to pull this off without the partnership of someone who knows AV.

FASTSIGNS has been researching dynamic digital signage for the past year and a half and has created what they label “a viable and cost effective solution to meet customers’ needs.”

So, are you going to listen to us and consider a relationship with FASTSIGNS? Well, in case you do, here are their worldwide locations.