Meet the very first Skype Station. Demand for free video calls continues to grow globally, so AdTech wants companies and venues to delight their visitors by installing a Skype Station.

Skype Station can do much more than video calls – it’s another form of digital signage. Skype Station can display ads while idle, it can be integrated with your internet shop or used as registration system at a conference.

Whether it is a shopping mall, train station or night club, Skype Station can attract people and then hosts can present sales offers. AdTech can also design various software solutions depending on your needs.

Fresh from testing at Estonia’s Tallinn Airport, the makers insist Skype Station is much more than a simple computer dressed up in a futuristic outfit.

For example, Skype Station features a unique automatic log out system, hidden in the floor. Just step out of the booth and it logs you out of your Skype account.

Tridelity presents glasses-free 3D video walls with up to 5760 x 3240 pixels in 3x3 (165") and 2x2 (110") with slim bezel. Alternative models such as 7x1, 3x2 or 3x4 walls are available upon request.

While you can get glasses-free 3D in dimensions of up to 14 feet screen-size and with up to 80 square feet screen surface, Tridelity can also deliver the walls already pre-configured with the hardware needed for 24/7 operation.

Viewing distances of 50 feet or more with custom distances available. Each screen is a Full HD 55” model – already the 2x2 model runs on QUAD-HD resolution

Tridelity offers a bezel of just 0.2” per screen thanks to “ultra narrow bezel” technology.

Go Tridelity Glasses-Free Video Walls

In USA, MMD/Philips debuts the Philips Q Series comprised of the 32” BDL3210Q, 42” BDL4210Q and 46” BDL4610Q.

The Philips Q Series is a family of edge-lit LED commercial displays aimed at digital signage applications. What's especially interesting about this announcement is the integration of a digital signage content software called Flypaper Express (with a free 30-day trial) built right into the monitors. The software comes equipped with 10 themed templates that can easily kick-start digital signage projects.

The 32-inch BDL3210Q is a 1366x768 resolution display while the 42-inch BDL4210Q and 46-inch BDL4610Q are both 1920x1080 resolution displays.

All three include HDMI and VGA ports, network-content delivery (as well as USB stick content delivery) and can be controlled via the network.

Go BDL3210Q

Go BDL4210Q

Go BDL4610Q

It’s been a busy year for Christie as it builds out more distribution infrastructure. In the last 12 months, Christie opened a dedicated 500 square metres branch in Madrid… a new purpose-built facility in Dubai… the set up of an office in So. Africa… and even the acquisition of VR Solutions in Australia (which will be rebranded as Christie after closing).

And now the latest news in EMEA: Christie opens a new office in France near Paris with triple the surface area. The new facility now occupies over 1000 square metres and hosts an area dedicated to service and training.

It also has several dedicated spaces including a showroom for staging live demos, several rooms for seminars and training courses, along with an extended sales open space. Partners and service providers will receive training on Christie’s products such as projectors and video processors, along with hot technologies and software such as Christie Autostack and Christie Twist.

The French office covers various territories including France, the Netherlands, Belgium’s Wallonia and No. Africa.

The ITU gets its fingers into almost everything that touches telecom...which for them now includes the internet.  So it's no wonder that the ITU is lobbying for digital signage standards and also publishing its own thoughts on digital signage.

An ITU-T Technology Watch Report gives an overview of digital signage technologies and their major applications, assesses the latest trends in DOOH and outlines the need for interoperable standards for digital signage products. 

ITU-T Study Group 16 has already started work on a Framework for Digital Signage Services. Recognizing that a useful foundation has been laid for the similar IPTV application space of IPTV, much work remains to be done in order to achieve an all-embracing digital signage suite of standards. This suite, as envisioned by ITU, would also include screen-media formats and associated advertising units, network requirements, security and privacy enhancing solutions, test cases, etc. Extensive collaboration with the digital signage industry and its interest groups should contribute to taking the next steps without duplication of effort.

ITU-T Study Group 16 wants a particular focus on identifying links to related technologies (e.g., IPTV, cloud computing) and on leveraging the full potential of the medium: interactivity, pervasiveness and context awareness, and its integration into the Internet of Things.

Like in IPTV, ITU-T thinks it should consider organizing similar events (as in IPTV) to demonstrate seamless global interoperability of digital signage products of different vendors.

ClearOne releases its MagicBox on-premise Entry-Level Server (ELS) to extend its web-based, digital signage offering.

The ELS runs MagicBox WebSuite software applications for digital signage, including content creation and asset management inside a browser for content management experience--from design to verification. The ELS is available with upgradable licensing options to support 5, 15 or 25 media players.

In addition to releasing the ELS, the existing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud-based MagicBox WebSuite is also enhanced with some new features:

Says Tom Searcy, VP ClearOne Digital Signage Business. "New features in the MagicBox WebSuite software improve the control of multiple media players at one or many locations and also provide flexibility and access for multiple users with different management rights in the system. By offering both the ELS and SaaS models, our digital signage customers now have the option of hosting with either an on-premise server or a cloud-based solution, according to their digital signage requirements and business models."

Go MagicBox WebSuite Software

They’re calling it “the World’s Largest DOOH installation.” No wonder NanoLumens is celebrating.

Brazil’s newest (and most advanced) subway line, São Paulo Metro Line 4 also known as Yellow Line or ViaQuatro, will have Terra Latin America install nearly 2000 digital displays throughout the line’s 11 stations.

The centerpiece of the project will be the multi-million dollar installation of 8 large-format NanoLumens LED displays, including a 5-meter diameter by 2-meter tall 360-degree display. One million daily commuters will view these displays.

At the NanoLumens office, they are giving out sweet treats in the lobby. NanoLumens is so festive even the massive LED displays featured in their showroom are in Halloween spirit by dressing up as NanoLanterns.

Every time we chat with Jeff Hastings, CEO of BrightSign, he never fails to mention he considers BrightSign to be a software company.

“We employ more SW engineers than HW. Anyone can build hardware but to bring a box to life without adding more cost to the box, that’s BrightSign,” notes Hastings.

You would have to agree: Getting all of digital signage into a box, that’s the trick. Getting all the cost out of the box, that’s the even bigger trick.

BrightSign is acknowledged as the market leader in digital signage players, but Hastings was not content: When he looked at the digital signage market, he saw BrightSign playing in the smaller part of the market, the one-third of the market that is non-PC.

PC owns the bulk of digital signage.