If anywhere, why not here?

May 23, 2006 by Dave Haynes

As mentioned in the previous post, I am in Las Vegas

It's a great people-watching place, with an endless parade of nutbars and cosmetically-enhanced trophy wives.

When I wasn't looking at that, I was looking around for evidence of digital signage. Given this is the town that restraint forgot, with the visual volume always set at max, I was expecting a lot more of it than the last time I was here five years ago.

There is … but then, there isn't. Casinos are using it, but not a whole lot. Retailers are using it more here than you might see elsewhere, but not to any great effect. I didn't see anything at the casino or retail level that made me stop and take note. The best use of plasmas I saw was the wall of eight of them at a Hard Rock Hotel bar showing my fellow Canuck Steve Nash beating the Clippers.

There are many, many, many more LED billboards here now, which is likely why my friend John Youngson from Barco is now living here and not in Toronto. Even crappy places like where I am staying have one. It's an LED board that finally made me stop and appreciate a digital signage application.

The new Wynn resort has a monstrous two-sided one on Las Vegas Blvd, and the cool thing about it is the branding sign for the hotel, a big metal and lighting structure, is on rollers so that it slides up and down. The spots transition as the thing moves up and down. Very cool. And very expensive … but then I gather the Wynn cost something like $2.7 billion.

What's another $100K when you're trying to one-up the guy down the strip?