Museum screens “revolutionise art display”
In what is being hailed at the first cultural use of digital signage in Poland, two Polish firms – Abema Systemy Prezenracynjne and Veracomp – have installed a large multi-screen system at the National Museum in Krakow.
The installation, which uses technology from Taiwan's Cayin Technology, employs LCD displays, projectors and optical mirrors to achieve what is being called a revolutionary approach to displaying art in a museum environment.
CBS Outdoor ponders next steps in South America
CBS Outdoor is to hold back from making large strategic changes at its new South American subsidiary until it can assess how that region differs from its existing territories – a decision which underlines the growing realisation that screen-media markets around the world are developing in different ways.
The U.S. company's international chief development officer Antonio Alonso (pictured) told SCREENS.tv that the acquisition of International Outdoor Advertising Group
Dunnhumby names Tesco content partner
Tesco Screens, the digital-signage network of Britain's biggest retailer, has named Great Guns as its new content-production partner. The appointment of the London agency to replace former incumbent Instrumental Media Group spells a final break with the origins of the network, originally known as Tesco TV.
Great Guns has worked for clients including Nike, the BBC, Boots, and Airtel. On the Tesco project it will now report to Dunnhumby,
CBS Outdoor moves into South America
CBS Outdoor has powered into the South American media market with the acquisition of the International Outdoor Advertising Group (IOA) for $110m in cash.
The move gives CBS immediate access to the booming billboard and signage markets of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay and will, the company says, give it a leadership position in the fast-growing Latin American market.
CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves said that IOA
Nielsen rejects panels for digital-signage metrics
U.S. audience-research bellwether Nielsen is to assess out-of-home screen viewing by gathering general data on the locations of digital-signage displays, rather than relying on panels of consumers to tell the company what they saw, as Nielsen does with TV and online.
Its decision contrasts strongly with the approach of rival Arbitron, which extrapolates viewership from a sample of individuals using its Portable People Meter, let alone that of companies
YouTube: the way of the future?
The latest software release from Dutch digital-signage application specialist Netpresenter will support YouTube videos, Adobe Flash, and news tickers. Netpresenter 5.0 enables playback on PC desktops, as well as large-format displays.
Frank Hoen, CEO of Netpresenter, believes that we'll be seeing a lot more embedded YouTube clips broadcast on screen-media displays, opening the doors for user-generated content (UGC).
“YouTube is the 'killer app' for user-generated video content
Delhi Metro commissions pioneering LED network
The trend toward super-large screens at railway stations has reached India, with MIC Electronics set to install 25 full-colour day-and-night LED video-display boards at eight metro stations operated by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
The $11.25m contract, lasting six months, will lead to an LED display network that is controlled from a single location, believed to be the first of its kind in the country.
Genr8 finds market for short content sequences
Australian company Genr8 Digital Media says it is now shipping 3000 hours of short content every week to users including digital-signage network operators. Its focus on the out-of-home screen market – as well as other new media such as online and mobile – is a sign that the scale of the sector is now providing lucrative opportunities for service providers.
The short sequences, typically running between 30 seconds and
CBS promotes digital role in London outdoor mix
CBS Outdoor in the UK is highlighting the role that digital out-of-home has to play in media planning by donating ad space to a new campaign from charity World Vision.
The campaign will see CBS's cross-track projection slots at Euston station on the London Underground used alongside two other, non-digital outdoor options – panels on Tube trains, and six-sheet posters at shopping malls.
The two-week campaign, which launched
SCQ metric ranks desirability of consumers
Mumbai-based VJIVE Networks has developed a proprietary metric called Screen Consumption Quotient (SCQ), which it says gives advertisers an opportunity to micro-target campaigns and to pay according to the profile of the potential consumers delivered. But one agency chief has questioned whether it gives a fair representation of individual locales.
SCQ values the quality of the audience for a given screen or location using aggregate socioeconomic data such as
Indian sector seen needing $200m investment
Mumbai-based outdoor-advertising company Laqshya Media is gearing up for a fresh round of funding – as one commentator on India's screen media suggests the sector needs a $200m injection of private capital over the next two years.
According to local reports, Laqshya is discussion with several companies including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston, but Warburg Pincus is being tipped to acquire a 15-20 percent equity
U.S. VCs like digital signage, but criteria are tough
Screen-media companies must have a unique value proposition if they want to get anywhere with venture-capital (VC) funding, a leading U.S. investor has told SCREENS.tv.
According to David S. Rose, chairman of investment group New York Angels, the digital-signage sector is still relatively low-profile in the investor community compared to other recent boom areas such as social networking – but awareness of its potential is growing rapidly.
GPRS “cheaper and more flexible” than broadband
Managing screens via mobile-phone connections can work out cheaper and more flexible than using fixed-line broadband, says Britain's Remote Media.
The company is partnering with mobile-phone network operator Vodafone to enable users of its Signagelive software-as-a-service platform to reconfigure the physical layout of their screen-media networks without having to reroute fixed wiring.
Future Media wins MyDollarStore, two malls
India's Future Media has secured media rights to the nationwide MyDollarStore retail chain as well as two malls in Mumbai, as the in-store TV operator strives to extend its reach beyond parent Future Group's own properties.
The deals cover in-store television brand Future TV and Future Visual Spaces, which includes facades, standees, kiosks, banners, floor stickers, elevator branding and show windows.
Partho Dasgupta, managing director and CEO of
Market growth expected in east Africa
A South African digital-signage company is opening a new office in Nairobi – with the aim of securing contracts in Kenya and nearby countries such as Tanzania and Uganda, one of the quietest regions of the world in terms of screen-media activity.
It is the first office outside of South Africa for Cape Town's Tactile Technologies, which last year secured a deal to act as African distributor for U.S.
