Slump could last just one year, research firm predicts
Economic conditions for the worldwide digital out-of-home sector will bounce back by 2010, with “strong double-digit growth” in rollouts, according to new research from MultiMedia Intelligence.
The firm says that digital-signage networks will install 1.1m displays this year, up 34 percent on 2007, and although the economy will “sap growth” next year, it expects a resurgence in 2010.
By 2012, the number of new displays installed will double 
Digital billboards track progress of Presidential poll
Clear Channel Outdoor in the U.S. is using more than 500 of its public screens to display real-time updates on the outcome of today’s Presidential election.
Drawing RSS feeds from the MSNBC Website, the Clear Channel displays will show the share of the popular ballot achieved by each of the major candidates, as well as the number of electoral college votes secured – the key to taking the White
Wireless Ronin blames economy for 35 layoffs
U.S. digital-signage software firm Wireless Ronin Technologies yesterday laid off a fifth of its workforce, citing a “sluggish economy”.
The company, which markets the RoninCast system, has shed 35 employees and contractors accounting for about 22 percent of its head count. After the departures, Wireless Ronin has 125 staff.
The layoffs – affecting workers with roles in sales and marketing, product development, project management and administration – were
Dubai monorail screens will reach visitors to new island
Marubeni Corporation has commissioned Adventure Digital – a Dubai-based digital-signage firm and part of the Adventure Advertising Group – to install a range of screen media at the new Palm Jumeirah monorail stations in Dubai.
Marubeni, the Japanese parent of Sanyo, is the main contractor for the monorail project.
The monorail – which will be the first of its kind in the Middle East when it opens next
OVAB: Average Unit Audience is the key to metrics
The Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) yesterday at its New York conference released the guidelines which many in the digital-signage sector have been hoping will form the basis for a gold standard of audience measurement.
Emphasising consultation, transparency and quality control, the guidelines are to be viewed as a work in progress, according to OVAB, which cautions that some level of compromise is needed between the needs of agencies
OVAB metrics guidelines: the wait is nearly over...
The Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) has added five new members as it prepares to release its long-awaited guidelines on digital out-of-home audience metrics.
Bringing the New York-headquartered organisation’s membership to 35 are AMI MegaNet, which operates touchscreens in U.S. bars; Health Club Panel Network, which specialises in health-club advertising; Indoor Direct, a new digital-signage network designed for fast-food outlets (pictured); LevelVision, which puts in-floor digital signage in college
Report: digital OOH spend growing faster outside U.S.
The U.S. share of the global digital out-of-home market will slowly decrease over the coming years as advertising spend in other countries grows, according to the latest forecast from PQ Media.
But seen over a five-year span, growth everywhere will be significantly more sluggish than during the sector’s 2006-2007 boom period.
Among likely major growth regions, the researcher cites Australia as well as the usual suspects of Brazil,
JCDecaux sees Middle East as hot spot for growth
Global outdoor-advertising firm JCDecaux expects a full 20 percent of sales to come from emerging markets next year – a level it had earlier anticipated would not be reached until 2010.
Emerging markets accounted for nearly 18 percent of sales in the first half of 2008, the company’s chairman and co-chief executive Jean-Charles Decaux told a French newspaper.
JCDecaux expects continued growth in Asia and particularly the Middle
LA council chief calls for new rules on digital billboards
The president of Los Angeles City Council has called for tighter regulations on digital outdoor advertising in residential areas, following protests over a deal that allowed some billboard owners to digitise their properties in exchange for agreeing not to challenge restrictions on new advertising sites.
The move by Eric Garcetti (pictured) comes amid continuing unease in many U.S. communities over the impact of digital outdoor advertising on light pollution,
Ex-CBS boss opens sales house for UK independents
The former international CEO of CBS Outdoor has launched a sales house to represent independent UK digital out-of-home firms.
Joining Tom Goddard (pictured) at new company Digicom are Ralph Ahern, formerly commercial director at outdoor firm Titan, and Tim Butler, formerly CTO at CBS Outdoor.
Meanwhile, CBS Outdoor in the UK has established a retail sales division to manage the advertising contract it holds at the giant new
First ads sold on Canary Wharf outdoor screen
Thomson Reuters is to run advertising on its giant screen at London’s Canary Wharf for the first time.
With the Canary Wharf outdoor display giving advertisers the chance to use interactive digital signage like that which Thomson Reuters already offers in New York’s Times Square, the company will be able to sell three-pronged campaigns employing Internet, mobile and digital out-of-home media.
To date, the Canary Wharf screen has
Digital signage brings health info to pharmacies
Lifeclinic, the U.S. provider of self-test blood-pressure measurement monitors in pharmacies, plans to add interactive screens from LearnSomething to its systems.
Dubbed Health Communicators, the digital-signage screens attached to the Lifeclinic devices (pictured) will provide health-related information, subsidised by advertising.
Management at each pharmacy will be able to choose from ten content channels covering topics including diabetes, hypertension and nutrition.
Some content will be seasonally specific,
Titan buses to use Litelogic LED screens
Titan Outdoor in the U.S. is to use technology from Britain’s Litelogic for its bus-side advertising screens – a major element of the company’s recently-announced investment in digitising its transportation inventory.
The Bus King screens (pictured), based on Litelogic’s Evolution displays, will first appear in trials in Chicago – where much of Titan’s digitisation programme will be focused – and in New York.
Following a first rollout of
Thomson could sell PRN, says French paper
Thomson has declined to comment on a French newspaper report that it is considering the sale of Premier Retail Networks, its U.S. in-store TV subsidiary which operates Wal-Mart’s network among others.
The report, published by Les Echos on Wednesday, also said that Thomson could sell its share in Screenvision, the U.S. and European cinema-advertising operation which it owns as a joint venture with Britain’s ITV.
It is believed
Digital signage aids quest for paper-free cinema
Showcase Cinemas in the UK is continuing to comprehensively equip its new multiplexes with digital signage.
The latest rollouts are at two new complexes – known as Cinemas De Lux – in the cities of Bristol and Leicester. The sites complement the cinema chain’s existing flagship in Derby, which opened in the summer.
Central to all three of the multiplex sites is a digital-signage system developed and installed
