We all knew this was going to happen and it eventually did. Coca-cola has released digital signage vending machines which are interactive. Here’s a video to show you what we mean:

And here’s a video of someone actually using the vending machine… I like it how he had to press the right arrow several times before it scrolled to the right and it also has the Pay Pass payment option (I haven’t really seen this been used in Australia):

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Blog Video

It’s the weekend and thought I’d share an exciting and fun video clip – you’ll be also surprised as well.

We previously talked about how the iPhone can be used as a digital signage player (there’s already a few companies out there who have created an application on the iPhone) but now how would you like to be served by a humanoid robot with an iPhone attached to it’s head? Watch the funky video and we’ll discuss later:

In the examples in the video, the humanoid robot with the iPhone attached as it’s head, can be used to:

• wake you up – morning!!! maybe even give you a hug or a slap
• entertain – it’s a dance machine…shake it’s robo booty
• teach it new tricks and moves – next thing you know it will start imitating your moves
• and if you’re nice to it… it might even make you a coffee (just kidding – ummmm may be it is possible)

BUT more importantly it can interact with YOU – think about it from a sales and marketing perspective and you’ll start realising that this robot can be used to attract more customers into your store and even possibly serve it’s customers (stick your own photo image as it’s head ). The screen itself can be used even to promote sales, products and specials whilst it’s dancing around entertaining it’s customers (yes it’s  digital signage after all). And yes…. I’ve said it before… the possibilities seem to be endless with the future of mobile phones as digital signage players.

So that’s our weekend fun for this week and we all hope you’re having a great weekend.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Blog Video, Digital Signage Ideas, Digital Signage Weekend Fun

Image Source: www.apple.com

This may sound a bit ridiculous but has anyone thought about using your Iphone as a mobile digital signage player? I mean lets think about this, if people can use the Iphone to watch movies and video clips why can’t it be used as an integrated digital signage player. The unit can be easily connected to the Internet and it also has a touch screen so really its perfect for interacting with your intended audience. With the sheer number of Iphone users out there, setting a digital signage network can be easily established.

All we need now is a digital signage Iphone application… and my guess is that someone is already developing one.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products

I came across this video and thought I’d share this with the rest of the digital signage community. It’s about an upcoming product from Nanolumens that will make screen installations a lot easier and potentially more affordable (I question this statement as most new technologies are generally more expensive).

Have a look at the technology yourself and let me know what you think.

If you had one of these screens, where would you install it?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Products, Featured Post

Just recently I read an article about the upcoming Microsoft Xbox Motion Sensor that allows the users to control games with our bodies. Unlike the Wii, this means that you do not have to hold anything to interact with the console and game.

This new product is being called “Project Natal” and is basically a sensor for the Xbox 360 which tracks movement, listens and executes commands from the console… don’t know what I’m refeering to? then watch this trailer from Youtube:

If you’re from the digital signage industry you’re thinking to yourself “The future of Digital Signage interaction?”. If you’re like me, when something catches your attention you start brainstorming on how this can be applied to the digital signage industry.  If I was working for Microsoft I would recommend and provide directions to the management team to push this product out to businesses to use as a digital signage console…. and not just a gaming console. Let’s think about this, most digital signage players out there in the market are using desktop PC’s, embedded PCs or some form of a PC – fundamentally that’s what the Xbox 360 is – and soon it will have a sensor. In my eyes,  I can potentially see this used as a digital signage player and not just a gaming console.

In the past, many top digital signage gurus predicted that the next “big thing” in digital signage was going to be interaction and guess what…. they were right.

Lets imagine this scenario:

• You walk into a clothing store and you’re having trouble picking a dress for the night out with the girls.
• Now like in the example in the trailer, you walk up to the dsx (digital signage xbox) and you contact your best friend to get advice on which dress you should wear.
• In the application, you have the virtual product catalog of all the dresses available in the store.
• The application takes a picture of you (measuring your body size, height etc) and you start trying out the different dresses (virtually).
• Along the way you and your friend discuss whether the dress is suitable or not.
• When you found some of the dresses both of you like  you add it to you’re favourite list.
• You then press the “TRY” button or say “Let me try these” and the shop assistant brings in the dresses for you to try.
• All the transactions and  information end up being recorded online so that the next time you visit a store that has the dsx you can retrieve this previous information.

This is one of the many applications I can see working for the digital signage industry and I can’t wait till we trial one of these units.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Blog Video

This week, our team thought of doing something different from our usual postings – we decided to open up the NDSP-500 digital signage player and give you a brief look at what’s inside one of these players. The video is not of the greatest quality but it does give you an idea of the components inside a typical digital signage player and what connections are available. So here’s the video:

As you can clearly see, the unit is small… it’s smaller than half of an A4 paper. With this particular unit, there are several connectors at the front:

1. RS232 – this is usually to provide serial communications with another device. It can be used to control and manage an display screen – that’s if the screen supports RS232.
2. Secure compartment to store the SD card – it’s also a quick way to easily swap out the SD card without having to open up the box

At the back of the unit you will notice the following connectors:

1.Video output:  the unit has these typical connections – S-Video Output/Composite Video and Audio, DVI, and VGA.

2. Video Input: Composite Video and Audio. With this particular unit you will be able to connect a video input source such as a DVD player, Foxtel, CCTV camera etc.

3. S/PDIF – for great audio quality

4. LAN port which support 10/100 Mbps

5. Two USB ports for connecting USB Storage

6. Power plug to connect the power supply. This power plug was different from other digital signage players we’ve seen in the past. It basically has a connector which allows you to twist and screw the power cable to the power plug.

Inside the player, all you will find is a circuit board, a frame for a small hard disk and several cables. As you can see from the video, you will not find a fan inside the player – this makes the unit very quiet when it’s turned on.

Would you like to see more videos? Let us know what you’ll like to see and we’ll try to get it done.

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Blog Video

Do you have a digital signage player that does not support Powerpoint presentations but only flash? Don’t throw the player out yet because we’ve got an easy solution for you.

There are many software tools available on the market that is able to convert your traditional ppt files to flash but one that we would recommend is Flashpoint from Flashdemo (http://www.flashdemo.net/ppt2flash.html). The software costs US$89.00. There are a couple of demos on the website to show you what the software is capable of doing and they also have a free trial version.

So, rather than redesigning your powerpoint presentations for digital signage compatibility, have a look at Flashpoint – it may save you several hours worth of work.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Reviews

We were recently approached by an insurance company asking whether we had a solution that could easily integrate digital signage with their Sharepoint system, so we thought we might as well share this information with everyone.

Well, you may be thinking “What is Sharepoint?”. Sharepoint is actually a Microsoft Content Management System which allows business to collaborate and share information quickly and easily. Think of it as a website portal which can be used to store files, events, contacts, tasks, forms and most importantly information. Here’s a video tour of Sharepoint:

Now some companies may want to use digital signage as a communication tool and target information to staff and if this information is already centralised in the one location, SHAREPOINT, then how would you integrate your digital signage solution with this?

From our experience and based on products we have used in the past, if your digital signage player/software is able to display RSS compatible feeds then you have a system that is able to be integrated with Sharepoint – in particular the latest version 2007. With Sharepoint 2007, there is a neat feature which allows content, events, contacts, tasks and information to be displayed as an RSS feed. This is particularly useful as you don’t want to manually update the content on your digital signage player. Once you have the RSS feed, you can easily modify and display this information on the digital signage screens.

For the more advanced digital signage players and software, if your system is able to connect to the Microsoft SQL server that stores all the data, then your solution will be able to connect to the database and grab the relevant data to be displayed on the screen. As an example, if one of your clients used Sharepoint to schedule company outings and important company events then we would be able to deploy a digital signage solution which dynamically uses the RSS feed from the Sharepoint server and display this on the digital signage screen located in the main foyer. This will help remind employees of upcoming company events.

Hopefully this post has provided you with better ways on how to integrate existing systems with digital signage.

Have you seen any innovative digital signage integrations?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog Products

If you’re starting a business in the digital signage industry and are in the process of writing a business plan there are several areas that I would focus when writing your business plan and these are listed below:

1. CLEARLY STATE THE ROI - Your investors and the client will want to know what their ROI is. Based on the fact that you’re new to digital signage you may not have these figures available. There are several websites on the internet which may provide you with these numbers but my recommendation would be to engage the client to run a trial (for a fee or for free). During this trial you can use various measurement tools or devices to obtain your data. For example, the client may want to know how many people looked at the screen and purchased the product displayed. In this case you can use an audience measurement tool which tracks the number of faces that looked at the screen. One great thing about these tools is that it can help you also track demographic information. You can then correlate this information with the digital signage player logs and the retail management system logs.

In the past, we have been asked whether installing digital signage increases the number of customers walking into the store. The only way to determine this is to compare and track how many people walked into the store before installing digital signage and after. Some stores may already have some measurements tools to track this eg. people counter (uses infrared light to determine how many people entered the store) if they don’t then it may be worthwhile to install one.

2. NEED MONEY TO START YOUR BUSINESS – If your investors decide not to proceed with supporting you financially and your client is still keen to go ahead with your digital signage solution then you may want to consider leasing the equipment through a finance company. Have a read of this article about leasing vs purchasing outright vs rental:

http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/2008/07/20/digital-signage-purchasing-outright-vs-leased-vs- rental/

3. SWOT – All business plans should include the SWOT analysis i.e. clearly analyse your business Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and clearly understand where your business may stand in the current market condition. Keep in mind who your current competitors are and how difficult it might be to enter the market. Also keep in mind that a number of existing businesses who are in the video/audio industry are merging into the digital signage industry. These companies will already have existing clients so it will be difficult to win these clients if you don’t have the relevant experience or portfolio.

4. SCALABLE SOLUTION - if you don’t manufacture your own equipment then you will need to clearly state in your business plan what services or equipment you will be providing. You will need to look for a digital signage solution that is scalable, affordable (also one that will make you a profit) and one that reduces administration costs. A centrally managed solution is the perfect choice for your clients needs.

Browse through our Digital Signage Portal Products pages to get more information about what are some of the products available in the market.

5. GET HELP IF YOU NEED IT – Partner with high profile digital signage manufacturers who can guide you and assist you with winning the projects. Do this even before you execute your business plan. Getting your foot in the door is always hard and working with an existing and experienced business will provide you with that extra support.

6. ROI FIGURES – In the ROI include potential advertising revenues figures from manufacturers. In your business plan, you will obviously do your maths and provide figures and number of how much your business will be earning, even if it’s making a loss in the first couple of year. Sometimes you may have to clearly draw the line and decide when it’s best to pull out from the business but generally, the first 5 years is always the toughest and most businesses fail in this period.

7. UNIQUE – are you providing anything unique in the current digital signage industry? If you are, then your business plan should clearly revolve around what additional benefits your product/solution/service will bring to the industry. Otherwise, the competition will be quite rough with existing established businesses.

Hopefully these points helped you in putting together your business plan.

Do you have anything further to add to this list?

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products

If you’re looking for a large LCD screen with an ultra thin screen bezel then the upcoming NEC Multisync X451UN will be perfect for your next digital signage wall. In a previous post we talked about how to create a video wall using existing equipment or purchasing specialised hardware such as the NEC Multisync X451UN. Now, the actual screen has a bezel of only 7.3mm and it can be connected to form a 10×10 screen configuration to fill up a space of almost 645 square feet (that’s approximately 60 square meters). This is perfect for locations such as Movie Theaters or any location that needs a large screen area, however it does come with a hefty price – US$6000 and will be available sometime in April.

Some of the additional features of this screen are:

* 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio
* 1,360 x 768 WXGA native resolution
* 700 cd/m2 brightness
* 3,000:1 contrast ratio
* 3-year parts and labor warranty
Source: www.slashgear.com. For more additional specs visit the website.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Products, Featured Post

Reviewed By: Advertise Me

Price Range (RRP): AU$700 – $900 (depending on the exact hardware requirements)

What’s black, compact, fast, affordable and can be used for almost any industry environment?
It’s the Synrax Onyx Mini.

We had the privilege to be one of the first companies to review this product. Below is our findings but before we start with our product review here’s the product specifications.

Product Specs

The unit offers the following features:

• Intel Mobile Processor 2.0Ghz Single Core or Dual Core (you can almost run any software application with this processor speed)
• 1GB DDR2 SDRAM (can be upgraded to 2G if you need to run memory intensive applications)
• High Definition Output via HDMI – (great feature to have if you need high quality video output, especially if you’re deciding to use this for digital signage or multimedia applications. It also has the standard video connectors such as VGA and S-Video)
• HD Audio via Optical SPDIF – (great for capturing your audience using sound)
• 6 USB ports (2 at the front and 4 at the back. Just think of how many USB devices you can connect to the unit)
• Storage Options (the unit supports SSD compact flash cards, IDE and SATA HHD. This is pretty standard these days but it’s definately good to have the flexibility to choose your own storage device)
• Ethernet Port (the unit supports 1Gbps speeds. Once again with this speed, the unit is ideal for streaming high quality video over the network)
• 212mm x 126mm x 62mm Enclosure (It’s small…in terms of size, the Onyx Mini is almost the same size of a DL envelope. Here’s a picture to prove it)

Performance

For the digital signage industry, the Onyx Mini meets the video and processor performance requirements to run almost any high definition video or digital signage application. We tested this by playing a sample 1080p high definition file (the video was downloaded from the Microsoft Site – WMV HD Content Showcase) through Windows Media player and we didn’t notice any lags or freezes. The CPU utilisation didn’t even hit the 100% mark. Here’s a video to prove it:

We also used a trial version of PerformanceTest by passmark.com and ran several performance tests, and here are the results. The unit received a passmark rating of 343.8. Visit passmark.com for further details about this rating.

Our verdict

Bad

• We couldn’t find anything bad about the unit except that the fan noise was quite loud. In any case, this is something minor but we did find out from the vendor that the noise was actually related to the size of the air holes on the side of the unit.
• Another minor issue was that the unit had no labels at the front to indicate which button was the power and reset. It took us a while to figure this out.

Please note that the vendor will address both of the above issues in the next batch of units.

Good

• The Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset video graphics card supports dual screens – this is quite handy to have especially if you intend to run a solution which requires you to drive either the same or different content to two screens. It also allows you to position both screens in different layouts. I love this feature!



• It can be used in almost any industry, whether its the digital signage, medical, home (great for media centers or desktop pc), retail business, KIOSK, and the list goes on.
• You can install and manage your OWN operating system – not limited to a particular manufacturer or system application
• Has very good ventilation – we left the unit on for several days and the casing never got “too hot to handle”
• We like this unit and we have decided to include it in our product range so that our customers can benefit

If you want us to review your product, contact advertise me via email: review@advertiseme.com.au

About Synrax Australia

Synrax Australia Pty Ltd was established in year 2002 initially as a local distributor of embedded computing components, providing the services in Australia and New Zealand. Since it’s inception, Synrax’s dedication to provide quality reliable products was rewarded with great responses from our clients. This helped our company to grow rapidly and establish ourselves into the market despite its young history.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Reviews

digital signage are electronic displays that are installed in public spaces. Digital signs are typically used to promote products, entertain, inform or advertise. Major benefits of digital signs over traditional static signs are that the content can be modified without effort, animations can be shown, signs can adapt to the context and audience. Digital signage advertising is a form of out of home advertising in which content and messages are displayed on digital signs, typically with the goal of delivering targeted messages to specific locations at specific times. Digital signage offers superior return on investment compared to traditional printed signs.
Digital signage has really taken off in the past few years, and is becoming a popular way to reach consumers.
Illusion Screen is the product that has changed projection technology forever. Enabling the delivery of video and data replacing traditional printed signage. Allowing the provider and retailer the opportunity to literally speak to and/or interact with their prospects on the sales floor, directly influencing purchasing decisions. Digital Signage opens the door to presenting the right message at the right time, to the right audience.

For more product information visit the digital signage portal.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products

Depending on your exact requirements, there are several ways to create a video wall (a series of screens set up in a matrix configuration).

Some people might not be aware of this but most commercial grade screens already have this video wall function built in.

For example, the Mitsubishi screens have an RGB input and output port. See the below image:

In order to set up a 3×3 video wall with the Mitsubishi screens, all you would need to do is “daisy chain” all the screen in the following video arrangement:

1. Connect the video RGB output port of Screen 1 to the RGB input of Screen 2

2. Connect the video RGB output port of Screen 2 to the RGB input of Screen 3

3. Connect the video RGB output port of Screen 3 to the RGB input of Screen 4

and so forth.

Alternatively,  there are several other ways of achieving the same result. There are devices out in the market which perform the same function. Below is a short list:

1. Stretcher – this device stretches your monitor among four DVI or VGA screens without the use of software

For information about this product, visit our online shop at the digital signage portal.

2. Xpander – Expand Your Desktop up to 32 VGA Screens with Video Overlay Support

For information about this product, visit our online shop at the digital signage portal.

To discuss this topic further, visit the digital signage portal forum.

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products

The much anticipated iPhone 3G will be on sale on the 11th July 2008. I know quite a number of people who have already placed an order for this unit or are in the process of placing an order. The iPhone and many of the other Apple products are quite innovative devices and we are very interested to see how many digital signage companies will be investing and researching at ways of integrating their digital signage solutions with these iPhones. We won’t be surprised if Apple makes their mark in the digital signage industry in the next couple of months.

Now, if we look at some of the features of the iPhones there are many obvious reasons why companies will be looking at integrating the iPhones with digital signage:

• 3G Speeds & Internet access – faster access to the Internet means faster upload and download speeds. So if you’re a digital signage network operator it would mean that staff will be able to manage the digital signage network from almost anywhere. If you’re a content provider, you will be able to take a video or picture and upload the file in real-time.

• Camera and photos with GPS- the iPhone 3G has a cool feature called geotagging. By using GPS and geotagging, almost any iPhone user will be able to become a mobile content provider for the travel industry. Just image you’re on holidays in Sydney and you take a photo of the Opera house and upload this image to Flickr. A content provider does a search for Opera house and because your photo has been tagged with sydney someone may end up using your photo -maybe even for a commission.
• Itunes and wireless networking – I guess digital signage operators may be able to leverage both of these technologies and enable the public to interact with the digital signage network, how you may ask… well I can’t reveal all my ideas in case we use this for our own digital signage technology.
• App Store – my guess is that many application developers will build a small applet to enable interaction between the digital signage network and the iPhone

I can’t wait until I get a hold of the iPhone and see how useful this device will be in the digital signage industry.

I hope that after you read this post, your mind is ticking with new ideas… just like mine!

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products

For your light reading, here’s a few digital signage Books we’ve found on Amazon :

[amazonify]0240809769[/amazonify] [amazonify]0240810414[/amazonify]

Category: Digital Signage Blog Info, Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products