Microsoft announced last week that it will jettison DVD and Blu-Ray playback support for Windows Media Player in Windows 8. This is more fuel on the bonfire of physical media. The DVD format, first introduced in 1996, and its 2003 successor Blu-Ray, will be passed this year in viewing volume by online paid video downloads. The legal, paid consumption of movies online in the United States will reach 3.4B views or transactions in 2012, approximately 1.0B units higher than the 2.4B for physical video for this year (according to analytics provider HIS). Will moving content to the Cloud be good for the consumer? Good for the end users in technology industries including pro AV? If content comes from the Cloud, who owns it?
–David KeeneClick here to read the story.

Expensive private colleges, offering online courses, free of charge? Recently, Stanford, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan also formed a new company, Coursera, with more free online courses. Yet headlines are full of rising tuition costs at universities, and pressure on cost-cutting. The education market is one of the last markets where educational information technology– not IT, but textbooks– is still bound by antiquated and monopolistic practices. Professors are now creating their own “textbook” content, in all-digital form, and are starting to clash with both their own schools (who like to own all IP) and with traditional textbook publishers. News such as this means all sides are trying out new learning platforms to test the waters and prepare for tidal waves of change in who owns what, and delivers what, to whom, in the world of Education.
– David Keene

Click here to read the story.

This article touches on so many of my anxieties covering our industries– I don’t know where to start. After stumbling over that popular red herring of “Vegas excess”, the writer wonders why there’s no WiFi on the show floor at most trade shows (sorry, NYT, but the pseudo-economic analysis is off-track– it’s the same reason there’s no free WiFi on a commercial flight, or in most airports: monopoly on the venue means exorbitant connection fees– only in the case of the LVCC it’s hundreds of dollars for a connection, not $15/day). Bad food at McCormick Place? Go to the huge, successful ISE show in Amsterdam (where you can have a nice business lunch steps away from the show floor), and then explain why at the LVCC you have to stand in line for an hour for inedible overpriced food.The convention and meeting business was staggered by the recession, and only in the last year or so started to dig itself out of the slump. Now, meeting organizers have a new worry: the rising costs of meeting the needs of younger attendees who are accustomed to sophisticated technology at home and disinclined to do without it at, say, the Las Vegas Convention Center.

–David Keene

Click here to read the story.

This rather tech/geeky news about LCD panel production details may not seen like it will impact your business, but if you’re in pro AV, digital signage, or custom home theater markets, it will. Remember a decade or so ago, when Texas Instruments began shipping more basic DLP light engines to their video projector OEM partners– as opposed to the complete light engine ready to go into a projector? That freed up the projection manufacturers to differentiate their products. For LCD TV makers, this shift in the LCD cell business, also, will allow them more flexibility in module and TV design, which should lead to greater product differentiation. Yet another reason the LCD panel is here to stay at the top of the display world for years to come:

http://www.displaysearchblog.com/2012/04/half-of-all-lcd-tv-panels-likely-to-be-cell-in-2012/

You don’t know it yet, but “Net-neutrality” is the most pressing technology issue in the U.S. For a good ten years, we have been living in a bizarre bandwidth wild west, where phone carriers, cable providers, ISP’s, and content providers have been giving away bandwidth for free to consumers– in an attempt to win market share. Like Netflix? Enjoy the free Netflix streaming while it lasts (“free” from your ISP I mean– you pay Netflix for the movie rental but you don’t pay a penny to your ISP for the massive downloading). This will all end soon– and consumers will be forced to pay for the exact amount of bandwidth they consume, and/or face “slowdowns” of download speed. This will also affect pro AV, IT, and pro Video– as bandwidth-sucking Apps and networks will be forced to pay “speed” fines to carriers and content providers.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/comcast-xbox-net-neutrality/#

David Keene– Major news from Sharp today, as the company just announced that Doug Albregts has joined the company’s Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) as president (that is, president of the company’s B2B business unit).

Albregts is a major figure in the industry. Albregts did a stint at NEC, and more recently Samsung, and is a veteran of this market who knows what works and what is too far down the slippery slope of commoditization.

Sharp has been shaking up the AV channel a bit of late, with some really aggressive new product pricing. They’ve introduced 60, 70, and 80 inch LED-backlit LCD panels at dealer costs that are– well, in my still Black Friday-tinged brain I can only say are too low to print here. All of the big Japanese and Korean flat panel makers have tweaked and re-tweaked their AV channel strategy in an attempt to balance direct to integrator marketing with big Distribution. It will be interesting to see how Sharp approaches the B2B market going into 2012, as a new generation of flat panels– with some combination of thinner bezels, more touch screen capability, and different kinds of LED backlight– come to market. Most importantly, we may finally see the pricing of large screen sizes– 70 inch, 80 inch, come down and start making more inroads against video projectors.

This is the press release today from Sharp:

DOUG ALBREGTS JOINS SHARP® ELECTRONICS AS PRESIDENT OF SHARP IMAGING AND INFORMATION COMPANY OF AMERICA (SIICA)

Mr. Albregts will focus on expanding Sharp’s leadership role in the business solutions sector

MAHWAH, NJ, November 29, 2011 -- Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA), a division of Sharp Electronics Corporation, today announced that Doug Albregts has joined the company’s Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA) as president. In his position, Mr. Albregts is responsible for directing the strategic growth and profitability of Sharp’s Business to Business (B2B) operations by increasing sales via channel and resellers, expanding market share and maintaining high levels of quality and innovation.
“We are fortunate to have someone with Doug Albregts’ skill set and industry experience join our organization and lead our business solutions strategy forward,” said Kozo Takahashi, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Sharp Electronics Corporation. “We are looking to Doug to successfully expand our engagement with customers, resellers and developers and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead. His customer focus, deep leadership capabilities and decisiveness will be true assets to SIICA.”
Doug Albregts brings vast experience in the B2B sector and a successful track record of developing sales and executing growth within the electronics industry. Most recently he was the vice president and general manager of the global prepaid and enterprise growth division at American Express. Prior to that, he held the position of vice president, enterprise business division, for Samsung. In that role, Albregts was responsible for strategy and development of the B2B and B2C growth initiatives as well as marketing and sales organizations. Albregts also held the position of vice president, general manager at Canvys, a division of Richardson Electronics, where he oversaw all aspects of the global division. Albregts began his career in the electronics industry at NEC. During his 12-year tenure with NEC, Albregts served in both marketing and sales positions culminating as senior vice president, sales, marketing and business development for both the commercial and consumer market segments.
"I’m very excited to have the opportunity to help expand Sharp’s leadership in its B2B industries,” said Albregts.
“Sharp is recognized for its ability to engineer the industry’s most innovative and intuitive products and solutions.
I look forward to supporting Sharp’s goals of leveraging core technologies into emerging markets and aligning Sharp’s development with our customers’ evolving needs.”

Doug Albregts graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a Bachelor of Arts degree and also holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from Loyola University Chicago.

Sharp Electronics Corporation is the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Sharp Corporation, a worldwide developer of one-of-a-kind home entertainment products, appliances, networked multifunctional office solutions, solar energy solutions, LED lighting and mobile communication and information tools. Leading brands include AQUOS® Quattron™ LCD televisions and 3DTVs, SharpVision® projectors, Insight® Microwave Drawer® ovens, Notevision® multimedia projectors and Plasmacluster® air purifiers. For more information visit Sharp Electronics Corporation at www.sharpusa.com. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter and watch us on YouTube.

• CETW (Customer Engagement Technology World) in New York last week was a good place to catch up with some folks, as we start winding up 2011. Smaller trade shows and/or conferences are often good places to more calmly take in trends in the industry– or at least to step back and look at some quieter trends without the hype of a 20,000 or 50,000 attendee trade event. I’m not sure significant trends showed themselves on the trade show floor– but at a quieter, more compact show, it’s possible to find the people you’ve come to meet– and sit down for some nice conversation (at some nice Tribeca joints, preferably).
• CETW has always stated that its mandate was to attract end users. And as the name of the event implies, we’re talking mainly Digital Out of Home (DOOH), not digital signage in general. And if it’s in New York– were talking, who? Well, Brands, Retailers, and/or Agencies. Just one of those camps showing up would be a victory. In an informal survey of exhibitors towards the close of the show on Thursday, I heard positive feedback that in fact some prominent end users were on the floor, making contacts. Agencies? I’m not sure. I know that several prominent Retailers were there.
• I would not stretch to try to extrapolate trends from the modest number of exhibitors at CETW. It’s more a case of just hearing a few things above the noise that consumes so many larger shows. Last week, I wrote about NanoLumens’ new LED line; about some major acquisition and people news from Saddle Ranch, and ComQi. On the subject of content producers (Saddle Ranch), it’s interesting to note that NanoLumens had the guys from PixelFire in their booth– as PixelFire provided the content that ran on the NanoLumens screens. I had a chance to catch up with Steve Bumstead, President of Pixelfire at CETW last week. They’re doing some very interesting things– a lot of them in that cauldron of digital signage that is Times Square. Times Square in New York is in fact evolving rapidly. The digital signage there is multiplying like, well, wildfire, or pixel fire I suppose is a good way to describe it. And PixelFire is doing some amazing things. I’m talking not just about throwing up content on the big screens (that would be impressive enough, if you seen the mishmash of formats there). I’m talking major movie premiers, where live Times Square content is synched with other media. I’m talking literally blocking off traffic in Times Square and doing a live event that, oh yes, includes digital signage on gargantuan screens. Amazing things. (Can you spell SMPTE code, and digital signage. When have you heard SMPTE and digital signage used in the same sentence? That would be never.)
• Touching on a few topics that you can’t ignore in digital signage, Kiosks, and projection for digital signage, CETW offered a few tidbits.
• Remember that CETW really is an extension of the old “Kioskcom” show– and that Kiosks, as opposed to digital signage, are still key to the event. There was some buzz at the show about Kodak’s presence there. Not so much about what Kodak was showing or announcing there, but about Kodak itself. After acquisitions in the digital signage space, what’s up with Kodak? They have the muscle to make an impact. We can probably cut to the chase: Kodak, with their in-store kiosks for consumer photo processing, has real estate in pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. So their execs think they can flip that physical and bandwidth real estate over to digital signage. They probably can. But it appears they are going after the low hanging fruit: marketing low-end digital signage/photo frame solutions directly to retailers. Probably not much there for either the channel, or interactive digital signage that is the future.
• On the projection front, Casio showed at CETW. Casio is unique in the market, of projector manufacturers. They use one laser combined with an LED illuminated DLP light engine in the Casio GREEN SLIM Projector. It’s really a revolutionary product, because it’s a “lamp free” projector. In the past, high lumen output has not been their forte. But they have a 4K lumen unit now, that they showed at CETW.

• Saddle Ranch Productions, who have established their position in the industry over the last several years as a good boutique content creation company, briefed me yesterday at CETW in New York on their acquisition of Seatac Digital Resources. In a move designed to reposition the company from being a pure content provider to having a broader range of digital signage content services, the new company is renamed Saddle Ranch Digital (SRD). Interestingly, this news comes on the heels of the announcement Oct. 26 that that Paul Flanigan had joined Saddle Ranch as the VP of Content Strategy. Things are moving fairly quickly at Saddle Ranch.
• I sat down yesterday in New York with Kim Sarubbi, President/CEO of Saddle Ranch Productions, who will become President/CEO of Saddle Ranch Digital. Kim has been at the helm of Saddle Ranch since its inception when it was spun off as a pure content provider from Phil Cohen’s digital signage networks, and is looking now to guide it into a new landscape where providing some form of “Managed Services” is becoming increasingly important. I’ve written on this forum many times about this move to Managed Services, but this is a bit different.
• As complex as the selection of Digital Signage Content Management Software is, in terms of being able to launch a digital signage system with compelling content, the greater challenge is ensuring that the content on the screens is compelling a year after the launch. That is why we’ve heard a lot this past year about “Managed Services” for digital signage– in other words, there is a big need now for companies to provide the management of the digital signage system after it is installed. But note that this move by Saddle Ranch into a more complete kind of content services is addressing more the front end– Saddle Ranch is seeking now to manage content creation services more fully from the start of the project– not get involved in systems or rollout or maintenance managed services. This is a natural evolution, as Saddle Ranch was often partnering with Seatac on projects, leveraging Seatac’s depth of experience– led by Eric Brown, now he Executive VP of Business Development at SRD–on the integrating of disparate digital platforms and formatting content to navigate the distribution minefield that is digital signage.
• In formal language, according to Saddle Ranch’s press release yesterday, “The newly formed company provides marketers and network operators with a go-to planning resource for end-to-end solutions encompassing content consulting, custom content development, content management, digital architecture, and advanced media integration. “This strategic move makes sense for our continued growth and positions us to bring greater value to our clients. SRD’s mission is to ensure a 100% success rate with a complete understanding of a client’s wants and needs,” said Kim Sarubbi.
• For information:
• Kim Sarubbi
• President/CEO
• 310.746.5652
• kim@saddleranchdigital.com

LED walls have been around for years, so it can be hard to get excited about new product launches. Historically LED has been some combination of too expensive, physically heavy, and energy-sucking to make many inroads from its perch in the world of sports stadiums and a some rock concerts to the broader world of digital signage. This is changing– case in point, this week’s debut of a broad line of new LED products from NanoLumens at the Customer Engagement Technology World show in New York.

NanoLumens has been showing a few products at trade events for the past couple years, but this week’s news brings them to a new level. They are showing this week a new line of products that demonstrate depth and breadth– both outdoor and indoor LED, from 10mm down to 4mm resolution. And NanoLumens’ displays are carving a fairly new niche– they are flexible, literally. They have options where you can bend the displays around walls, cylinders, and more. Furthermore, when you bend a Nanolumens LED display, the pixels remain at the same intervals from each other– a nice trick, keeping a “single bend line” to the pixels– and so pixel pitch uniformity– that the company claims is patented and sets them apart. Looking at the displays yesterday in New York, I was also struck by the very flat nature of the surfaces. In other words, the LED diodes, in their RGB clusters, seem upon touch to blend into the substrate, not protrude out or recess inward. This is different from a lot of the older LED designs where often black plastic or metal “shelves” or shades were designed into the surface to act against direct sunlight in outdoor applications for example (which often led to off-axis viewing degradation).

This is the press release from NanoLumens:

NANOLUMENS® TO INTRODUCE EXPANDED LINE OF FLEX AND NON-FLEX DISPLAYS AT THE 2011 CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY WORLD CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK

NanoLumens® (www.nanolumens.com), the pioneering Norcross, Georgia based company that last year introduced the world to large format flexible digital display technology, today announced it will introduce an expanded line of Flex Displays, as well as its first line of Non-Flexible Displays, at the 2011 Customer Engagement Technology World (CETW) conference and exhibition taking place in New York at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, November 9-10, 2011 (www.cetworld.com). In doing so, the company will take a giant leap forward in its quest to fully commercialize its revolutionary “digital wall paper” technology that literally turns any surface into a powerful communications platform — while eliminating virtually all of the weight, installation, energy, and cost efficiency issues associated with traditional large format digital displays.

First introduced in 2010, NanoFlex™ and new NanoWrap™ flex digital displays remain the only solution of their kind. They conform to fit any surface, are thin, lightweight, energy efficient and can be mounted as easily as a work of art. The revolutionary flex display technology shattered the traditional usage limitations of large format digital displays.

“Our Flex technology can now be assembled to satisfy any shape and size requirements, so any location can now become a dynamic and dramatic video display” said Rick Cope, President & CEO of NanoLumens. “At the same time, our new line of NanoSlim™ and NanoShape™ non-flexible displays, available in 6mm, 5mm, and 4mm pixel pitches, will offer customers a more cost-effective alternative when flexibility is not a requirement.”

According to Cope, NanoLumens is the only company in the world able to reliably manufacture ultra-thin and lightweight, easy-to-install and maintain, seamless 6mm pixel pitch flexible digital displays in virtually any shape or size to meet each customer’s unique requirements.

The company’s patented display technology, which allows customers to select from 4mm up to 10mm pixel pitches (depending on the model), promises to transform the way marketers engage their customers indoors and out of doors in every type of trade show, retail, hospitality, stadium, arena, transportation and public event environment.

“Now, any surface can become a compelling display surface as simply as hanging a mirror,” Cope emphasized. “This product line is going to forever change the rules of the game when it comes to creative customer engagement.”

In addition to being ultra-lightweight and energy efficient, NanoLumens displays feature a seamless, edge-to-edge picture quality (up to a brightness of 5,000 nits) that can be viewed from any angle or any distance without color shift or picture drop-off. Designed and engineered to be energy efficient, NanoLumens displays consume significantly less energy per-square foot than conventional digital displays. Further underscoring their commitment to eco-friendly technology, the NanoLumens displays are composed of up to 50% reclaimed materials, and are completely recyclable. What’s more, some new NanoLumens displays can be serviced from the front, making maintenance easier than ever before possible.

Designed and assembled entirely in the United States, NanoLumens displays are now available in both flexible and non-flexible frames in four product lines: NanoFlex™ and NanoWrap™ flexible displays; NanoSlim™ non-flexible rectangular displays; and NanoShape™ non-flexible round, square, and triangular displays.

“As the industry’s premier showcase of customer engagement technology solutions, we are tremendously excited to serve as the platform for the launch of this remarkable company and its expanded product line”, said General Manager Lawrence Dvorchik. “When CETW attendees experience the NanoLumens product line, they are going to look at customer engagement in a totally new way.” According to Dvorchik, NanoLumens displays will be featured throughout the CETW exhibit area as well, because of their compelling uniqueness.

The company’s technology has been recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as a 2011 future-proof tech trend and was cited by The Wall Street Journal in its 2010 Technology Innovations Awards. NanoLumens’ technology also received the 2011 Breakthrough Technology of the Year Award at the American Technology Awards.

For more information about NanoLumens DIGITAL Flex and Non-Flexible Displays, please visit www.nanolumens.com or call (678) 421-9694.

About Customer Engagement Technology World:
For 15 years, Customer Engagement Technology World has delivered strategic, marketing and technical business strategies & solutions for organizations focused on enhancing their customer engagement programs through digital media such as digital signage, self-service, digital out-of-home/place based media, mobile, interactive kiosks and other customer-facing technologies. For more information or to register, visit www.CETWorld.com or call 203-371-6322

Dovetailing with their presence at the CETW in New York, ComQi has added three key people to the U.S. sales team. They are Wendy Bosley, National Account Manager; Art Williams, Account Executive; and Todd Wulfert, Strategic Account Director. Wendy came most recently from Christie Digital, and will focus on the digital signage for retail market. Todd Wulfert is a veteran technology sales and marketing professional from Silicon Valley and has done turns at Panasonic, Philips and Scala. Art Williams has extensive experience working with end-users on designing optimal media solutions, with Disney, IBM and Add Awareness.

A pretty impressive lineup to add all in one shot, showing a lot of ambition in the U.S. market. Also interesting at the ComQi booth at CETW this week: ComQi was doing a demo with Shazam. Very nice application: Any advertisement or piece of content with audio can be made interactive.

Here is background on Shazam:

Making Digital Signage Advertising Interactive

As the consumer continues to gain power in the conversation with brands through the rise of social media and the ubiquity of mobile phones, it is becoming increasingly clear that reaching consumers effectively is no longer a question of the old model of reach and frequency but about an effective engagement between and consumer and the brand.

Advertisers and brands are beginning to engage with customers using Facebook, Twitter, and their websites both when the customer is at home and when on the go.

Digital signage has been one of the most effective means of reaching consumers when they are out of the home. It has been an effective medium in a variety of venues ranging from airports to physicians’ offices to retail stores to fast food restaurants. However almost all digital signage interactions to date have been a one-way medium with one-sized fits all media. Digital Signage advertising has typically been sold on a CPM basis, in line with other media such as television and print. In contrast, the web has evolved into more sophisticated advertising models including click-through, activations and renumeration based on actual purchases.

ComQi believes that the future of Digital Signage is in Multi-Channel Message Management, in embracing these new ways of reaching consumers so the medium becomes both a one-to-many as well as a one-to-one medium. This will enable advertisers to, in addition or instead of a CPM basis, pay on a cost per activation basis, when consumers actually interact with the advertising.

To this end ComQi has developed an interaction management platform that allows consumers to interact with Digital Signage in a number of ways. The first we are bringing to market is a partnership with Shazam to allow users to interact with Digital Signage that has audio using their mobile phones.

ComQi and Shazam

ComQi has partnered with Shazam to use the power of Shazam’s technology as well as their large installed base to make digital signage interactive. Here is how it works.

Any advertisement or piece of content with audio can be made interactive
ComQi will put a ‘Shazam Call For Action’ logo on the screen of the ad or piece of content
Users can Shazam this using their Shazam App on their smartphone (available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry)
They will get back an engaging rich media experience on their phone that can include any content the brand wishes to include, for example:
More information on the product
Videos
Coupons

Benefits

The benefits to the advertiser are that they can engage with customers easily using a pre-existing app and don’t have to get consumers to download anything new. They can provide a rich experience with this engagement and will get back detailed data from ComQi on how many people interacted as well as their phone details (if opted in).

The benefit to the network is that they can charge a significant premium to advertisers through a cost per activation. In addition, networks can also put the Shazam logo on their own content so that consumers can refer to it later. For instance, a health video in a physician’s office can be Shazam’d so that people can see the video again later when there are at home. This will help build the network’s brand with the consumer.

See Youtube ComQi / Shazam video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoUK9bq-XRU&feature=player_detailpage

Those of you not familiar with Tom Stimson, should be. Tom is the top industry consultant in the U.S. advising live event staging companies on management and profitability issues. He’s a rare commodity in an industry where most MBA’s got their credentials through management by anxiety. His is a bona fide MBA– which would be unimpressive were it not tied to both 25+ years in this industry and a recent stint as President of InfoComm.

Enough flattery– what’s less known is that Stimson is a no-nonsense analyst who knows as much about the systems integration side of the fence and newer markets as he does about the live event market. Including how to get out of your box, and find new sources of revenue– not vague blue-sky stuff about exploring new markets, but real-world advice, on how, for example, to restructure the sales commission structure and the BizDev structure in your company to ensure that new business is brought in, from new places. Digital Signage is an example of where new business is waiting to be found. It won’t be, without first changing the internal structure of your company, Stimson holds. I’ve attended countless seminars over the years, on “new markets”. (If I have to sit through another PowerPoint on the “potential of digital signage”, I’ll scream.) Rarely does a presenter cut the hype and tell you precisely how to retool your own company–processes, not people, thank you– if you want new business and if you want the business you get to be profitable (what a concept).

Check out Tom Stimson’s newsletter and website: http://trstimson.com/

A few of Stimson’s thoughts on 2012:

Business Forecast for 2012

I know some of you are planning your budgets for next year, because I am being asked what I think the 2012 outlook is like. Between the world economic news, an irrational stock market, and an election year in the U.S., I can understand being cautious about 2012. I won't speak to the macro-economic situation but I can tell you what I think are significant trends.

· I am not hearing about any specific industry, channel, or segment that is in a downturn with the exception of K-12 markets.

· I am not hearing of any regions that are still depressed (other than the usual laggards), but I do hear about regional AV companies that are suffering. At the same time I often hear about AV companies that are thriving in the same region. (Not all problems are economic or regional.)

· The capital markets seem to be full of money looking for places to invest.

· Private equity is quietly moving again. M&A activity is up. Right now some private companies are selling because they can't fix their problems by themselves. Soon we should see good mergers showing up (a good merger is 1+1=3). The funding is there, but private equity either wants a bargain or home run.

· We have had a few major bankruptcies and I expect more. Why? Because companies with poor cash flow and unprofitable business models simply can't find any more financing.

· Margins generally remain down especially in the contract bid world where there seems to be no bottom. Some companies are buying revenue at negative returns. Why? I have no idea.

· Direct relationship selling is yielding improving margins, but much of this work is still being shopped around by the customer. Still, the smart money is on enterprise and relationship sales methods.

· Lead times are increasing on low-margin projects and shrinking on others (more time to shop for desperate contractors). Time to make short lead time projects more profitable!

Sometimes it’s the little things at a trade show, that stand out. In the case of Belden 2221 microphone cable, it truly is the little things that matter sometimes. Stephen Lampen, CBRE, RCDD, the Multimedia Technology Manager at Belden, tells me that their premiere 1800F line now has a mini version. Soon there will also be a stereo version, 2222. This series is made for the smaller connectors found in the marketplace. Also in the Belden booth is the new 1694WB outdoor, direct burial, underwater, water-blocking RG-6/U coax video cable for transmission of HD-SDI signals underwater.

Mike Edelman with Belden also showed me the new Telecast Copperhead 3400 camera adapter and base station allowing total communication and control to/from the production camera over fiber-optic up to 1000’. It warmed the heart of this old production guy.

As an aside, Stephen was also just named the NSCA Educator of the Year. Congratulations to him!

When I ran into Jay Kirtley, National Sales Manager for Tightrope (I know their products are top-rate already), he said, “Follow me.” We walked me over to the Digital View booth (part of the Digital Signage area) to see their really nice looking digital signage displays with no bezel! Check them out.

Then I ran into Gary Fuller from Christie, not in the Christie booth, but in the Infitec Global Sales booth way at the end of the hall in booth 6169. Here were two of Christie’s projectors making gorgeous 3D images. Gary says that they are going to make a new push for higher-end 3D using technology like Infitec’s.

Next door was Jonathan Brawn talking about the new joint venture between Brawn Consulting, Insight Media and New Bay Media to bring training “to the masses” through the newly formed Insight Media University. Check out the offerings at www.IMUniversity.com

If you have not heard about the new sustainability initiative from InfoComm you should check out STEP on the InfoComm website. Scott Walker, Principal at Waveguide Consulting has led the efforts to create this program to provide “a tool for owners and technology providers to plan for and implement sustainable practices in their technology projects.” A foundation to support these efforts has been formed by InfoComm and CompTIA.

Scott also shared a few of his favorite things from the show floor. He likes the improvements to the Prysm LPD system, the broad array of products in the Haivision booth, and the new integrated systems approach being shown in the Arrive Systems booth. He says the new offerings from AMX will be good for the competitive nature of the industry. He was intrigued by the Wolfvision 3D Visualizer. It makes sense – place the object on the base and show it on the classroom’s 3D projector.

Tim Cape from Technitect, LLC tells me that we should all check out the new touchscreen offerings at Universal Remote Control (URC). This leader in universal remotes has produced some possible winners in a new arena for them.

I had lots to see on the last day of the InfoComm show…

On Friday I arrived in Orlando to teach the three-day AV/IT Integration class at the InfoComm Institute for Professional Development. The mixed class of AV and IT personnel from around the world are attending the class to gain enough knowledge so that the AV guys can talk intelligently to the IT guys and vice versa. My teaching partner is Max Kopsho, CTS-D, CTS-I, MCSE, the new VP, Business Development for Arrive Systems out of Dubai. Max is Arrive’s first U.S. employee and will be putting a team together to attack the marketplace with their elegant mixture of software and hardware to handle integration issues for a broad range of clients. His booth should be as popular this year as it was last year.

Our 30 class participants surprised me when polled as to what they were going to be seeking on the show floor. It was mostly the usual mix – new displays for conference rooms, classrooms, newer technologies like laser or OLED, matrix switchers, screens and rear projection, video conferencing, testing equipment, fiber, and, interestingly, iPad control of system components.

The surprise was what wasn’t mentioned – 3D, digital signage and pico projectors. Only when as I was walking back to my hotel did Greg Bronson, Classroom Technology Project Leader at Cornell, even mention a pending digital signage deployment. Near the end of class on Sunday we cover AVB and the AVnu alliance and its possible impact, followed by digital signage and its attachment to and delivery over networks.

Walking through the bar couple nights ago, I ran into Mario Maltese, CTS-D, CTS-I with Audio Visual Resources, Inc. Mario has been the biggest proponent and practitioner of commissioning in the AV industry for years, making sure the SYSTEM is right for hundreds of customers. We had an interesting conversation about a new non-profit corporation that he and a group of concerned individuals recently formed - AQAV, the Association for Quality in Audio Visual Technology, Inc.

The goal of this new organization is the creation of standards for qualitymanagement for audiovisual systems, looking at the teams that design and install the systems. Apart from commissioning, this would ensure that the customer will get what they want!

Where InfoComm trains and certifies individuals, AQAV will train and certify companies. Using the individuals InfoComm has certified, the goal would be to have a CTS-D sign off on AQAV installations.

The result is that a company can be hired to do a job and it is accomplished successfully with no “punch list”, because the company has the management systems in place to assure that everything happens properly. This wraps around the ISO9000 standard, with industry specific metrics for AV and would be named AV9000:2011 – an ANSI standard. This is to AV what Quest (a separate organization) is to TIA in the telecommunications world.

Interesting… (OR It will be interesting to see how the industry embraces this new push for quality.)

Mike Weems, CTS, MCP

Coming off a very successful Digital Signage Expo a couple months back, where Alan and Jonathan Brawn were highly instrumental in organizing a very interesting DSF (Digital Signage Federation) booth as well as doing extensive digital signage trainings sessions at the DSE, things have been heating up for Brawn Consulting. Today, two announcements were made public: Brawn Consulting’s new agreement with Almo; and Brawn’s new relationship with Hiperwall. These new consulting gigs for Brawn, are but a part of that company’s wide role in the industry, but they are indicative of some larger and interesting trends.

As Distribution takes a bigger role in the industry– both the digital signage market, and in the broader AV market– the role of the Distributor is changing. But it’s complicated: the role of the Distributor is changing, to address the changing structure of most Manufacturers in the AV industry. For good or bad, the days of the large or small manufacturer having the big bandwidth– financial, human resource, network of reps and dealers– is for the most part past. That is why the big AV Distributors are now taking a more active role in not just distributing more, and more kinds of, products, but also in training, support, education.

BTW, I learned of Brawn’s new relationship with Almo, at Almo’s E4 event in Dallas a few weeks back. The news was just officially released today. And, you can see video footage we shot at the Almo E4 event, of Sam Taylor talking about the Almo/Brawn agreement, in the video player window on the home page of:

click here, and go to video window top right of page, to see Sam Taylor talk about their relationship with Brawn Consulting

The other trend in Digital Signage: the return of the “Video Wall”. Faster, cheaper, more robust video processing; thinner mullions; and other factors now point to a resurgence of the multi-screen Video Wall. See the second press release, from today, below the Almo release, about Brawn Consulting’s new role with Hiperwall.

These are the two separate Press Releases, put out today:

Almo Professional A/V Enters Exclusive
Agreement With Brawn Consulting

Agreement Provides Access to Training, Consulting and Technical Support; Focus on AMX, LG Video Teleconferencing and Christie Product Lines

Philadelphia, PA — May 12, 2011 — In another distributor first, Almo Professional A/V, the nation’s fastest growing audiovisual distributor, today announced an exclusive agreement with Brawn Consulting. Under the terms of the agreement, Almo Pro A/V’s partners now have access to additional training, consulting and technical support by Brawn Consulting, specifically for Almo’s AMX, LG Video Teleconferencing and Christie product lines.

“Almo Pro A/V now carries product lines that are designed for complex and customizable AV installations,” explained Sam Taylor, executive vice president and COO of Almo Professional A/V. “These lines are not widely distributed so they help our partners earn higher margins. However, because of their intricacy these products also require additional support.” He continued, “The Brawn Consulting team understands the technical aspects of the AMX, LG Video Teleconferencing and Christie MicroTiles products. As a result of our agreement with Brawn, Almo partners now have a knowledgeable resource directly available to give them the edge they need to properly manage installs that incorporate these products.”
According to Alan Brawn, principal of Brawn Consulting, “We have evolved from a manufacturer-direct model to a distribution model. The key in this evolution is maintaining the service that the former model provided.” He added, “Almo ensures that the service to dealers is not only maintained but increased by bringing Brawn Consulting on board to support individual lines. The entire industry benefits because this is the first example showing that a distributor can truly differentiate by providing tangible value to resellers beyond the products.”
Almo Pro A/V offers AMX’s Integrated Controllers, Modero Touch Panel / DVX bundles, switchers, amplifiers and a modular port system, along with the AMX Inspired Xpresshardware and software control systems, which give partners more choices of how to customize and complete their digital signage and other general professional AV projects. Brawn Consulting will be involved with Almo’s AMX Digital Signage Solution Provider Program, which provides training and certification on AMX’s Inspired Xpress, special pricing on demo units, free shipping, preferred pricing and more.
The LG Video Conferencing System (VCS) provides an intuitive interface as well as easy-to-install hardware. Its broad compatibility with external media devices and software applications also enables users to connect different types of displays such as televisions, desktop monitors, and projectors. IP technologies work together to optimize the video teleconferencing environment to transmit video and audio that is not only clear and sharp but also secure.

Earlier this year, Almo entered into an agreement to distribute Christie MicroTiles, which are designed for demanding indoor, high-ambient-light environments. Christie MicroTiles use the strengths of DLP® projection light-emitting diode (LED) technology to offer substantially brighter images and a much wider color palette than conventional flat panel LCD and plasma displays. Almo Pro A/V partners will require authorization in order to purchase and sell Christie MicroTiles. Brawn Consulting will also provide support with this process. To begin authorization, partners should click here.

# # #
About Almo Professional A/V
Almo Professional A/V is the nation’s fastest growing distributor serving the needs of professional audiovisual integrators, dealers and consultants. With a highly skilled sales team, reseller education programs, 10 distribution centers across the U.S. and product lines for the Pro A/V channel, Almo Professional A/V provides customers with the full distribution experience on a local and a personal level.

The Almo Professional A/V sales team is InfoComm-trained and the majority is CTS-certified. Almo Professional A/V has aligned with InfoComm International to offer courses worth CTS renewal units that enable partners to stay ahead. At the same time, the division works with industry vendors to bring live and online product training opportunities directly to channel partners.

Almo Professional A/V distributes all the leading displays and peripherals, with new manufacturers and products being added each day. Markets served include bar and restaurant, corporate, digital signage, education, government, healthcare, home theater, hospitality, house of worship, and rental & staging.

Almo Professional A/V is a division of Almo Corp., the nation’s leading independent distributor of consumer electronics and major appliances. For more information about Almo Professional A/V, please call 410-560-2890 or go to www.almoproav.com. Almo Professional A/V can also be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/almoproav.

HIPERWALL SELECTS BRAWN CONSULTING TO
STRENGTHEN RESELLER PROGRAM

A Stronger Reseller Program will Make Dealers More Effective in Delivering Turn-Key Video Wall Solutions.

IRVINE, CA – May, 2011 – Hiperwall, Inc., the leader in innovative, affordable video wall technology, is announcing its selection of Brawn Consulting to strengthen the company’s reseller program to help resellers provide their customers with a better experience in researching, purchasing, installing and using a Hiperwall video wall.
Brawn Consulting is a leader in providing companies with complete reseller programs that include educational curriculums and customized content for the AV, IT, and digital signage industries and in offering resellers with application tutorials, solutions, technical training, and prime benefits to clearly differentiate Hiperwall’s high-performance low-cost video wall system and their competitors. Brawn Consulting has more than ‘half-a-century’ of Pro AV experience with companies such as Samsung Electronics and other commercial AV manufacturers and system integrators. Alan Brawn, founder of Brawn Consulting, is the recipient of many industry awards and is a Director of ISF Commercial, a senior faculty member of InfoComm, and Vice Chairman of the Digital Signage Federation.
“We recognize that our dealers want and need a complete reseller program from us,” said Hiperwall CEO Jeff Greenberg. “We want our dealers to be well equipped to fully realize the breadth of what they can accomplish with video walls when they have all the resources to meet their needs. Brawn will help us re-design our reseller program to educate, guide and support our dealers’ educate, guide and support their customers through the entire video wall purchasing process.”
A high-performance, affordable and scalable video wall system, the ground-breaking Hiperwall software eliminates the need for complex, expensive hardware, making large scale visualization solutions available to a much broader range of companies and government agencies.
“Our goal is to provide Hiperwall an industry leading reseller program with best practices in the area of sales, management, technical training and services in seeking a proven path to success,” said Jonathan Brawn, a principal at Brawn Consulting. “We are pleased to be named Hiperwall’s partner and look forward to growing and enabling their reseller base to more effectively market, sell and support Hiperwall’s technology.”
The Hiperwall software solution is hardware agnostic and requires only ordinary PCs, ordinary monitors and an ordinary Ethernet network. The system displays still images up to 1GB resolution or larger in displaying HD movies, live HD video streams and PC applications, turning a bank of monitors into an ultra-high resolution video wall. Multiple feeds can be displayed on the wall simultaneously and users can reposition and resize each feed as easily as moving and resizing windows on a PC desktop. Each feed can be scaled up for viewing on several monitors or the entire wall instantly depending upon the user’s discretion.
With its completely scalable architecture, the Hiperwall system is uniquely suited to meet the visual communication requirements of many diverse applications including digital signage, education and command and control rooms at government, military, utility and telecommunications installations, trading floors, medical/scientific imaging, aerial imaging, broadcast, fleet management and more.
“We’ve been a service-focused company from the start,” said Greenberg. “By adding Brawn to our team, we’re hoping to grow relationships with our dealers so that they can consider us a part of their Pro AV team instead of just a product vendor. We believe Brawn will validate our commitment to supporting and partnering with our resellers.”

About Brawn Consulting
Visit www.brawnconsulting.com

• The Swiss company Spinetix, that made a lot of noise at InfoComm last month by winning a variety of product awards, is in the news again, this time with news of a furthering of their platform development with Texas Instruments. A move that will allow the technology to be incorporated into flat panel and/or projectors.
• Background: The Spinetix HMP100 media player represented a novel approach when introduced last year, as Spinetix uses SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). Going this route– it’s something akin to Apple doing an end-run around Flash, to try to establish more small package, efficient video processing in its iPhone and iPad. Spinetix’ SVG approach makes for a small media player that has more horsepower than all the tiny Flash-based media players out there, and it uses very little power.
• Here’s the text of the press release from yesterday:
• SpinetiX announces technology relationship with Texas Instruments
• Green SpinetiX technology selected by Texas Instruments for third-party LCD panels and projectors
• Lausanne, Switzerland, 14 July 2010: SpinetiX is delighted to announce a new business relationship with Texas Instruments (TI), the globally renowned silicon manufacturer, supporting SpinetiX technology as its reference designer for digital signage solutions.
• SpinetiX currently uses Texas Instruments’ DaVinci™ video processors in its dedicated digital signage appliance, the HMP100™ Hyper Media Player. The processor performs real-time video decoding and high-definition scene composition, enabling customers to meet the requirements of changing standards in video codecs and provide software updates and new features to field-deployed units. Now the two companies are taking their partnership further, with TI’s ready-to-incorporate SpinetiX technology into its microprocessor chips for third-party LCD panels and projectors, tailored to digital signage applications.

“We want our chips to enable manufacturers to produce a product that is both a display and a digital signage player, all in one box,” said Debasish ‘Ron’ Nag, director of business development, TI. “After evaluating a number of possibilities, we have come to the conclusion that the SpinetiX solution is one of the great solutions for us and for our manufacturer partners.”

Nag adds that the low power consumption, open-ended architecture and low bandwidth demands of the SpinetiX appliance are all key factors behind TI’s support for the Swiss company’s technology.

“We’re in a world where saving energy is paramount, and our products are designed from day one with this in mind, not as an afterthought,” said Nag. “The power consumption of an LCD panel and its incorporated electronics is no more than 12 watts, while the SpinetiX HMP100 draws just two watts. By comparison, a personal computer consumes around 25 to30 watts of power. We also like the fact that the HMP100 can create content without Flash, which tends to take up a lot of processor bandwidth and memory.”

“We already have a great relationship with TI based on our use of their DaVinci video processors, so it seems only natural for us to collaborate with them on producing an ‘all-in-one’ digital signage solution for display manufacturers,” said Serge Konter, marketing manager, SpinetiX, “We are confident that our knowledge of the digital signage market, combined with TI’s programming expertise and long track record of successful partnership with the audio visual industry, will result in a solution that offers unrivalled flexibility, efficiency and affordability.”

The two companies are working on proof-of-concept models with screen manufacturers now and expect to make further announcements regarding this collaboration in the near future.

SpinetiX SA is a Swiss manufacturer of professional digital signage hardware devices. Find more information about SpinetiX products, and visit:

• It would not be the eve of InfoComm, without a room full of some of the world’s most experienced engineers and marketers debating the future of video projection, even as hundreds of booth personnel a few buildings over prepare the show floor for demos of thousands of today’s projection offerings. Over the years, as I arrived at InfoComm, I’ve sat in on the Projection Summit, and gotten a look at the latest developments in projection. Many years, it was all about more lumens from smaller packages, or mega-lumens from big packages. Or, of course, the inexorable move to higher and higher resolution.
• It seems like such a change in mindset, if not in the actual market this year. Getting more and more lumens out of Mercury lamps now seems like getting more horsepower out of push-rod V8 engines. And after 1080P, what’s left in terms of a new resolution standard to shoot for, for boardroom, classroom, or digital signage projection? Well, a lot. On Day One of the Projection Summit Monday, a veritable who’s who of projection turned their attention to what’s on developers’ and engineers’ minds this year, even as projection in general has had some of its thunder stolen by all those flat panels out there. But there could not be a better time for any one who loves projection, and who sees it as the best hope for re-energizing the AV, home theater, cinema, and digital signage markets as the economic recovery gains strength.
• A big theme for Day One of the Projection Summit: LED… LED… and more LED. Throw in Laser light engines, and it all spells the one term the average user needs to memorize: Solid State projection. And trust me, the solid state revolution promises (threatens?) to do to large swaths of the AV world what the transistor radio did to HiFi in decades past. Or what the iPod did to the CD market… you get the idea: it’s disruptive technology, and it’s here to stay.
• If you’ve been following the solid state projection story, you know the big issues. Stephane Bellosguardo, Director of Product Marketing, Luminus Devices, Inc., summed up the advantages of solid state in his session at the Projection Summit Monday:
• Solid State projectors:
• feature “Instant On”
• they are Green. No mercury lamps to replace. And they use less power to light up. For a lot of customers, that’s the one and only story, and a compelling one.
• Better color saturation, equals also: better perceived brightness
• At this point in the rollout, non-Pico sized LED-light engine DLP projectors, i.e. the biggest, brightest ones, are bumping around in the 700-1000 lumen level. This limitation is not due to the brightness capabilities of white LED phosphors. The limitation is due to two things: the relatively low brightness level of green LEDs; and more importantly, to the fact that LED phosphors put out too much heat when you juice them up to levels needed for anything north of about 1000 lumens.
• However, Bellosguardo predicts 2000 lumens from LED projectors by 2012. He should know, because his company makes virtually all the LED phosphors for solid state projectors today. (Luminus got a lot of experience doing the first ever LED-based DLP light engines, for the DLP rear projection TVs that Samsung first introduced 5 or 6 years ago.)
• But although Bellosguardo predicts 2000 lumens from LED projectors by 2012, he noted yesterday that “….. new products must be positioned relative to legacy products…” What did he mean? He meant that it’s not good enough to say, OK, we’re getting brighter with LED. We have to put out products that are easily understood and accepted by millions of consumers who have a set of habits and standards developed already, as regards brightness, price, and a host of other things. (Right now, there is a price premium for solid state projectors… even though of course the total cost of ownership is less over time.) So when even the guy who makes the core technology says it’s not a crystal clear path to market, you know there is not going to be some quick or complete transition to solid state.
• But just when you thought your old technology was safe, out of the blue came Casio, earlier this year, with … what? A “hybrid” projector? What the h___? Yes, that’s right, a laser and LED hybrid light source projector being marketed now, the Casio GREEN SLIM Projector. (Casio has only 5 years of experience making projectors)
• Frank Romeo, VP, Business Products, Casio America, Inc., gave the attendees of the Projection Summit the lowdown: In the LED only solid state model, the green level is low, it pulls down the overall brightness… and green has the most influence in perceived brightness. So Casio addressed this in their design: a Green Laser (instead of a green LED. The Green laser is pointed at a Phosphor wheel. On the wheel is both Green, and Blue phosphors, so the wheel is to produce both G and B, but also to minimize heat by rotating the area that is getting hit by the laser– to dissipate heat: this is still a problem and the Casio design is still not getting all the phosphor-degrading heat out efficiently enough.
• The Casio Hybrid Light System features:
• officially, 20,000 hour life
• Wider color gamut (both LEDs, and Lasers, produce a wider color gamut that mercury lamp based systems)
• According to Romeo, Casio was trying to accomplish two things, with this design:
• follow the RoHS: (EU) directive: “…if there is an alternative to mercury lamps, use it.”
• Casio also wanted to keep the projector under 2 inches in depth. Which they did.. the Green Slim projector is not much thicker than a big laptop computer, with about the same footprint.
• As Day One of the Projection Summit wrapped, and I turned my sights toward Day One of the InfoComm show floor, a few key issues came up, in my head, and from some of the Q&A from the Summit:
• what about resolution improvements, for Pico projectors?
• LED projectors have too big a price premium right now, to make big market share gains. Will this pricing change soon?
• Importantly, the LED revolution in lighting, is leading to economies of scale, that will come to the projector world… this could be the answer to the pricing patterns going forward.

NEC announced Tuesday this week, that it was making its VUKUNET digital signage software management platform available, free of charge, to any network operator (including those not using NEC hardware). The move has set off discussion about SaaS software models and SaaS market share wars, but that issue is not what this news is really about.

The real question, is whether NEC– or anyone– will be able to create a truly aggregated national “network buy” platform for DOOH.

As NEC’s Ashley Flaska wrote in the pages of the Digital Signage Best Practices Guide earlier this year, “ advertisers… won’t jump into digital signage aggressively if they have to catch each network on a hook instead of being able to cast a wide net across many networks at once. In other words, in order for advertisers to invest more of their budgets on digital signage networks, the networks should combine more screens and they should interact with ad agencies in the same way as traditional media.”
You can read the Digital Signage Best Practices Guid at:
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/ds_bestpractices/

Dilemma: to date, large advertisers just have not had the time or resources to contract with so many individual networks with various locations in hotels, universities, convention centers, airports, retail stores and other public spaces.

But what does this have to do with Vukunet? Isn’t Vukunet a SaaS digital signage content management software platform? What does that have to do with Advertisers?

Vukunet can not be separated, in terms of NEC’s strategy, from Advuku–NEC’s platform for allowing Ad agencies to do a national or regional, multi-network Ad buy.

Vukunet is coming along pretty well, in terms of getting small and medium size networks to sign up. This was the plan: get them first.

Bu why should larger networks sign up? Don’t the large national networks, who have spent years building their proprietary networks, be reluctant to share their clients and locations with all? The answer is same answer you’d get when analyzing any media: it’s all about inventory. Even the big networks already in place today, have lots of unused inventory. And eventually, they are going to want to broker that.

If Vukunet takes off in a big way, next step: taking Advuku to the next level, so that agencies can start placing the buys…..

This is the News release from NEC on Tuesday:

NEC Display Solutions has taken a step to accelerate the growth and success of the digital signage industry by making its full VUKUNET digital signage software management platform available, free of charge, to any network operator.

The VUKUNET Content Management System is a robust Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that is fully hosted, managed, and supported by NEC. Developed by NEC, the VUKUNET CMS meets or exceeds the capabilities of dozens of commercial SaaS digital signage solutions, but has none of the start-up or substantial monthly subscription fees that keep many networks from profitability.

”NEC is making it easier for companies to run digital signage networks by empowering them with tools that take out costs and help grow their businesses,” said Pierre Richer, president and COO of NEC Display. “We are trying to simplify the complexities of the signage market and drive this industry forward with a free CMS solution. The fragmentation of this industry is the biggest obstacle to growth, and those days are finally over.”

Launched in November 2009, the CMS solution is part of a suite of software products that comprise the VUKUNET platform. VUKUNET also includes a universal ad-serving solution with modules that enable network operators to make money through advertising, with no sales effort and minimal technical effort. The VUKUNET solution creates a sophisticated advertising marketplace that bridges ad buyers with networks, and largely automates the ad scheduling, playback and report process across hundreds or thousands of screens and networks.

When VUKUNET was first launched, the CMS solution was made available to networks that registered for ad-serving and to clients buying NEC Display products. Those restrictions have now been removed and any network, regardless of what display panels they use or whether or not they will make programming time available for VUKUNET-served ads, can take advantage of the free CMS.

“We strongly believe VUKUNET helps networks and the industry as a whole to succeed by offering a reliable, free solution that lets networks put their operating expenses instead into critical areas like content development,” explained Richer. “And then we offer a very simple way to generate new ad revenues, with NEC doing all the selling, execution and admin work for them.”

When I was invited to be a Judge, on another Awards contest for digital signage, I looked closely at the program (and eventually had a role in crafting its roll-out). This one is not just another awards program. The BlueMaxx Award promotes development around technologies and applications that enable interactivity between digital signs and mobile, handheld devices. This is at the heart of recent developments in digital signage, and I'm excited about being involved.

It is widely accepted that consumer interactivity is one of, if not the top driver of future success in the digital out-of-home industry (DOOH). Not only is it measurable, but it is engaging and stimulating. Consumers are becoming prolific in their use of handheld, often touch screen-enabled smart devices. As consumers become accustomed to receiving applications, coupons, and marketing information via their phones and gadgets with short-range communications, in-store marketers will seek new ways to leverage mobile devices in concert with digital signage.

Even better news: due to industries focus on the big spring trade shows, and now InfoComm, the BlueMaxx judges and organizers have decided to extend the deadline for entry until the conclusion of summer.

This is the new release:

STRATACACHE Extends Call for Entries
Deadline for Inaugural BlueMaxx Award

Industry Recognition for Excellence in
Digital Out-of-Home Interactive Development

Dayton, OH, June 1, 2010—STRATACACHE announced today its plans to extend the submission deadline for the inaugural BlueMaxx Award until September 14, 2010. The BlueMaxx Award, sponsored by STRATACACHE, honors the most successful development around technologies and applications that enable interactivity between digital signage and mobile, handheld devices.

Key criteria for the BlueMaxx Award:
• A deserving candidate is an organization with a digital signage project and mobile handset application that is positively affecting the customer experience, sales, human resources, training and development, and/or providing a service to consumers and constituents.
• A deserving candidate may also be using the technology to measure the effectiveness of the interaction with the consumer or end user.
• Interactivity must directly relate to a digital signage application or media interface and leverage short-range or other forms of communication for interaction with mobile handsets.
Judges include David Keene (Digital Signage magazine, and DigitalSignageWeekly.com), Adrian Cotterill (DailyDOOH) and Dave Haynes (The Preset Group).

The winner will be announced during a ceremony at Customer Engagement Technology World (CETW), November 10-11, 2010 at the Javits Center in New York City. The winner will be highlighted at CETW, promoted and recognized via industry-wide media outlets, and presented with a lexan award for display.

• Adcentricity has introduced an interesting first edition of a new “Digital OOH Advertising Creative Reference Guide”. The most interesting part of the program is video-based interviews and clips where some fifteen companies share ideas and knowledge in ‘what works’ when developing creative for the digital out-of-home medium. Some contributing agency experts include executives from Razorfish, Mindshare, and Saatchi X.

The objective of this Creative Reference Guide is to address basic elements of DOOH advertising considerations. This initiative has resulted in over ten hours of on-camera interviews, dozens of creative and multi-media samples, and the first edition Digital OOH Advertising Creative Reference Guide.

The guide was created to share with the advertising community in order to bring more attention to the unique aspects and power of the Digital OOH medium and more importantly, how to use it for your own ends. This basic guide provides insight and understanding for those working within Digital OOH to support the work flow, creative considerations and general landscape of creative requirements.

Adcentricity began this project starting in January 2010, to facilitate a collaborative effort between fourteen different media, creative and research companies across North America with deep roots and significant experience in the medium.

To access the Guide, log onto: http://adcentricity.com/RESOURCES/creative-reference-guide/

Adcentricity has introduced an interesting first edition of a new “Digital OOH Advertising Creative Reference Guide”. The most interesting part of the program is video-based interviews and clips where some fifteen companies share ideas and knowledge in ‘what works’ when developing creative for the digital out-of-home medium. Some contributing agency experts include executives from Razorfish, Mindshare, and Saatchi X. The objective of this Creative Reference Guide is to address basic elements of DOOH advertising considerations. This initiative has resulted in over ten hours of on-camera interviews, dozens of creative and multi-media samples, and the first edition Digital OOH Advertising Creative Reference Guide.

The guide was created to share with the advertising community in order to bring more attention to the unique aspects and power of the Digital OOH medium and more importantly, how to use it for your own ends. This basic guide provides insight and understanding for those working within Digital OOH to support the work flow, creative considerations and general landscape of creative requirements. Adcentricity began this project starting in January 2010, to facilitate a collaborative effort between fourteen different media, creative and research companies across North America with deep roots and significant experience in the medium. To access the Guide, log onto: http://adcentricity.com/RESOURCES/creative-reference-guide/

• One of the more interesting things on the InfoComm agenda next month:
• Insight Media and InfoComm International have teamed up to produce a new 3D event called 3D Comm. 3D Comm will be held during the regular exhibition hours at InfoComm 2010, June 9-11 in Las Vegas.
• 3D Comm will consist of three elements:
• * 3D Technology Pavilion
• * 3D Technology Showcase
• * 3D Technology Seminars
• The 3D Technology Pavilion includes dedicated exhibit space in the Las Vegas Convention Center?s North Hall, which will showcase a cluster of 3D exhibits and demonstrations. This will create a destination area for those interested in 3D products and services. Exhibitors of 3D content acquisition hardware and software, content management, compression and distribution of 3D display systems and other aspects of consumer and professional 3D will exhibit in this area.
• The 3D Technology Showcase is a purpose-built area adjacent to the 3D Technology Pavilion area that will be used for themed, new, unique or special purpose 3D demonstrations. Examples of concepts include a 3D classroom, a comparison of 3D technologies, a 3D public venue simulation or a 3D home theater.
• The 3D Technology Seminars will be run outside the exhibition floor in a classroom setting. These 60-90 minute sessions will focus on providing unbiased information on many aspects of the 3D ecosystem, helping attendees gain critical knowledge about technology, markets, applications and uses of 3D. These will be taught by 3D experts and will be offered in a range of levels. For the seminar agenda, and the list of presenters, click on:

http://www.insightmedia.info/conferences/3dcomm-seminars.php

The 3D Pavilion and 3D Showcase are included in the InfoComm 2010 exhibits registration. The 3D Seminars will have an additional attendance fee.

“We think the timing is right for an event of this nature,” noted Insight Media President Chris Chinnock. “There is much interest in 3D in theaters and in professional applications, and InfoComm dealers, designers and VARS cover these areas. They will need to know more about the trends in 3D, the business opportunities 3D will create and the best ways to capitalize on them. And, just as importantly, they will need practical hands-on experience in designing, building, installing and running 3D solutions. The comprehensive approach we have taken in developing the three aspects of this event is designed to deliver on this need.”

InfoComm and Insight Media will also continue to team up on Projection Summit, which will be held June 7-8, 2010, at the Las Vegas Hilton. This event will bring together business leaders, marketing professionals and technology managers from the big screen display value chain.