We get PSCo CEO Stuart Holmes’ thoughts on the current state of the digital signage market and ask what factors still get overlooked in projects.
What do you think is the most exciting technology in digital signage at the moment?
There’s a huge buzz around super high resolution LED right now for its exceptional visual impact. The LED market has changed dramatically over the last 5-10 years, with a major shift in the way LED is sourced, used and operated. This had led to significant advancements in power consumption (around 50% lower), smaller pixel pitches and higher resolutions, making it accessible to a wide range of indoor and outdoor environments.
Super high resolutions and smaller pixel pitches, in particular, have considerably improved viewing distance and colour uniformity for truly seamless displays. Outstanding performance under high illumination and direct sunlight, and super high refresh rates for consistent moving images make LED ideal for retail, corporate, broadcast and events. Additional features include silent, fan-less operation, slim and lightweight design, long life span and flexible options for mounting or building into displays of any size or shape. Buyers want reliability and longevity with good ROI and that’s what they’ll get with LED – as long as they choose the right one for their application.
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Tell us about a favourite recent installation your company has been involved with.
A number of high-end retailers have already invested in LED and are using it in a creative way to enhance the shopping experience. We’re also seeing take up from corporate organisations for executive boardrooms. An airline company is also using LED as digital signage to promote the latest offers at the airport.
Leading rental and events agencies are always first adopters of the latest technology to inject new levels of innovation into brand campaigns. We’re seeing some great use of LED at live events, as well as in the broadcast and corporate worlds.
For example, we recently provided trade partner Joy’s Production Services with a bespoke rental package for a recent event, including recommending and providing a 2.8 x 1.5 m super high-resolution LED display (7 x 5 tile) and full range of professional support services. Joy’s chose LED for its truly seamless appearance and high brightness, making it an ideal medium for delivering powerful, uninterrupted, animated HD presentations during live productions and events.
The chosen 1.9mm LED rental display was built into a purposely constructed set featuring an elegant white frame and stand with chequerboard effect side lighting and mood lighting underneath. The content was created using Joy’s real-time graphics system, enabling the end client to break the barriers of traditional presentations with dynamic, data-driven graphics running up to 60fps at full-HD resolution. The 1.9mm LED provided a truly seamless solution to deliver this flexible, non-linear style of presentation. It also offered super high refresh rates for consistent moving images and performed exceptionally under high ambient lighting conditions in the room with superior viewing distance and colour uniformity.
In digital signage projects, what factors are most commonly overlooked?
By far the number one most overlooked factor in digital signage projects is content. Although we don’t offer content creation, we can recommend partners and offer customers the chance to test content on displays in our R&D centre.
We also have customers coming to us with spatial challenges. They may have a specific space to fill in an environment and we are able to offer them expert advice to ensure the desired visual technology is installed to optimum effect.
