Street artist uses digital signage as a backdrop for his art!

Street artist Posterchild turns digital signage into a backdrop to his art. He calls his latest project "New York Sunsets". It's pretty simple actually. Posterchild covers the front of digital screens with black and white drawings of the New York skyline. The video content displayed on the screens gets completely diffused by the white areas of his drawings, only showing as colorful, moving and flowing sunset behind his art.

It's quite an original idea but I don't think the people who are actually running this New York Subway screen network will appreciate... nor will the folks who's content is being turned into a bona fide Lava Lamp.

Posterchild even used his latest installation as a marriage proposal.

Good news for him... It worked!

So perhaps in a few years Mr. and Mrs. Posterchild will live in a house full of little baby PostIt Notes... but until then I'm sure we haven't seen the last New York Sunset installation.

So what's the lesson here?

It's true a lot of folks in our space are totally focused on technology...

Is my network secure?

Can a hacker get in and publish obscene material or somehow manipulate the display?

Well now we can add to this list "Can someone mechanically or physically alter the display and affect the visibility of what's shown on screen".

No one will deny Posterchild is very creative when he uses digital signage as a backdrop for his artwork. But the end result is someone else is paying for this backdrop and that's kind of problematic, to say the least.

It's unfortunate that no matter how smart digital signage operators can be, someone will eventually figure a way to mess with their installations.

You try to locate your displays at the most visible location. You wrap your equipment in vandal-proof enclosures and then someone comes along and tapes a picture over your screen, essentially blocking from view the content. Content that is paid for.

At least in this case the physical impact is benign. The material can be removed easily but what happens when someone starts to permanently deface screens? When taped canvas becomes spray paint or worse.

Anyone in this business needs to take a good look at the environment where they are mounting their screens. Sight lines are important but so is preserving the integrity of the display.

Otherwise it's all just pretty colors...

Swiss software publisher Navori to open North American Office

Today, Navori SA announced the opening of a new office to be located in Montreal, Canada. This office will be called Navori Canada Inc. and will service customers across Canada and the United States. Shawn Rozansky will oversee the operations of this office with the main objective of growing the North American market by providing the ultimate customer service experience through a local presence.

“The opening of our North American office demonstrates Navori’s commitment to this very important market.” said Jerome Moeri, Chairman of Navori SA. “Over the past 5 years, Navori has seen its revenues increase an average of 60% per year, which is double the market rate and we remain very optimistic about the future.”

A proven digital signage solution

The Navori digitals signage software platform is used for all types of screen based communications: Advertising networks, retail applications, corporate communications, public space signage, wayfinding, fast food menu boards and much more. Since 1997, Navori has focused all its resources on the development and marketing of professional digital signage software applications. Navori is a Swiss Company, with its Head Office in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Skycandy does content

Winnipeg, Alberta based Skycandy is a new (at least, new to me) digital content company that specializes in custom content for digital signage network. From what I could glean from their web site, it looks like this is an offshoot from an existing AV production house. No idea how long they have been in the business but its always nice to discover a new Canadian company operating in this space. Especially as we hear from well established local guys exiting the business (see David Hayne's note on Artisan Live).

It is sad to see these DS veterans disappear even more so now that the economy is showing signs of recovery. Lots of experienced folks out there will be looking for new opportunities so it's good to see new players coming in to fill the void.

The sky's the limit... or is it?

Sky Factory is a US-based company offering "fake skylights" to brighten up interiors using various techniques. One of their products, called SkyV, seems to use digital signage technologies.

According to the company's press kit...

"The Sky Factory is a unique business that develops realistic illusions of sky for interior spaces. In the past several years these illusions, called SkyCeilings™, have been installed in thousands of ceilings worldwide: healthcare, commercial, hospitality, and now, increasingly in private homes."

The effect (at least in the simulated content on their web site) is quite interesting and there are probably many sites that can benefit from this type of digital wallpaper. The company claims their SkyV product can display "terrabytes of HD content". The specifications call for 3 - 47" LCD screens that weigh 71 to 74 pounds each, all mounted into a "faux skylight" frame.

The screens are driven by what is described as a "Hard drive based dedicated multi-channel HD player" but no other mention of software or hardware specifics.

This could become an interesting project for commercial digital signage network operators. Run a generic, "environmental" content loop intermixed with occasional messaging or advertising. If done tastefully, this could prove to be quite effective and bring displays into environments that would not normally lend themselves to digital signage.

Here is their video presentation...

Syndicated content (News, Sports, etc...) for your digital signage screen network

Having a fresh and interesting content mix is key to any digital signage network's success. It gives the audience a reason to look at your screens.

Here are a few services that I found on the web (some are free but most are commercial services):

• AccuWeather - A big player in this space, AccuWeather has a complete Digital Signage offering that includes a wide range of feeds (not just weather related).
  
  
• All Headline News - Offers: news articles, weather forecasts, financial market data and more with many feeds composed for digital signage use.
  
  
• Associated Press Digital News - Customized content from the Associated Press.
  
  
• EasyByte Newsfeeds - Customized RSS Service.
  
  
• News Feed Maker - Free feeds feature ads, huge catalog of feeds to choose from.
  
  
• News Knowledge - RSS Feeds mainly for web site use. Lots of topics to choose from.
  
  
• Screenfeed - Content tailored to Digital Signage Operators.
  
  
• SPG Media Feeds - Features technology and industry news feeds.
  
  
• The Canadian News Press - Customized news feeds available for digital signage use.
  
  
• The Weather Network Commercial Services - Offers custom data feeds for various uses.
  
  
• Thomson Reuters Digital Syndication - Neews feeds from Thomson Reuters.

This list is by no means exhaustive but it provides an example of what's available out there. You would expect most content syndication services are aware of digital signage by now and many offer content packaged for this specific use.

One word of advice when using free or advertising-based news feeds. Read the fine print. Some services are aimed at web site owners and therefore may have significant usage restrictions that make them unsuitable for digital signage use.

Some news feed aggregators will include a clause in their terms of usage that forbids embedding their feed in a scrolling text banner of any kind, making their feed pretty well useless for digital signage.

It's a good idea to familiarize yourself and respect all usage terms and conditions for this type of material. When in doubt, contact the feed aggregator directly and explain the intended usage for the material before publishing it on your signs.

Royalty Free Digital Signage Content Service

I recently found the web site from a company called BuyDSContent.com. The company is located in Denmark and offers royalty free HD video content specifically designed for digital signage use. There is quite a large selection of topics and themes you can choose from and they even have a few portrait mode (vertical) clips available.

Their web site lets you preview the content simply by placing your cursor over any thumbnail image. It's a nice way to zero-in on the right clip for your next project. Content is available in MPEG4 and many clips can also be ordered in Adobe After Effects format so you can edit and modify the content to fit your project.

In order to drum up business, they currently advertise free customization with every clip purchased. Simply e-mail them your logo, text, product shot and they will send you the results in the file format of your choice.

This is a great service for any company that lacks the ability to produce their own custom content.

Royatly free video for your next digital signage project

Digital signage network operators looking for high quality video content should check out Motionsream. This A/V production company offers a catalog of high definition royalty free videos that target specific sectors.

Categories are:

• Amore (Valentines Day)
• Genome (Medical)
• Holiday-Maker (Christmas, etc...)
• Luxe (Jewelery)
• Superstars (rotating 3D stars)

Each category has multiples volumes of high quality content that can be purchased online. Content is delivered on DVD but Motionstream has teamed up with Thought Equity Motion to offer selected clips that can be purchased and downloaded directly from their web site.

This video content is generic enough for a wide range of uses and the material can easily be repurposed for your retail signage project.

Motionstream also offers custom and semi-custom content if your project requires it.

High quality content helps attract and retain viewer attention. Signage network operators who don't have the in-house expertise to produce this type of material should consider adding some royalty free content to their playlists and liven up their signs.