PRN says screens can persuade baffled consumers to buy
U.S. digital-signage operator Premier Retail Networks (PRN) is pitching its Home Electronics Network as a means for retailers to educate confused consumers on the benefits of HDTV and upsell them to full home-theatre packages.
One in nine American households will buy a new HDTV in the next year, says PRN, but “the average consumer is baffled by all of the new terminology”.
These consumers turn to electronics retailers 
Hard Rock bets on multiple channels
The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas has upgraded to 11 distinct channels of digital signage as part of a $750m renovation.
Replacing an old video-over-RF system, in effect an in-house cable-TV setup, the new network is based on Scala's InfoChannel software, Dell Optiplex 745 media players and 40-inch Samsung LCD displays linked via IP.
It provides separate channels for several different club, music, gambling and
Jingwei targets bus stops; VisionChina wins in Shanghai
Chinese direct-marketing specialist Jingwei International looks likely to become a bigger player in the country's increasingly competitive public-transport advertising sector after appointing an ex-CBS man to head its new-media unit.
Liu was formerly CEO of Magic Media, the company handling advertising on Beijing's buses that later became part of CBS Outdoor.
In his new role he will spearhead Jingwei's expansion into outdoor advertising, interactive mobile, and digital signage
Samsung moves further into large formats
Samsung has nearly doubled its range of large-format displays with the addition of 17 new models, now available globally.
Bringing its large-format line to a total of 35 units, the new additions include the DXN range, bundled with MagicInfo software, which run from 32 to 80 inches. (Pictured is the 46-inch display.) MagicInfo has also been upgraded.
For video walls, Matrix ID is described as “a Lego brick
Digital signage “will drive bank customers to Web”
KeyBank, the U.S. business and retail bank, has reached the final stages of upgrading eight of its New York branches with large-format digital-signage screens behind its tellers.
Plans call for the bank to replicate the digital-signage formula in most of its 24 districts across the U.S., as part of a three- year project that will eventually reach around 70 percent of its 945-branch estate.
Central to the strategy
U.S. outdoor sector backs Democrats
The U.S. outdoor-advertising sector is heavily supporting Democratic candidates in the run-up to November's elections, a SCREENS.tv analysis of campaign donations has revealed.
Since the beginning of 2007, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), its board members and its key management have donated a total of $197,802 to Democrats against just $67,437 to Republicans, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The largest single donor was Richard Schaps,
Aeroflot to sell advertising in passenger cabins
As the rising cost of fuel hits the world's airlines, Russia's Aeroflot is to sell advertising inside its planes' cabins.
The Russian flag carrier says it expects to generate $5-10m a year from selling signage slots, along with advertising on headrests, blankets, plastic glasses and even food trolleys.
Aeroflot isn't saying how the ad space will be sold, or how its in-flight signage and advertising system will work,
Neo to help Avanti add more malls; ponders U.S., Asia
Avanti Screenmedia's malls business in the UK will continue to be operated under the Avanti umbrella following today's tie-up with retail specialist Neo Media, but Neo will bring its expertise in adding new shopping centres to the network.
“We will keep [the business] in Avanti and further develop it by acquiring new...locations,” Neo MD Christian Vaglio-Giors told SCREENS.tv.
“We have seen a solid growth in [mall] revenue...by not
Beijing rollout will be model for Adidas stores worldwide
Dutch firm N-store has installed more than 40 digital-signage units at the Adidas flagship outlet in Beijing, the sports-goods maker's largest.
And the deployment will “serve as a role model for Adidas concept stores in key metropolitan cities” globally, said N-store sales and marketing director Edwin van Setten.
Digital signage and self-service kiosks installed in Beijing allow customers access to training technologies as well as tools for designing
Deal paves way for Neo to take stake in Avanti
The share price of Britain's Avanti Screenmedia almost quadrupled today following the announcement of a strategic tie-up with Switzerland's fast-growing Neo Media that could lead to Neo taking a substantial minority share in the company.
Avanti stock, traded on London's Alternative Investment Market under the symbol ASG, touched 3.75 around the middle of the day, up nearly 300 percent from the previous day's close of 1.0. But by late-afternoon
Dutch use digital signage to cut traffic jams
Restaurants, conference venues and tourist attractions in the Netherlands are participating in a traffic-management scheme that uses digital signage to inform visitors about road conditions.
Run by the Rijkswaterstaat – the national roads agency – and the Koninklijk Horeca Nederland hospitality-industry association, the project involves 200 screens placed at sites including amusement parks, zoos, restaurants and conference centres.
The displays provide real-time traffic and public-transport information and, when
Quividi builds screen into retail scales
France's Quividi has joined forces with manufacturer Mettler Toledo to produce a set of retail scales with an embedded digital-signage display, saying that the screens can take advantage of scales' prominent positions on store counters.
The UC3-HTT is a fully functional set of scales featuring a 12-inch customer-facing screen and running Quividi's VidiReports software, which analyses audiences within a ten-foot radius captured by a built-in Webcam.
The software
Nielsen to measure stadium screen audiences
Metrics specialist Nielsen will this autumn start measuring audiences for the stadium digital signage operated by Arena Media Networks in the U.S.
Details of measurement methods and the scope of the data gathered have yet to be confirmed, but Arena said that the project would follow Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) guidelines.
Audience figures are expected to appear from 1 October in Nielsen's PocketPiece format.
Arena operates
IBC premieres digital-signage zone
Digital signage is to get its own zone at the IBC2008 event in Amsterdam this autumn, following the interest generated by a seminar on the topic last year.
And the event, held at the RAI Centre from 11 to 16 September, will also feature a business briefing on digital signage led by Miya Knights of UK firm Retail Events.
Focusing on retail, transportation and stadium applications, IBC's
Al Qasba network targets Gulf pleasure-seekers
The Al Qasba entertainment and cultural centre in the Arabian Gulf emirate of Sharjah is installing a digital-signage network from local firm SpanImage.
Running on NEC screens, the network will deliver information, promotions and news to employees of the centre as well as visitors.
SpanImage's digital-signage division has previously deployed screen media at sites including the Sharjah Expo Centre, the Gold Land mall in Dubai, and Nairobi's Sarit
