Panasonic Gets Serious About Digital Signage in U.S., Canada; Debuts “Complete Solution”

August 11, 2021 by Dave Haynes

Panasonic has not been an overly visible player in the North American digital signage ecosystem for many years, but the Japanese visual systems and electronics manufacturer is taking a focused run at the business with what it is calling a Complete Digital Signage Solution.

The company has announced what could be called a turnkey solution that covers displays, related hardware, software and services, and suggesting it covers everything from corporate and retail to Houses of Worship.

“The ecosystem includes high-quality customized products, and unmatched software and services,” says Panasonic in announcing the solution, “that streamline set-up, maintenance and creates flexibility in workflows like controlling content locally or remotely, while also supporting the display of advertisements to drive business.”

The solution, the company continues, “includes hardware, software and services that work holistically together to provide the right-sized display – for any scenario – with the necessary accessories, installation and logistics, and warranties and maintenance.”

o   The hardware: our digital signage solution can be customized to include a variety of displays, which come in all shapes and sizes and for any location indoors or outdoors. Our current displays include video walls, touchscreen displays, entry-level 4K displays and professional displays, standard professional displays, large format 4K digital displays, full HD professional displays and high brightness standard professional displays. Regardless of the type or dimension, all of our displays serve up crisp, clear visuals. 

o   The accessories: in addition to displays, we offer accessories like wall and ceiling mount configurations to keep displays aligned, IP Power Controllers from leading manufacturers and media players with various outputs. Depending on customers’ specific needs, product bundles for the displays and accessories are available as part of the ecosystem.

o   The software: to ensure the best viewing experience is provided to guests and that the hardware is easily manageable, we offer various software that help to streamline the backend. For instance, our Content Management Software offers customers different toolsets to manage and synchronize content on multiple platforms at once, and in real-time. Additionally, the Remote Asset Management and Diagnostics helps to configure, assign actions and maintain the network, media player and attached display configurations. 

o   The services: based on needs, we are here to offer support that’s scalable when it comes to design, configuration, fast and easy installation and logistics for cabling, staging, kitting and asset management. We also offer preventative maintenance through 3, 4 or 5-year warranties to ensure long-term protection of purchases for all system components.

A turnkey-ish solution is what a lot of end-users and resellers want these days, so they don’t have to cobble the various elements together themselves and watch as suppliers argue about whose components or software is causing problems.

On the flip side, this would appear to take Panasonic down the path of selling its software solution against CMS software companies who might have thought Panasonic was a partner, not a rival. However, Panasonic as noted at the top has not been a major player, at least in North America, in signage, so this approach likely has more pros than cons when it comes to annoying a few software CEOs.

A broad approach like this – suggesting the solution can be all things to all verticals – may work. But being a generalist these days is tough because of ALL the options out there. When your solution is competing with many software companies and many display companies (most notably Samsung) that have these kinds of complete solutions, I think going after a specific vertical or two might make more sense.

Panasonic mentions Houses of Worship, and I could argue being focused on that sector – with marketing and a software UX that’s tuned to church, synagogue and mosque needs – might get noticed and used.

Whatever the case, it’s an interesting development. I have no idea if the software is the AcroSign software marketed in japan by Panasonic and used recently at the Tokyo Olympics.