2013 Digital Signage Expo Review

I attended the DSE in Las Vegas last week and here are some observations...

Is the PC dead?

Lots of software folks were showing Android based solutions.  There was also a lot of activity around the Samsung Smart TV hardware that will be supported initially by Broadsign, signagelive, Four Winds Interactive and Wireless Ronin.  There was also some buzz about the Raspberry Pi hardware being used in digital signage.

So what does this mean for the traditional PC player?

Well, there have been many non-PC based hardware solutions on the market for a while and that hasn't stopped PCs from powering most digital signage screens.

Android is probably going to take the lead in non-traditional PC hardware since it is so popular in smartphones and tablets.  The hardware keeps getting more powerful to the point it now rivals PCs in multimedia playback capabilities.

The biggest issue with Android will be finding hardware manufacturers that can deliver highly reliable commercial grade units.  The current crop of cheap, consumer grade Android players is probably not suitable for true 24/7, year-round use.

The Raspberry Pi is mostly aimed at hobbyists and students.  I am not aware of any commercial grade versions but this will probably change very soon.  I expect to see some type of commercial Raspberry Pi based DS solution before year's end.

What did the show tell us about the industry?

In previous DSE's you would find the big software vendor booths right at the entrance.  These were custom built affairs with elaborate layouts and lots of staff. The hardware guys would occupy smaller booths right behind the software vendors and their booths would be a bit more discrete.  You had a sense software "ruled".

Now, the roles are reversed.  The screen manufacturers are now front and center.  You walked into the show and you found  Samsung, LG, NEC with Sony and Philips not far behind.  Intel was there too with an very nice booth showing  innovative new technologies.  The NEC booth was a multi-level affair and there were some big bucks spent at the Samsung and LG booths.

The software guys were located further back.  The booths were smaller and more discrete.  Some were almost stripped-down to the bone (Wireless Ronin and NCR, to name a few).

So what's changed?

The software side of the business is now more mature.  Products have settled into their own niche and profits are probably lower.  This probably explains why software vendors are embracing any technology that lowers deployment costs. Software vendors can't spend their way into more market share, hence the reduced footprint.  There were a couple of exceptions.  Four Winds Interactive and Stratacache had larger and more elaborate booths than I had seen in past shows.

This year, hardware is king.  Screen manufacturers, processors, off-shore equipment manufacturers and even screen mounting hardware folks spent big money on lavish displays.

Used to be hardware was seen as more of a commodity.  It wasn't sexy but this is changing big-time.  Now it's all about innovation and reducing costs.

What about the hot technologies we've been reading about?

There was (thankfully) very little 3D shown at the show.  In fact I saw only two 3D screens and that was plenty.  This technology is simply not taking off.  It's expensive, content costs more to produce and it doesn't work.  If you need to be standing 15' and dead center from a 3D screen to get the effect then it's not suitable for public venues.  It's a gimmick and people aren't buying it.

I saw one booth promoting an e-paper solution.  It looks good as a replacement for black and white print material and not much else.  This will eventually take off but there are still details that need to be ironed out before this becomes mainstream.  Since e-readers have been around for a few years you would think we would have seen some traction in digital signage but it's not happening yet.  You would think E-paper would be great for exterior applications, especially in daytime but I had an e-reader screen go dark on me once because the sun beating down on it had overheated the display.  Not sure if that's the issue but I hope we see more of this technology in the near future.

I also saw some interesting flexible LED material that will be really great for large exterior applications.  You can wrap a building in this stuff (not cheap I am sure but what an impact that would make!).