DailyDOOH

Excitement is building as the first wave of commercial 5G deployments start to take hold but of course, it’s also a very confusing landscape, with varied and sometimes conflicting interpretations of what 5G is and what to expect from it.

We are told that this confusion is impacting not just consumers but also complicating the industry’s ability to measure itself against a standard set of 5G expectations and requirements. We are told that in order to optimise short-term and long-term 5G adoption, it’s imperative that clarity regarding 5G rollouts and benefits is established for both consumers and the ecosystem.

IHS Markit have therefore put together a very good whitepaper that provides an overview of what 5G is, what challenges remain, and why there’s so much excitement about the future of 5G networks.

You can download it here.

Last month, Talon announced its expansion in the U.S. with the purchase of Grandesign’s traditional out-of-home vertical. In light of the acquisition, Grandesign’s experiential vertical is working as a standalone under the name “Grandesign Experiential”.

Founder of Grandesign, Aaron Gaeir told us “When Grandesign got its start, experiential was a luxury for brands if the budget permitted. Now it’s the engine to all marketing plans. Grandesign Experiential can now work closely with companies like Talon to have a bigger voice and continue to create out of this world activations that brands are craving. No one has the resume, the history, the people – and now the out-of-home connections – that Grandesign Experiential has.”

The experiential marketing firm is continuing to manifest and execute one-of-a-kind campaigns for large brands out of its headquarters in the old Wonder Bread factory in San Diego’s East Village, where it will continue to share offices with the Talon team. Grandesign Experiential also has offices in New York City and Sacramento.

The Emerging Trends Day takes place on Tuesday June 11, 2019 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL as part of #InfoComm19.

The day’s lineup of analysts, integrators, end users, and technologists will examine the forces impacting pro AV, from internet protocol, to disruptive audio and video, to unified communications and collaboration (UCC) and its impact on how companies work.

Rachel Bradshaw, Director of Program Design, AVIXA told us “The Emerging Trends Day speakers have seen firsthand how new technology is playing out in the real world and can tell InfoComm attendees about the change that’s coming, the challenges, and the possibilities this technology unlocks. This event arms attendees with the informed questions they need to ask on the InfoComm show floor.”

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ZetaDisplay AB (publ) has announced that the company has concluded a five-year global framework agreement for Digital Signage solutions with the Norwegian furniture group Ekornes AS.

The agreement refers to shop-in-shop solutions for Ekornes global retail network of approximately 3,500 outlets in 43 countries. In 2019 that will see a rollout of approximately 450 outlets. The press release stated that “the ambition (is) to keep an increasing rate in the coming years”. ZetaDisplay estimates a sales value of MSEK 15 for the 2019 rollout. This year’s installations and all subsequent years lead to contracted Services revenues in form of license and service income.

Ekornes AS is an international Norwegian furniture producer with the promise to create the world’s most comfortable furniture. The company’s best-known brands are the Armchair ‘Stressless’ and the bed brand ‘Svane’. The company was founded 1934 and is owned since last year by the Chinese Qumei Home Furnishing Group. Ekornes has an annual turnover of MNOK 3.1 billion and operations in 43 countries. Ekornes AS sees Digital Signage as an excellent instrument to streamline its customer communication and to create a better shopping experience for the consumer in the store.

ZetaDisplay AB (publ) (Nasdaq Stockholm: ZETA) announced today that the annual report for 2018 has been published and is available on the group’s website here.

CEO Leif Liljebrunn told us “2018 has been a very eventful year for ZetaDisplay. After several years where multiple acquisitions have been in focus, the past year has meant that we have consolidated the business, added a new company, grew revenues heavily within contracted services and increased profitability in general. For the full year, we can report a turnover of SEK 404.1 million and a growth in contracted services of 80% to MSEK 101.9 “

ZetaDisplay provides visual communication solutions to influence behavior in a physical store or office environment. The company is built on a profound understanding of human behavior in decision-making situations. The total offering includes concept development software programming, deployment as well as technical contracted services. ZetaDisplay is based in Malmö, Sweden. The company has annual net sales 400 MSEK and employs 140 employees at eight offices in six European countries. The company controls and services today more than 50,000 installations at customers on 50 markets. The share is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm Stock Exchange [ZETA].

Diversiffi Media has been running projects in Europe over these past few years, all requiring a comprehensive analysis of Out of Home across key markets. This has allowed their clients to better navigate the differing levels of maturity and appetite in each country for the media – enabling them (Diversiffi Media’s clients) to better drive expansion and in many cases, their digital footprint, i.e a move from OOH to DOOH.

As we wanted to kick off the European Out of Home Media Summit with a European market overview, there was quite simply no better person to do this than Diversiffi Media’s founder Fiona Fitzgibbon.

Fiona has been working with global brands and networks across all aspects of their commercial growth, including helping them monetise their assets, develop new revenue streams, brokering integrated partnerships, and marrying OOH media planning and creative – in her ‘spare time’ she is also a Princes Trust business mentor, helping guide the next generation of entrepreneurs AND is also incredibly active as a member of Bloom, a professional network for women in advertising and communications, driving equal opportunity across the communications industry, Ed.

Fiona led the London 2012 Olympic/Paralympics strategy at Exterion Media (nee CBS Outdoor), prompting the collaboration with other media owners to drive the success of Out of Homes during the Games. As a result, she was invited to join Samsung UK/Cheil WW, where she was responsible for developing the UK’s largest out of home investment to date; overseeing OOH European placement and creating Samsung’s global Digital Out of Home and Out of Home creative guidelines. From there she went on to create Cheil Media, a dedicated out of home planning and buying agency immersed in the creative process, bringing media planning and creative together to help optimise the industry.

Fiona, who is not only incredibly passionate about our industry but extremely knowledgable about all of the European key metrics will present in London on Thursday May 16 at the European Out of Home Media Summit. Her keynote presentation is titled ‘‘European Key Market Overview, Maturity, Legislation and Opportunity’‘. Trust me, for the knowledge that this will impart, the ticket price is worth it for this alone!

Registration for the summit can be found here.

London Digital Signage Week takes place May 13-17, 2019 and as with its counterpart in New York, the week is for anyone involved with digital signage and interested in retail, employee communications, smart cities, digital out of home and of course digital signage!

Each year SCN Magazine puts together a list of up and coming audiovisual professionals, called ‘SCN The Nine’ and dubbed with the hashtag #SCNTheNine on twitter, the list created by the magazine celebrates ProAV’s brightest young industry professionals.

Systems Contractor News (SCN) Content Director Megan Dutta told us “This year’s class of SCN The Nine seek to build relationships, but do it differently than those who have come before them. The majority of this year’s class is active in the #AVTweeps community on social media and have met prospective customers, employers, and mentors because of it. They seek to understand. All of them spoke of the importance of listening to clients, coworkers, and partners to create the best AV experiences possible”.

She continued “They believe hustle and heart will set them apart. Each and every one of The Nine is extremely hardworking and passionate about what they do, in the workplace and at home. This year’s class is talented in many ways—in terms of their career potential and their hobbies—and grinds like no other to continue doing what they love”.

Here is the 2019 Class of SCN The Nine…

• Dayna Baumann, Control Concepts, @DaynaBaumann
• Mike Brandes, QSC, @mikehbrandes
• Brandon Breznick, Premier Mounts, @BrandonBreznick
• Matt Gajowniczek, Sound Production & Lighting
• Kyle Kennedy, VCA
• Jesse Scarborough, Diversified
• Meg Sciarini Smith, @MachinaMeg
• Samantha Taczynski, NEC Display Solutions, @NEC_SAT
• Kev Talbot, Involve, @KevTalbot

Last year during #InfoComm18 in Las Vegas we had the privilege to interview ALL of the #SCNTheNine thanks to NEC Display Solutions and their Broadcast Video Set. We also tagged each #SCNTheNine as a ‘member’ over on our sister site aka.tv.

You can see all of the video interviews we did with the 2018 Class of SCN The Nine here.

As with last year, it is likely that there will be a get together somewhere for these folks at #InfoComm19, most likely on the Tuesday around 21:00. We’ll update this post when we have more details.

For the third consecutive year, Google and Beaver Group are helping us kick off London Digital Signage Week (May 13-17, 2019) with a free-to-attend masterclass session at Google’s amazing Kings Cross, London Headquarters

The masterclass is entitled ‘Storytelling with Digital Signage’ and has a truly superb speaking lineup: –

• Ed Woodcock, Director of Narrative, Aesop. Ed is responsible for overseeing the strategy and editorial departments at Aesop, a company that rigorously applies narrative concepts to marketing problems – treating brands like stories, and campaigns as chapters in an unfolding narrative starring our clients’ brands and their audiences.
• Lyndon Fraser, Chrome Enterprise Specialist, Google. Lyndon has been a part of the Google Cloud team for over six years. During this time he has enabled customers to take advantage of services available across the entirety of Google’s Cloud solutions including AI, data management, and collaboration.
• Hemmy Edge, Program Manager, Google Cloud. Hemmy is looking after customer engagement programs and events across EMEA. Her team helps enterprises maximise their investment in G Suite and Chrome. Prior to her role in Google Cloud, she managed a global program for Google’s creative agency clients and started her career by launching the first digital storytelling training program at the BBC.
• James Hacon, Partner and Managing Director, Think Hospitality. James is a multi-award winning hospitality marketing, brand & development strategist. He has worked as an executive, consultant and investor to provide strategic advice to more than 50 hospitality brands around the world. His experience spans almost all sectors of hospitality from independent Michelin starred restaurants and boutique hotels through to multi-site restaurant brands and international hotel companies.

The event takes place: –

Monday May 13: Registration from 14.30
Google HQ, Six Pancras Square, Kings Cross, London N1C 4AG

Full details of the sessions and speakers is available here.

Interested parties should register ASAP as this is always an incredibly popular event.

The AVIXA Diversity Council are holding another meeting in London shortly, this time on Wednesday May 15, 2019 during London Digital Signage Week at the Future of Work theatre, ExCeL London during the Unified Communications Event – UC EXPO, Co-located with CCX 2019.

This particular diversity event will explore and celebrate the positive benefits of diversity and inclusion in the workplace along with practical suggestions for increasing diversity and inclusion in the AV industry through recruitment.

The agenda is as follows: –

15:40 Registration in the Future of Work theatre at #UCEXPO
15:40 Introduction by Kevin McLoughlin, AV Manager, Royal Society for Medicine, AVIXA Diversity Council member
15:45 Recruiting from ex-forces veterans – Justin Paveley, AVMI Project Director
15:55 Existing graduate career paths – Jack Laidlaw, BSc Audiovisual Technology Programme Leader, Middlesbrough College.
16:05 Case Study: Wendy Baker, HR Senior Specialist, Shure
16:15 Panel Discussion: moderated by Graeme Massey , MD Jacobs Massey Recruitment; Justin Paveley, Project Director AVMI; Jack Laidlaw BSc Audiovisual Technology Programme Leader, Middlesbrough College, Wendy Baker, HR Senior Specialist, Shure
17:00 Close of meeting
17:00 – 19:00 networking drinks with Pizza

It’s not complicated BUT two separate registrations are needed to attend this event;

1. Register in advance for UC EXPO to ensure free entry to where the AVIXA Diversity Council meeting is being held. Click here and use the promotional code AVIXAMEETUP
2. Register here for the AVIXA Diversity Council meet up itself

Attendees will be drawn from across the AV industry spectrum from end users, Technology managers, manufacturers, distributors, integrators, consultants and technicians.

London Digital Signage Week takes place May 13-17, 2019 and as with its counterpart in New York, the week is for anyone involved with digital signage and interested in retail, employee communications, smart cities, digital out of home and of course digital signage!

CACI has partnered with Huq Industries, provider of in-depth behavioural measurement data, with the aim to bring new location planning and insight capabilities to CACI’s clients, drawing on Huq’s mobile panel of 60+ million participants worldwide.

The detail and reliability in the data that Huq provides enables CACI to survey how consumers engage with the physical environment at the retail unit level, over time. These unique qualities provide valuable insights into the evolving role of commercial centres and destinations, and what motivates consumers to visit them.

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