Preview: Screen Media Expo Europe

Now moved from Olympia's National Hall to Earls Court, Screen Media hopes to attract the cream of the signage crowd with visitor numbers expected to jump from 3,000 to 5,000 on 5-6 May. It also has high hopes for the new DOOH Expo.

The partner shows are designed to provide advertisers, marketers and media owners with a tech-free networking marketplace. Visitors can expect live demonstrations and representation from big industry names.

'The enhanced, two-pronged expo approach is already attracting huge industry attention,' says Mark Pigou, director of organiser Screen Events. 'New exhibitors have signed up and many veterans have increased their investment. More than 130 exhibiting companies will be doing business on the show floor.'

Screen Events has re-appointed Minicom to run the Digital Signage Showcase and Expert Tour. The collaboration last year provided a bird's eye perspective on how to plan, create and operate a full-scale digital signage application.

On 6 May, the second Annual European DOOH Media Summit will take place in association with Media Week. The focus will be on international DOOH perspectives with case studies and presentations from brands, agencies, contractors and suppliers.

Graham Thomas, former deputy chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi UK and Europe, will introduce the DOOH Media Summit; case studies will be presented by Five, Virgin Trains and The North Face. Other presenting companies include Camelot, Digicom, OVAB Europe, JC Decaux Airport and Amscreen. Mediaweek.co.uk's 'DOOH blogger' will chair a panel session on the opportunities and threats with panellists from Posterscope, Clear Channel, The Sunday Times, OAA and Glue.

A second conference, the Digital Signage Strategies Forum, will run for half a day on 4 May and all day on 5 May in the conference centre above the show floor. The forum is aimed at digital signage users, integrators, suppliers and content producers.

The forum, produced by Strategy Institute, will deliver eight case studies from the UK, Switzerland, the US, Norway and Spain, and will feature the following speakers: Adam Lloyd of Ericsson, Bastien Schupp of Infiniti Europe, Fiona Alexander of University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust, and Kris Collins of the University of Bedfordshire.

The Screen Forum will be launching its 'Green Screen' programme at a special breakfast briefing held on day one during Screen Media Expo. The event will feature speakers from leading companies in the sector that are championing advances across the digital signage sector to improve the industry's green credentials. A set of sustainable guidelines - covering technology choices, measuring the media and the green alternative - will be agreed by the working group and published after the event. These will allow the industry to seek best practice in providing the greatest media effectiveness for the least environmental impact.

Steven Platt of the Platt Retail Institute will be running a paid-for workshop on the use and application of digital signage in banking on the afternoon of day one.

Furthermore, a new paid-for workshop will be held on the morning of day two entitled 'Building the Next Generation Digital Signage Network for Retail'. Michael Hiatt and Bill McMullen will explain to delegates the most important attributes of a next-generation retail media network and how they are being used at Walmart and other major retailers.

Elsewhere, there will be adjoining show-floor theatres, workshops and presentation suites where speakers will present on a range of themes and issues relevant to the industry and its future. Canditv will also be showcasing its mobile-to-screen technology.

Listed below is a selection of the av companies and what they will be showing among the 130 exhibitors at the event.

AMX (Stand D33)

AMX is offering several digital signage products at this year's Screen Media. Inspired XPress is based on a new player that features a software tool that allows users to create templates and content, and then publish it to players mounted behind a display. Inspired-2-Go bundles a player, software and pre-configured templates into PrePaks that allow users to simplify content creation. Inspired Signage is AMX's top end product for creating custom content that can be combined with device control. www.amx.com

BrightSign (Stand D7)

BrightSign's BrightAuthor 2.0 is an interface for creating, publishing and networking digital signage displays. The product is designed to make it easier to create full-screen and multi-zone playlists for looping displays, and to implement features such as day-parting and networking. BrightSign is also announcing a 70 per cent cost reduction in its hosted networking service, BrightSign Network, which is scalable from networks with one to hundreds of players. www.brightsign.biz

Esprit (Stand F21)

Esprit Digital will be exhibiting its digital posters for use in retail and other busy spaces at Screen Media. Its digital escalator panels can now be found in 20 Tube stations in London as well as Heathrow Airport. Its freestanding double-sided pods, 57in touch screen and 40in pods will also feature at Screen Media. www.espritdigital.com

Intel (Stand E13)

Intel will be promoting its proof of concept installation for intelligent digital signage, which combines two 1080p panels with multitouch, multi-user capabilities. Built on the Windows 7-based Microsoft Embedded Standard 2011 and the Intel Core i7 processor, the system also employs a camera on the top bezel and video analytics for facial recognition. Suggested uses, according to Intel, include product selection in stores. For example, the display can show appropriate clothing according to the customer's height and gender as determined by the video analytics; the customer can then make their choice through the touch-enabled screen and download a coupon to their mobile phone. A holographic layer can also be used to provide a see-through effect. www.intel.com

Mitsubishi (Stand G3)

Making its show debut, Mitsubishi Electric is showcasing display hardware, system management tools and support. The latest professional-grade LCD display in the Mitsubishi range is the L46XM, launched at the Integrated Systems Europe show earlier this year. Mitsubishi will also use Screen Media to show the latest version of its digital signage system, Play-Out, which has been designed specifically to enable signage industry professionals and systems integrators to create out-of-home networks. www.meuk.mee.com

Nexcom (Stand C12)

Nexcom will be showcasing its range of solutions for bulletin board, display wall, video-wall, in-vehicle signage and kiosk applications. Its MPPC Series of Multi-media Panel PC offer an aspect ratio of 16:9, and features including additional VGA port, Dual GbE Lan, USB, Mini-PCI, CF and RS232/422/485 interfaces. Products in the MPPC range are optionally available with Touch Screen Display and WiFi connection. Other products include the AMD-Athlon-based NDiS 164, the low-cost NDiS 122 and the in-vehicle PDSV 6110. www.nexcom.eu

Samsung

The Samsung SyncMaster LED LFD 460EX, 460EXn, 550EX, and 550EXn are the first LFD displays to incorporate LED Back Light Unit (BLU) technology, which the company claims uses 40 per cent less energy than the conventional LFD. Samsung's latest LED data projector, the SP-F10M, will also feature. It uses an LED light source that guarantees a lifespan of up to 30,000 hours, equivalent to 20 years, based on four hours of use per day, with no need for lamp replacement. Also on show will be its Pico projector, a palm-sized design for professional and personal users. www.samsung.com/uk

Scala (Stand F35)

Expanding on Scala Release 5, which supports the range of low-cost media appliances, Scala Release 5.1 takes advantage of Microsoft's Windows 7. Built on the basis of Scala's SaaS offering, Scala QuickStart provides a digital signage range for companies using a few single-channel media players. Scala will also showcase digital menu boards, retail marketing and interactive car configurators. www.scala.com

Signagelive (Stand D01)

Signagelive will be presenting its v3 Layout Creator software at Screen Media Expo, a product that offers Adobe support and drag-and-drop options. The company is also collaborating with Phillips to offer large screen displays which feature its Smart Inset Solution technology. In addition, its Media Manager software offers the ability to upload and deploy various content types, which can be uploaded and deployed onto users' registered players. The Media Manager lets you upload single or multiple files to your network and add tags or dependencies to your media assets. www.signagelive.com

SCREEN MEDIA 2010

Venue: Earls Court, London

Dates: 5-6 May 2010

Exhibitors: 130

Anticipated visitors: 5,000

www.screenevents.co.uk

SEMINARS

Below is our selection of the key seminars running at Screen Media Expo Europe 2010:

5 May

• The Dawn of Dynamic Retail: How Walmart upgraded its signage network and discovered the power of customer relevance presented by Mike Hiatt, former V-P of Walmart Stores and now principal of Dynamic Retailing LLC
• What can digital signage networks do to grab a greater share of marketing budgets? presented by Ivan Clark, independent media adviser
• Tapping into the super niche: bigger isn't necessarily better presented by Gavin Anderson, founder, Baby TV
• Designing and developing content for new technologies: Christie Digital MicroTitles presented by Alex Hughes, strategy director, Amigo Digital
• This Advert Needs You presented by Tim Harvey, digital signage consultant, Dynamax Technologies

6 May

• The future is now presented by Stephen Randall, CEO, LocaModa
• DOOH Expo Why real ad dollars are not in DOOH yet: Obstacles to going mainstream presented by Brian Dusho, CEO, BroadSign

Timings had yet to be confirmed as AV went to press.