By Dave Haynes  There were two kinds of technology companies issuing press releases today.
Goofball ones that were somehow oblivious to Apple's planned announcement, and thought it was just another day and their stuff would get the usual attention. And those who watched the announcement of the iPad... Feb. 1, 2010 08:45 AM EST Reads: 6,462 |
By Dave Haynes  Something I read reminded me that this blog was coming on four years. According to my old WordPress and my current Joomla admin thingdoodles, I have done 1,600 or so posts to date, or about one a day, including weekends and holidays.I don't really take advertising, except for the odd ... Jan. 31, 2010 11:30 AM EST Reads: 3,216 |
By Dave Haynes IMAGE: ACCESS HOLLYWOOD Ok, I honestly like what PumpTop TV is doing with its content. I'm not sure the mix is right, but I admire that they have thought beyond the ill-founded notion that news headlines and the weather are the Path to viewer recall glory on DOOH screens.But the releas... Jan. 29, 2010 05:08 PM EST Reads: 939 |
By Dave Haynes Dmitry at Ingram has pulled the pieces together as he always does and booked our spot and found a sponsor for the February edition of the Toronto Digital Signage Mixer event. on Feb. 9th. Chief Mounts has stepped up as sponsors and they will have some of their gear around to look over... Jan. 29, 2010 04:41 PM EST Reads: 741 |
By Dave Haynes From Marketing magazine online: Four Toronto high schools have new digital screens in their halls thanks to a pilot project between the school board and Onestop Media Group.The screens mainly display content produced by and for students, but will include some third-party messaging, th... Jan. 29, 2010 04:10 PM EST Reads: 922 |
By Dave Haynes Still cranky about the digital signage is a privacy Chernobyl report.Haroon Mirza from CognoVision sent me a note saying they'd seen the report (they are prominently mentioned as being among the evil-doers) and noted his company is and always has been very big on privacy. They lay out ... Jan. 29, 2010 10:30 AM EST Reads: 606 |
By Dave Haynes The California-based World Privacy Forum has taken a deep dive on the privacy implications of digital signage networks, in a report by Pam Dixon called The One-Way-Mirror Society.I have very mixed feelings about the report. On one hand, it is a deep, pretty exhaustively researched loo... Jan. 28, 2010 11:13 PM EST Reads: 765 |
By Dave Haynes Digital Signage Expo has announced the 22 companies that are finalists for the 2010 Apex Awards, which are put together by the event and judged by a panel of five industry journalists from Digital Signage Magazine, Digital Signage Today, PRO AV Magazine, Sound & Communications and Digi... Jan. 28, 2010 11:57 AM EST Reads: 868 |
By Dave Haynes There's a great post up in Advertising Age about why most digital creative is ineffective. It is written by an advertising effectiveness consultant so it is in his interest to declare most of the stuff out there needs re-thinking, but what he suggests is valid and entirely relevant t... Jan. 28, 2010 10:04 AM EST Reads: 930 |
By Dave Haynes Thanks to Dirk Hülsermann at OVAB Europe for flagging and posting this note about encouraging research from Germany, as done by Nielsen. We're starting to see more and more networks sharing their numbers, and it helps the sector as a whole when there are good stories to tell, and the ... Jan. 28, 2010 08:51 AM EST Reads: 687 |
By Dave Haynes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICpM3ItIhI0An industry friend sent me a note about the TVBGone universal remote control, which allows users to turn off just about anyone's TV. He joked it was a killer digital signage app, as in killing screens.It reminded me about what the Gizmodo guys ... Jan. 27, 2010 11:59 AM EST Reads: 704 |
By Dave Haynes A few months ago there was what seemed like the strangest possible RFP from the Toronto District School Board, looking for a company to install a digital signage network in schools, on its own nickel. The curious part was that ads were not going to be allowed on the screens, which kin... Jan. 26, 2010 02:52 PM EST Reads: 1,129 |
By Dave Haynes UPDATE; Well, the free tickets didn't quite disappear as quick as a Taylor Swift concert, but they did indeed go fast. We stretched the RSVP number to 160 for the mixer on Feb. 23rd, and that's now fully subscribed. We have people coming from all over the place, and my guess is at leas... Jan. 25, 2010 11:27 AM EST Reads: 557 |
By Dave Haynes A series of very simple hi-rez video spots are available now for download that help continue to drive awareness and donation for the relief effort in Haiti. Network operators can use to help direct funds to Red Cross groups in the US and internationally. The downloads are available he... Jan. 25, 2010 09:44 AM EST Reads: 470 |
By Dave Haynes Right before Christmas the Maryland integrator Noventri issued a strange "off-white paper" about the sorry state of the digital signage industry and how buyers were being duped by false claims and how much of what's being done out there is wrong and ineffective.I wrote about it then, f... Jan. 24, 2010 09:54 AM EST Reads: 674 |
By Dave Haynes The Buried Life is a new MTV series based on an earlier documentary about four Canuck college students from Victoria, BC who do their own "bucket list" of things they need to do before they die. Given that they are still just young pups, they are getting a serious head-start on most of... Jan. 22, 2010 11:11 AM EST Reads: 1,712 |
By Dave Haynes Stratacache was exhibiting this week at NRF and the company announced a new product that SEEMED like it was pretty interesting and really well-suited to retail. But the release did not come with any visual aids to help get my feeble mind around what the units looked like and did. So I... Jan. 15, 2010 01:46 PM EST Reads: 571 |
By Dave Haynes This will probably be the only time in my life I can write about spending six hours hanging out in a bar and leaving not even the slightest bit tipsy. I had a meeting before the latest Toronto digital signage mixer so we ghathered at the venue at four and did our thing, and then watche... Jan. 13, 2010 09:42 AM EST Reads: 348 |
By Dave Haynes When I was at InfoComm this spring I happily took advantage of press privileges and parked my butt and my gear in the media lounge down a back hallway of the event center. The halls were filled with private meeting and demo rooms, and I kept walking by a sign for something called Spudn... Jan. 12, 2010 07:43 AM EST Reads: 549 |
By Dave Haynes Final reminder the Toronto mixer goes off tonight. A decent (at least in size) crowd is expected. Starts at 6:30, though I have a meeting downtown and will be there quite a bit earlier.Address:Six Steps Restaurant & Lounge55 Colborne StreetT - 416.504.4800http://sixstepsrestaurant.com Jan. 12, 2010 07:28 AM EST Reads: 310 |
By Dave Haynes The press release is just an intimidating wall of text, and the copy rough going, but from what i can sort out Intel is at NRF and showing off its take on the future of digital signage in retail. It just screams show me a video (not that one is included with the release) so I searched... Jan. 11, 2010 12:09 PM EST Reads: 1,736 |
By Dave Haynes Harris Corporation has brought on longtime industry consultant Carre Dawson to help grow the Broadcast Communications unit's digital signage business, working as a director of business development. Carre joins Rebecca Walt, who has been with Harris for a couple of months now. Dawson co... Jan. 11, 2010 11:26 AM EST Reads: 1,385 |
By Dave Haynes DailyDOOH had this on the weekend, but there's a press release out now with more detail about experiential branding and marketing firm Creative Realities (also known as CRI), hiring on Laura Davis-Taylor as Vice President of Global Retail Strategy, working with the New Jersey-based fir... Jan. 11, 2010 09:21 AM EST Reads: 537 |
By Dave Haynes I was just reading a post on outdoor giant Lamar's digital blog (as spotted by DS Today) about how the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is working with them on a trial program with a couple of big digital boards around that city.The billboard comes with its own unique set of challenges, notes La... Jan. 11, 2010 08:51 AM EST Reads: 1,306 |
By Dave Haynes  Like many people in the industry I have been watching the evolution of these phones and thinking they will pretty quickly get to the point that they could be fully realized digital signage playback devices. This one is capable of playing out 720P HD, the report says. However, the quest... Jan. 9, 2010 09:45 PM EST Reads: 5,121 |
By Dave Haynes Integrated Systems Europe is the rough equivalent, I gather, of the InfoComm show in North America for the AV/systems integrator crowd. It runs the first week of February in Amsterdam, somewhere I have never been but would love to see.I'd go because I'd like to get a better perspective... Jan. 7, 2010 08:00 PM EST Reads: 636 |
By Dave Haynes  Light Touch incorporates LBO’s proprietary holographic laser projection technology (HLP), creating bright, high-quality WVGA resolution video images that are always in focus. HLP enables extremely wide throw angles, resulting in large images being created at close proximity to the proj... Jan. 7, 2010 02:00 PM EST Reads: 3,968 |
By Dave Haynes Small, fast, very affordable. That's a nice set of words if you are building out a screen network to hundreds of locations and shaving off capital costs makes the business plan much more workable.I was speaking to a CTO this afternoon who I would consider both smart and practical, and ... Jan. 6, 2010 04:17 PM EST Reads: 786 |
By Dave Haynes The next industry mixer is set for January 12th in Toronto a the usual haunt, Six Steps.The holidays have left organizing a little late, so there is no sponsor this time - meaning attendees will actually have to buy a drink. They'll manage.As always, all are invited - whether they are... Jan. 6, 2010 01:39 PM EST Reads: 588 |
By Dave Haynes Digital Signage Universe, a news and information portal on guess what, has added Mandarin Chinese to its services. "The digital signage business is a global growth industry. Digital Signage Universe offers marketers the opportunity to extend their reach and connect with buyers from a... Jan. 6, 2010 08:57 AM EST Reads: 477 |
By Dave Haynes  The hyperbole about this is about as over-torqued as could be imagined, but overlooking that a prototype being shown off this week at CES by MediaTile and Alcatel/Lucent is nonetheless interesting.The companies have partnered to demo an interactive station that lets shoppers talk throu... Jan. 5, 2010 01:45 PM EST Reads: 1,809 |
By Dave Haynes night lights from thesystemis on Vimeo - as spotted in ADVERBLOG This is more art installation than digital sign, but it's a great, fun exploration of the possible on big surfaces, like the facade of a building.The interactive projection project was done on the front of a building... Jan. 5, 2010 11:48 AM EST Reads: 453 |
By Dave Haynes Interesting post on TechCrunch about US advertising spend - particularly about how the money is coming back this year and where it will go. The post extracts its information and insight from a JP Morgan analysis, and notes how the online industry - arguably the closest thing to d... Jan. 5, 2010 09:03 AM EST Reads: 396 |
By Dave Haynes I spent the first two decades of my working life in the newspaper business, so it is a little painful to watch its slow death spiral. It typically costs more to produce a newspaper than it sells for at a newsstand, and way more than what it costs when delivery costs and subscript... Jan. 4, 2010 01:53 PM EST Reads: 989 |
By Dave Haynes Don Watt passed away suddenly, at the age of 73, just before Christmas - and the holiday break meant news of his death is just starting to really circulate.Watt was one of the best known retail strategists around, recognized in particular for developing and mastering the art of private... Jan. 4, 2010 01:03 PM EST Reads: 597 |
By Dave Haynes All the best for tonight and the coming year.No 2010 predictions from me. Folks like Ken Goldberg have already done good look-aheads, and some other stuff now circulating doesn't rise above the breathtakingly obvious and tone-deaf. My one suggestion for anyone in this sector is to take... Dec. 31, 2009 08:38 AM EST Reads: 517 |
By Dave Haynes There's a nice piece in Gizmodo today that helpfully brings readers up to speed with the latest state of development for OLEDs and other types of display technologies. If this is an area that interests read the whole thing. If not, here's the upshot:Hi-rez 3-D video for the masses is ... Dec. 28, 2009 08:07 AM EST Reads: 776 |
By Dave Haynes (Photo from Wand Corporation) There is pretty broad agreement out there that QSR, fast casual, fast food or whatever you want to call it will be a big growth sector for digital signage over the next year. Lots of companies, I am reliably told, are taking a hard look at making their men... Dec. 24, 2009 08:52 AM EST Reads: 3,778 |
By Dave Haynes  I noticed a Tweet yesterday from DS Today's Bill Yackey that was provocative enough to get me clicking through and landing on a press release from Noventri, an east coast US integrator.
I was interested because it was an "off-white paper" going against conventional wisdom and runnin... Dec. 23, 2009 03:41 PM EST Reads: 1,337 |
By Dave Haynes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbJXzH2mC-k The guys at Waterloo, Ontario-based DDC have had a great year, with the Air Canada Centre build-out, more DIGI Award wins, and a big deal with Canadian brewer Labatt that they are now able to maker some noise about.Earlier in the year, they pu... Dec. 22, 2009 09:26 AM EST Reads: 693 |
Dave Haynes is one of the most seasoned professionals in the still young digital signage industry, with deep experience in everything from business development and sales to technical operations, product development and start-up strategy and fundraising. These days he is extensively working on business development and consulting for an industry big on enthusiasm but still a lot short of experience and know-how.
