DRE: Come on baby, do the LocaModa May 19, 2006 by Dave HaynesIt took a couple of days, but I finally found something at the Digital Retailing Expo that was new and novel. Boston-based LocaModa had a little booth off in the back 40 of the show, and some screens here and there demonstrating the way their software and technology platform marries digital signage and cell phones …
DRE – Day 1 May 17, 2006 by Dave HaynesGood Lord there a lot of companies getting into the digital signage space. I thought I was pretty familiar with most of who is out there, but there's yet more. At some point, there has to be a massive shake-out and culling of the herd because there's too many for them all to succeed, and …
Getting it right in Switzerland May 16, 2006 by Dave Haynes I got an e-mail from Christian Vaglio-Giors, the managing director of a Swiss firm doing digital signage for retailers and mall operators in that rather beautiful part of the world. I think — repeat think — I met Christian last year at DRE. I had never heard of Neo Advertising, but I'll certainly pay attention …
Big money from a simple idea May 12, 2006 by Dave HaynesFocus Media has quickly become arguably the biggest success story in digital signage, with a sneakernet collection of 1,000s of digital screens in the elevator lobbies of office buildings all over China. A new story in the Wall Street Journal takes a look at the young guy who pulled it off: Three years ago, Jason …
Emergency signage May 4, 2006 by Dave HaynesInteresting piece in a publication called Government Technology, about the premise of extending marketing-focused digital signage into emergency response systems. There's been lots of chatter and some integration of things like Amber Alerts into public networks, but I'm not familiar with much out there that has really tied in to the whole notion of emergency …
Truthiness in digital signage May 3, 2006 by Dave HaynesI won't go all the way and lump this in with past examples of rampant nonsense, but instead apply the term Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert calls "truthiness" — described in Wikipedia as "the quality by which a person purports to know something emotionally or instinctively without regard to evidence or to what the person might …
Signs hacked May 2, 2006 by Dave HaynesThe Globe and Mail, a national newspaper in Canada, reported this morning how someone with a little technical savvy managed to put a cheeky message on some of the scrolling LED boards stuck above the stairwells of Go Train commuter rail cars on the Toronto-Hamilton run. The story notes how easy it was to do …
Another retail design firm jumps in April 28, 2006 by Dave HaynesThis has been percolating for the better part of a year, but Atlanta-based store-design firm Miller Zell has made it public that they have hooked up 3M, NEC and Waterloo, ON-based DDC on a strategic one-stop shop, turnkey kind of thing. 3M does the software, through Mercury Online and the old FRED systems platform, NEC …
Strangely familiar April 19, 2006 by Dave HaynesI founded a company about three years ago, along with a very patient friend, that put screens in the bustling PATH system in downtown Toronto. The concept was, and is, simple – treat busy walkways like major roadways and line them with digital billboards. It works, though admittedly if it was working THAT well I …
Good news (and a little nonsense) April 4, 2006 by Dave HaynesCalgary-based Vauntcom Media Corporation has announced a deal that will see about 140 LCDs sprinkled around the concourse, washrooms and elevators of Rogers Centre, the stadium formerly known as the Skydome. The idea is simple – a whole whack of people are in and out of that venue every year seeing Jays and Argos games, …
