The Retail Digital Signage Expo took place on Monday and Tuesday this week (unusual days) and seemed busy when we visited on the Tuesday. The show is a section of a three event combination along with the Retail Technology Show and the Retail Design Show. There were quite a few companies there this year and we got some interesting news, although the relative closeness of ISE and Infocomm meant that most of the big brands did not have significant product announcements. The big IT companies were majoring on their systems capabilities, although there were some client devices, but no specialist display staff from Dell, HP, Toshiba, Epson and other big brands.
Still, we think it’s a good show and as I got into a lift to go up to the upper level (at the old Olympia exhibition centre),I looked at the badges of the 10 or so other people in the lift. I would have been happy if three of them had visited me at the stand. They were from companies whose names I knew, and they had senior positions, so the potential for good sales leads looked promising. A product manager from a major brand told me that compared to other shows, the potential of a major roll-out was very good. He said that at ISE, for example, he would talk to a lot of people, most of whom could buy a small number of screens, but at RDSE there was a smaller number of people, but several of them could buy thousands of displays.
Most of those we talked to were involved with larger displays and there were a lot of integrators, but we also found some promoting products such as ESLs which we’ll cover in MDM.
Olympia has a glass ceiling, so ambient light can be a challenge. In the days of CRTs, if your booth didn’t have a roof, the image would be invisible at some times of day! Image:Meko
