Steve Gold's SCREENS.tv Digital Signage Blog

Signage age/sex detection technology - a revolution in the making... (1 comments)

TruMedia's signage analysis technology (see story here) is a significant step forward for the digital signage industry.

The reason, of course, is the fact that the company's smart box is capable of working out the age and sex of the face belonging to the person who is looking at the screen.

The technology stays on the right side of privacy protection since it only stores the image for analysis for the 30 seconds or so it takes to relay the age and sex of the face owner to the company's servers in Florida.

After that, the data is deleted.

The smart box is reported to be simple to deploy, plugging into the camera attached to the screen concerned, and then across a standard ethernet connection for Internet access.

The important thing to realise is that the face data can be transferred to TruMedia's servers in real time, meaning that the signage content on the screen in the mall, or wherever, can interpret this data - also in real time - and take appropriate action on the content front.

The last time I saw this type of technology in action was in Paris last summer when a digital (outdoor) billboard was displaying a series of ads for passing motorists.

As soon as I walked past, it detected a pedestrian and the content changed to details of local attractions plus concerts.

The text and pictures were a lot more concentrated, so clearly, the content had been adapted for longer dwell times and pedestrian viewing.

Just imagine if that billboard could analyse my sex and approximate age - the content could be adapted to target me better. It might even work out whether I was a real Parisien or a tourist and further adapt the content for my consumption.

There are clearly privacy concerns here. I suspect that, as the technology develops, there will be civil libertarians getting uptight about the personalisation of the content, but I think the advertisers/sponsors will respond positively by offering discounts on products and services they promote.

That will appease and very possibly appeal to the viewer. Everyone loves a discount, especially if it's appropriate to their needs.

As I said, this technology is a significant step forward for the signage industry. It will be fascinating to see how it develops in the months ahead...

Carrefour's Brazilian signage investment - a logical step? (0 comments)

On the face of it, Carrefour's decision to satellite-connect and upgrade the signage systems in its 108-strong hypermarket chain across Brazil (see story here) looks a bold initiative.

It's only when you realise the fact that more than 15 million Brazilians cannot read or write that you begin to understand the logic behind the move.

Traditional print advertising does not work if you cannot read or write and, whilst Carrefour, in common with several other major companies in Brazil, is helping the government with its education programme on that front, the situation is likely to continue for at least one more generation.

Despite this lack of literacy, Brazil's economy is growing fast and the country is in the fast lane in terms of new media.

Depending on who you speak to, Carrefour has somewhere between 400 and 450 stores across Brazil, with approaching 50,000 staff. Not bad for a country with almost 200 million citizens, making it the sixth-largest country in the world in terms of population.

The country's demographics are a media professional's dream - multi-ethnic and 75 per cent Catholic, 42 per cent of the population are under 20 and urban.

Despite the influence of the Church, all retail stores are allowed to open seven days per week, 24 hours a day.

In the light of this, you can begin to see the potential in Brazil - no wonder Carrefour is investing so heavily in its retail outlets, setting up petrol station forecourts and buying into pharmacies across the country.

You could argue that Carrefour is to Brazil as Tesco is to the UK, but the depth of commitment goes much further than that - Carrefour is a major investor in people in an emerging market. It also has a positive track record of more than 30 years in the country.

The company organises a number of original social programmes for its employees. In ethical terms, it instils the values of respect and integrity into its managers and employees through its Pro Etica programme.

For several years, the firm has run the Carrefour Volunteer programme, designed to promote skills sponsorship and volunteer work. As part of this initiative, more than 1,500 employees devoted four hours per month to performing voluntary work in aid of 8,000 children and teenagers in 2006.

It's against this backdrop that you begin to understand why Carrefour has invested in a satellite-connected digital signage system for its hypermarket chain. The country is definitely on the up.

Compare and contrast that to the economic meltdown taking place in the US at the moment. I wonder how long it will be before the US signage majors start acquiring Brazilian operations?...

Battery-powered LCDs? No, it's not an early April Fool... (0 comments)

When I first heard of Digital View's battery-backed signage system - VideoFlyer-SP - due to be unveiled at a trade show in Chicago next week (see story here), I must confess I thought it was an early April Fool.

And I've heard a few April Fool technology stories in my time, like the mobile phone that lasts a year between charges (you carry the batteries in a rucksack -Ed) and the floppy disk that doubles the amount of data stored on the disk by spinning the drive head as well as the disk surface (think about it -Ed).

But the technology is definitely not an April Fool and is much-needed in the retail industry.

Not all retail stores are purpose-built emporiums built in a modern shopping mall. A quick stroll around the cities of Manchester and London here in the UK reveals a number of stores built into the shells of old Victorian buildings. And likewise in many cities across the US.

These old buildings were built before the electric revolution and, as a result, power cables are very much an afterthought. This often means that the number of power outlets in the stores are limited.

Short of rewiring these old stores - at considerable cost - the VideoFlyer-SP is the best option to get signage out into the shelf space.

The aim of the battery-powered signage system, says Digital View's Dusty Perryman, is to engage the customer at the point of purchase.

For that to happen you don't need a 64 inch portrait LCD screen - all you need is an eye-level five or seven inch display and a presentation that sells the product. Once it is in the shopper's trolley or basket, the signage's work is done.

This is what makes the VideoFlyer-SP a breakthrough. It will be even more of a breakthrough if the company comes up with a new type of power source which it claims to be developing.

But that, as they say, is another story...

NEC Australia - pulling out of entry-level LCDs? Bad move guys... (0 comments)

Interesting to see that NEC Australia has pulled out of the entry-level LCD monitor marketplace in order to concentrate on its `premium' products such as medical monitors, home entertainment systems and - of course - digital signage.

The move will cut NEC's distribution channels significantly in Australia and will almost certainly mean some high street retailers no longer stocking the company's LCD products.

The official line is that NEC Oz will concentrate on MultiSync LCD displays, as well as MultiSync DLP and LCD projectors, PlasmaSync displays and digital signage systems.

Daniel Hancox, the firm's national sales manager, has pulled no punches - he says that it's no secret that no-one is making any money from selling entry-level LCD monitors.

Am I alone in thinking this is a seriously retrograde move by NEC?

Surely the company can continue to offer entry-level product to the sales channel in Australia on a cost-plus-30-percent basis?

This means that, even if the product appears a little over-priced alongside the competition, at least the product is out there in the marketplace, keeping the NEC flag flying.

If NEC disappears from the budget LCD sales shelves, then it will disappear from consumers' minds. And, ergo, from business buyers' minds also.

So when an NEC digital signage solution is offered by a systems integrator to a company customer, they may not be aware that the company is in the LCD space.

Panasonic or Sony, on the other hand, are always going to be well known in the LCD monitor space.

I think NEC are definitely missing a trick here. I remember my time on a PC trade magazine in the early 1990s when IBM pulled out of the entry-level PC market.

The company lost its high profile in the desktop space and ended up being classed as a laptop maker, a tag it struggles to leave behind even today.

NEC may make more profit in the shorter term, but I'll wager it will soon regret its decision in Australia...

We're at the beginning of an exciting new curve... (0 comments)

This year's Screen Expo - the third in an annual series - was a rip-roaring success for most exhibitors and, judging from the technology on show, it's clear that digital signage still has some way to go before the serious profits that some vendors are making will start to disappear.

Chatting with my fellow SCREENS.tv writer Gareth Powell - the ex-computer editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and who knows the Asian marketplace like the back of his hand - he agrees with my observations at the show that the digital signage market is broadly at the same stage as computers were in the late 1980s.

Unlike the computers of that era, however, it's not the hardware that is driving things forward, but the software and, of course, the content.

I was particularly taken with the `swirling water' effect on the floor projections at the Screen Expo show entrance when I visited yesterday.

More than anything, this shows what good signage is really capable of in terms of eyeball-catching effects.

Other innovations include the successful marriage of signage and mobile phones, which several vendors at the show were showing off.

As illustrated by the stunning trial of this technology at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago last Friday (see story here) it's clear that interaction will be the order of the day with future successful signage applications.

And it's technology marriages like this that are driving Netpresenter's highly innovative low-cost entry-level signage software (see story here), which runs on a basic Windows-driven PC.

Netpresenter's software allows smaller firms to get to grips with signage without breaking the bank and, equally importantly, the content updates - once the graphics and/or screen images are stripped out of the equation - are around 12 to 15 kilobytes small.

As Netpresenter's UK managing director Steve Osborn told me the other day, this is important as many smaller companies are running their signage distribution networks across the same infrastructure as their tills, so the last thing they want is for the tills to freeze when a time-of-day update to the screens is in progress!

Chatting with exhibitors at the show yesterday, however, suggests that other entry-level signage applications are also on their way, which can only do a lot of good if it encourages smaller companies to test signage systems for the first time.

Netpresenter's Osborn sees his £695 entry-level application as having great potential, as the smaller companies will often move up the market once they realise the serious marketing potential that signage offers them.

According to Osborn, these entry-level customers will also start looking monthly package plans from Netpresenter, assuring the company with a regular income stream - which is positive in cashflow terms for the customer company, as well as the vendor.

It will be interesting to see, in the months ahead, what new entry-level products and services other vendors start to launch. Judging from the innovative companies showing off their products and services at the show in London this week, the industry won't have long to wait....

A captive - but happy - audience on the buses in Kuala Lumpur (0 comments)

When digital signage first started to really take off around three years ago - driven by falling technology costs, advances in LCD panels and controlling software - most experts thought the signage industry
would revolve around retail.

In Kuala Lumpur, Asia Media, a local multimedia firm with around 50 employees, is busy proving that theorem wrong.

With a total of 1,055 buses equipped with twin 19-inch LCD screens, several hundred thousand travellers every day are entertained by a mix of advertisements, advertorials, news, sport and comedy content.

You could argue they are captive viewers, which they are, but research by the company on the Transnet network, as it is known, claim that the predominantly young and single travellers on the buses enjoy watching the output.

Asia Media is lucky, of course, that Kuala Lumpur has an advanced and high network penetration 3G network, which can move data around at speeds of 10 Mbps.

This is mobile broadband at its best, and new content can be continuously streamed to each bus or group of buses, in the six zones concerned.

This gives local businesses a good crack of the whip on the advertising front, with 500 buses covering the city area, and the same number again covering the densely-populated suburbs.

On top of this, the head of Asia Media is an ex-senior cop, with strong contacts with his former employers. That's why the company is working on a Crime Watch program for travellers, as well as the usual array of sports, news and comedy.

The real key, of course, is that the company can update content throughout the day, so the daily commuters on the bus service get to see fresh content on their way in to work - and way out - and, of course, when they trot (and back) out in the evening.

The rapidly changing content is a lesson in narrowcasting that many signage networks here in the West should look to. After all 3G cellular networks are fully operational across Europe, so why not have a similar `bus channel' for European cities?

KFC - a finger lickin' good decision... (0 comments)

KFC's decision to go for a digital signage system inside as well - eventually - outside of its fast food restaurants in the US (see our story here) is an interesting one.

As well as generating a reasonable payback time - the screens replace the backlit paper/plastic screens we've all gawked at as we ponder what culinary delights to feed the offspring and ourselves when we're on the move - the signage system take-up has been driven by compliance requirements.

According to Scott Koller, executive vice president of sales and marketing with Wireless Ronin, the company that is installing and managing the systems in the phase one and phase two trial stores, many menu signs are sometimes `out of sync' with the point of sale tills in the stores.

Prices are often updated, he says, on the KFC POS system, more frequently than they are on the paper signage system, often because the management haven't had time to update the menus.

Some prices may be higher, some lower, and the meal deals may not be up to date. Either way, says Koller, this means that the stores are not in compliance with government legislation.

The digital signage system being installed at the 35 stores also allows KFC outlets to keep up to date with new legislation that mandates menus to give information on calorie counts and trans-fat contents.

"The regulations state that food outlets must use the same font sizes as the rest of the description and cramming this level of information isn't possible on a conventional paper-based menu - the customers wouldn't be able to see the print," explains Koller.

With a digital signage system - no problem - as the system can rotate between all the goodies on offer, flipping them between screens and in good readable fonts.

The other good news with the KFC signage system is that managers no longer have to teeter on a ladder to change the paper menu boards - Wireless Ronin's network operations centre can handle the content.

This content, of course, can be dynamic and location or time-of-day/day-of-week dependent. You can, says Koller, have a snacker for $1.50 in the day or $1.95 in the evening.

This prevents one from the awful situation of rolling into a KFC at 11:35am (as one does) only to find the finger lickin' good breakfast menu stopped being available five minutes earlier.

It also means that customers can make their choices more quickly and speeds up customer flow at the tills.

Which leads to more profits and faster payback on the cost of the signage systems.

You can really see the logic of installing digital signage in fast food outlets.

Even if the food isn't as health-giving as `Dr' Gillian McKeith would like it to be. But that, as they say  is another story entirely...

Las Vegas Miracle Mile Signage - overkill or common sense? (0 comments)

The launch of the 15,000 square foot LED-driven continuous streaming signage system along the Desert Passage, now renamed the Miracle Mile, alongside the old Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas may sound like overkill, but in the great Vegas scheme of things, it's actually a sound move. (You can read our article on it here.)

Las Vegas has changed immensely in the 20 years since my  SCREENS.tv colleague Guy Kewney stepped out of the taxi with my wide-eyed self.

Back in 1987 - yes Guy, it really was that long ago - Vegas was synonymous with gambling and sex. Nevada, you see, was one of the few states in the U.S. where brothels were legal.

The resort reinvented itself in the 1990s as a family destination.

But guess what - that didn't last, as family people don't gamble and keep the Vegas dollars rolling.

Today's Vegas is now an adult resort and the revamped Aladdin - now Planet Hollywood - is testament to that. The revamped Desert Passage - now known as the Miracle Mile - is replete with a wide range of shops and eateries, including classic grill Maxs Cafi, Brazilian-style Pampas Churrascaria, a microbrewery (Sin City Brewing) and the usual pizza purveyors.

With eaterie prices starting from well under $10, you'd think that the 150,000 square foot signage system at the Miracle Mile was overkill.

But it's not. Dining in Vegas has always been economical as it's offered at close to cost, so as to maximise those all-important gambling dollars, which go round and around between the casinos and the patrons, with the government and the casinos taking a slice each time they go around.

The upmarket rebranding of the Desert Passage into the Miracle Mile will see millions of people visiting the mall and its environs - many of them moved around on the movalators - and many millions of pairs of eyeballs will glance upwards at the LED panel system.

This means the cost of adverts from the likes of Apple, Coca-Cola, General Motors, LG, Nikon, Puma and Samsung reaching those eyes is greatly amortised.

Which is exactly Clear Channel Outdoor's strategy. With an existing signage installation in the Fashion Mall - said by many to be the largest in Vegas - you see the firm's strategy.

Quite clearly.