ZetaDisplay AB will acquire all of the shares in Webpro AS in exchange for payment in cash of approximately NOK 21 million (2.2 million euro) plus additional performance-based supplemental payments.

ZetaDisplay’s stated goal is to carry out acquisitions for its growth strategy and to actively participate in the ongoing consolidation of the digital signage industry in Europe. Through this acquisition, the company further strengthens its delivery capacity and takes an important international step in the digital signage industry.

“Webpro has succeeded in attracting renowned international customers and, together with our platform and organization, Webpro’s customers will be able to benefit from a broader range of products and services which can be rolled out internationally”, says Leif Liljebrunn, CEO of ZetaDisplay.

Webpro is a Norwegian company which develops and sells customer-adapted digital signage solutions used around the world. The company’s largest customers are IKEA and McDonalds in Russia. In 2017, the company had sales of NOK 24 million (of which contracted and recurring revenue consisted of approximately NOK 6.5 million) and operating earnings of NOK 4.1 million. The company’s solutions are installed in more than 75 IKEA stores around the world as well as more than 600 McDonalds restaurants.

The purchase price is approximately NOK 21 million, on a cash and debt free basis and will be paid in cash at closing. 

Provided that certain defined earnings-related threshold values are achieved in 2018 and 2019, a maximum variable purchase price of approximately NOK 29 million will be paid. 

Any supplemental purchase price will be determined and paid out in 2019 and 2020-- and ZetaDisplay can choose to pay any supplemental purchase amount in the form of common shares in ZetaDisplay.

Closing on the shares in Webpro is planned to take place during Q3 2018. Completion of the transaction is contingent, among other things, on obtaining full financing to carry out the transaction and the board of directors plans to finance the acquisition through a rights issue.

Go ZetaDisplay

US-based Uniguest acquires UK's ONELAN, a digital signage and visual communications company. 

Well-known in digital signage, wayfinding, and meeting space tech, ONELAN's footprint spans across 6000 projects in 50 countries and operates in the education, corporate, retail and hospitality sectors.

Less known to Europeans is the company Uniguest.While the press release highlighted its interest in cybersecurity ("Secure Technology Provider Acquires U.K. Digital Signage Company," Uniguest entered into security from its history of providing public technology such as internet kiosks and guest computer systems in hospitality, business services, senior living, community living, fitness centers and other industries.

Uniguest operates more than 28,000 devices across 15,000+ locations: that's more than enough exposure to the public to make software security a big priority. Their new next-generation software platform, Secured Advantage 10was built to protect the most innocent guest users and defend against cyber threats, viruses and malware. So, yes, Uniguest knows something about security.

Their website "Company Overview" defines the company with this headlined text: "Uniguest is a leading technology solutions provider of secure managed kiosks across multiple industries..."

Products in digital signage include: U-Local concierge kiosk station for guests and visitors to access and explore local knowledge; and U-Table, an interactive and Internet-enabled solution to enhance social areas, boost customer’s productivity, and to increase their property’s food and beverage revenue streams.

Uniguest doesn't mainly sell security products; it sells technology solutions that are distinguished from their many competitors by their security.

In 2013, Hoover (financial services research company) estimated Uniguest sales turnover as $43 million. Then private equity firm Atlantic Street Capital acquired Uniguest to accelerate the company’s growth and expand its technology offerings beyond the hospitality industry: Uniguest completed a series of four acquisitions in 2015 and 2016. Acquisitions included Vertical Systems, Inc. (VSi), Ascension Software, Eleven Wireless, and Showcase Technologies.

Now Uniguest is buying ONELAN’s digital signage and visual communications solutions as a natural extension to Uniguest’s portfolio of products.  ONELAN has much to offer Uniguest's traditional customers (guests, shoppers, and residents  in the hospitality, office retail, and community living industries.)

“Digital engagement is something we see as a crucial component to the future of the industries we operate in,” Uniguest CEO Jeff Hiscox says. “After doing a thorough review of the market, we realized ONELAN’s solutions are best in class and our combined solutions will drive a new “digital infusion” in the public use space of our customers.”

For the near future, ONELAN will continue to operate as a stand-alone business with its current team members out of the UK headquarters. Uniguest will fold the signage offerings into its solution set, and the products will be available to Uniguest clients during the Q2 2018.

“Uniguest is a natural partner for us as their Secured Advantage product goes hand-in-hand with our interactive signage solutions,” ONELAN Chief Commercial Officer Hugh Coghill-Smith [photo] adds. “Both companies strive to bring the most value to our customers. We determined the best way to provide a seamless customer experience was to bring the two portfolios together as one offering.”

While headquartered in the UK, ONELAN has a presence in Dubai, Germany, China and North America, with a worldwide network of more than 300 accredited dealers and system integrators in 50 countries. Recently ONELAN achieved the ISO 9001_2015 standard, making it one of the first companies in Europe to have achieved this.

What can you expect from this acquisition? First, ONELAN will have bigger pockets, a wider product offering and a chance to internationalize this American company. Second, Uniquest in USA will have new expertise and new proucts to sell to its extensive list of current customers (many of these American companies make worldwide purchase decisions.)

And the private equity company will-- in a few more years after the fruit of this acquisition-- be looking to cash in on its investment which has already seen 5 years, a long time in equity holdings.

Go Uniguest Buys ONELAN 

Europe’s largest IT event, CEBIT 2018, will be less of a traditional trade fair and more of a "business festival," organisers Deutsche Messe promise as they reveal further details on the show, such as theme areas, in-show events and optimised hall layout.

This is IT's home ground...IBM CEO Ginni Rometty will be delivering the keynote speech.

With 800 square meters (8600 sq. ft.), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) will show hybrid infrastructures, location-based services, IoT systems, artificial intelligence, blockchain applications and supercomputers.

And Europe's giant IT system integrators like €12 billion ATOS will join in. ATOS wants to talk about the Workplace of the Future. "ATOS values CEBIT as a key platform for engaging in dialogue on digital transformation with its customers," comments Ursula Morgenstern, CEO of Atos Germany.

As show organizers cater to a new generation of IT executives (and a new generation of IT technology), CEBIT moves to the month of June and adopts a modern high tech festival format.

"With its winning threefold mix of innovation-rich showcases, quality conferences and informal networking opportunities, the new CEBIT will provide a 360 perspective on the digitisation of business, government and society," says Deutsche Messe. "As well as attracting IT experts, industry professionals and top-level decision-makers from the digital and IT user industries, our aim with the new CEBIT is increasingly to reach the next generation of business decision-makers."

The CeBIT 2018 format comprises four main sections-- d!conomy, d!tec, d!talk and d!campus. The d!conomy section covers digitisation, with exhibition topics such as digital business, digital administration, Internet of Things (IoT), security, networks, channel and distribution, mobile solutions and datacentres. The d!tec section is all about cutting-edge innovations and startups, d!talk is a conference platform and d!campus is a space for networking, live music and street food.

The show opens with a keynote by Jaron Lanier, an American computer scientist and Microsoft employee famous for his work in VR. Another speaker is Dan Lyons, the author of the "Secret Diary of Steve Jobs," who will talk about his experiences in "startup hell." German science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar will also take the stage to talk about AI and the future of our relationship with computers.

Other speakers include "memory hacker" Dr. Julia Shaw and Mikko Hypponen Chief Research Officer at the Finnish IT security company, F-Secure.

CeBIT opens on 11 June with a first day reserved for conference attendees and journalists. The day is capped off by a Welcome Night featuring high-ranking political leaders from Germany and abroad, setting the day for the three business-centric show days to follow. "Digital Friday" (15 June) targets the general public with hackathons, drone competitions and recruitement events for students and digital professionals.

The hall layout is somewhat revamped-- Halls 9 to 13, 14 to 17 and 25 to 27, as well as the central open-air site around the EXPO canopy, host a number of activities, showcases and networking events. The exhibition stands in the halls will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The d!campus is open till 11 pm and features a program of digital culture, street food and live performances by popular artists, such as German hip-hop star Jan Delay.

Editor’s Note: DIGITAL SIGNAGE NEWS EMEA is a Media Sponsor (along with rest of Channel Media Europe) of a pavilion for IT industry professionals. If you want to do business with IT channels, this is the place. Exhibitors wanting the ease of an turnkey stand and the convenience of a shared hospitality lounge—as well as the marketing support of a large cooperative pavilion--should contact Jan Nintemann, +49 541- 97126- 0, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Go New CEBIT Promises More Excitement for the Latest Generation of IT Executives

Go Global Fairs/TT-Messe, CEBIT with Jan Nintemann

Digital Signage Expo (DSE) may not have set an all-time attendance record this year, but it did deliver the highest buyer attendance (by percentage) in its 15-year show history-- -93.3% of total attendance were end-users, system integrators and advertising/brand executives.

End-users alone accounted for nearly 45% of the audience, a higher percentage than 2017.

Verified attendance was 4032-- on par with DSE’s attendance performance over the past five years. (With one exception, 2017. In 2017 the show was fortunate enough to have co-locations with three other events-- GlobalShop, Cinemacon and Pizza Marketplace)-- which gave DSE a significant one-year attendance boost. (And probably much better pizza…)

International attendees were 17.5% of the overall attendance, coming from 60 countries.

A stunning new media installation illuminating Chicago's West Loop won the APEX Award for Installation of the Year:150 Media Stream is a 3000-square-foot (278.7 sq. m) display divided into 89 separated super-thin LED blades variously sized between 3.25 inches (8.25cm) to 15 inches (38cm) in width, and standing vertically anywhere from 6 feet (1.8m) to 22-feet (6.7m) tall. Creative content is provided by distinguished artists as well as students from partnering cultural and educational institutions. Check out the video in the link below…

DSE 2019 will be in March 26-28 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Watch The Installation of the Year 2018

Go Check out the Rest of the Annual APEX Award Winners

Milestone AV Technologies’ brand identity is changing across all facilities, documents and online as signs and site logos are switched to Legrand.

Legrand is committed to serving the AV industry and AV users by supporting and investing in the brands and product lines, sold principally under the Chief, Da-Lite, Middle Atlantic, Projecta, Sanus and Vaddio brands.

“By joining Legrand, we became part of a bigger company with opportunities for greater service to our customers and more growth for our employees,” said Scott Gill, President – AV Division. “We’re excited to display our new corporate identity on our building, materials and through our website.”

This new identity also comes with a refreshed look for milestone.com. Customers will still have access to the product brands as well as all the customer friendly functions and features. Chief, Da-Lite, Projecta and Sanus have fully integrated experiences currently. The updated website now features landing pages for Vaddio and Middle Atlantic until their experiences are integrated into the website. Vaddio will be fully integrated in the next few months while Middle Atlantic is planned for early 2019. The milestone URL will transition to a Legrand URL mid-2018 as well.

Globally, Legrand employs nearly 36,000 people. Net global sales in 2016 were more than $5 billion with many products leading their category.

Go Milestone Becomes Legrand

Go Legrand: the Big News at ISE 2018

Move over Times Square… Korea’s capital city Seoul designates the COEX (convention, exhibition, and shopping complex) and World Trade Center area in the city center as Korea’s first free outdoor advertisement zone.

And Samsung Electronics installed the largest SMART LED Signage in Korea on the outer wall of the SM Town and K-Pop square of COEX. It is the first case in Korea of a signage display that uses two sides of an outdoor advertisement area.

This Samsung SMART LED Signage supports resolution of 7840 X 1952 pixel, almost 2X the resolution of UHD. With a high refresh rate of 49,920Hz, it depicts smooth and uniform images without distortion.

The signage, 4X the size of a basketball court and a total surface area of 1620m², took seven months to install. It connects two LED displays together by a curved edge.

Sungwook Yoon, with Samsung Electronics’ Building Solution Group, led the installation, and made the decision to apply a curved design to the signage.

While displays for residential use typically feature 300 to 500nit brightness, the SMART LED Signage uses up to 9000nit so that it can show clear images even with bright sunlight.

The Samsung SMART LED Signage also automatically adjusts its brightness. Too much brightness can make drivers or pedestrians uncomfortable, so the SMART LED Signage lowers or increases its brightness according to the movement of the sun.

Jinwook Kim of Building Solution Group says, “The SMART LED Signage is made of around 31,000 LED display modules. The distance between each pixel is 10mm to show a clear and vivid image from all directions.” (The typical size of the gap between each pixel in outdoor advertisements in Korea is 16-20mm.)

The SMART LED Signage not only displays the same content in more detail, but also provides water and dustproof features, as well as up to 100,000 hours of use.

Starting with COEX SM Town, Samsung Electronics will continue its involvement in Korea’s free outdoor advertisement zone project with its SMART LED Signage for the next 10 years. The project aims to help raise the brand value of Seoul through development and promotion of the city as a ‘global digital media landmark.’

The SMART LED Signage hopes to bolster the local economy and help the city gain competitiveness with an exciting new tourist attraction as its next landmark.

Go Samsung Installs the Largest ‘SMART LED Signage’ in Seoul

Watch Samsung Electronics install the largest ‘SMART LED Signage’ in Seoul

The largest and busiest Integrated Systems Europe in its 15-year history drew record numbers of exhibitors and attendees from around the world for four days of business, education and networking at the RAI Amsterdam between 6-9 February.

Throughout 15 halls, visitors could experience 1296 exhibitors, (294 exhibiting at ISE for the first time). They filled 53,000sqm of exhibition floor space (floor space already booked for ISE 2019 is 103% of this.)

The number of registered visitors by the end of the show had reached 80,923, an increase of 10.3% on the 2017 edition. Importantly, almost 20,000 visitors attended the last day of the show.

More than 30% of the total attendees were visiting ISE for the first time.

The gift that is ISE just keeps giving… and rAVe Publications has now picked their "2018 Best of ISE Awards."

rAVe Publications Founder Gary Kayye explains about their 2018 ISE Awards:“You can’t enter a product in them. You can’t ask us to nominate you. And, you can’t get an award by advertising or sponsoring us or paying for it. And, there are NO Awards entry fees!...

"...We sent reporters to EVERY booth/stand at ISE 2018 and we selected the TOP products in every possible product category for our 2018 Best of ISE Awards.” 

2018 Best of ISE Awards in Digital Signage & Public Spaces:

• Best New Screen Product: Screen Innovations Solo Wireless Screen
• Best New Overall Digital Signage Display Product: Philips Q Line Series
• Best New Digital Signage Touch Display: LANG GhosT-OLED Touch
• Best New Digital Signage Display: NEC P754Q
• Best New Digital Signage Hardware Product (tie): Chief Impact On-Wall Kiosk and MOBIMA WAYU
• Best Digital Signage Software Product: BARIX RetailPlayer
• Best Digital Signage Accessory: Pixelart
• Best New Digital Signage Product for AV Integrators: Delta Displays NovoDS 4K
• Best New Digital Signage Media Player: BrightSign XD Series Media Players
• Best New Digital Signage OS: Navori QL 2.0
• Best New Outdoor Digital Signage Display: VideoTree Oceana
• Best Use of Augmented Reality: Realfiction DeepFrame
• Best Overall LED Wall Product: ABSEN Acclaim
• Best Modular LED Wall Product: Christie Velvet CorePlus LED
• Best New Video Wall Display: Barco UniSee
• Best Video Wall Product: Peerless-AV SmartMount Supreme
• Best New Rigid LED Wall Product: Leyard DirectLight 0.7mm
• Best New Flexible LED Wall Product: LG Transparent LED Film
• Best New Video Wall Accessory: Baanto Mod-u-lar Frame
• Best Portable PA System: Bose Professional S1 Pro
• Best Emergency Services AV Product: LDA Audio Tech LDA ONE
• Best Transparent Display: LG Transparent OLED

Go See More Winners: The BEST of the BEST, THE 2018 ISE OVERALL WINNERS 

PRN, a Stratacache company, will buy the Belgium-based iDKLIC, a digital marketing specialist whose technology and services are present in more than 1250 pharmacies across Europe. PRN, with solutions found in over 18,000 retail locations, is known for its LIFT interactive point of purchase network at convenience stores, in-aisle interactive touchscreens and smart video signage.

PRN currently provides interactive pharmacy displays and touchscreens for today’s leading wellness retailers. Now iDKLIC will operate within a newly-formed PRN Health Ltd. Division as part of the wellness product offerings. Changes in both patient profile and healthcare delivery are leading pharmacies to evolve from small medicinal counters to inspiring well-being centers, evolving the in-store experience to an entirely new level. PRN Health’s digital solutions are a strategic part of enhancing the patient journey in a retail environment.

iDKLIC provides thousands of pharmacies in Europe with turnkey and customizable content management, digital signage solutions and interactive digital advertising networks. Its Pharmaseen platform currently operates in Belgium, France, Ireland and Luxembourg, with multiple expansion opportunities throughout Europe. Pharmaseen is a unique health communication channel created specifically for the pharmacy retail environment. It attracts, engages and educates the audience while triggering point-of-decision upsell opportunities.

The partnership will give PRN, which provides unique point-of-sale and highly visible advertising solutions to convenience stores and pharmacies, an expedited entry into the growing health and wellness market in Europe and a solid foundation upon which to build and expand. PRN will expand iDKLIC’s proven platform for serving independent pharmacies in the US. iDKLIC will have access to STRATACACHE’s global network of field support, operations and customer support infrastructure as well as investment capital to support expansion into new markets and regions.

iDKLIC's co-founder and CEO, Jean-Charles Figoni, will remain as CEO and will continue to lead the company’s expansion in Europe. He says, “Since 2006, our company has been receiving a positive response from advertisers and customers. Our concept is established in over 1,250 pharmacies, reaching 2 million impressions per day. We are looking forward to further expanding the number of pharmacies and advertisers in Europe.”

“iDKLIC has built a successful model for serving European pharmacy customers,” said Kevin Carbone, CEO of PRN. “With access to the technology, operational expertise and investment capital of PRN and STRATACACHE, iDKLIC can now deliver its proven value-added model to more pharmacy customers in more countries across Europe. The acquisition will also give PRN access to a proven platform for serving independent pharmacies and regional drugstore chains in North America.”

Jean-Charles Figoni added: “At our end, we were fully aware that STRATACACHE would help us achieve our mission and realize our vision in a faster, more professional and integrated manner.”

Go STRATACACHE, Inc.

Go PRN