Nanolumens: InfoComm Digital Signage Mixer Sponsor Profile

June 7, 2023 by Dave Haynes

InfoComm is next week in Orlando, and one of the key events for the digital signage side of North American pro AV is a networking mixer set for June 13th.

Sixteen:Nine is doing this event with the trade association AVIXA, which owns and runs InfoComm and is, frankly, doing most of the heavy lifting on this social event. For those wanting to go, you need to be registered via InfoComm, and I am sorry to say and stress that the event is VERY sold out – like fingers-crossed that not everyone who registered actually turns up on the night!

So I don’t have a wait list to put you on if you’re not registered, and you won’t be able to just turn up and sweet-talk your way in. Sorry!

Events like this happen because of sponsors, who offset the many hard costs like booze and venue rental. For this mixer, AVIXA has signed on three terrific sponsors. They’ll all get recognized on this site with sponsor profiles this week, and the next up is the Atlanta LED display firm Nanolumens.

This Q&A is with Kurt DeYoung, Chief Revenue Officer for Nanolumens.

You can read the profile of Seneca, an Arrow company, that was featured earlier.

What can InfoComm attendees expect when they walk up to the Nanolumens stand this year?

Something different from the other display companies at the show.  Nanolumens is a design company that is focused on incorporating dvLED materials into the built environment.  We approach projects from a different perspective than other companies and want to help designers and end users see dvLED as a durable finish material rather than a screen or accessory piece of technology.  We focus on helping our partners create unique experiences through content and design.  We’re not one of the majors when it comes to company size, but we set ourselves apart in customer experience, partner collaboration, how we manage projects and the flexibility of our customer approach.

You’re also going to see a lot of new things at this year’s show from Nanolumens.  We will be showing our new Engage Pro Series, chip on board ultra narrow pixel pitch series product available via a staged release schedule in pitches of 0.7mm, 0.9mm and 1.2mm.  People will also be able to experience a new technology demonstration of the new addition to our Nixel Flex Series in a 0.9mm True Curve™ display.

Additionally, we will be demonstrating a new remote management and monitoring platform called NanoSuite, developed in partnership with Smart Monkeys, which will be offered through our integration partners as part of our FlexCare Service Agreements.   We will also be demonstrating a full IPMX / SMPTE 2110 image workflow based on our partnership with MegaPixel VR.   We returned as an Infocomm exhibitor in 2021 and think this will be our best showing so far.

You are doing an interactive experience with Moment Factory on the InfoComm floor this year. Can you describe that?

Avixa’s Interactive Experience, created by Moment Factory should be a fun addition to the show this year.  When we were approached by Moment Factory to support their efforts, we jumped at the opportunity to support the experience.    They have created three unique experiences that will run each of the show days.  Moment Factory is known as a pioneer in the Content World and is always raising the bar on what is possible and imaginable.  Being a part of the Interactive Experience speaks to our focus on the creative communities and the Avixa community as a whole.  You won’t want to miss the experience or the roundtables that Moment Factory’s Jamie Riley is participating in.

Nanolumens started out as a somewhat specialized manufacturer, with unique, flexible, lightweight LED displays. But your product line is much broader now, correct?

Yes, we still do a lot of custom work.  Nanolumens has a strong history of having the design and technical chops to pull off the hyper complex, high design projects in the industry.  However, we can do the simple straightforward video walls too, that are typically part of a corporate project.  We felt that to be successful in this market, we had to become a full service dvLED provider.  Our product line is comprehensive for fixed installation projects but not overly complicated like some others in the market.  We want to be able to help our partners with the immersive, high design lobby project, along with the more tactical applications like workplace solutions, exterior signage, or control room video walls.  We feel that this presents the community (partners, consultants, and designers) with the ability to streamline their workflow to bring a project to completion, instead of having to rely on multiple vendors to pull a project off.

Your firm seems to have a role in many of the big visual display elements of new and renovated airports. Has that been a sales focus and why is Nanolumens so successful in that segment?

Yes, we have been focused on the transportation market for the last few years.  These projects are complicated, include indoor and outdoor displays and there are a lot of individual stakeholders that are focused on different success criteria.  There aren’t a lot of companies that know how to navigate these projects successfully, but this is where we live day in and day out.  I believe that we have earned the reputation that if it’s hard, Nanolumens can do it.

We’re also about to introduce pre-kitted solutions of traditional airport signage spaces to make it easier for smaller airports to upgrade to digital signage as well. We’re very proud of this as a business but it has not come without investment in our professional staff.  In the last few years, the teams that do the hard work behind the scenes have all grown significantly.  The headcount in Project Management, Field Service, Engineering, Production, and Day-2 Service have easily doubled.  We know that these roles are critical to our partner’s success and so we have elected to invest in these teams and avoid the trap of scaling through sales hires.

My feeling is that the industry has seen the large-scale work that we have completed in these spaces, and recognize that we can do large scale projects in virtually any segment.  We’re doing large scale projects in Corporate, Education, Themed Entertainment, and others, because of the trust that our partners have in our company and the team members that support them.

How important is the channel to your business?

Critical.  I’ve been in channel focused sales and marketing roles for most of my career.   We are a technology development company, but we are not an integrator, and we won’t be successful without a strong partner network around us.  We’re investing in incentive-based channel programs to give partners a reason to do more business with us.

We’re also investing in new CTS accredited training programs to ensure that our partners can earn CTS credits while learning about our products and services.  We also joined the PSNI Global Alliance in 2023 to further demonstrate our commitment to the AV Partner Community.

I know that our company has a history of being “in and out” of the channel during its history, but we are a channel first organization today.   We’re not set up to do business with a lot of end users, that’s not how our operational model has been optimized.  We don’t have different sales teams with conflicting go-to-market models like some dvLED providers. I’m a big proponent of how technology vendors can leverage partners to grow exponentially, faster than they could ever do alone.

Building value based, trusted relationships with channel partners is a key objective for our company moving forward.

The InfoComm exhibit hall will have many stands showing R&D product with super-narrow pixel pitches. Is the marketplace asking for pitches that narrow?

I fully expect to see all kinds of ultra narrow pixel pitch options being promoted at the trade show.  I was amazed by what vendors were showing at ISE in January.  I think I saw a 0.4mm screen at ISE in Barcelona but it was clearly a sample from their R&D department.

For the markets that we current serve, a lot of buyers are asked for super high-resolution options (<0.7mm) but when they start to weigh performance vs. budget, some other excitement wanes and people go toward more traditional pixel pitch products (0.9mm and higher).  I expect that this will change over the coming years as the manufacturing processes mature and the production yields improve.    I feel like it’s still early for these products, and some challenges still exist when it comes to deployment and day-2 serviceability.  I’m excited to see how far the industry can push into the markets where Rear Projection Cubes and LCD’s are still more desirable options because of the resolutions available.  dvLED is the best technology out there but it’s still fairly young and there is a ton of development possible in the future.

If you were asked about your key innovations at the moment, what would you say?

From our perspective, there are a lot of good companies that make dvLED screens.    However, just because a company can make a screen, does not mean that they can execute on a project for a partner.  I think our key business innovations have been focused on becoming easier to do business with compared with our peer group.  We hear all the time that this project was so much better than the last one we did with ABC provider and this makes our team smile.  Our leadership has focused on building a very strong operational base.  This is core to our to our corporate values of being the most trusted dvLED brand, while delivering first and lasting solutions for our partners.

Thanks to the 2023 Mixer Sponsors!

2023 Mixer Video Wall Content Providers: