sixteen:nine – the digital signage blog

There’s a reason for this … just what, we’re not sure.

Digital Signage Expo (DSE) will introduce a new Out-of-Home Network Show, Feb. 25-26, 2009, in Las Vegas, reports Digital Signage Today.

“We are introducing the Out-of-Home Network Show to showcase private networks, an innovative result of the digital signage industry, because they are becoming more widely accepted as a viable communications and advertising medium,” said Chris Gibbs, executive vice president of ExpoNation LLC, which produces the co-located shows.

DSE’s Out-of-Home Network Show will showcase private network operators of place- and ad-based installations including traditional, vendor owned and operated, venue-owned and venue-outsourced businesses. In addition to exhibiting, operators will have the opportunity to make a 20-minute presentation to introduce their unique offerings to attendees in the Theater Pavilion.

Either I am missing something (always a possibility), or this is kinda like having an auto show and a breakout area at it for companies with cars that are are leased. Or something. What? Huh???

Nothing on the DSE website to help me out.

Well, if you were trying to figure out a way to get a quick European holiday in this year, maybe you can talk your boss into the absolute importance of attending the big IBC 2008 show in Amsterdam in September.

This year, the show has bolted on a digital signage component.

IBC2008 organizers will add a first-ever Digital Signage Zone to its existing lineup of special technology areas, which includes IPTV and mobile video, to this year’s convention Sept. 12-16 in Amsterdam.

According to the organizers, the zone was added in part based on industry forecasts that project the number of digital signage sites worldwide to grow from 210,000 in 2007 to 850,000 by 2010. That quadrupling in the number of digital signage screens will attract an estimated $2.7 billion in advertising revenues, they added.

The Digital Signage Zone will include representation from Sony, Panasonic, Harris, Matrox, Future Software: DigiSHOW, Thomson and Kinoton. Additionally, Miya Knight, editor of Retail Technology will moderate the opening digital signage panel.

A pretty thin offer specifically in our little space, but it is a big content creation and distribution show and attracts about 50,000 people. There may not be much in DS, but there’s a lot to see and learn in areas like mobile and IPTV.

Ummm … boss???

Details here …

InfoComm International says its big AV trade show last week in Las vegas was a resounding success, at least in terms of numbers of bodies.

Reflecting strong demand for AV communications technologies in business, education and government as well as the retail, healthcare, entertainment, worship markets, attendance at the exhibition so far has topped 34,600. AV professionals from 93 countries attended to see the latest technologies in display, projection, audio, collaborative conferencing, control and networking applications. This reflects a 9.5 percent increase over last year’s record attendance, according to a press release.

A record 988 exhibitors participated at InfoComm this year, representing more than a 15 percent increase over the previous record of 855 in 2007. Exhibitors occupied more than 500,000 net square feet of exhibit and special events space, compared to 465,000 net square feet in 2007. There are 231 new exhibitors at this year’s show.

My own observations are less than scientific, but I can say it was reasonably busy on the show floor, though nothing like the torrent of activity we saw at the DSE show a few months earlier. The walk-up crowd was mostly the AV reseller crowd that was expected.

There were many more DS companies than last year, with most of the major players there in some capacity. I bumped into two or three companies I had never even heard of, though they have been active in the space for a whole and more focused on corporate work. The big panel guys, particularly Samsung and LG, were much more focused on the DS space than I have seen in the past, and the other guys like Sharp and Sony were peddling combo software-player-panel solutions, though fairly quietly.

So, a very different show from DSE — which I have half-joked feels more like a Rotary Club international convention  than a  trade show, with so many people there already knowing each other and  sizing each other up.

For those wondering if they still have functioning livers or money in their bank accounts, you may be pleased to hear the show next year switches from Las Vegas to Orlando. Fewer vices, but the theme parks and high-end golf courses will happily take all of your money.

Technically, bits and pieces of the show have been on for a fews days and there is quite a big co-locates show called NexComm (I think) already running, but it was full of telephony and connectivity gear and people who love acronyms.

The real show infoComm starts in an hour so off I got to the shuttle bus. Looks to be a much bigger presence from our industry this year.

There’s a lot more than digital signage going on with infoComm, a massive AV show whose organizers decided June in Las Vegas would be a smashing idea.

It’s a little hot. But drinking a lot of beer is no longer recreation, just necessary hydrating.

The latest incarnation of the Strategy Institute series of DS-focused shows is on Monday and Tuesday at the Las Vegas Hilton, adjacent of the Las Vegas Convention Center that is home to infoComm. There are about 130 people at this event, based on my table count, with quite a few integrators and people from the educational and institutional sector. Very few names on the sheet, however, that would send me into stalking mode.

One nice thing – the infoComm show has spillover into the Hilton and I was able to mosey into some other micro shows aimed at the projector market. A little on that in another post.