DSE 2016 Impressions From Day 1: Speed Round Version

March 17, 2016 by Dave Haynes

NOT a lot of time to write … in very late and now I need to head out again.

Day 1 at Digital Signage Expo looked busy. It certainly was at the display vendor booths, as I know from first hand experience LG, NEC, Samsung and Planar were all crammed with people.

A lot of people were seeing commercial-ready OLED panels for the first time so there were many, many photos taken around LG’s wavy panels and Samsung’s transparent one. One thing I’d not seen before was Planar’s big OLEDs, which were put, stacked, in portrait mode, in front of a mannequin. I thought that was clever.

There are not that many LED vendors at the show as something like Infocomm or ISE, but they were there, and the 1.2mm pixel pitch indoor panels were gorgeous, and certainly a rival for tiled LCD video walls as production volumes go up and prices come down and start to compete with the “older” technology. Again, I liked what Planar had with LED through its Chinese owner/partner Leyard. Where many of the LED modules that stitch together to make larger displays are the size of floor tiles, the Leyard ones are the size of 55-inch (I think) panels – so fewer modules needed to make a big display and therefore fewer seams.

I had a lightning tour of Four Winds new corporate communications apps that sit on top of the platform. Nice.

Didn’t have time to see any other software companies at length, but that’s on the plan for today.

There were some interesting things, like a roll-on paint that turns a window into a rear projection display. The PaintPam stuff from Korea really just rolls on and wipes off easily. For a temporary window display, this would beat the hell out of very finicky and expensive window films.

I saw the ad screen on the Lamborghini thing. Thought it was dumb when I read about it, and can confirm that.

Saw a demo from a poor soul from Toronto who has a robot that has a tablet for a face and and LCD panel in front of its legs and roller feet. It is in early beta and the idea is this will be used for attracting crowds that will then see the ads on it. Somebody needs to pull the guy aside and have a heart to heart chat. Taking a stack of $100s and shredding them would be quicker.

I can’t believe now there are start-ups introducing face detection video analytics, albeit with some new wrinkles. It’s like CMS software. There’s enough.

I just got an email encouraging me to go see the company’s “groundbreaking PATENT PENDING 3D social broadcast platform.” Huh? And no.

The day just vanished on me, and my lunch was a bag of mini cookies, gobbled on the fly between meetings. Today looks about the same, but I have plans to see a lot more, and will write with a little more depth and details once back at World HQ next week.

Off we go to the LVCC …