Digital Signage Will Again Be Biggest Tech Segment At ISE

January 15, 2020 by Dave Haynes

The email invites to come visit booths and set up interviews have started piling in for Integrated Systems Europe, which will be on four weeks from now in Amsterdam.

As with its related show InfoComm (the trade organization AVIXA is an owner of both), ISE is not a digital signage show, but has a lot of digital signage at it. It is certainly the biggest show in EMEA for people interested in or marketing that tech.

In fact, the biggest “Technology Zone” at ISE – Hall 8 – covers Digital Signage and Digital OOH technologies, with nearly 300 exhibitors. ISE says that’s been the fastest-growing market segment at its show in recent years.

Hall 8 covers small to mid-sized vendors – the software guys and a lot of the small to mid-sized LED and specialty display guys. Many are from China, as you might expect, but I have met LED guys at ISE whose companies are in unexpected places like Ukraine.

The display majors like Samsung, LG, Sony and NEC are in other halls, with massive booths. Samsung actually has its own hall, with no other exhibitors.

ISE actually lists 520 exhibitors categorized as Digital Signage, but a healthy chunk of those are manufacturers who may have gear – like cables or switches – that are part of signage jobs, but these companies would not seriously consider themselves part of the signage ecosystem.

The industry’s biggest pure-play show – Digital Signage Expo – currently lists 139 exhibitors for its show, which is still 2.5 months out. So that count will grow as procrastinators finally pull the trigger or get budget OKs.

Hotels booked and flights long since arranged for both shows. No mixer this year at ISE (RAI catering never returned multiple emails???) but definitely at DSE. Ticketing for that in a couple of weeks. Mixer planned for Barcelona in 2021, as ISE moving there.

  1. John Philippson says:

    As someone new to the digital signage industry, I found this very helpful. Thanks Dave.

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