11th Screen

I haven’t had a chance to stop by all of the booths on the showroom floor, but it is safe to say that interactivity is all around us.  Last year, my biggest observation was the lack of interactivity.  From both hardware and software providers.  Now, it doesn’t seem like there is a booth that doesn’t have an interactive solution.  On the surface, this is awesome.  I’m worried about over saturation.  I don’t know who does what better than the next company, so that’s going to be my task.

Initial photos:

This is the entrance to the tradeshow floor.  Cool stuff here, but no interactivity.  Each screen (and you’re not seeing 2 of them) shows something different and actually, relevant.  The vertical screen on the far right is a Tweet stream of #dse2010.

And this is the foursquare, Locamoda, digital signage integration that gained a lot of buzz before the conference.  Look at the top right hand corner,  from SalmonKangaroo3 (that was me??) – I was here.  But this is cool.  It lists the mayor of the Las Vegas Convention Center, # of check-ins and tips.  Truly integrated 11th Screen material.  “Digital” sign that allows you to interact with it via an enabling technology (mobile) phone and share it with like-minded individuals (social). 

Waiting on Keith Kelson, “father of the 5th Screen” now.  Hope he makes the session….

This time, from Gary Kayye at rAVe Publications.  30 minutes, fast and furious.  The best “session” I’ve attended today.

The 80′s were all about gathering information/content.

The 90′s were all about managing information/content.

The 00′s were all about displaying information/content.

Now:  What do we do with the content?  How does it evolve?  There is a next wave of “digital signage” and it is all personal & customized.  It is the 11th Screen.  Me and Gary – we’re talking the same language.

But he is from an AV company so he is very interested, knowledgeable, and experienced with the hardware and infrastructure of systems.  I am more interested in the content.  We are both interested in the experience.

His formula was “AV (source + display technology) + IT (network) = next phase of Digital Signage.  So, if I can break this down, what he is saying is when the source/display technology merges with the “network” or cloud, you can serve custom content on custom devices.  It gets to the level of personalization that I’m always talking about.  In his estimation, we are 3 years away.  I didn’t have the chance to ask him why “3 years” – that’s just what his magic ball says.

I thought it was interesting that he claimed that the “cell phone is the ultimate digital signage display.”  I agree with the fact that it is the ultimate personal display, even the ultimate convenient display, but it is an interactive display, not digital.  I might be on my own here, but I think it’s important to differentiate “digital” from “interactive.”

Finally, he left us with 5 steps for success:

1.  Why are you doing what you’re doing?

2.  Where and who are you doing it for?

3.  Plan

4.  Execute

5.  Scale

I have my own thoughts on this, but other philosophies are good!

Two things to check out:  WiMax 802.16 and Vukunet.  I will check them out and give you my lowdown, but anyone else who wants to chime in on their thoughts – with these two and everything else - let me know.

Attended a great session this morning – the Future of Digital Signage. 

Great thoughts from really smart, experienced people in the industry:

• Mike Hiatt – President, Dynamic Retailing, LLC (was instrumental in the Walmart in-store network)
• Suzanne LaForgia – President, Out of Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB)
• Jose Avalos – Director of Digital Signage, Intel

The resounding message is that this industry has experience steady growth in previous years, despite the economic challenges that have faced marketers.  We have a bright future.  But specifically, I heard over and over again, from all three that:

• We need a consistent way to measure success.  Internal stakeholders respond to this.  Marketers respond to this.  And if we have the customer in mind, in the end, they respond to this.  Always ask, “what are you trying to accomplish?”  With this in mind, you should find out very quickly what you should and should not be doing, and tailor a solution accordingly.
• Multi-channel strides will be made over the next few years.  Mobile.  Social.  Touch.  True 11th Screen stuff, here.
• Advocacy, advocacy, advocacy.  We need champions.
• Case studies, case studies, case studies.  We need stories.
• And specifically from Jose, speaking about physical media players:  “Once devices become digital, they want to become connected, once they become connected, they want to become intelligent, once they become intelligent, they want to become cross-functional.”

And the term of the morning is from Mike – look at digital/interactive signage solutions/systems as a “customer-centric communication system.”

A new industry trade association has been formed – the Digital Signage Federation - and an interim Board of Directors was announced today.  The interim board is formed of:

• Phil Cohen, President & CEO, Care Media Holdings
• Rich Cooley, CEO & Founder, Visser Digital Media
• Alan Brawn, Principal, Brawn Consulting, LLC
• Laura Davis-Taylor, Vice President Global Retail Strategy, Creative Realities, Inc.
• Jack Sullivan, Senior Vice President, Out-of-Home Media Director, StarCom World Wide
• Jennifer Bolt, Executive Director, Media Services & Innovation, Tracy Locke Advertising
• Bob Stowe, Director, Marketing Services, Wendy’s International
• Carre Dawson, Director of Business Development, DS, Harris Corporation Broadcast Communications
• Bil Trainor, President, Capital Networks Limited
• Brian Dusho, President, BroadSign International
• Ken Goldberg, CEO, Real Digital Media
• Pierre Richer, President & COO, NEC Display Solutions Americas

It’s a really diverse, talented mix of industry experts who want to provide a unified approach and voice to the industry.  This is a good step in the right direction, politics aside, for the digital signage industry to advance consistently and credibly.  I look at it as a big positive.

My day is over.  I didn’t go to the mixer that my friends at The Preset Group were hosting.  I’ll catch up with them tomorrow.  Speaking of, tomorrow is a big day.  I’m shutting it down.  Good day.  Peace out.

And then, reality set in.  More like, the Blackberry started exploding.  We are planning a HUGE program for one of our clients at South by Southwest, which is in 2 weeks, so needless to say, there is LOTS to be done. 

So, I missed out on part of the next phase of the tour, which was in the new City Center.  This place makes the Hard Rock look like small time.  The scale is simply amazing.  It’s an $8.5 billion “megaplex” full of shops, casinos, hotels, condos, restaurants, a standalone convention center, and even comes with its very own Fire Station.  Ridonkulous.

Even more, and this is what I’m talking about ”scale,” – these guys operate over 300 digital screens in this complex, but in their network, beyond the City Center, there are over 1,000 screens that they operate – all via 1 control system.  All different sizes.  Some digital.  Some interactive.  Some for slots.  It’s crazy.

I smiled with satisfaction, extending kudos to my previous co-workers, when the guys at Aria Resort & Casino (our primary stopping point) talked about the hardware they use for each one of the screens.  Mac minis.  Which is what we used for our interactive solutions.  They’re great devices - powerful, flexible, with a small footprint.

I was really impressed with their team.  They only have ~11 on staff that run this entire operation.  They custom build applications.  They implement and run one of the most recognizable digital signage networks in the world on the Las Vegas strip.  They think about measurement (they track what people are interacting with and for how long) and they’re even thinking about future iterations. 

I missed the part of the tour where they take everyone around to all of these different screens and let them play with them.  You know, the fun part.  Something that I could have done all afternoon.  But actually, I don’t know if I could have, because honestly, it was all so overwhelming, coming off of the experience at Hard Rock, into Digital/Interactive Signage World.  I had a hard time digesting everything.

I played with one of their interactive directories, which I found to be a bit confusing:

And they had these digital placards outside of their conference rooms, but they were not interactive:

Digital menu boards.  Digital advertisement screens.  Digital marquees.  Digital slot machines.  Interactive wayfinders.  Interactive directories.  If you want it, they’ve got it – at least digitally.  And that begs the question to me, is it needed?  Are digital menu boards needed?  My friends, Phillip and Seth, both had strong opinions that they are not.  I think I agree with them.  But then I think, is it OK to do digital just to do digital?  Once the infrastructure is set up, there are many benefits, regardless of placement, purpose, or interactivity.  So, I can see value in it.  Especially when everything else is digital.  If their only digital solution was a digital menu board, I would think differently.  But when you have your whole City wired, of course, you’re going to have digital menu boards. 

This, I believe, is a great look into our future.  A real future where technology is incorporated in everything all around us.  I didn’t own one thing that I interacted with today.  But the interesting thing was, while I didn’t need to own the device from which the experience originated, I wanted (and needed) to use my own device (mobile, Flip) to share the experience. 

And I think that is a very important piece to this puzzle.

I kept up with the plane’s momentum and hit the ground running as soon as we landed.  I had to rewind my clock to set myself on Pacific time, which kills me, btw.  So, while I landed at 9:18 Texas time, it was really 7:18 Vegas time.  My deadline was 8:30 – 8:45 at the Hard Rock Cafe to catch the tour.  I wanted to drop my bag at the hotel, register at the Convention Center, and make it to the Hard Rock in what was essentially an hour.  Plenty of time, right?

I felt so anxious the entire time, rushing to every destination.  And it didn’t help that I had the slowest cab drivers, despite my direction to “get me there as fast as you can.”  The broken red light right by the hotel didn’t help either.  Once we got to the hotel, I dashed inside, they had my room, I took my bags up, and then viva Convention Center.  That ride seemed to take an hour, but I got registered there and had a speedy cabby take me to the Hard Rock.  There, I walked back and forth between the cafe and the casino and across the street and everywhere in between and still could not find the tour-gatherers.  Of course, it turned out that there is a NEW Hard Rock Cafe on the strip and that’s where everyone was to meet.

So, I rode over to the new cafe – it was 8:50 by now – with two really nice guys, Phillip (from Arinc) and Seth (from Daktronics).  They both work for digital signage & network providers, were interested in new technologies, and asked me what “11th Screen” meant.  Good conversation.

Most importantly though, we all made the tour!!  The Hard Rock crew and the tour-gatherers welcomed us in, gave us some behind-the-scenes access, good talk with the GM, and then let us play with all of the technology.  And let me stress ALL of the technology.  It was almost overwhelming, how much interactive technology they have.  First, the centerpiece is the Rock Wall, a huge, 18×4 interactive, multi-user, multi-touch wall that holds 70,000 pieces of Rock & Roll memorabilia.

Then, they had quite a few Microsoft Surface displays, each with a well of content, too.

And if that weren’t enough, each booth had a small touchscreen that users could interact with and, among other things, search Hard Rock’s retail inventory.  The video is the least compelling, thanks to my direction.

As much as I love all of this sort of technology and all of these solutions, I think that they are missing an opportunity, primarily to drive additional sales.  There are no ties to ordering or purchasing anything in the cafe (including the retail store) from any of these devices.  I know that it is complicated to tie into larger systems like POS systems, but I feel like they could get much more (true) value out of these than they are currently getting. 

To their credit, their whole objective is to drive deeper engagement between the brand and the consumers, so as long as people are interacting with this technology, thus the brand, they are achieving their objective.  Aside from all this, two nuggets of information that I found interesting:

1. The average age of people visiting Vegas is 49 years old.  And Hard Rock believes that this technology is for this demo.  I actually think that the Hard Rock demo is younger than this and this could be the reason they are getting so much interaction.  And who wouldn’t want to play with these things.  Even if they are overwhelming.

2. Apparently, it only took 1 year from ideation to “turned on.”  I just can’t believe that.  Wow.

More of my adventure later….

Up, up and away.  Here we go, Mike’s Digital Signage Expo 2010 Adventure has begun.  I’m going to chronicle A LOT of my adventure here, so be prepared.  It’s not just going to be news, or the latest greatest technology and trends.  It is going to be the entire experience from my point of view, every step along the way.  It all started bright and early this morning:

4:11 AM – my body clock woke me up.  I looked at the alarm clock.  I had 19 more minutes to sleep before the alarm started barking.

4:30 AM – the alarm clock started barking.  I turned it off, got up, dazily walked into the kitchen, pressed START on the coffee maker, and hit the shower.

4:49 AM – posted my first Tweet of the adventure.

4:52 AM – walked out of my house.

5:45 AM – arrived at Terminal D, DFW airport.

5:50 AM – checked in at the self-serve kiosk, which by the way is probably the most widely accepted interactive kiosk (what I call “Interactive Out of Home”, or “IOOH”) in the U.S. today, outside of the ATM.

6:13 AM – pulled money from what I suspect is the most widely accepted interactive kiosk (IOOH) in the U.S. today – the ATM.

6:32 AM – checked in “On Da Plane” via foursquare (become my friend – “mikecearley”)

6:45 AM – flight departed.

6:46 AM – found two interesting mobile advertisements that could easily have been made into IOOH examples in the American Way magazine.  Before I get into those advertisements, I think it’s important to make clear, again, my viewpoint on OOH + technology.  “Digital Out of Home” or “DOOH” is the term that is used to describe anything that falls into the OOH category and has technology associated with it.  To me, that is such a wide generalization and practically accurate, but not always technically accurate.  “Digital” Out of Home is any standard OOH solution that is made digital by display technology.  There is a finite list of display technologies – LCD, LED, plasma, projection.  If there are any other display technologies, please let me know, but it’s a small list.  This, to me, defines Digital Out of Home.  There is no interactivity associated with Digital Out of Home.  But since technology is the foundation of “Digital” Out of Home, interactivity is inherent.  Not always used (in fact, used much less than I think can be.  I hope to see advancements made on this front in the industry this week), but inherent.   Standard OOH initiatives can also be made interactive.  Case in point:

Example 1: 

Simple mobile app that the user can access at AA.com/mobile (which doesn’t work btw).  Put a short-code on this ad (which I originally thought it was) or a QR code/MS tag, and send them directly to the app from the magazine ad.

Example 2:

Print any attachment from your smartphone on one of these fancy HotSpot Printers.  There’s a simple process to go through, but when you do, voila, you’ve got printing on the go.  So, here, if I wanted to take a picture of this map, from this magazine, I could take a photo of it, email it, and print it, all from my phone.  

This magazine is a device, medium or platform that I do not own, so by my definition, it is an “Out of Home” solution (in this case, an object).  The brand is driving me deeper into an engagement through the use of enabling technology, in this case, my mobile phone.  Thus, we have an Interactive Out of Home solution, or IOOH, which is a term that I’m officially coining (at least the acronym).  It’s my truthiness.

8:46 AM – passed over the Grand Canyon.  Even from up here, it looks grand.  I’ve had the fortune of visiting the Grand Canyon.  It is something that I think everyone should do once in their life.  It is amazing.  I will bring my family here when the kids are old enough to appreciate it.

9:18 AM – landed in Las Vegas.  Off to the convention center to get my press passes.  Then, to the hotel to drop my bags.  Then, to the Hard Rock Café to depart on an awesome behind-the-scenes tour of Las Vegas’ $11 Billion City Center and Hard Rock Café.  

“The most exciting part of the tour is the behind-the-scenes look at advancements in digital signage control – everything controlled from single laptop computer equipped with state-of-the-art software to the remote control of over the 1,000+-screen installation at City Center and the other MGM properties up and down the Las Vegas strip.

Stops will feature Interactive reader boards, progressive Slots & Video animations that tie-in to progressive jackpot meters and table top displays; restaurant interactive Touch Screen Menus, interactive wayfinding through a 500,000-square-foot shopping center, video walls, and a huge multi-user, multi-touch interactive digital wall.”

Awesome, right?

More later……

The mantra for this week (and beyond, really) is BALANCE. It is a constant struggle, keeping balance in my life. Family, wife, kids, work, blog, time for myself, just being. And this week, it is going to be extremely important that I balance everything. Otherwise, I could be completely ineffective. There are many things I’m looking to get out of and give from this conference – content, relationships, technology, insights, information. But there is also a workload to balance, back at work in Dallas. We are gearing up heavy for our support during SXSW, and I am leading many initiatives. That work doesn’t stop while I’m away. So, balance will be extremely important. Isn’t it always, though?

The DSE has created a handy Show Planner site for attendees and I started using it today.  Since my schedule is filling up and all, I have to a handy way of keeping organized.

It’s pretty good.

It took me a few minutes to figure it all out, but now I’m cooking.  Selecting those sessions I’m going to.  And the booths that I want to stop by.  It gives me access to everything on my mobile phone and even lets me request eDocs, which plays to my eco-friendly side.

The centerpiece of the site is an interactive map of the convention center and showroom floor.  I saw the same wayfinding map/tool on a touch screen monitor last year, (it was tucked away behind one of the customer service booths) and found it a bit clunky.  I’m glad that the DSE has migrated it onto their site because, despite its clunkyness, it is handy.  It allows me to search by exhibitor name and/or booth number or just click into the convention center for a floor plan.  I can poke around to the different areas of the floor, see where each exhibitor is exhibiting, and get a nugget of information about them in a click.  The information ties directly into my customized planner, for convenience.  Handy. 

Also, if I’m so inclined, I can search restaurants, coffee shops, and bars in and around the convention center.  Again, it’s a bit clunky, but the features are there and they’re usable.  Don’t know if I’ll use them, but if I need this information, I know one place I can find it.  (I’ll probably just use Yelp, though.)  Regardless, another handy feature.

But what is not handy is the non-scrolling-zooming feature + the non-grabbable-moving feature.  Perhaps it’s a limitation of technology and/or budget, but I found it frustrating.  If I were using my fingers to interact with this on a touch screen, I would expect all of this functionality to be fluid and non-linear.  I also found the absence of speakers in the session details not handy either.  I think it would just take adding a few more lines of content (with the speakers’ information) at the very least.  But hey, you win some and you lose some. 

All in all, this site is much more handy than clunky.  I think it’s going to help me out.