Curvy screen highlights Elizabeth Arden's new look
Cosmetics retailer Elizabeth Arden hopes to grab the attention of in-store shoppers and passers-by alike with an innovative S-shaped screen installed at its recently reopened store on New York's Fifth Avenue.
McCann Systems designed the rear-projection screen after architect Highland Associates decided that an S-shaped “wave-like structure” would make the narrow ground floor appear wider.
The 38-by-52-inch rear-projection screen from Large Screen Displays follows the wall's curvature. Elizabeth 
Mercedes dealers boost brand with digital signage
More than 65 Mercedes-Benz showrooms in Belgium have installed a centrally-controlled screen network to strengthen their branding and standardise customer communications.
Mercedes commercials and documentaries, including content from the car manufacturer's Internet TV channel (pictured), will be shown on the NEC displays in each dealership.
Local digital-signage specialist iDklic, which handled the network rollout, is producing some original content and adapting other material for the medium, but
European sector tries hard, could do better
Digital-signage network operators in Europe are improving their understanding of content and their relationship with advertisers – but there is still confusion over return on investment (ROI), according to a report published today by Futuresource Consulting.
The consulting group, a specialist in electronic media, has followed up a 2007 study of nearly 100 networks in France, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK which found that fewer than half of
U.S. sales house switches to RMS system for serving ads
U.S. digital out-of-home sales house Charter Digital Media is to use RMS Networks' rVue system to serve ads to its displays.
Charter handles sales and marketing for some 50,000 screens in more than 4700 locations across the U.S., including the video-store chains Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery (pictured); the OnTrack network at racecourses and related sites; the Casino Channel in Las Vegas; and the Port Authority screen in New
Saudi telco adds kiosks to its retail outlets
Saudi Arabian mobile-phone operator Mobily has installed interactive screens in some of its stores, three years after first introducing digital signage.
Mobily first deployed screens in 2005, calling on PROAV, a division of Scala partner United Yousef Naghi, to handle the rollout. It now has digital signage in a total of 265 outlets, including a thousand plasma and LCD displays ranging from 42 to 71 inches, as well as
Libraries put heritage on display
Libraries in London are using digital signage to raise awareness of local history and culture.
Ten sites in the southern London area of Wandsworth, operated by the local council, have installed 40-inch LCD displays powered by View Distriibution's ViewDis player and ProVision distribution system. The equipment was supplied by integrator AIT Partnership Group.
Content can be displayed in all ten libraries or customised for each location. Featured so
Belgian travel agencies team up for on-screen offers
Travel agencies across Belgium will be using digital signage to promote tour offers, following a successful trial of Roku technology by the country's Avitour group.
Avitour – which does not own the outlets, but provides services that now include screen media to more than 160 independent travel agencies – has ordered 100 BrightSign HD2000 units for its clients from Britain's Roku and Belgian integrator Studio Promo, and plans to
CBS Outdoor puts cross-track screens in London Tube
CBS Outdoor in the UK today launches networked cross-track projection (XTP) screens at five stations on the London Underground.
Nestlé, Sky, cider brand Magners, Paramount, brewer InBev and theatre-promotion firm Dewynters are the first advertisers on the 23 screens, which are placed on the opposite side of the tracks from the platforms, in positions historically occupied by large printed posters.
Most travellers face the tracks while waiting for
UK government to fund digital-signage research
The UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is to support academic research into the effectiveness of corporate digital signage.
The government-funded body will fund a three-year PhD studentship at Bangor University in Wales, focusing on the measurement of digital signage's impact on factors such as information retention, staff morale, and absenteeism.
This data will then form the basis of a set of guidelines on best practice
Visix appliance “far cheaper than PC media player”
Visix, producer of the AxisTV software package, this week launches its first digital-signage appliance.
The device can display still images and video as well as play audio, and supports RSS and XML inputs.
Managed through AxisTV, the Linux-based device will cost “nearly 50 percent less than a full-blown PC media player”, said Visix.
It will be available from 1 July through resellers and direct from Visix.
Focus Media to develop interaction with mobile phones?
China's Focus Media Holding, the world's largest digital-signage media owner by several measures, could introduce more interaction to its screens after saying that is to continue operating its Focus Wireless business.
Focus wound down most of the business when accusations of text-spamming led to the suspension of activities earlier this year.
According to reports from China, Focus – responding to market speculation that it would close the mobile-marketing
Phone store gets largest outdoor LCD in Australia
Australia's Prime Digital Media has created three digital-signage channels – two indoor and one outdoor – for telco Telstra's new T Life store in Melbourne.
From this week, the store will feature a plasma wall supplied by Corporate Initiatives Asia, used for product demonstrations, promotions and branding; 29 portrait displays split into eight audio zones; and a 2.5-metre-wide, 22-metre-tall vertical strip-format outdoor LCD screen from Screentech, showing a mix
Private-equity deal values India's Laqshya at $460m
Global private-equity firm Warburg Pincus has picked up a minority stake in Mumbai-based outdoor-advertising company Laqshya Media for $69m.
Laqshya CEO Alok Jalan told SCREENS.tv that Warburg will be investing over the next 12 months to buy “a significant minority stake” in Laqshya. The stake is said to be 15 percent, which would value Laqshya at a nominal $460m.
Jalan said: “[Our] focus is going to be
In-store pilot sells out at Japanese electronics chain
Digital-signage service provider Vanten has launched an in-store media pilot at Yodobashi Camera's flagship Akihabara outlet in Tokyo, which attracts more than 100,000 visitors per day.
The Japanese electronics chain has 20 locations and about $7bn annual revenue, a third of which comes from three flagship stores in Umeda (Osaka), Akihabara (pictured), and Yokohama – all of which have exterior digital signage, and are now getting screens inside too.
Israeli bank puts digital signage in 170 branches
Bank Leumi, which has more than 300 branches across Israel, has adopted digital signage at around 170 of its larger sites, using technology from Minicom.
TVeez, an Israeli digital-signage systems integrator, installed the network, which is being used to promote real-time foreign-exchange rates in the bank's branches, as well as a rolling sequence of service promotions.
According to the bank, which is one of the largest in Israel,
