When we think of electronic digital signage, we think of LCDs or PDPs advertising products in stores or showing schedules in airports. While these are the bedrock of the electronic digital signage market, new applications and configurations may be broadening the concept.

Chris Chinnock
Senior Analyst and Editor
for Insight Media

Take for example, DSM, a Netherlands-based chemical & life sciences multinational, that says it is now placing digital signage on the PC screens of all its 21,000 employees. The idea is to replace internal electronic newsletters with messages that appear in place of a screen saver, or as "digital signposts," that display corporate information as the user logs in. It can even be used to provide emergency alerts to users.

DSM says the new method seems to be better at delivering internal messages compared to receiving an email or an e-newsletter. And, it can be customized for various geographic locations.

Frank Hoen, CEO of Netpresenter, the software used at DSM, believes Digital Signage to the Desktop could one day replace email newsletters. " At DSM, using it on office PC screens has proven to be a very effective way of ensuring important news is noticed and remembered, yet still at very low cost compared to rarely read internal newsletters and corporate & division wide e-mails," said Hoen. I am not sure I would go that far, but it is a new way to grab people’s attention.

Electronic digital signage is going other places that might surprise you. How about on the ski slopes? Australian Alpine Enterprises says it will develop a digital signage network to provide real-time weather and ski conditions, as well as news and advertising to its guests.

Due to the layout of the mountain and the cost of cabling, operators had to install a wireless 802.11b network over the mountain to get connectivity.

And coming to 30K drugstores will be new electronic digital signage screens from Activision Systems. The company has basically added a single-board computer to the back of an LCD-TV to facilitate the delivery of the messages. But it has also learned a very important field trial lesson. If a screen goes down, you can’t ship the whole thing back to the company for repair.

The answer? Placing the single-board computer on a rollout drawer mechanism and having an inventory of spare parts at the location. That way, if a screen goes down, it is easy to remove and replace the computer and get the unit back on-line in a matter of minutes. Good idea.

Is the electronic signage market heating up? You bet. We recently read a market forecast suggesting the industry was growing at 10% per month. And guess who is getting into the market? Cisco. Not only can it deliver the network hardware, but it can also now offer content management software called Cisco Digital Media Manager and a device that plugs into a digital display called Cisco Digital Media Player.

There is a lot of activity in this space and money to be made. Stay tuned.