Focus stock steadier, but Wireless Ronin takes a hit
Focus Media Holding’s share price on the U.S. NASDAQ exchange appeared to stabilise today, and it was the turn of much smaller digital-signage firm Wireless Ronin Technologies to experience that freefall feeling.
In midday trading Focus stock, which plummeted on Friday and Monday after the late-Thursday release of Q1 results and revised forecasts for the next year and quarter, stood at 30.18 – marginally up on the previous day’s 
Tourist town plans screens for visitors
Scarborough, a seaside town on England’s northeast coast, is mulling the installation of a town-wide digital-signage system to advise tourists on parking, key routes, and tourist attractions.
“We’re still at an early stage in the planning process,” said John Riby, Scarborough council’s head of technical services, who is hoping to start formal deployment planning this coming autumn, when the town gets two new park-and-ride bus projects underway.
The
NTT to debut digital signage with aromas
Japanese telecommunications company NTT Communications will next month launch a digital-signage system equipped with an aroma-emitting device, following feasibility studies conducted late last year.
Akira Sakaino, sales promotion department manager in NTT’s Net Business Division, told SCREENS.tv that the Kaoru Digital Signage product will combine two existing online services: the Spot Media service for sending content from a remote server to digital signage, and the Fragrance Communication (Kaori Tsushin)
GameStop deal boosts CBS’s retail network
CBS Outernet is more than trebling the size of its in-store TV portfolio after signing up its first major non-grocery retailer.
Along with technology partner Reflect Systems, the company has started rolling out a network to more than 4000 U.S. outlets of GameStop, the world’s largest chain of videogame stores. The rollout, replacing an existing disc-based in-store TV service, is expected to be completed in 2009.
The in-store
Railway-station screens mix ads with passenger info
Indian out-of-home media company Armour Display Systems (ADS) is expanding its network of screens in major railway stations with the addition of Mumbai Central – but is also warning that it could take up to five years before the digital-signage network is bringing in enough revenue.
CEO Deepak Srivastava told SCREENS.tv: “We started with Chennai a few years back. This followed our foray into Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.”
Indian firm claims 3D first
India’s Absolute 3D Visions has developed an airport digital-signage network using glasses-free 3D screens, and is looking to deploy its technology in other locations such as cinemas.
Speaking to SCREENS.tv, CEO V.S. Veerasami said: “We are the first company in India to launch [a] digital-signage network using autostereoscopic 3D display screens.”
Veerasami said that the company’s first such displays have been installed at Coimbatore Airport, where a
TruMedia: “Industry needs privacy code”
The CEO of audience-measurement innovator TruMedia Technologies has called for the digital-signage sector to promise that companies will not store images of consumers or other information that could identify them.
In a letter to The New York Times, George Murphy said: “We…challenge the industry to adopt a standard that categorically prohibits the storing of images or any other personally identifying information. This will allow our industry to provide responsible
Analysis: How well is Focus really faring?
Wall Street’s bears were stalking Chinese digital-signage giant Focus Media Holding today after the company released first-quarter results, with Focus’s stock on the NASDAQ dropping more than 13.5 percent by early afternoon, close to its 52-week low.
But despite Focus trimming its full-year guidance and warning that it expects the recent Chinese earthquake to have an impact on Q2 advertising revenue, the picture that emerged from the financials was
Netpresenter offers free Web-based digital signage
Netpresenter, the Dutch digital-signage software specialist, is following the lead of India's InfoSignz by making a version of its product available for free as a Web-based service. Its new EasyBroadcast system is available without charge and without advertising.
Users prepare content online, incorporating media including image files, transitions, YouTube-hosted videos, and Adobe Flash animations.
The content can then be played back on any Windows PC with an
C-nario develops software to control video walls
Israeli digital-signage software company C-nario will this month launch a new system for controlling and synchronising displays on multiple screens.
The company says C-nario Cube is aimed at applications such as video walls and multi-floor displays using live content, in the entertainment, sporting, financial and retail sectors. It could also be used at live shows, such as stadium concerts.
The system “can scale to virtually any size video
Vegas Strip LCDs will be seen by millions monthly
The high turnover of visitors to Las Vegas's Strip will swell audience numbers for a new network of 70-inch digital-signage displays being installed at bus shelters along the famous street.
Outdoor Promotions will in October begin rolling out the sunlight-readable Samsung TFT LCD screens, complete with audio, and expects them to reach 1.5m pedestrians and 1.8m cars every month.
Gary Young, president and CEO of Outdoor Promotions, said:
Airport screens help tourism campaign reach flyers
Where better to reach potential long-haul tourists than at the airport? That is the logic behind a new campaign from Aviator Worldwide, the airports arm of planning/buying agency Kinetic Worldwide, which underlines the role that place-based media such as digital signage can play in targeting specific groups of consumers.
Mixing digital networks with back-illuminated sites and a banner, the campaign for the Korean National Tourism Organisation is running at
Pharmacy channels find prescription for success
The effectiveness of digital signage in pharmacies is underlined by a new study from Australia's Galaxy Research and pharmaceutical manufacturer-retailer Sigma showing significant sales uplifts after on-screen promotions. And the research is backed up by earlier work from Galaxy which suggests pharmacy consumers may be among the most receptive to promotional messages.
The news comes just days after it emerged that Target, the fifth-largest retailer in the U.S., is
Digital signage takes the lead at cinema chain's flagship
Digital signage plays a starring role throughout a new 12-screen cinema complex in the northern English city of Derby.
Showcase Cinemas spent nearly $60m on its flagship Cinema De Lux multiplex at the recently-opened Westfield shopping centre, which features a network of 47 42-inch LCD screens and six projectors, with content fed remotely from Showcase's headquarters in nearby Nottingham. The technology driving the system is Scala's InfoChannel 5.
Touchscreens boost sales in sports stores
UK retailer JJB Sports has driven up sales of golf equipment and footwear by placing interactive terminals next to the lines being promoted.
The 17-inch Obie touchscreen systems from JAOtech, installed by integrator Missing Link, provide customers with information on JJB's products in the parts of the store where they are placed.
About 250 stores nationwide – more than half of JJB's total estate of some 410 outlets
