Here’s an aggressive move (press release below) from Paris based audience measurement specialists, Quividi [1].
One of the things we like with their solution and Cognovision [2]‘s to be fair is their use of off-the-shelf USB and IP based cameras (and spare CPU cycles on Windows based signage players) which help keep the costs of deployment down.
Anyway it looks like costs may be falling further with Quividi’s launch of what they call ‘Unlimited Packs’ – basically an annual subscription allowing Digital Signage operators and integrators to deploy an audience measurement solution on as many screens as they desire.
Paris, March 28th 2008 – Quividi announces the availability of its “Unlimited Packs”; for a fixed and affordable fee, Digital Signage operators and integrators can now deploy Quividi’s automated real-time audience measurement solution on as many screens as they desire.
The pack includes a volume license that allows for the installation and operation of VidiReports on all machines within a Digital Signage network in a country; it also includes a license to access VidiCenter and analyze the audience results in customizable dashboards.
The Unlimited Pack is proposed as a yearly subscription with an aggressive introduction pricing. A one month “Test” pack is also available for customers to try out all features.
VidiReports, currently at version 2.0, is an audience measurement solution conceived and optimized to run on the same machine hosting the player software. Working with a single standard webcam, VidiReports detects, tracks and qualifies people that pass in front of the screen and look at it. Generated metrics include Opportunities To See (OTS), number of real viewers, attention time, presence time, position and demographics. As the analysis is performed in real-time, VidiReports can also trigger other applications, for instance to adapt the displayed content to the current audience. No video and no uniquely identifiable data are recorded, thus preserving the visitors’ privacy.
“Thanks to VidiReports’ minimal hardware requirements and ease of installation, Digital Signage operators can rapidly start measuring and improving the visual impact of their screens”, says Olivier Duizabo, Quividi’s Managing Director. “They just need to connect a low-cost USB or IP camera to their local player (or to any distant PC) and launch VidiReports for it to start delivering audience data. With our very affordable total cost of ownership, we encourage them to measure virtually all of their screens along the year”.
VidiCenter is a web-accessible back office application which automatically collects audience data and status information from all running VidiReports instances. Audience data are formatted into insightful charts, themselves grouped into definable dashboards. Network operators, with just a glance, can obtain answers to fundamental questions such as the total number of viewers, global OTS, split of attention time, comparison of audience across time, places, screens and even demographics. The pack offers some template dashboards that users can subsequently fine-tune to their needs.
“With this new offering, we are radically changing the way people are considering measurement in this industry: real-time measurement is going to become a standard feature”, adds Olivier Duizabo. “We believe our solution will significantly help screen networks to grow: they will become one of the best-measured media, thus attracting more advertisers; their media sales departments will be able to offer some new accountable pricing schemes, such as billing per qualified contact; creative agencies will be able to design new interactive campaigns that react to people’s behaviour”.
Quividi’s solution is available for download at www.quividi.com [1].
About Quividi
Quividi is a privately held company created in July 2006 in Paris, France. Quividi’s vision is to develop affordable and effective audience measurement solution for out-of-home media. Relying on proprietary image processing technology, Quividi offers outstanding software solutions that can be installed on a wide range of platforms and, most notably, on standard digital signage players. Quividi actively collaborates with all the actors involved in retail marketing, from brands to screen network operators, from integrators to media agencies and research companies and boasts several leading networks and integrators amongst its customers.