The value of digital signage is large and growing.
In terms of market size, digital signage is worth between $4 billion and $5 billion globally, and $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion in the U.S. And analysts expect the digital signage space in North America and Western Europe – which currently ship in the low tens of millions of units per year – to double annually in each of the next three years.
Digital signage can play an important role in visual ID and conversion in such environments as banks and retail stores, as just two examples. In a banking environment, digital signage can be used to deliver customized messages to visitors nearby, triggered by the bank app on those users’ mobile phones. This can enable a bank to drive a research point, such as how to enable bank customers to enhance their credit scores, and then offer the option to download a video that those individuals can view right then or on the bus ride home.
Here is a sampling of some of the offerings on the digital signage front.
Barix
www.barix.com
The Barix Audio Point solution encodes and streams high-quality, multichannel audio feeds through Wi-Fi access points in retail stores and other locations (businesses, schools, transit centers), delivering audio in perfect synchronization with video content playing out on display screens for a true multisensorial approach to digital signage. Consumers can receive the personalized audio feeds on their mobile devices by scanning a QR Code to prompt a download of the Barix Audio Point app. The combination brings higher awareness to, and drives deeper engagement with, consumers as the screens come alive with a real voice. In addition, the multichannel capability of Audio Point allows businesses and organizations to deliver the same content in multiple languages, with different streams accessible via user selection. For systems integrators, the all-in-one solution enables quick deployment and ongoing reliability. Integrators and end customers can also use their choice of digital signage player for associated video content due to Barix's flexible open-standards approach.
The CradlePoint COR Integrated Broadband Router Series is ideal for use within the digital signage market. An affordable, highly-featured compact router designed for critical business and enterprise applications that require 24×7 connectivity, the CradlePoint COR IBR series harnesses affordable, high-bandwidth 4G LTE (News - Alert) to allow digital signage manufacturers greater control. CradlePoint COR IBR series can support a diverse set of applications (digital signage, HVAC, security, content delivery, etc.) that rely on wireless connectivity with zero-touch management. Deployed within the world’s largest digital signs, CradlePoint COR’s compact size, sleek metal case, mounting bracket, and external mobile broadband antennas provide a distinct advantage in monitoring, updating, and managing the remotely based signage. Using the CradlePoint COR and Enterprise Cloud Manager, CradlePoint’s cloud-based management platform, network administrators can deploy network-ready digital signs for placement virtually anywhere. Enterprise Cloud Manager in conjunction with CradlePoint COR allows them to activate, configure, deploy, and manage the connectivity of signs from a central location, simplifying the customer experience and reducing IT costs.
GestureTek
www.gesturetek.com/
For 28 years GestureTek has been renown as the inventor and pioneer of video gesture control technology and its myriad forms and applications. GestureTek has a unique blend of hand and body tracking software, motion-sensing display surfaces, and immersive environments. GestureTek`s systems are highly engaging for digital signage, advertising, retail, public spaces, and location-based entertainment facilities, where its interactive gesture control displays capture patron attention. GestureTek`s GestureFX is a system motion controlled user interface for projections of any size on floors, walls, windows and counters, as well as on flat-screen displays. The CUBE provides a turnkey plug and play version of GestureFX that sits on the floor and displays a large gesture-controlled projection surface. Screen Xtreme provides the same dynamics of gesture control but merges the user’s live video images with interactive animation. Gestrack 3D provides excellent point and control of displays from a distance for one to 10 people.
MultiTaction
www.multitaction.com
MultiTaction is a world leader in interactive display systems utilizing its own unique technology to recognize hands, 2D barcodes, and objects to create a truly immersive experience. MultiTaction displays are stackable into any size or shape and support multiuser environments. They work equally well as table or wall displays while supporting an unlimited number of touch points. Deployed in more than 50 countries, MultiTaction solutions are ideal for collaboration, advertising, museums, exhibitions, entertainment, research and education. The company's technology boosts engagement through experiential applications that provide visually stimulating experiences; improve teaching and learning; and increase productivity in workplace settings. The MultiTaction iWall is a 16-foot x 9-foot turnkey interactive video wall with 24-megapixel resolution. The display can simultaneously detect an unlimited number of fingers, hands, and IR pens. To enhance the user experience, the MultiTaction iWall incorporates MultiTaction's Enriched Reality software technology, which uses 2D optical markers for real-life object detection to uniquely identify any object placed on the display. The MultiTaction iWall also supports MultiTaction Codice, a software using optical markers to recognize individual users and provide access to personalized content. Codice optical markers can be printed on everyday objects, like ID cards and badges, and turns anonymous, public interactive displays into an engaging experience that benefits both the user and the content owner.
Tightrope Media Systems
The Carousel Digital Signage platform is a complete hardware and software system comprising content creation, management and media playout – all seamlessly integrating with common IT and networking infrastructure. On the content creation side, Carousel supports multiple channels of unique content, as well as multiple screen zones without restriction. Content contribution is made easy through simple templates to support sophisticated tasks across social media, RSS feeds, schedule integration, streaming video, weather reports, and more. Flexible content management and scheduling tools allow users to share content among different zones and channels, with seamless ability to decide when and where content will run across networks of any size. Content can be displayed in multiple aspect ratios and formats, all custom-configurable at the device level. Options include landscape and portrait modes, native resolutions up to 2560x1600, and touch-screen interactivity support across all server and player software. On the playout level, Carousel offers a variety of player models and also seamlessly integrates with Brightsign networked media players – ideal for cost-efficient deployments across large networks with multiple players and display screens. Carousel systems are used across multiple business verticals, including corporate, transit, education, hospitality, and sports/live event venues.
Experience Manager is a cloud-based solution that allows you to connect with your customers and guests through a variety of content, ad messages, and interactive features. The easy-to-use message creation and ad campaign management tool is designed to simplify message creation and deployment for your marketing department so they can focus on connecting with your customers, not technology. Experience Manager puts your marketing team in control by making it easy to create branded messages using templates that are as easy to create as managing a blog or social media.
Vitesse Semiconductor
Users can achieve low cost, low power 1000mbit connectivity over a Cat5 cable for an optimal viewer experience using Vitesse Semiconductor’s dual-port VSC8502 gigabit Ethernet PHY. As featured on Vitesse’s VSC8502RD & VSC8502RD-VR four-layer reference board designs, Vitesse’s VSC8502 is ideal for today's digital signage applications. This IEEE (News - Alert) 802.3ab-compliant 10/100/1000BASE-T PHY offers high reliability connectivity and seamless cable-line diagnostic capabilities that perform without data loss. Furthermore, the VSC8502 simplifies synchronization of video frames across panels in a large digital array by leveraging recovered clock output capabilities. That means a beautiful picture 24/7. Vitesse’s VSC8502 offers MII, GMII and RGMII MAC-to-PHY interfaces, Wake on LAN, and IEEE 802.3az Energy-Efficient Ethernet. The PHY is based upon a low EMI voltage-mode architecture that reduces EMI footprint and can support jumbo frames for improved bandwidth utilization. Vitesse’s VSC8502 PHY runs on either a single 3.3V supply or external 1.0V and 2.5V supplies. Industrial temperature support provides robust reliability for long product lifecycles in outdoor environments.
YCD Multimedia
C-nario Digital Signage Suite is YCD Multimedia’s premium display, distribution, and management software platform, facilitating in-store active dialog between retailers and consumers. It combines studio quality authoring, interactive content, rules-based playback scheduling, and better-than-broadcast quality playback in any canvas size and resolution. With C-nario Digital Signage Suite, users can deploy pixel-perfect HTML5 content from the smallest tablet to multi-display installations. The software supports the authoring, distribution, and playback of rich content with unmatched flexibility, combining high quality video, images, Live HD video (captured or streamed), dynamic data feeds, and multi-display hardware-accelerated HTML5 content.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
