IN DEPTH: 3D content, low-end tools abound at Expo
Screen Media Expo Europe opened in London today with a raft of new product debuts suggesting that 3D is 2010’s hot trend – or perhaps bandwagon – and that digital out-of-home vendors are increasingly attentive to the simpler needs of smaller users.
Magnetic 3D and Signagelive have teamed up to deliver glasses-free 3D digital-signage content on the Signagelive Web-based platform. Their system, available through the two firms’ resellers and partners, uses Signagelive to manage content which is played out through Magnetic’s Fuzion player onto its Enabl3D displays, ranging from 22 to 57 inches.
Said Jason Cremins, CEO of Signagelive parent Remote Media: “We have been listening to our customers and the appetite for incorporating 3D support within Signagelive has been tremendous.”
Broadcast graphics firm Vizrt is offering a digital-signage version of its real-time data-driven 3D systems. A user adds new data to templates hosted online by Vizrt, and 3D graphics based on that data then play out to the user’s network of displays, either full-screen or overlaid on video.
Symon Dacon’s LiveView is a glasses-free 3D touchscreen kiosk using 2D content and creating a quasi-3D effect through a bespoke optical reflection technology. Said the firm’s head of visual communications Matt Cole: “Our approach was not just about overcoming existing constraints but also asking, where does the value of 3D really lie in the digital-signage market?
“For us the value of 3D lies to a great extent in the ability to marry the impact of 3D with interactivity and relevant calls to action, so that 3D is not simply a visually engaging display but a powerful and valuable addition to the service that a company provides.”
Stereografix is a new consultancy firm founded by Saif Chaudhry, who previously worked as a designer on a 3D simulation project for Britain’s Ministry of Defence, and before that in 3D animation for advertising. As well as advice on hardware, Stereografix will offer 3D design services including video, static images, and CGI animation.
And Avnet was showing a seven-inch 3D display suitable for roles such as shelf-edge positions in retail.
For the little guy
Sony Professional’s people tell us they’re staying out of 3D for now, but they are determinedly following the other trend very evident at recent digital out-of-home events, with this year’s Expo being no exception: the wooing of smaller users, no longer overlooked in favour of high-profile, high-budget rollouts but recognised as a fertile market for installations ranging from a single screen to a dozen or so.
After finding that many of these users were showing their digital-signage content on consumer TVs, Sony has launched a professional version of its popular Bravia range, available in 32-, 40-, 46- and 55-inch formats. With only an RS-232 connection to the player, however, the pro Bravias are not networkable.
Also new from Sony are version 7 of its digital-signage software Ziris, touted as easier to handle (with an eye on the lower-end user who’s far from an AV professional), as well as an embedded digital-signage player, the BKM-FW55.
Scala was another firm looking at the more modest end of the market with its new QuickStart software-as-a-service (SaaS) system, which had one of its first high-profile outings at Expo. Aimed at applications such as corporate reception areas, independent retailers and education, QuickStart can handle video, still images and Flash content, as well as providing interactive content and running Scala scripts.
Also fresh to market is version 5.1 of the veteran firm’s main digital-signage software. In this Windows 7-compatible version, the principal new features include a range of transition effects and improved integration of playout logs with third-party systems, as well as support for Samsung solid-state players and IAdea media appliances.
Like Scala with QuickStart, Sedao is explicitly tailoring its Kiosk Content Creator system to non-professional designers, allowing them to create content for interactive displays, screens in shop windows, and the like. It has also added to its software repertoire a tool for managing multiple content zones on video walls, called Unlimited Zone, as well as two components that allow digital-signage networks to extend onto PC desktops by displaying their content as screen-savers or emergency messaging.
YCD Multimedia is not ignoring the little guy either. A back-to-basics version of its Retail Advertising and Merchandising Platform, named YCD|RAMP Express, is aimed at small businesses which want to manage local displays without an Internet connection or dedicated hardware.
YCD has also upgraded its main product, YCD|RAMP, to version 2. A template-based system running under Windows 7 and directed at the retail and hospitality markets, it now supports digital menu boards, which some are seeing as a major new application in the U.S. after the arrival of regulations requiring nutritional information to be displayed in fast-food outlets.
Said CTO Dani Zeevi: “The ability to remotely manage content while allowing for customisation at the store level to accommodate for local product availability and pricing is critical to a successful digital menu board deployment.”
More launches
NCR is bringing its Netkey digital-signage-and-kiosk combo for retailers to Europe. Already with more than 400 North American users, powering some 70,000 digital signs and kiosks, it’s said by the vendor to facilitate management of integrated campaigns that use both in-store display screens and touch units – and, according to NCR, there’s increasing demand for that as consumers come to expect easy movement between bricks-and-mortar stores and online shopping.
Modules include Endless Aisle, which gives shoppers access to online inventory through an in-store kiosk, and a gift-registry application. Netkey is available as a licensed product or on the SaaS model.
Minicom Digital Signage (MDS) launched its first product since it was spun off from parent Minicom with venture-capital backing: an HDMI extension system, dubbed DS Vision Digital (DSVD), which MDS said can extend a link over “hundreds of meters” to distant parts of a digital-signage network. DSVD comes with remote-management capabilities such as automatic triggering of support calls, and proof of performance.
Also looking at long-distance data transmission is Magenta Research, whose new FiberMax Engine technology is claimed to cut the cost of fibre-optic distribution and can deliver across 2km with multimode optics, or as far as 30km with single mode. And Smart-E was another firm with new extenders, in this case supporting Cat connections of up to 100m.
DT Research has two new media appliances, the SA3200 and SA1300, both based on the recently-announced Microsoft/Intel digital-signage platform and using graphics processors from Nvidia. Sporting 1080p resolution, they come bundled with the firm’s Web-based WebDT Content Manager software and have a wireless networking option.
Wafer-thin
Esprit Digital attracted much attention with The Wafer, a slimline digital six-sheet unavoidably compared to a giant iPhone, while Litelogic was showing its DiscLite, a high-brightness LED display with around 2mm resolution for outdoor use, available in 33- and 53-inch formats.
And British AV distributor PSCo garnered plenty of interest with a new video-wall system from Prysm based on laser phosphor display (LPD) technology. Available in June, it’s based on bezel-less 25-inch panels configurable in any quantity and shape. PSCo managing director Stuart Holmes said the technology allows long life – with 60,000 hours of useful operation – as well as unusually low power consumption at 30W per panel.
Screen Media Expo Europe continues on 6 May at Earls Court.
www.avnet.com
www.dtresearch.com
www.espritdigital.com
www.litelogic.com
www.magenta-research.com
www.magnetic3d.com
www.minicomdigitalsignage.com
www.ncr.com
www.pro.sony.eu
www.prysm.com
www.psco.co.uk
www.scala.com
Screen Media Expo Europe
www.sedao.co.uk
www.signagelive.com
www.smart-e.co.uk
www.stereografix.co.uk
www.symondacon.com
www.vizrt.com
www.ycdmultimedia.com
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