Get your free digital signage software!

Back in 2006 when I first wrote this article, it was just a snarky response to an equally snarky blog post from a fellow industry blogger:

Dave Haynes at Digital View is apparently competing against me for this year's Digital Signage Sarcasm Award (DSSA), and has put up a good fight with this post about free digital signage software from the latest entrant into our already-crowded industry. His take on the newcomer summarized in one line:

I never really thought our business was on the precipice of revolt, waiting for somebody to rise up and stick it to the man. But there you go.

Ouch.

I'm with you, Dave. Our list now has over 300 competitors somehow, and I shudder at the thought of how high that number would be if we were to add in the bulk of our European and Asian competition. While it would seem that the barrier to entry into the digital signage industry is quite low (as evidenced by the number of players in the market), to win any significant business takes not only a great product, but also years of history, expertise in your target market, and of course an absolutely killer staff that your customers will all love (so really, it's like every other B2B market).

However, traffic to this page, compellingly-titled "get your free digital signage software," continues to be pretty steady, and I'm guessing it's not just because you like my style of curmudgeonly humor. No, you're probably here because you're actually looking for digital signage software that is free. Well, there's some good news, and some bad news. First of all, folks, nothing in life is free. I know, I know, the curmudgeon rears its ugly head again, but it's true.

See, there are some open source digital signage packages out there (at least one built for the task, and a few that are bolt-on modifications to popular content management packages like Joomla), and those are generally free as in "free speech" and free as in "no money for this software." Of course, unless you value your time at ZERO, there's still the time it takes to assemble the components, get them running, and then maintain them, and a cost associated with that. Maybe you're an IT pro with Linux kernel hacking skills, and that's no problem. Maybe this is a fun hobby for you, which is great. Or maybe you just have to meet some business objective, and after that you have better things to do with your life.

If you're looking for low cost digital signage software or systems though, there are a fair number of options. Lots of vendors now sell low-cost turnkey packages designed for small networks. And of course, there are plenty more options for digital signage software as a service (SaaS), which you can think of as paying for help with the software (and ancillary stuff like bandwidth, storage, etc.), which might ease your sleep at night. It should certainly improve your operations.


Tags: digital signage, software, retail media

Cisco enters the digital signage market, acquired Tivella

Cisco, the latest entrant into the rapidly-approaching-Malthusian-style-catastrophe-overcrowded digital signage market, has acquired tiny digital signage software firm Tivella, and will be incorporating their technology into the Cisco product lineup. I predict that this will have much marketing (but little practical) impact on the market, which is more closely resembling a tiny version of the Internet market in 1998.

Tags: Cisco, Tivella, digital signage, bubble

Tesco testing electronic shelf-edge labels in two stores

Having already installed about 400 of ZBD's electronic label devices at their South Wigston store in Leicestershire earlier this year, Tesco is expanding the trial to a second store near High Wycombe. As the Retail Bulletin notes:

Tesco began experimenting with ESEL for deli items over a year ago and has been testing the ZBD system at its South Wigston store in Leicestershire, for several months. “Staff and customers in the South Wigston store have already embraced the technology - especially the rich content on each display unit,” says Mark Green, head of counters at Tesco. “The ability of instant price updates as well as the amount of additional product information that can be displayed have had a major impact on staff productivity and the amount of food being thrown away.”

While much attention is given to revenue-generating opportunities for digital signage that involve advertising and marketing, this cost-saving and waste-reducing measure is a unique spin on an old trick.

Tags: retail media, electronic shelf labels, shelf-edge advertising

Automatic keyword tagging for video coming soon

MediaSoon notes that, "the European Union funded aceMedia venture has developed a system to automatically tag or keyword video and image content. They do this by using computer algorithms to analyse the composition of individual frames. Partners in the aceMedia consortium include Motorola, Philips, the University of London and France Telecom."

While the current focus of the project is to help consumers tag their own content (home movies, photos, etc.), there are certainly implications for digital signage and other forms of retail media. For example, a few weeks ago I wrote about the possibility of Google-YouTube automatically providing ads or content to disparate digital signage networks based on some kind of tagging mechanism. While I suggested that Google may want to maually screen the videos, a tool like this could help reduce the work needed to categorize and apply massive amounts of content.

Likewise, digital signage software makers could add this type of technology to their products to allow customers to share spots, content, etc. based on a common tag vocabulary, suggested by the computer, with the opportunity for some hand-tweaking, if necessary. As Paola Hobson, the Project Coordinator at aceMedia says:

“You can’t make money out of content if people can’t find it, and the cost of annotating content manually is enormous. Automatic annotation will help people find what they want, and they would consume more of it.”

They may be thinking about the consumer market, but when it comes to monetizing content search and indexing, the company is sure to find plenty of opportunities in the B2B space.

Tags: tagging, digital video, advertising, digital signage

Laura Davis-Taylor on the measurement of in-store media

Laura Davis-Taylor recently published a nice piece over at aka.tv looking at the current state of affairs in retail media measurement, and the need for an appeal to shoppers/customers, and not just the retailers and advertisers pushing retail media systems. My favorite quote:

From the customer lens, just as TiVo users are no longer captive to broadcast advertising, people in-store are also fully in control. They are TiVos on feet – what they don’t care about, they ignore or walk away from. We have to earn their attention and it’s only done via relevant messages or by adding some kind of value to the shopping experience.

Advertising that actually appeals to shoppers? This shouldn't be a new idea, but sadly so many advertisers still don't seem to "get it." There are so many opportunities to stand out and actually add value to the shopping experience, and that seems to be something that many marketers miss. Instead of improving the signal-to-noise ratio, many seem happy to simply have the loudest noise out there.

Tags: retail media, advertising

WonderVision gives Reactrix some competition

Just ran across this cool blog post about WonderVision, a digital signage offering that (presumably among other things) can project an interactive image onto the floor for customers and random passers-by to interact with. Here's a video clip of the system in action:

As you can see, it's not necessarily destined for retail locations, though the firm claims some benefit (mostly based on the novelty factor, since I'd think it would be hard to shop by dancing around on a 10x10' section of showfloor to get product information or check out).

Wallflower says: ready for world domination

From the "I couldn't make this stuff up" department:

Synergetix, the maker of digital signage software called Wallflower, announced that they were "poised for world domination" in this press relesase. I didn't realize that any of the companies in our industry had yet formed an international alliance of evil, hijacked a sub full of atomic bombs, built a secret headquarters in a volcano, or done any of the other things I associate with such phrases. All sillyness aside, the press release is relatively devoid of news, though it does suggest that (for some, at least), the market is heating up in China, a'la this quote:

"We have been in India for some years now, but China is the most exciting market. We have a number of deals we have been negotiating there for some months."

He declined to give details, but confirmed the company was looking at a deal to drive 65,000 screens, while another could potentially see it involved with a 250,000-screen rollout in the US and UK, but mostly in China. Both deals should be confirmed in the New Year, he said.

I think I'll have to remain skeptical of pre-announced deals for very large networks by companies poised for world domination. Still, there's no doubt that while many companies have focused entirely on the US and Europe, there are established and emerging markets in Asia that deserve some attention.

Tags: Wallflower, digital signage, out-of-home advertising,

VNU To Develop In-Store Measurement Service

After creating quite the commotion about it's P.R.I.S.M store media measurement technique, VNU has decided to take the service live, doing what it calls the "lead-market phase" of the new service in early 2007, with full availability later in the year. From the press release:

The new service, which will be developed through a new unit of VNU known as Nielsen In-Store, will measure consumer exposure to a fast-growing and powerful array of in-store marketing vehicles, including television and radio, shelf talkers, digital signage, and other point-of-purchase displays. Collectively, these in-store marketing approaches stand as the sixth largest advertising vehicle in the U.S., at $18.6 billion in spending in 2005.

The new service will also help retailers improve results through better store layouts, category adjacencies and product selection. “The new information we provide for retailers and manufacturers will help them work more effectively to improve the shopping experience for consumers,” said George Wishart, who has been named global managing director of Nielsen In-Store. “We also will provide the advertising, media and retail industries with a new currency standard that can increase the efficiency of the media buying and selling process.”

The same big names featured in the pilot project are endorsing the full-scale system, suggesting that early results were good. Members of the consortium include 3M, Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, Miller Brewing, Procter & Gamble and The Walt Disney Company, as well as major retailers like Albertsons, Kroger, Walgreens and Wal-Mart.

(Cross-posted at the retail media news blog)

Tags: VNU, P.R.I.S.M, retail media, media measurement, in-store advertising

Ingram Micro digital signage program grows

From this article at CRN:

Ingram Micro said 60 to 70 solution providers have joined its new digital signage group, and it expects triple-digit sales gains in that market over the coming year.

The Santa Ana, Calif.-based distributor launched the Digital Signage Practice Group at a recent VentureTech meeting. As with other distributors, the company has been dabbling in the digital signage solutions over the past two years, and in April it added a key ingredient by bringing 3M Digital Signage's applications onto its line card, according to Kevin Prewett, vice president of vendor management at Ingram Micro.

Wow, 60-70 vendors is a pretty serious reseller network, and may come to rival Scala's well-known and formidable reseller network. Considering how recently Ingram started this program, it's apparent that there are still many vendors who would like to be able to offer a digital signage solution of some sort. However, I'd also be willing to bet that the vast majority of sales from this network will be of 3M's lower-end products, and for very small networks (say less than 10 screens). Still, add it all up, subtract the cost of supporting a gazillion tiny networks, and you might just be able to eek out a profit. Maybe.

Tags: digital signage, 3M, Ingram Micro

Making an emotional appeal with in-store media

Note: I've cross-posted this to the In-Store and Retail Media News blog, since the subscriberships seem to be somewhat different (and unrelated).

Institutions spend too much time focusing on the science of shopping, rather than the art of shopping. So says The Integer Group's Meg Kinney in her article "The Art of Shopping," featured in the November/December issue of HUB Magazine. While that sentence might not appear to make a lot of sense on the surface (since when is shopping an art or a science, anyhow?), Kinney looks at the growing number of retailers who are focusing on ways to enhance the in-store experience, and comes to some interesting conclusions about what needs to be done to bring in-store media up to snuff in today's experiential retail environment.... Read the full article: Making an emotional appeal with in-store media

Tags: in-store media, at-retail media, digital signage, out-of-home advertising,

Wireless Ronin somehow completes IPO

I don't know who first said that there's a sucker born every minute, but apparently there are still a whole bunch of them around, and they've learned how to invest in the stock market. That's right, Wireless Ronin completed an IPO, as the guys at the sixteen:nine weblog were sharp enough to notice. I still stand by my original ramblings on the matter: $3 going out for every $1 earned does not a good business model make.

Stock symbol (for your enjoyment): RNIN

Links to the rest of the posts in this saga:
Wireless Ronin updates SEC filings in preparation for going public via IPO
Digital signage company Wireless Ronin getting ready for a mini-IPO?

Tags: Wireless Ronin, digital signage IPO

Impart Media Group Releases Web Portal Content

This is kind of interesting, depending on how they actually expect to sell it:

Impart(TM) Media Group, Inc. announced today the formal release of Impart IQ Streams(TM), an easy-to-use, web portal media source and library of premiere infotainment content for digital signage and interactive kiosks networks or applications. As of the launch today, Impart IQ Streams(TM) delivers sports, news, finance, entertainment, music, and weather in motion video, still graphic, flash animation, text, or IPTV formats to media players or to virtually any device via open standard, XML protocols.

Theoretically, that could mean that Impart would sell content to networks that they don't operate or manage, or that the content could appear on devices totally unlike the digital signage systems that are currently their focus. While there are relatively few good (and accessible) sources of content out there for syndication, I don't know if I'm totally comfortable with having a competitor sitting so close to my deals. On the other hand, we know that Impart has been looking for other business to bolster their financials, so it could be a legitimate attempt to enter another portion of the market in a non-competitive way.

Tags: Impart, digital signage, in-store media, at-retail media

SeeSaw networks raises $10M

According to this press release on their website, digital signage advertising network company SeeSaw Networks has just closeda deal for $10M of Series A financing with Sutter Hill Ventures. The company has a pretty neat advertising system that allows digital signage network owners (or their technology providers, presumably), to band together so that many smaller networks in disparate locations have the clout and ad buying power of a much larger, more homogeneous network.

Similar to what I proposed Google ought to do for digital signage after their acquisition of YouTube, the firm's software lets network owners tag each screen/network with certain target demographic information. Then, advertisers and content producers upload and tag content similarly. Some magic in the background (whether manual or automated) then matches the content to the screens, deploys it, and records views, thus giving network owners a revenue stream and media buyers/planners a homogenous interface to what could otherwise be many smaller networks.

Tags: SeeSaw Networks, digital signage, digital signage advertising, out-of-home advertising

Channel M acquires ScreenPlay

According to this MediaPost article, digital signage network owner Channel M has acquired content producer ScreenPlay. Under the arrangement, ScreenPlay will be the exclusive content provider to Channel M, and since there's little overlap of the two firm's capabilities and clients, nobody is expected to lose their job (the total head count is expected to be around 60).

Acquiring a content creation house to bolster your internal ad sales or network deployment skills seems to be something of a trend now, though to their credit the folks at ScreenPlay have been involved in a number of digital signage projects over the years as well. While being owned by a network might limit ScreenPlay's ability to attract other (potentially competing) digital signage clients, it may also be that the additional expertise they gain gives them an advantage in the marketplace. As for Channel M, they must feel that it will be somehow cheaper or better to pay another 30 people than keep outsourcing their content production.

Tags: digital signage, out-of-home advertising, retail media, in-store TV

New products for out-of-home AV

Just a quick note: Pro AV Magazine has its November products list out, including a number of items that could make your next digital signage project much easier. Things like projectors, signal extenders, video scalers and other hardware bits and pieces are featured.

Link: Pro AV products

Tags: AV, digital signage, professional display systems