Elevator Manufacturing Giant Schindler Launches Own Screen Network In Its Installed Buildings

March 15, 2022 by Dave Haynes

Via German content partner Invidis …

The big elevator equipment manufacturers have seen media start-ups equip their commercial and residential cabs with screens for more than 20 years, but have largely stayed out of the direct media business.

Now there’s word that one of the largest global manufacturers, Switzerland’s Schindler, has created the Schindler Media Network – a digital OOH screen network focused on hyper-local advertising in residential buildings in Germany.

The advertising will be promoted and sold by a Berlin start-up, Hygh, which already sells ad spots in shop windows.

“Our screens match Hygh’s existing inventory of advertising media and expertise. Our partner also enables our customers to buy our advertising space programmatically. This is a real innovation. We are thus offering an attractive new advertising channel for medium-sized to large advertising clients and are also opening lift advertising as a channel for smaller companies,” explains Frank Schach, CEO of Schindler Germany. “With the programmatic sale of space and significantly more flexibility in adapting the content or in the lead time, we react agilely to the requirements of our customers and can generate advertising impact very efficiently.”

The Schindler Media Network is intended both for residential and office building elevators. Schindler, invidis notes, provides building owners with the Schindler Media Network as an end-to-end solution, including installation and ongoing operation of the network. Content can be uploaded and updated via a mobile app, enabling fully digital building communication that is independent of time and place and is played out in real time. Advertisers, media agencies and other companies can now book in-lift advertising via Hygh’s booking platform.

The screen network is in twelve German cities, with more cities and screens being added.

The original ad screens in elevators concept was developed and launched back in the mid to late 1990s by Toronto-based Elevator News Network (ENN), and in the US by Boston-based Captivate. My entry into digital signage came back in 1999, joining ENN and within a year or so running its operations. Those companies put screens up out of the way in corners and over the doors. The two merged in 2001.

Since then, hardware costs have plummeted and media delivery went from signal cables to WiFi. There are now companies doing screens on side walls, like Schindler, and even some short-throw projection set-ups over doors.

As far as I know, the only time a big elevator manufacturer has got directly involved as a media investor/partner was Otis, which partnered in 1999 with IBM and one of the original DOOH networks, NGN, on a scheme to installs screens in elevators. It didn’t last.