#SXSW @Rivian’s Electric Roadhouse

February 10th, 2025

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

From March 7–15, Rivian are transforming their Austin space into a neon wonderland with live music and guest speakers, planning pop-ups around the city and hosting all kinds of events at SXSW.

Rivian is an American automotive manufacturer that develops and builds category-defining electric vehicles, accessories and charging infrastructure for consumer and commercial markets. Rivian products are innovative, technologically advanced, and built in the United States. They are designed to excel at work and play with the goal of accelerating the global transition to zero-emission transportation and energy.
The company provides a full suite of services that address the entire lifecycle of the vehicle and stay true to its mission to keep the world adventurous forever. Whether taking families on new adventures or electrifying fleets at scale, Rivian vehicles all share a common goal — preserving the natural world for generations to come.

Boosting #DOOH Revenue w/ Header Bidding Webinar

February 2nd, 2025

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

This Wednesday, the DPAA’s February DPAA Research & Tech webinar will take a look at header bidding and DOOH.

Header bidding revolutionized display and video programmatic advertising, helping publishers increase yield and maximize revenue. The header bidding revolution is coming to DOOH via the release of Prebid’s DOOH adapter technology. Hear from DOOH leaders within Prebid, on the development of this new technology, how it works and what it means for the DOOH marketplace.

Guests include Mina Naguib, CTO, Hivestack by Perion and Nitin Shriram, CTO, Intersection.

Hivestack CTO Mina was appointed as Chairman of Prebid’s DOOH Taskforce back in October 2022, its purpose being to enhance the Prebid framework with DOOH support.

Boosting DOOH Revenue with Header Bidding
Feb 5, 11am ET, 4pm GMT

This is a DPAA members only webinar, for information and registration link, please contact your DPAA representative.

Pikasso Celebrates The Best #OOH Campaigns

February 2nd, 2025

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

The annual Pikasso d’Or Awards announced its 2025 winners last week.

The awards highlight exceptional work in separate national competitions from across Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Mali, Algeria, Ivory Coast, and Senegal.

The Pikasso d’Or unveiled a new structure as of 2025 with the appointment of Dino Burbidge as new President of the Jury with Andrew Rawlins as Chairman of the Jury for this transitional edition. 

This year’s Jury panel included:

  • Malek Ghorayeb, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Communication Levant and Qatar, 
  • Joe Abou Khaled, Regional ECD MENA at Impact BBDO, Lebanon
  • Noor Al Shehab, Managing Director at Brodmann, Iraq
  • Rana Hamarneh, CEO and Partner at Adpro & OMD, Jordan
  • Shireen Nababteh, Executive Creative Director at Cheil Levant, Jordan
  • Abibatou Gendry, Agency Manager at Havas Africa, Senegal
  • Elias Hamla, Founder and Team Leader at Team Go, Algeria

For the first time this year, the jury gathered on Monday, January the 13th in Amman to mark Pikasso Jordan’s 25th anniversary. The honorees of the Jordan Chapter were celebrated during the 20th annual Awards Ceremony on Tuesday 14 January at the Four Seasons Amman. 

The 29th edition of the Pikasso d’Or Awards Ceremony took place in Beirut on Friday 17 January at the most prestigious Fondation Charles Corm, located in the iconic white tower. The guest list included leading advertising agencies and clients, as well as representatives from the media with 161 visuals & videos were submitted by 26 agencies and were selected according to the following categories: Best Use of Billboards, Best Use of Supersize, Best Use of Mall Advertising, and Best Use of Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH). Awards of the Iraq Chapter were presented during the same ceremony; 33 visuals & videos were submitted by 7 agencies. 

Award ceremonies will be organized later in February in Dakar the 4th of February 2025 and in Algiers the 24th February 2025 to present the trophees to the winners. 

The complete list of Pikasso d’Or 2025 winners and finalists can be found at www.pikasso.com

Navori Labs Acquired By Maguar

February 2nd, 2025

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

Maguar, a German tech investor specializing in B2B software investments in the DACH region, has made a majority investment in Navori Labs.

Navori Labs’ advanced digital signage platform empowers businesses to seamlessly create, manage, and display multimedia content across screens. As an industry leader, it broadly covers sectors like retail, quick-service-restaurants, corporate communication, and transportation. Navori Labs’ solutions are distributed through a global network of partners, including distributors, operators, and resellers, across more than 150 countries.

Maguar believes it can expand on Navori’s market share, customer relationships, and support strategic acquisitions across the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. The press release said that the highly fragmented market presents significant opportunities for accelerated growth, both organically and through targeted acquisitions, to extend Navori’s geographic footprint and broaden its product offerings.

Read the rest of this entry »

#ISE2025 I Gotta Feeling

February 2nd, 2025

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

#ISE2025 kicks off in Barcelona this week and we’ll be there in person (for the first time in a couple of years). There’s little to no DOOH at this predominantly AV trade show and what digital signage there is on display is not usually earth shattering.

For those debating whether to attend I always feel that it’s the networking that will sway many of them. There’s always something social for everyone Monday through to Thursday (the show ends Friday but hey who cares about the last day of the show, like ever) whether that be lunch and learns, mid-afternoon mixers, booth happy hours, evening cocktails, private dinners, a couple of award shows or of course the famous (or should we say infamous) Peerless-AV ‘party’ !!

Anyhow here is a pretty comprehensive list of networking events taking place this week. Some of the events are invite only and / or require registration and of course many are already SOLD OUT so please contact the organisers if in any doubt.

MONDAY February 3, 2025

ISE 2025 Sixteen:Nine Digital Signage Mixer
Registration was here.
18:00 – 20:00
Esdeveniments Esferic Barcelona
Plaça de Dante, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
GPS: 41.368806, 2.165012
Closest street address (across street) – Avinguda Miramar, 31, 08038 Barcelona, Spain

2025 Global Digital Signage Awards
20:00-22:00
Esdeveniments Esferic Barcelona
Plaça de Dante, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
GPS: 41.368806, 2.165012
Closest street address (across street) – Avinguda Miramar, 31, 08038 Barcelona, Spain

TUESDAY February 4, 2025

Richard Charschan Home Theaterology Book Signing
12:30 – 15:00
Adeo Screen/Screen Research stand 2J300
The organiser’s say “Richard will be hosting a book signing at a special collaborative demonstration of the ‘Ultimate Home Cinema Experience’ on the stand. Another book signing will be held at CEDIA stand 2F500 on Thursday, February 6th, from 10 to 11 AM.”

PlexusAV Happy Hour
16:00 – 17:30
Hall 5, Booth 5L150
The organiser’s say “After a busy day at ISE, unwind with us at Hall 5, Booth 5L150 from 4 PM onwards—every day of the show!”

Mixer and Meetup: AV Marketers
16:00 – 17:00
Xchange LIVE Booth 3R150
The organisers’ say “Get together with your marketing colleagues to discuss current challenges and future opportunities which impact AV-marketeers”.

AVNation / HDBaseT ISE Tweet Up 2025
Registration can be found here
16:30 – 18:00
HDBaseT Hall 2 Stand M500

tvONE Happy Hour
16:00 – 18:00
Stand 5D300
Refreshments and snacks will be provided.

Avocor Happy Hour (Registration required to attend, click here)
16:30 – 18:00
Avocor Booth Hall 2, V300

B-Tech AV Mounts Brews, Bites, and Brackets
16:30 – 18:00
Hall 3, Booth 3P700
The organisers’ say “Join us for our afternoon tapas event, a highlight of ISE! Relax with great company, delicious bites, and casual drinks from 16:30 every day (except Friday). It’s the perfect way to unwind and network with fellow attendees”.

Bose Professional After Work Drink (Private event, invite only)
18:00-22:00
Salamandra Club
235 Avinguda del Carrilet 08907 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat Spain

CTI Tech On Tap (Invite only)
20:00 – 23:00
The organisers’ say “We’re hosting a CTI Tech on Tap, the original, the one that can’t be copied, because let’s be real…no one does it like we do. An exclusive gathering for the best minds in the industry. No sales pitches. No fluff. If you’re at ISE, this is the room you want to be in”.

2025 InAVation Awards
19:45 – Late
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC)
Barcelona

WEDNESDAY February 5, 2025

Richard Charschan Home Theaterology Book Signing
12:30 – 15:00
Adeo Screen/Screen Research stand 2J300
The organiser’s say “Richard will be hosting a book signing at a special collaborative demonstration of the ‘Ultimate Home Cinema Experience’ on the stand. Another book signing will be held at CEDIA stand 2F500 on Thursday, February 6th, from 10 to 11 AM.”

Liberty AV EMEA Lunch: Connect, Collaborate, and Grow at ISE 2025
Registration can be found here
13:00 – 15:30
Hotel Porta Fira
45 Plaça d’Europa 08908 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat Spain
The organisers’ say “Join Liberty AV EMEA’s exclusive invite-only lunch at ISE 2025! Network, connect, and enjoy Spanish tapas with industry leaders”.

APDA and OCA Alliance Product Development Meet-up (RSVP here)
14:00 – 15:00
OCA Alliance Stand, Hall 7 E260
The organiser’s say “The OCA Alliance is a non-profit trade association formed to promote the AES70 standard and Open Control Architecture (OCA) ecosystem, as a control solution for professional media networking applications. The OCA Alliance’s purpose is to actively promote the development and adoption of the OCA ecosystem of hardware, software, and developer tools that support the AES70 standard”

Commercial Integrator and CE Pro Top New Technology (TNT) Awards
17:00 – 18:00
HDBaseT Alliance Booth, Hall 2 Stand M500
The organisers’ say “Our editors will announce winners across a range of commercial and resi product and technology categories, covering everything from digital signage hardware and software, to business-enablement software, to UC&C devices..

Mixer and Meetup: All women in AV including AVIXA Diversity and Women’s Councils
15:00 – 16:00
Xchange LIVE Booth 3R150
Guest Speaker: Iffat Chaudhry, Bid Manager – Involve visual Collaboration
The organisers’ say “Join us on AVIXA Xchange LIVE and the AVIXA Member Lounge where we will host a mixer and meet-up for all women in AV, including the AVIXA Diversity and Women’s Councils”.

PlexusAV Happy Hour
16:00 – 17:30
Hall 5, Booth 5L150
The organiser’s say “After a busy day at ISE, unwind with us at Hall 5, Booth 5L150 from 4 PM onwards—every day of the show!”

VuWall Cocktail Party and Awards Ceremony (RSVP here)
16:00 – 18:00
VuWall Stand 5C700

Symbicon Ltd. Special Anniversary Drinks & Light Bites (Private event, invite only)
16:00 – 19:00
Booth 5A350, Hall 5, Fira de Barcelona, Gran Via
The organisers’ say “To celebrate 20 years of Symbicon Ltd. and IconOne displays, we warmly invite you to a special event: Join us for drinks and light bites as we reflect on two decades of innovation, excellence, and collaboration—and toast to exciting opportunities ahead!“.

AOPEN Drinks & Tapas
16:00 – 17:45
Booth 4N500
The organisers’ say “We’re celebrating with another stand featuring our latest innovations. We’re excited to invite you to our booth for a nice gathering during ISE 2025. Let’s raise a glass, enjoy some delicious tapas, and catch up!”

B-Tech AV Mounts Brews, Bites, and Brackets
16:30 – 18:00
Hall 3, Booth 3P700
The organisers’ say “Join us for our afternoon tapas event, a highlight of ISE! Relax with great company, delicious bites, and casual drinks from 16:30 every day (except Friday). It’s the perfect way to unwind and network with fellow attendees”.

XYTE Happy Hour
16:30–18:00
Hall 2 Booth 2P300
The organisers’ say “Stop by, have a drink, and learn how Xyte’s cloud-based platform can streamline your AV and UC device management”

Cocktails With AV Magazine (Registration can be found here)
17:00 – 19:00
Booth 5B700
The organisers’ say “Join the cream of the AV industry for cocktails and networking at stand 5B700, hosted by AV Magazine. Kindly sponsored by LAMPRO and Colorlight”.

Peerless-AV Evening Event (Invite Only)
Duvet Club
Calle de Còrsega, 327, Barcelona
22:00 – 03:00 (Next Day)

THURSDAY February 6, 2025

Richard Charschan Home Theaterology Book Signing
10:00 – 11:00
CEDIA stand 2F500

AV Broadcast Meetup
12:30 – 13:30
AVIXA TV Studio, Hall 8.1 Booth 8A880
The organisers’ say “Take a quick tour of the studio while networking with industry folks”

Official ISE Higher Ed Happy Hour
14:00-16:00
HETMA Booth CS220

PlexusAV Happy Hour
16:00 – 17:30
Hall 5, Booth 5L150
The organiser’s say “After a busy day at ISE, unwind with us at Hall 5, Booth 5L150 from 4 PM onwards—every day of the show!”

AOPEN Drinks & Tapas
16:00 – 17:45
Booth 4N500
The organisers’ say “ISE is almost here, and we’re celebrating with another stand featuring our latest innovations. We’re excited to invite you to our booth for a nice gathering during ISE 2025. Let’s raise a glass, enjoy some delicious tapas, and catch up!”

B-Tech AV Mounts Brews, Bites, and Brackets
16:30 – 18:00
Hall 3, Booth 3P700
The organisers’ say “Join us for our afternoon tapas event, a highlight of ISE! Relax with great company, delicious bites, and casual drinks from 16:30 every day (except Friday). It’s the perfect way to unwind and network with fellow attendees”.

Avocor Happy Hour (Registration required to attend, click here)
16:30 – 18:00
Avocor Booth Hall 2, V300

Bubble House (Private event, invite only)
18:00-20:00
Marquee Narandam, FIRA Congress Hotel

XUSC Pixels y Cervezas
18:00-21:00
Black Lab Brewhouse
Palau del Mar, Pça. de Pau Vila, 1, Ciutat Vella, 08039 Barcelona
(Ticket Information Can Be Found Here)

Darren Banks Joins @TheLEDStudio

January 31st, 2025

Andrew Neale

Former Absen Europe exec Darren Banks has joined The LED Studio as Vice President of Partnerships.

Darren spent 14 years at Christie Digital Systems in a number of roles before joining LG, Unilumin Group and most recently spending almost three years at Absen as Industry Development Director – Corporate AV Markets.

Rick Renner and Tim Valley Join @BosePro

January 31st, 2025

Andrew Neale

Bose Professional, developer of world-class audio experiences designed to transform any space, has announced the appointments of Rick Renner as Regional Sales Manager for the Central US region and Tim Valley as Regional Sales Manager for the Western US region.

  • Rick joins Bose Professional with over 20 years of experience in the professional audio industry. He has held leadership roles at Sennheiser Electronic Corporation and Shure Incorporated, where he most recently served as Senior Director, Professional Audio US. In this role, Rick played a key part in building long-lasting partnerships with end users, channel partners, and artists, which resulted in record sales growth. Rick’s background in managing sales teams and driving product adoption across a broad range of professional audio applications will be invaluable as he leads efforts in the Central US.
  • Tim also brings over 20 years of experience in sales and management in the professional audio industry. He has held key positions at Shure Incorporated and BrightSign, where he most recently served as Director of Commercial Sales. Tim’s expertise in team leadership and building customer relationships makes him an ideal fit for Bose Professional’s growing presence in the Western US. His career is marked by a focus on fostering deep connections with customers and advancing sales strategies that deliver results.

“We are excited to welcome Rick Renner and Tim Valley to our team as Regional Sales Managers. With over 40 years of combined experience in the industry, they bring invaluable expertise, strategic insight, and a deep understanding of the market,” said Bose Professional Vice President of Sales, Americas, Jim Schanz. “As part of Bose Professional’s hybrid go-to-market sales model, Tim and Rick will oversee a robust mix of in-house sales managers and engineers, alongside independent sales firms, creating a dynamic and flexible approach to meeting the needs of customers across the regions. Rick and Tim’s leadership will be instrumental in driving our continued growth and success across the U.S., and I am confident they will make significant contributions to our efforts in delivering outstanding value to our clients and partners.”

Katie Stewart will be managing the Eastern US region, as part of Bose Professional’s three-region approach to sales in North America. These strategic hires and appointments are part of Bose Professional’s continued commitment to strengthening its sales leadership and driving growth across the US market.

No Scala / STRATACACHE #ISE2025 But X2O Will Be There

January 31st, 2025

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

It seems that Scala / STRATACACHE have now finally give up on industry tradeshows in favor of vertical sector events. If you’ve ever seen how they exhibit and work NRF each year (for something like 20 years) you know what attention to detail and money they spend when there is a target rich audience of potential customers.

Scala won’t be at #ISE2025 this year which leaves X2O Media with a small booth in Hall 2, 2Q330 as the sole STRATACACHE company representative.

X2O will be demonstrating first-hand how their X2O OneRoom is helping educational institutions and global organizations deliver exceptional learning outcomes.

If you don’t know, then OneRoom is designed to bridge the gap between in-person and remote participants, creating a seamless, interactive learning environment for remote and in-person participants alike.

Amazon Signage Stick @Signagelive Support

January 31st, 2025

Andrew Neale

Signagelive, a leader in cloud-based digital signage software, has announced its latest integration with Amazon Signage Stick, a user-friendly plug and play media player, designed for small-to-medium businesses. Marking a significant step forward, this collaboration is set to make professional digital signage accessible to organisations of all sizes. Combining the benefits of Signagelive’s advanced content management platform with Amazon Signage Stick the integrated solution provides one of the most user-friendly and cost-effective digital signage solutions to date.

Overcoming a major block to user adoption, it offers an alternative to the typical cost-prohibitive and overly technical digital signage solutions that can often deter businesses from installing their own professional networks. With Signagelive and Amazon Signage Stick, organisations, new to digital signage, no longer have to start small and settle for budget consumer hardware that’s ill-equipped to deal with the daily demands of digital signage. Organisations of various sizes can count on a cost-efficient, user-friendly and professional digital signage solution that is built for continuous use and designed with security in mind.

Jason Cremins, Signagelive CEO said: “The Amazon Signage Stick provides Signagelive customers with a cost-effective media player that is easy to purchase and get up and running in a few minutes. The performance and 4k resolution help ensure that the Amazon Signage Stick can handle most content requirements and use cases.”

Delivering high-quality, professional-grade digital signage Signagelive and Amazon Signage Stick enable the display of 4K resolution video in full-screen or multi-zone formats, which can be displayed across multiple screens in a network. Easy to connect to displays via a Wi-Fi network, this scalable solution contributes to a smoother day-to-day performance, while also helping to protect business data. To help strengthen organisations’ cybersecurity, Amazon Signage Stick comes with a bootloader to prevent malicious software from being uploaded, as well as data encryption for additional protection. Signagelive’s ISO-27001-certification further reinforces the secure management of large volumes of data.

Offering a versatile and robust solution, Signagelive and Amazon Signage Stick work seamlessly together in various business scenarios, whether for retail, hospitality or corporate environments. With features, such as Signagelive data integrations, organisations can surface and securely share data and insights in real-time, from any business intelligence platform, including Microsoft PowerBI and SharePoint, as well as Monday.com and Tableau.

The Amazon Signage Stick is available for purchase in the U.S at $99.99.

Nick Crowe Joins QMS

January 31st, 2025

Tristan Cotterill

Leading Australian digital outdoor media company QMS this week announced the appointment of Nick Crowe to the new role of Victorian Sales Director, Independent and Direct, and the promotion of two managers into key new positions.

Nick will join QMS on March 31 from oOh!media, where he has been Group Sales Leader for the last six years. His resume also includes senior sales roles at Adshel and Nine Network in Melbourne.

He will report to David Pullinger, National Sales Director, Independent and Direct, and focus on building QMS’ commercial opportunities for independent agencies and direct clients in Victoria.

QMS also announced that Group Business Directors Chris Haintz and Alex Morrison have been appointed to the new roles of Large Format Product Managers. They will focus on QMS’ rapidly growing digital large format network, with Melbourne-based Mr Haintz covering the Victorian, South Australian and West Australian markets and Sydney-based Mr Morrison the NSW and Queensland markets.

They will report to the National Trading and Partnerships Director, Sean Rigby, and work closely with the wider national sales leadership team.

The appointment of Nick and the new roles for Chris and Alex follow QMS’ expansion of its digital network in Sydney that includes nine new Transport for NSW locations that came online from 1 January, its market leading City of Sydney digital street furniture network and other major tender wins including the Australian Turf Club, Hills Shire Council, and Australian Rail Track Corporation.