Europe's Barco will buy Montreal-based X2O Media for US$18.6m or about 4X the Canadian company's 2013 revenue.

X2O Media will now be integrated in the Barco organization to fit in with Barco’s strategy to move beyond display and projection technology.  

This acquisition gives Barco a comprehensive solution to deliver enhanced and cross-divisional content distribution and workflow, based on advanced networking and connectivity capabilities.

Established in 2006 as a spin-off from VertigoXmedia, X2O Media benefited from its expertise in broadcast graphics automation. X2O developed an HTML5-based platform that delivers real-time content through dynamic and interactive channels, from any source to any screen, anywhere — including digital signage.

Digital signage has been staring across the chasm for years…

PQ Media’s new study says digital out-of-home media may be on the verge of its long-awaited industry breakout.

After momentum in recent years through increased consumer exposure and operator revenues, digital signage is now the world's second fastest-growing ad medium—and a vital part of the transitioning media ecosystem.

PQ Media's Consumer Exposure to Digital Out-of-Home Media Worldwide 2014 reports the average global consumer was exposed to various DOOH media for 14 minutes per week in 2013, a 75% increase from only eight minutes in 2007.

With the new Pro Series Control System, Extron offers more than 40 Pro Series control products-- all designed to make complex systems simpler and simple systems more powerful, and backed by the Extron Quality Guarantee and S3 customer support.

“With the introduction of Extron Pro Control Series, we are entering a new era for Extron configurable control where powerful hardware and software work together to accommodate more elaborate AV system designs,” says Casey Hall, VP Sales and Marketing for Extron. “At the heart of these new systems is Global Configurator Professional, which is loaded with advanced configuration tools including conditional logic, variables, and macros.”

Digital signage is almost a religion for Scala—and that explains why the company's turned a hall in the Zuiderkerk, the 17th century church at the Amsterdam Nieuwmarkt, into the temple to the industry that was its 2013 International Conference.

In attendance were 293 visitors, together with mix of exhibitors occupying a second floor.

Following a vaguely surreal opening musical act starring a gospel trio and an MC clad in priestly garb was the keynote from Scala CEO Tom Nix titled "What Was, Still Is & Will Be." Effectively an analysis of the state of the digital signage industry today, Nix repeatedly insisted of the importance of partners within vertical markets, particularly in these post-2008 market crash days.