Screen Media Expo Europe 2009 Show Daily - Issue 1

Published 5th December 2008

Summary:

Europe’s biggest digital signage and DOOH media event is back for 2009 with a new name to reflect its engagement with the media, marketing and advertising communities. The show also has a refined conference and learning programme to attract an even larger and more diverse audience of screen-media users and providers from around the world.

Exhibitors featured in this issue:

Saturn Communications Group Ltd, Protouch, Roku, BBC Motion Gallery, TruMedia Technologies, Samsung Electronics Corporation, Remote Media, Netpractise and True Colours Ltd.

Event update:

The show web site is now live at www.screenevents.co.uk/screenexpo2009

New for 2009 are three independent joint venture conferences running in association with Screen Media Expo Europe:

• Media Week ‘DOOH Media Summit’
www.screenevents.co.uk/screenexpo2009/MediaWeek
• POPAI Digital ‘Digital Media in Retail Summit’
www.screenevents.co.uk/screenexpo2009/Popai
• Cleverdis ‘DOOH Technology Summit’ www.screenevents.co.uk/screenexpo2009/Cleverdis

There will be a new Content and Network Owners area and the Digital Media Gallery will be expanded with a wide selection of screens and content campaigns. The Screen, the UK trade body for the industry, will also run daily ‘DOOH Industry Briefings’ on hot topics in the sector.

Exhibitor News:

Remote Media (D01) has announced that the signagelive® enabled Estee Lauder Lab Series for Men RFID solution installed by Lime-IT in ‘House of Fraser’, Oxford Street, London, has achieved 800 customer interactions in the first two days of trading. Comprehensive online reporting through signagelive over a Vodafone Mobile Data connection enables Estee Lauder to track which products are of most interest to consumers at the concession and most importantly, the impact on sales through the tills.

The solution comprises of LCD screens and RFID tagged products fully integrated with both signagelive and traditional retail point of sale, which when picked up, play back video specific to the selected product along with cross-recommendation to other products in the range. In addition, a special tag presented by a Lab Series Consultant turns the screens into a skin scanner enabling a customer’s skin type to be analysed and suitable products recommended.

In addition, a Remote Media reseller, 21 Digital Signage, has installed signagelive enabled digital signage systems in 100 sites across the UK with a total of 150 Screens in the last eight months. Using signagelive, 21 Digital Signage offer the very latest in Internet managed digital signage technology including a comprehensive install, maintenance, content creation and scheduling service.

Netpractise (C21) has launched Hydravision.tv, an ‘all-in-one’ digital signage media player in partnership with Misco, a reseller of IT and a-v reseller. Hydravision.tv allows organisations such as schools, colleges, local authorities to create and run their own on-screen digital television channel.

The Hydravision.tv package comprises a state-of-the-art media player unit operating on Microsoft Windows XP packaged together with Hydravision.tv software. The Hydravision.tv media player can either be operated stand alone or networked and controlled remotely. There is also no limit to the number of Hydravision.tv media players that can be connected to a network to provide multiple television channels.

The Hydravision.tv digital signage software has been developed exclusively for Netpractise and allows the user to easily produce screen templates with the screen divided into separate windows. This allows different content such as news tickers and live television to be shown in each window and all displayed at the same time, similar to news and sports channels shown on digital television channels – ideal for displaying on large LCD or plasma display screens.

Saturn Communications Group Ltd (E25) has announced that University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) has chosen Connectvision for a hospital-wide screensaver, and multimedia messaging network, involving 75 digital LCD screens and 5,000 desktop PCs. It is one of the UK's largest digital signage networks.

Wessex Water is also using Connectvision multimedia digital signage technology for 'Source TV', an internal communications channel reaching 2,500 employees in the south west of England. Source TV is designed to broaden all employees’ awareness of the utility's business activities, and, as a result, contribute to improved customer communications.

Protouch (F11), K3 & Kiddicare have been awarded ‘EPoS innovation of the year’ at the recent Retail Systems 2008 Awards. They were selected for their revolutionary in store kiosk solution which beat a number of other short listed companies such as Tesco, & Wincor Nixdorf and The Co-operative Group.

The kiosk was born out of a simple brief – replicate the Kiddicare website on a kiosk in store so that customers can buy items as easily as they do online. Protouch supplied the hardware, K3 produced the software and the result was 28 kiosks operating in one Kiddicare outlet. The kiosks give information about products, complementary items and promotions and take payment and arrange collection or home delivery. They allow Kiddicare to manage more customers, without extra staff and let customers spend more time browsing and no time queuing or carrying purchases.

In addition, Protouch has announced it is bringing its Xen kiosk production back to the UK from China. Tom Quarry, MD at Protouch comments: “By manufacturing locally in the UK Protouch’s Xen kiosks have extremely low product miles, they are energy efficient without compromising on features, style or usability and help to maintain a positive future for UK manufacturing.”

Roku (C45) is now bundling network solutions as a standard feature of its BrightSign HD2000 digital sign controller hardware. BrightSign HD2000 ships with all the software required to support the needs of both single site and networked installations at no additional cost, and there is no subscription charge for customers hosting their own applications. The standard software package offers capabilities including looping video playback, multimedia playlists, time scheduled playlists, multiple zones, interactive demos with buttons or touch screens, networked delivered content, and much more.

Roku now offers two options for customers wishing to network their BrightSign plug-and-play digital sign and kiosk solutions. The recently announced BrightSign Network Manager is a secure Web-based application available free of charge to customers installing it on their own servers, with an all-in-one hosted service also available as an option through a low-cost subscription. A second networking option is also available and called BrightSign Simple Networking, which offers customers a less feature rich but simpler solution.
TruMedia Technologies (P57) has signed a partnership agreement with Samsung Electronics Corporation (Stands D15 & D17). Under this agreement TruMedia’s iCapture PROactive Merchandising (PROM) solution for digital screens has been integrated into and will be sold together with Samsung’s MagicInfo player enabled CX Series of professional large format displays. TruMedia´s iCapture PROM connects with Samsung’s MagicInfo Player to select ads and other content based on the viewing audience’s size and demographics. Although audience measurement data is not included, basic data such as audience counts and gender distribution is presented via Samsung’s MagicInfo Player.
Samsung’s CXn displays include a built-in PC allowing WAN connectivity, with MagicInfo capabilities. MagicInfo provides support for multiple content servers, automatic program updating by server, system performance monitoring, and remote content management. The CX line incorporates an RS-232C interface, allowing for a single remote computer to control up to 25 displays for convenient and efficient distribution of information.
In addition to software integration, Samsung is licensed to manufacture TruMedia’s iCapture AlliO Hardware, an all-in-one sensor and video processing device, which Samsung will only market with its PROM enabled screens. iCapture AlliO will also be available for purchase via TruMedia’s 25 international distributors.
BBC Motion Gallery announced that it has signed a deal with Lightworks Program Distribution to distribute video content from The Hollywood Reporter, a Nielsen Business Media publication. Under the deal, BBC Motion Gallery will secure access to new and archived video clip content owned by The Hollywood Reporter from movie premieres, award ceremonies and celebrity interviews to distribute to its customers worldwide.

The Hollywood Reporter archive covers an array of Hollywood news – from celebrities receiving their star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame, to the opening of the latest “Batman” movie, to interviews with Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

The deal, which grants BBC Motion Gallery exclusive access to the content outside the U.S. and non-exclusive rights in the US, will make new footage available immediately for licensing. New content will be available for distribution 3-4 hours after filming and will feature an average of 3-4 new events per week.

dZine (F01) has appointed True Colours Ltd (G11) as distributor in the UK. Frederik Vroman, Business Development Manager at dZine said: “dZine has found with True colors the perfect fit in its strategy of developing professional partners and distributors worldwide. True Colours, excelling in knowledge about the digital signage and high-end AV market in the UK, is just what dZine needs to increase the visibility of our products and solutions and as such establish a pole position in the UK digital signage market.

“The agreement with True Colours will allow our future customers in the UK to learn and benefit from dZine’s unique product features and provide them with a unique and fully reliable turn-key solution for content visualization and content delivery services,” Vroman concluded.