DSE Mixer Sponsor Profiles: TSItouch At DSE Reinforcing Why The World Needs More Touch(screens)

October 31, 2022 by Dave Haynes

The big Sixteen:Nine networking mixer at DSE is back, and is now just about two weeks out. It’s sold out, meaning we expect to have 350+ Digital Signage Experience attendees showing up for drinks, nibblies and lots of conversations and introductions.

The event happens because of the terrific support of sponsors who help cover the costs of the venue, drinks, food buffet, AV and on and on – and one of the ways to recognize that help is by profiling each of the sponsors ahead of the Nov. 16th event in Las Vegas.

SignageOS was profiled earlier this week, then Creative Realities, and next up – 3 of 8 – is TSItouch. Based in Uniontown, PA, kinda sorta in the orbit of Pittsburgh, the 11-year-old company is a manufacturer of touch screen and protective solutions for commercial grade displays and video walls, and a very active supporter of the digital signage and interactive screen industries.

Q: Can you summarize what TSItouch does and the main markets it serves?

TSI Touch strives to touch the world through visual technology. We are an employee-owned company and a leading manufacturer of touchscreen and protective solutions for commercial grade displays ranging in size from 10.4” LCD screens to LED video walls extending over 500” in diagonal. We are dedicated to consistently providing customers with high quality, cost-effective solutions for their specific needs. While our capabilities serve a number of industries, the majority of our customer base is focused in the Digital Signage, Retail, Transit, Hospitality, Higher Education, and Medical markets.

Q: You have a stand, I think, on the exhibit hall floor. What can attendees expect to see if they wander in or book a meeting?

TSI Touch will welcome guests to booth #705 to touch base with the team, over refreshments. From there, our on-site team will be able to lead guests to several of our partners’ booths for onsite product demonstrations so that they can see the technology fully in action.

Q: At the start of the pandemic, the general expectation was that touchscreens were going to be avoided and businesses like yours would suffer. But it didn’t play out that way, did it?

No.  Without delving too deep into the psychological aspects of things, after the first few weeks of uncertainty when lockdowns began, we had situations where people were using Lysol to disinfect grocery deliveries and being fearful to touch anything for fear of fomites and surface contaminants. Then in May of 2020, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) clarified its guidance about surface transmission, stating that this route is “not thought to be a common way that COVID-19 spreads”. And later that year, spokesperson from the World Health Organization (WHO) echoed that message and stated that “there is limited evidence of transmission through fomites”.

Once the fears about surface contaminants subsided it became clear that touchscreen technology was a tool to actually make things safer, because it allowed for more communication and interaction without requiring dangerous, in-person communication. Touchscreen technology actually helped to bridge the gap as we all distanced as much as possible from one another.

Q: What key trends are you seeing in the marketplace? Do you see, for example, hands-free interactive screens and audio-based interaction getting traction in the market?

Covid provided virtually every input technology an opportunity to shine.  Post-covid, it does not appear that interactive functionality such as gesture, audio, QR scanning or driving a display from your phone or pretty much any other technology gained much more traction than it had before Covid.  At the end of the day, technology that reliably serves the population will be adopted so long as it makes things better for people. That said, those technologies are not yet perfected and reliable enough to become replacements for touch in most use cases. When they do, it seems like they will need to integrate with touch technology rather than take the place of to be broadly effective.

Q: Are buyer profiles shifting and evolving?

The pandemic also shifted the ways many companies do business, and some companies didn’t survive at all. Right now, we see some companies merging and others changing the way that the do things logistically which of course means buyer behavior is changing. However, it may be too early to declare anything as the “new normal” as far as a typical buyer goes.

Q: What do you see as the main reason to be at DSE?

DSE is a great opportunity to personally interface with our customers and partners in a focused setting. This year is especially exciting since in-person gatherings have been limited over the past 2 years because of the pandemic. It doesn’t hurt that the show is set in Las Vegas, where the impact of digital signage is unmistakable.

Our 2022 Sponsors: