Digital Signage for Irish Telecoms

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While most technology sectors are seeing a noticeable slowdown in the current economy, the European digital signage market is poised for continued growth, according to a report from www.researchandmarkets.com.
 
The report states, “Digital out-of-home (DOOH) advertising revenues in Western Europe will quadruple over the next five years from €160m in 2007 to €626m by 2012. By 2012 DOOH share is expected to grow to approximately 10 percent of total OOH ad revenues. Driven by the migration to digital and the incremental revenues generated from digital sites, the out-of-home sector will be the only traditional advertising media to post real revenue growth in the next five years. Thanks to the increasing affordability of digital displays, digital signage networks not only conquer brand new spaces for advertising (e.g. in-store point-of-sale advertising) but also upgrade static poster format sites in a growing number of locations (airports, stations, roadsides, etc.)”
 
Digital signage has seemingly penetrated every public space, including retail, entertainment, public safety and transportation, to name but a few. The advantage of digital signage in a tough economy is that it is flexible and can target different groups and markets with a push of a button in response to changes in the market. If a message doesn’t work, the content can be changed instantly.
 
“Traditional advertising media are losing their appeal for many consumers,” according to Zippy Aima, industry analyst. “Consequently, digital signage has emerged as a way to deliver highly customised and targeted messaging in a variety of locations. And in a fast-changing world, the digital sign’s ability to be updated in real time is a real benefit.”One of the examples of fast-developing digital signage is the application developed to fulfill special needs of Ireland’s telecom giant Meteor.
 
New digital signage systems have been installed in their stores all over Ireland, which should lead to an increased number of customers visiting and staying in the stores, just one way in which positive results on turnover can be effected. screenFood AG from Switzerland competed with local solution providers to carry out the project with their local partner, from the beginning to the end.
 
Meteor is now using the screenFood solution in their 37 telecom stores in Ireland, most of which are located in shopping centres. Every shop is equipped with an AOpen Digital Engine DE45-PRO media player and two professional 47-inch Sony displays mounted vertically in the shop window, showing different content each. A frame matching the shop design was developed accordingly.
 
The software is based on the screenFood Client Server solution and has been implemented as a Software as a Service (SaaS) concept.
 
The content is generated by Meteor, controlled through the web browser and distributed from a central location to the stores all over the country. The digital advertising space is used by Meteor for their own marketing purposes and for targeting product promotions with the goal of increasing customer frequency and turnover.
 
Meteor chose a digital signage solution to present campaigns to their target audience at the right time, individually and in a fully automated manner. This way Meteor, for example, only advertises the products that are actually on stock in the shop, and the company also has the flexibility to adapt the content for each shop individually.
 
One of the big differences compared with traditional advertising channels is the speed that is possible when deploying digital signage. With this medium, it is possible to react immediately to changes in the market. Known problems, such as time-consuming processes and logistics, can be avoided in this way.
 
The Meteor project started out with a pilot shop that, as well as the above mentioned solution, was equipped with other signage systems as well. Several mobile phones were connected to a nearby screen, and when a customer removed the mobile phone from the shelf, product information about this model was automatically displayed on the screen. Using the integrated touch screen solution, the customer also had access to more detailed product information and could compare different bill pay plans to select one that suits his/her needs.
 
The solution from the pilot shop was optimised in cooperation with screenFood in another test shop. After this Meteor issued a tender for all 37 telecom shops, which screenFood won together with their local partner Detectag Securities Limited. The preparation phase for this project lasted only for two weeks, during which all preparations for the roll out (3 weeks) had to be made. This limited and intensive time for the implementation phase required a flexible screenFood and partner team.
 
The AOpen Digital Engine product line taps into the special needs of the market. With years of experience in the semi-industrial small form factor application market, AOpen offers their MoDT technology, technical support and project experience to the market.
 
The AOpen Digital Engine DE45-PRO, used by screenFood AG as a platform for their solution, supports the Intel Core2 Duo Socket P ‘Penryn’ series processor that uses only 25W. It is powered by the Intel GM45 (Montevina) chipset and includes the HDCP (high definition copy protection) chip. This machine can offer 1080P resolution, up to a maximum resolution of 2048x1536 pixels. The AOpen Digital Engine DE45 can operate two displays simultaneously with different content for more complex digital signage applications and also uses the H.264 high-definition video acceleration.
 
Dual Display combination possibilities and HDMI+VGA or VGA1+VGA2 (2 VGA outputs) allow users to set up a dual screen system without any modification.
 
Special features of the AOpen DE45-PRO include DC12V~20V Input, HDMI, two VGA ports, RS232 serial port, and Watch Dog Timer.