DigitalSignage Issue 26

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Time to Upscale Your Display Samsung’s latest SMART signage innovation, the QMR/QBR Series, provides UHD picture quality along with Samsung’s cutting-edge intelligent UHD up scaling technology. Together, this creates lifelike images with incredibly sharp picture quality, even with low resolution content. Dynamic Crystal Colour ensures that images are rich and vivid, all in a symmetric and slim design that will stand the test of time.

QMR SERIES

500 nit

24/7

350 nit

16/7

Brightness

Operation Hour

Brightness

Operation Hour

For enquiries please contact our Business Desk T: 1800 31 32 33 | E: businessdesk@samsung.com Please visit displaysolutions.samsung.com for more information.

QBR SERIES


D E L L I A T E R T S A F G N I L SEL IREMENTS YOUR REQU TO ED R no two LED O IL TA e so we believe m sa e th is t lly ronmen n provide a fu No retail envi me. Aurora ca sa e ientation th or be , ze to oice of si ch ur displays need yo to ng y talk to lution, cateri lutions. Simpl so g in customised so nt ou m e h, with bespok and pixel pitc ents. em ir qu re t your our team abou

Shaver Shop Innisfree Sportsgirl Adairs City Beach

Contact us for more information www.westan.com.au


CONTENTS ISSUE 26 2019

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

Advertising Office: 0416 230 329 PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086

Editorial Office: (03) 5331 4949 PO Box 295, Ballarat, VIC 3353

Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@alchemedia.com.au) Publisher:

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Philip Spencer (philip@alchemedia.com.au) Art Director: Dominic Carey (dominic@alchemedia.com.au) Graphic Design: Daniel Howard (daniel@alchemedia.com.au) Accounts: Jaedd Asthana (jaedd@alchemedia.com.au) Circulation Manager: Sophie Spencer (subscriptions@alchemedia.com.au)

6 COVER STORY 6 Purely Cosmetic: Dual-sided Samsung display changes the face of Lush retail. COMMENT 34 Mug Punter: Moon Shot IN ACTION 12 Out of the Box: Bankstown Sports Club foyer signage showstopper. 14 Kids Are Alright: LED makes big difference in NZ school 16 Audio Spotlight brings focus to Amazon visitor centre. 18 Star of Wonder: LED centre of amazing casino foyer feature 20 Finding a Way: Brisbane’s South Bank invests in nifty wayfinding 22 Mission Critter-cal: Casey Central Shopping Centre’s Interactive Investment 4

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

TECHNOLOGY 8 Retail Touch: Elo makes QSR kiosks easy. 10 SpinetiX ARYA: Simple. Not basic.

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Just the Ticket: Cinema foyer innovation from TouchMate First to the Party: ACMI’s Wonderland exhibition’s tech win Cutting Edge Innovation: The Blade is no ordinary ‘kiosk’ Extra Nextra Read All About it!: Newsagent’s big LED play Blooming ‘Eck: Retail inspiration from big retailer Playing it Safe: Volvo video wall rides high

alchemedia publishing pty ltd (ABN: 34 074 431 628) PO Box 295, Ballarat, VIC 3353 info@alchemedia.com.au All material in this magazine is copyright © 2019 Alchemedia Publishing Pty Ltd. The title AV is a registered Trademark. Apart from any fair dealing permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. The publishers believe all information supplied in this magazine to be correct at the time of publication. They are not in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. After investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, prices, addresses and phone numbers were up to date at the time of publication. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements appearing in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility is on the person, company or advertising agency submitting or directing the advertisement for publication. The publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions, although every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy. 7/6/19


Samsung’s new double-sided high brightness screen (window-facing 3000nit, indoor facing 1000nit) – LUSH, Bondi Junction

Physical product driven content triggers

Thousands of data points visualised live on multiple 8K x 4K video walls

1 output player

2 output player

3 output player

4 output player

UHD output player

SMARTER CONNECTED DIGITAL

Base your visual communication network on TechMedia's world leading technologies and one of the most widely adopted platforms for digital advertising and content management in the industry.

• Cutting edge architecture • Advertising management • Multiple channels per player • Real time content rendering

• Scala as a service (SAAS) • Manage from any smart device • Integrate with any data source • Internet of Things (IoT)

• Multiple Media Player options • Template based content creation • Audience measurement integration • 4K & 8K Media playback capable

TechMedia NOC – Supporting & monitoring over 5000 devices across Australia/NZ

www.techmedia.com.au Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

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PURELY COSMETIC A Samsung dual-sided display changes the Lush retail landscape. Story: Christopher Holder

L

ush is as fiercely independent as it is vibrantly colourful and innovative.

Since its inception in 1995, the privatelyheld company (based in the UK) has always done business on its own terms, and has been the better for it. Beneath the colourful exterior, beats an activist’s heart. Lush is concerned about the planet and all its inhabitants. Lush landed in Australia in 1997 and now has some 36 outlets nationwide. The stores are a real sensory explosion and the carefully hired staff ensure the retail experience is quirky and joyous. SHOPFRONT & IN STORE

In recent times, Lush has been experimenting with digital signage. 6

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

The trial began with an LED shopfront display. But the Lush property team weren’t enamoured by the ugly backside of the screen that was hard to conceal when in-store. The team improvised and trialled a double-sided screen in its Hornsby store. The two-display combination achieved many of its aims but remained unsightly — unwieldy in its width and with all the associated electronics wedged between the screen, maintenance was difficult.

Then the slimline Samsung double-sided signage display product hit the market and changed everything. For Property Development Manager, Michelle Brindle, it was love at first sight: “We love this screen. Thanks to being a lot thinner and lighter is been far easier to install. It doesn’t take up nearly as much space, especially now we can

store the media player up and out of the way.”

The Samsung panel replaces traditional light box transparency promotions in the flagship Bondi Junction Westfield location, and the advantages are clear: Lush can be more responsive, bringing its topical messaging into the store in a more timely way; Lush can rotate a number of promotions and messaging on the one screen; and Lush saves on cardboard and plastic. “Lush is environmentally conscious,” notes Michelle Brindle. “We are always looking for ways to reduce our waste and printing, which is a plus for the digital signage. We are also doing more than promoting product, we have other campaigns we pursue such as our position against cruelty to animals — we can respond to events such as the Melbourne Cup, for example.”


DYNAMIC DUO Samsung’s OMN-D Series is a dual display with screens on both sides, allowing retailers to maximise messaging. The window-facing screen features bright visuals and prominent positioning, giving passersby motivation to enter the store. Once inside, indoor-facing displays enhance the shopping experience with content promoting sales, new merchandise and additional information about the store and its services. This single display reduces equipment and installation costs, increasing operational efficiency, compared to installing two separate displays. • Ultra-high brightness (3000 nits on the street side; 1000 nits on the store side) emphasising content, regardless of the lighting conditions • Slim and contemporary design that seamlessly integrates into any display window • Easy content management with a built-in management solution (Techmedia used a Scala player for this job) Samsung: 1800 313233 or businessdesk@samsung.com

TECH PARTNERS

Supporting the digital activation is Lush’s technical partner, TechMedia. TechMedia is now in its 20th year and provides end-to-end managed services, in addition to installation and support. TechMedia can also provide content production and management, data integration and bespoke software development. Back-ending the signage is the powerful Scala software platform which provides the flexibility to connect with other software with third-party systems and databases so that content is always targeted and relevant. “Our team manages thousands of Samsung screens across Australia and New Zealand,” explains TechMedia Managing Director, Norman Cantrell. “It’s very important that after we’ve delivered a solution we’re there every step of the way as the network

grows and engages more and more customers.”

“We rely on TechMedia to remote monitor the signage,” states Michelle Brindle. “They take care of any maintenance and will step in, in a timely way if there’s a problem.”

Lush: au.lush.com TechMedia: (02) 9526 7880 or techmedia.com.au

“It’s been great working with Lush,” reflects Norman Cantrell. “They’re a brand that’s really in tune with the customer experience. And, for our part, we’re focusing on bringing solutions to market that further enhance and personalise the shopping experience and in turn move the sales needle.”

Lush remains committed to its roots of creativity and invention. A dual-sided, slimline display such as the Samsung OMN-D provides the Lush creative team with the marketing canvas it deserves. 

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

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ELO: HERO IN A TACO SHELL Taco Bell is relying on Elo touchscreens to provide an interactive solution for its year-long roll out of self-service kiosks across its nearly 7000 US restaurants. Taco Bell uses EloView software to simplify deployment, management and security of the kiosk devices and content, helping to create a consistent experience for every customer visit. The EloView solution allows management of self-order kiosks from a central location, reducing operating costs while increasing uptime and security. The touchscreen displays include Elo’s versatile 22-inch Android I–Series built for high-traffic environments. Self-service kiosks represents “the next frontier”, according to Rafik Hanna, senior director of Taco Bell’s All Access. “We are early on in the kiosk strategy,” he said, adding the focus is on using agile software to improve the experience as even “small changes can yield big results.” The goal is improved ordering accuracy and modernising the order experience.

Elo Takes Care of Retail Elo’s touch tech leads way

In Action

Elo, a leading global supplier of retail technology solutions, has announced additions to its broad family of POS and self-service solutions. Elo reduces technology complexity while increasing application potential with a common architecture across a broad range of Android or Windows devices with a fully modular and configurable design. Elo provides retailers with the tools needed to create instore experiences that engage customers and drive sales. POS, self-service, and signage solutions can easily be crafted by leveraging Elo touchscreens from 10to 70-inches and configured with Elo Edge Connect peripheral devices and sleek stands and mounts. For Android devices, EloView device management software securely connects and controls large or small networks at minimal cost. Software deployment and hardware maintenance are greatly simplified, eliminating the need to have separate support concepts for POS terminals, kiosks, price checkers, endless aisle solutions and interactive signage. Within the full Elo platform, notable new offerings include the versatile EloPOS system, stylish Elo PayPoint Plus for Windows system, and the compact 1302L touchscreen monitor.

Soanar (Elo): 1300 365 551 or www.soanar.com

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Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

EloPOS System for Windows: This versatile system combines modern aesthetics, modular flexibility, and commercial-grade durability. It boasts a 15.6-inch touchscreen, Intel’s 8th-generation processors, and an integrated expansion hub to connect customer-facing displays, payment readers, printers, cash drawers, barcode scanners, and scales. Elo PayPoint Plus for Windows: This stylish and functional POS system delivers the power of Intel Core i5 processor. It includes a fully integrated barcode scanner, threeinch printer, encrypted MSR, full-sized cash drawer and connections for third-party peripherals. A flip-for-signature 15.6-inch touchscreen encourages shopper engagement, making the system ideal for retail stores and QSRs. 1302L: Elo’s latest 13-inch touchscreen monitor features the same seamless style of the 02-Series and is the first Elo monitor to utilise USB-C. With a compact form factor and clean design for easy integration, the 1302L offers the flexibility to install as a traditional stand-alone touch monitor or a customer-facing one, making it well-suited for point-ofsale, self-service, signage, and hospitality applications. 


Digital Signage Solution for your Small Business

SpinetiX ARYA.™

Designed for You and Your Business SpinetiX ARYA is a new cloud-based visual communication solution designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It’s made to get you noticed, bring passers-by to your business and turn them into your best customers. SpinetiX ARYA allows you to set spectacularly visual messages on your display in minutes with your photos, videos, logo, and colour code.

showrooms / foyers / cafés / staff rooms

with Madison, you’re

Contact us on 1800 00 77 80 or email spinetix@madisontech.com.au or visit www.madisontech.com.au

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

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Simple Doesn’t Mean Basic SpinetiX ARYA: Small Business Simplicity

Technology

The future is small business. Well, that certainly is a growth market SpinetiX has identified. SpinetiX is a digital signage specialist, initially distinguishing itself by building bulletproof solid state media players. As the market matured, SpinetiX moved into software, bringing the powerful Elementi package to market and Cockpit monitoring and control software. Last year SpinetiX announced ARYA, a cloud-based digital signage platform designed specifically for the needs of operators with simple projects. The emphasis is on ease of content creation and scheduling. Small businesses can quickly set up visual experiences from their devices and deliver the content in a secure way to any screen, of any size and orientation. SpinetiX envisage a number of typical use cases for ARYA: • Showroom screens, such as those used in retail stores to promote products and services • Welcome screens such as those used in the foyers at hotels, restaurants, and bars and in the waiting rooms at doctors, dentists and law firms • Entertainment screens such as those you find in lounges, cafés, break or staff rooms at both SMBs and hotels

Madison Technologies: 1800 00 77 80 or SpinetiX@madisontech.com.au

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Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

Security is paramount, with reliability, service availability, and data protection at the core of all solutions designed by SpinetiX. This new cloud-based solution relies on the most advanced security protocols.

GET STARTED You may be relieved to hear that ARYA is a one-off purchase rather than a monthly subscription. As an online platform, ARYA is always running the latest version — no need to

constantly update the software. To run ARYA you’ll need the SpinetiX DiVA media player. DiVA is Spinetix’ player for simpler digital signage deployments, but it’s no dummy. It’s fanless (no dust can settle into the unit) and has an impressive up time (rarely breaks). If you already own and run DiVA players, then simply update the DiVA’s firmware and they’re ready to be run with ARYA. To create content, you simply need to log into your ARYA profile and use one of the fixed templates (there are nine templates to choose from at the time we wrote this). Drag in content and personalise the text. SpinetiX has licensed a number of key RSS feeds so you can run news and weather, for example, on your signage.

PERSONAL TOUCH Personalise the look of the template with your own company branding and colours; use your company fonts, to ensure a consistent look in your marketing and branding. You can load videos as well. ARYA will do the transcoding and scaling to ensure it displays optimally in the right pixel dimensions. As we go to press, SpinetiX is announcing an ARYA Premium package (with 1GB of free cloud storage and probably with social media integration so you can easily run Insta photos or a Twitter feed), but the off the shelf ARYA remains a great value deal for those looking to get into digital signage without punishing on-going costs and unnecessary complexity. There’s even a Discovery Plan that allows you to get into digital signage and work with ARYA for free. SpinetiX could hardly make it easier. 


Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

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Out of the Box Bankstown Sports Club’s foyer signage showstopper

In Action

Story: Christopher Holder

Bankstown Sports Club (BSC) is NSW’s largest licensed club. So if any club could accommodate some ‘top down’ ‘blue sky thinking’, you’d think it would be BSC.

of LG Commercial panels behind it.

On this occasion Jason Klippel, the club’s Digital Entertainment & AV Manager, was shown a phone snap of an amazing three-dimensional digital signage feature: “Can we do something like this?”

Ensuring the content appears correctly on the displays is a powerful tvONE CORIOmaster 4K multi-window video processor. An AMX control system allows Jason and the marketing team to toggle through a selection of screen configurations managed by CORIOmaster. Prior to installation Jason used tvONE’s CORIOgrapher to visualise a number of possible screen configurations and orientations. The board was presented with a variety of options from which to choose. The winning configuration was sent to The P.A. People to bring to life. “We have total confidence in the P.A. People’s ability to get the work done,” commented Jason Klippel.

Bankstown Sports Club may be the biggest in town but it’s also one of the most progressive. It’s long since shaken off the vestiges of old-school, old-boy club culture. BSC chooses its partners carefully and has developed a strong internal culture of excellence.

Bankstown Sports Club: bankstownsports.com Corsair Solutions (tvONE): (03) 9005 9861 or corsairsolutions.com.au

Jason and his team devised the design and layout of the screens and then turned to the club’s long-term AV technology partner, The P.A. People, to make it happen. “We explained to The P.A. People how we want the content to work and how we wanted to manage it, and allowed The P.A. People to get on with doing what it does best — integrating the technology and building the systems to ensure it all runs.”

LG Commercial: lg.com.au

TALE OF 2 CANVASSES

avt (AMX): avt.tech

The installation looks spectacular and intricate, but can be considered as two pixel canvasses. There’s a three-wide video wall of HD displays (5760 x 1080) and a 10-strong array

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Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

The two video walls are addressed by two gutsy PCs packing the best video cards money can buy.

FOYER CONTENT The content is regularly updated to reflect the theme of holidays, seasons and commemorations such as ANZAC Day. The content cycles to match the 15-second dwell time of patrons’ passage through the foyer. The content is generated in house by the BSC marketing team — another example of the club’s willingness to invest in its in-house capability. The advantage of retaining the skills to generate the content is in BSC’s ability to respond


SOMETHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY

quickly when necessary, leveraging the display for special occasions at the drop of a hat. The LG Commercial displays feature LG’s customary superthin bezel which gives the installation its clean lines. “The bezel width was certainly a consideration,” confirms Jason Klippel. “We also found the LG screens had the best value for money. They fit the bill perfectly. LG had the right size configurations available for us to achieve our design. The P.A. People had the flexibility to mount the displays the way they needed to without compromise. And we had the support from LG. Durability is another major consideration. These displays run 24/7/365… I’ve not turned them off yet, and we’ve not had a problem.” 

Out-of-the-ordinary digital signage features are pricier for a number of reasons. The hardware required to wrangle the video needs to be industrial strength. In the case of Bankstown Sport Club’s foyer feature, the two PCs are hi-spec, with top level graphics cards to ensure smooth 24/7/365 operation. The tvONE CORIOmaster video processor is also a hi-spec device that allows you to map your video (in this case a 4K canvas plus a 1 x 3 video wall) to your choice of display types and configuration. For those more technically minded, the C3-540 CORIOmaster chassis shipped with 16 slots and redundant PSU. There are 4 x 4K30 HDMI inputs through the CMHDMI-4K-2IN cards and 13 x HDBaseT outputs through 7 x CM-HDBT-SC-2OUT-1ETH cards. These were then received at the LG monitors converting the HDBaseT signals to HDMI through 13 x tvONE 1T-CT-642 HDMI 1.4 receivers. This is no small processing task, and one CORIOmaster eats for breakfast. The other costly consideration is how to mount the displays. As a rule, the off-the-shelf video mounting products won’t allow for eccentric configurations such as BSC’s. Rather, you will need to get bespoke mounting hardware designed and fabricated especially for the project. The P.A. People is quite uniquely placed among AV integrators in its in-house ability to meet bespoke requests such as this. The P.A. People has its own metal working shop. And although this installation could hardly be called run of the mill, it didn’t present anything like an insurmountable challenge. Managing Director, Chris Dodds, framed the key nature of the challenge: “Mounting the screens was one thing — it did present a certain engineering challenge — but we also needed to ensure the video wall was serviceable. Each of the three front screens can be lifted off to access the rear screens.” Club AV Manager, Jason Klippel, doesn’t take The P.A. People’s next-level engineering expertise for granted: “A lot of The P.A. People’s work is right at the end of the project. Their guys were here on a public holiday, working to get this job finished; testing and making sure it was perfect from Day One. They’re always happy to go that extra mile.” The P.A. People: (02) 8755 8700 or www.papeople.com.au

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

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TOP TEACHER TELLS Feedback from School Principal, Shirley Maihi: “In the few months that we’ve had the big screen in operation we’ve already seen the great benefits and we’re seeing even greater possibilities. “The most obvious application is at lunchtimes, where the kids play the dancing game, Jump Jam. It’s also revolutionised our all-school assemblies. The screen is highly visible by all 1100 students as well as teachers and attending parents. We are very proud of what we’ve got. “The screen presents a world of possibilities for community events. Already we’ve used the display for the broadcast of the Kapa Haka national dance competition. Parents bought tickets at the gate and families enjoyed a sausage sizzle, and picnicked under our big canopy. It was a very successful event and it bought parents to the school who may not otherwise attend school events. “The screen is a significant investment but for the size of the display and the number of people it addresses at one time, we couldn’t be happier.”

Kids Are Alright Big screen LED gets kids & school moving

In Action

Seeing footage of primary school kids in front of a giant LED display busting out dance moves to the Jump Jam aerobics program is enough to give educators goose bumps. Active kids having fun outdoors. Technology being properly leveraged. It’s enough to get school principals reaching for the chequebook. But wait, there’s more. The same IP65-rated, large-format screen is also used for all-school assemblies where it provides a compelling focal point for all 1100 kids. Video announcements, presentations… the display natively handles HD video and is as easy to address as a PC monitor.

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This same screen helps Finlayson Park School in suburban Auckland connect with the broader community. Community groups can hire the display for neighbourhood movie nights or the screening of special sports events. Yes, this is a NZ-sourced story and there is an inevitable mention of the rugby — the big screen is perfect for watching the ‘big game’, and has already hosted just such a party. “A community All Blacks event? It’s our civic duty! We’ll be organising a fundraiser next week.” — sincerely, Parents Association.

At this point, most school administrators would be shouting ‘shut up and take my money!’.

Cannon Business Solutions specified and commissioned the Aurora Signage display and it’s been a hit from Day one.

But wait, there’s more.

Expect other schools to be following suit. 

The same tamper- and vandal-proof 6mm pixel pitch screen at all other times can display digital signage content from the in-house media player. The school community is duly appraised of upcoming events and news.

Westan (Aurora LED): 1300 963 963 or westan.com.au

But hang on. We’re not finished just yet.

“When can they come in and install that screen?!” — regards, School Board.


Laser Projectors

Designed for Exceptional Performance Epson L Series large venue laser projectors take image quality to new levels with game-changing laser light sources, WUXGA resolution and 4K enhancement technology. Create powerful images with outstanding reliability and minimal maintenance that are ideal for staging and rental applications. Features include: • Up to 25,000 lumens and WUXGA resolution for bright, colourful, brilliant images • 20,000 hours of virtually maintenance-free operation for continuous and reliable use • Versatile connectivity including HDBaseT, HDMI, SDI and DVI-D • Easy integration with Crestron ®, AMX® and Extron compatibility • Full suite of lens options for virtually any staging and rental application

For more information visit www.epson.com.au/LaserProjectors


Audio Focus of Amazon Centre Audio Spotlight ensures visitor centre success

In Action

Audio Spotlight directional sound technology delivers the story of nature at the Understory visitor centre, located inside The Spheres conservatories on the campus of Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle. Understory is a free public visitor centre where guests can learn about Amazon and The Spheres. With interactive exhibits focused on flora, natural habitats, and design, the self-guided Understory exhibit provides an immersive, 360-degree experience to visitors through visual displays and spoken narratives that are beamed by Audio Spotlight speakers. The integration of Audio Spotlight at Understory was implemented by audiovisual designer and integrator Whitlock and media experience designer Belle & Wissell.

BEAM ME DOWN At the exhibit, four AS-24i Audio Spotlight speakers produce narrow beams of sound, ensuring that each audio narrative is contained to specific spots in the large, open room. This characteristic of Audio Spotlight is perfectly aligned with the Understory exhibit as patrons are immersed in a light beam when they step into the spot that triggers an audio narrative. On any given day, visitors of all ages from students, local urbanites, and tourists can be seen enthralled, as the light beams douse them in light and Audio Spotlight envelops them in sound. Featuring a thin design with a built-in amplifier,

EAV Technology (Audio Spotlight): (03) 9489 0010 or eavtech.com.au

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Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

and comprised of a small overall package, the ceilingmounted Audio Spotlight speakers create a seamless integration at this unique and popular exhibit. Amazon initially developed the idea for The Spheres to establish an innovative, horticulturally-rich setting that would provide an experience for its employees that’s typically absent in an urban office setting — a direct link to nature. From its inception in 2013 to its grand opening in January 2018, many businesses throughout the Pacific Northwest collaborated to make the project possible. Today, The Spheres are home to over 40,000 plants from the cloud forests of over 30 countries. 

ABOUT AUDIO SPOTLIGHT The Audio Spotlight speakers at the exhibit deliver sound to tight, narrow areas, just like spotlights. This spotlight effect results in ambient sound levels dropping by over 90%, even just a single step outside the narrow beam of coverage, making them the perfect tool for a variety of applications that include museums, galleries, showrooms, and other exhibits, to kiosks, digital signage, retail displays, and creative OOH advertising, just to name a few.


Pictured: Ravenwood Prison displays protected by Gilkon extra heavy-duty shrouds. Every display (24-inch – 58-inch) are protected with a custom Gilkon shroud.

Designed & Manufactured in Australia www.gilkon.com.au Sales@gilkon.com.au Tel 02 9914 0900


You’ve Finally Arrived Star Sydney’s Grand Foyer makes big statement

In Action

The Star Sydney has been spending up bigtime, dropping $65m on a transformation of the property’s Pyrmont entrance, with a brand-new bar, luxury retailers and, now, an arrival experience to die for. You’re looking at the amazing $22m ‘Grand Foyer’ — part light, part water and part digital art gallery. The Star Sydney Chief Operating Officer, Dino Mezzatesta, describes it: “The new Grand Foyer includes a 25m-long, 8K resolution crescent-shaped screen which will showcase the works of emerging and established Australian artists, university students, cinematographers and animators. The screen content reacts dynamically to the real-world environment and human movement, encouraging guest interaction. “Inspiration behind the artworks was drawn from The Star’s proximity to the busy Sydney Harbour shoreline – and the constant ebb and flow of human activity within the Pyrmont area.

The Star Sydney: www.thestarsydney.com.au Ramus Illumination: (03) 9191 2544 or www.ramus.com.au

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“Alongside the digital canvas, is the first sculptural water installation of its design in the Southern Hemisphere – the ‘Aquatique’ artwork of falling water. The integration of Aquatique, LED screens, lasers, lighting and live performances is a world first for an entertainment precinct.”

STAR TURN The new guest arrival experience has been collaboratively delivered by The Star Entertainment Group and rockstar lighting specialist Bruce Ramus (Ramus Illumination), who were responsible for delivering Australia’s largest permanent

outdoor projection system at The Star Gold Coast, as well as its porte-cochère lighting installation, also at Broadbeach. Bruce Ramus: “With The Star Sydney Grand Foyer arrival experience, we wanted to design an experience full of compelling encounters that enrich the journey. We envisioned a beautiful, unifying space that embraces and welcomes all people, and we believe we’ve achieved this. “We’ve turned light into an expressive platform in the form of the digital canvas. Through this, light animates to tell the story of the local environment, it is the light, movement and artistic expression of the community that shares the wider story of The Star and Sydney.” 

FAST FACTS • The $65m transformation of the property’s western Pyrmont entrance, will welcome an average of 20,000 guests per day. • The centrepiece of the new Grand Foyer is a 25-metre-long, 8K resolution crescent shaped screen which will feature 8736 hours of content throughout the year. • The Grand Foyer is valued at $22 million and it took 20 months from design to completion. • The ‘Aquatique’ feature will recycle 13,000L of water a day. • Over 6,000sqm of stone and marble have been laid out in the Grand Foyer, equivalent to the size of The White House. • The feature column in The Star Grand lobby features one kilometre of stainless steel strips which is equivalent to the height of three Eiffel Towers. • There are over 4800 decorative aluminium gold rings in the hotel foyer.


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Finding a Way Brisbane’s South Bank invests in nifty wayfinding

In Action

South Bank Corporation is the development and management authority of Brisbane’s most iconic riverfront destination. Visited by over fourteen million people annually and home to hundreds of events each year, South Bank is a multi-award-winning precinct that continues to innovate to ensure that it remains a progressive public hub. Lined with an abundance of cafes and restaurants, Little Stanley Street and Grey Street have become an integral part of Brisbane’s modern dining landscape. With new tenancies regularly joining the precinct, South Bank Corporation’s static wayfinding signage requires constant updates. As one of Brisbane’s major tourist attractions, well designed and up-todate way finding is essential for visitors to easily track down their favourite destination along South Bank.

CV Media & Signage: (07) 3622 4390 or cvmediasignage.com.au Samsung: 1800 312 233 or businessdesk@samsung.com

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CV Media & Signage developed a tailored digital wayfinding solution for South Bank Corporation, with communication and navigation being key features of the design. Six 46-inch double-sided LCD kiosks (based on commercial grade Samsung OH46F Series displays) have been installed at key locations along the dining hub, with each map oriented to the user’s view, allowing them to easily understand what streets, landmarks, cafes and restaurants are ahead. Each kiosk holds one Commercial Chromebox to power both screens.

Customised content by CV Media & Signage’s in-house creative team features an animated map rotating through each tenant’s location, highlighted through subtle colour and pulsing to capture the attention of passersby. Advertisements feature below the map to showcase current and upcoming events such as the Sunday Sessions music program on the River Quay. With a link to South Bank Corporation’s interactive map on its ‘eat SouthBank’ website, the kiosk provides viewers with an additional interactive feature. CV Media & Signage’s kiosks are now a prominent feature on the Streets of South Bank. 


Get “In Touch” with your customer

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Mission Critter-cal Casey Central Shopping Centre leads the way with Interactivity

In Action

Casey Central Shopping Centre is slick, modern and complete with just about every available amenity.

driving digital engagement). Rather, the brief to Interactivity was more intriguing: do something cool that kids will love.

But it’s also only 10 minutes drive from Westfield Fountain Gate Shopping Centre — the largest in that area of the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

BIG TIME PLAY

Casey Central Shopping Centre had a large open plaza area in front of its Woolworths supermarket, which the centre’s management, CBRE, identified as fertile ground to install a customer attraction… a family-friendly feature that would help win over patrons to the charms of the smaller, yet more personable Casey shopping village.

JUST IN CASEY

Casey Central Shopping Centre: caseycentral.com.au Interactivity: 1300 797 199 or interactivity.com.au

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CBRE engaged Interactivity to design an interactive play area for kids. Interactivity is a thoroughbred specialist when it comes to these manner of attractions. It’s helped activate underperforming shopping spaces around the country, combining good oldfashioned physical play, with up to-the-minute digital interactive play areas using the latest in touchscreens. This job was a little different. There weren’t any iron-clad metrics to be met. In fact, CBRE hadn’t made wi-fi a priority at the shopping centre (high-density wi-fi is a necessity for

Another Casey Central Shopping Centre differentiator is the available space: it’s huge (~20m x 8m and plenty of height in the building’s cupola). Interactivity Projects Director, Maddi Goricane, reflects: “This project was a great opportunity to demonstrate our fullservice offering — design, build and installation. We have the space to design a play area with active play, high play and to seamlessly integrate the technology into that.” The theme agreed on with the management was about bringing the outdoors inside, hence ‘Casey Critters’. The playground showcases much of what Interactivity is capable of. All the technology interactions are designed specifically for kids. Oversize red buttons activate LED strips on the trees. Steering wheels demand to be manhandled as bubbles fill long acrylic tubes. Touch activated light blocks illuminate paths, much to the delight of hop scotching youngsters. And then, of course, there’s the amazing array of interactive games available on


A smaller screen is simply more comfortable for a child to use... it’s more child-sized

touchscreens that keep kids mesmerised — in this case Critter themed to match the playground.

BIGGER NOT ALWAYS BETTER DigitalSignage has followed the growth and success of Interactivity’s playgrounds for years and has noticed an interesting trend: the touchscreens have shrunk rather than grown ever bigger.

“Bigger is not necessarily better!” agreed Maddi Goricane. “From a play perspective, when you have larger displays during busy times, it can encourage jostling. Kids are looking over the shoulders of over kids and that’s not desirable, especially for less outgoing kids. “This playground is for children under five years old. These kids aren’t tall and they’re arms aren’t long. Having a 43-inch display might look impressive but when a child is so close to the screen you’re better off with a smaller screen.

HERE TO STAY Often interactive play areas such as this have a builtin shelf life — it might be six months or a year to give a shopping centre a Christmas kick-along or help activate an underperforming cul de sac of the mall. Not so at Casey Shopping Centre — Casey Critters is here to stay, and it’s demonstrated in the quality of the Interactivity installation. The level of finish in this playground is next-level, and in the case of the pond (which shows a cross section of aquatic life) the sheer heft of the work is staggering: “There’s about half a tonne of epoxy resin in that pond!” enthuses Maddi. “The amount of supporting steel work is off the charts. I can assure you, Casey Critters is not going anywhere!” 

“This also works for the client. In terms of a return on investment, I’d much rather recommend two 22-inch screens than one 43-inch. “A smaller screen is simply more comfortable for a child to use… it’s more child-sized.” Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

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Just The Ticket Cinema foyer innovation from TouchMate

In Action

TouchMate, a Brisbane-based digital solutions provider, has produced a complete front-of-house solution to help simplify and expedite guest services for Australian movie theatres. Self-service ticket kiosks have wide acceptance in movie theatres, but TouchMate saw the potential in combining the widespread use of video walls in cinema foyers with kioskstyle features. TouchMate Director, David Ellsworth, explains: “Our system is an evolution of the current technology. Traditionally, the cinema might spend more than $50,000 on a video wall then install eight self-service kiosks that might cost an extra $50,000+. If you merge the two technologies you halve the capital costs and costs of maintenance. You save space and money.” Customer acceptance is instantaneous. Patrons immediately understand the proposition — as soon as they see the attendant EFTPOS facilities they know they have the opportunity to buy cinema tickets. As they approach the machine, proximity sensors switch the video wall’s content, such that the customer can find their desired screening and complete the transaction. Once complete, the content automatically switches back to the in-house CMS programming.

TouchMate: (07) 3889 6031 www.touchmate.com.au JEA Technology (Zytronic): (03) 8736 0330 or jeatech.com.au

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Crucial to the success of the TouchMate digital solution is the Zytronic ZXY500 touch controller. The new technology allows the touch sensors to be designed with sub 10mm borders. David Ellsworth: “We’ve been working with Zytronic since 2002 on a whole variety of products in a whole range of different industries. The new ZXY500 controller is a real step forward. The success of our cinema product is dependent on an edge-to-edge full screen glass touchscreen and Zytronic has achieved that. In this case, the bezel width

of the touchscreen is right down to 1.8mm either side — 3.6mm from screen to screen in total. It’s almost seamless.”

TOUGH STUFF TouchMate has selected 6mm-thick toughened anti-glare glass for the system. David Ellsworth has used the glass on mission critical mining applications and loves the fact it’s virtually indestructible. The Zytronic ZXY500 has another technology advantage that proved critical for this cinema application where multiple touch displays are ranged side by side. “Competing product have issues with glass magnetic resonance,” explains David Ellsworth. “Which occurs when you attempt to place two glass touch panels together. Effectively, there’s interference, which would be a deal breaker in this application. The Zytronic glass doesn’t suffer from magnetic resonance.” This cinema foyer self-service solution is a bespoke TouchMate product that boasts two technology patents. The package has taken TouchMate years to perfect and is now becoming widely accepted among new-build cinemas as the preferred one-stop customer-facing foyer solution. TouchMate backs the product with industry-leading service and support. Little wonder then, that David Ellsworth chooses his technology partners carefully: “Zytronic has been around a long time and if there’s any support required, they’re very responsive. The Zytronic product is reliable and consistent, and I’m able to approach them with special specification requests. I wouldn’t consider using another manufacturer. TouchMate has installed four of these new touch walls into new cinemas and we’ve had zero issues.” 


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+61 (0)3 9005 9861 corsairsolutions.com.au Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

25


First to the Party ACMI’s Wonderland Exhibition’s tech win

In Action

The ‘Wonderland’ exhibition was a big hit for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in 2018. The spectacular experience took visitors on a journey of Alice’s adventures in the story with the aid of groundbreaking special effects and animation, thanks to the latest technology from Panasonic and creative expertise from several partners. The entirely original experiential exhibition charts the cultural, technological and societal shifts that have compelled artists, filmmakers and fans to return to these tales again and again since the birth of cinema. Katrina Sedgwick, CEO and Director of ACMI, said: “We wanted to bring to life the way that CGI is built layer upon layer, and decided the best way to do this would be to create a blank canvas of a ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’ and projection map an entire room – slowly building up images to create a unique experience.” ACMI partnered with Panasonic to create tailored technology solutions which would complement Wonderland’s multi-channel video synchronised immersive experience. The exhibition illustrates ACMI’s ongoing fascination with new visual technologies and the role of the moving image to make the impossible seem possible.

ACMI: acmi.net.au

TEA TIME

Panasonic: panasonic.com.au

The ‘Tea Party’ room was always going to be the standout for ACMI and its visitors, and Panasonic was tasked with providing solutions to enable the room to be fully

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projected and provide visitors with unexpected content and an unforgettable experience. Many visitors already knew the story of Alice in Wonderland, so it was crucial for ACMI to provide a visual phenomenon to create a ‘digital twist’ on this old classic. Glen Willey, Senior Exhibition Technician, ACMI said: “We used Panasonic because their equipment is so reliable and we know exactly what we’re getting when we get it out of the box. Even in the early design stages, they provided us with testing equipment that we hadn’t used before and it meant the whole process was seamless.” Wonderland was a huge hit in no small part to the reliability and performance of the technology, something ACMI curator Jess Bram is more than happy to acknowledge: “Working with Panasonic has been incredible and they have really helped us bring our ideas to life. They have offered every visitor the unique opportunity to sit at the ‘Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Table’, and our fully-projected room has defied expectations for a museum.” 


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27


Cutting Edge Innovation

The Blade: Australian innovation meets touch tech. Story: Christopher Holder

T

he Blade from Aussie innovators, Design to Production, is undoubtedly one of the world’s sleekest double-sided touch kiosks.

The Zytronic touch technology adds only 12mm to the slimline profile of the double-sided Blade, bringing the whole package in under a staggeringly thin 40mm. The Blade was featured on the Zytronic stand at the ISE show in Amsterdam earlier in 2019, where it was met with some initial scepticism by attendees (“surely, this product is way too slim to be touch enabled”) and then amazement at the Blade’s form factor and performance.

“There are other double-sided kiosk and signage products in the market but not many are touch enabled,” explains Design to Production director Peter Gordon. “Those that are, use inferior touch 28

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

technology, and are noticeably chunkier as a result. The Blade is ‘a first’ in that regard.” The Blade is built to exacting standards, in Sydney by the Design to Production manufacturing team. “We use state of the art equipment and only the best manufacturing techniques,” explains Peter Gordon. “There’s incredible attention to the detail.” Which is one reason why the Blade has caught the eye of the automobile industry in Australia. The Blade is beautifully resolved and ships with low profile castors that allow the unit to be easily relocated in a vehicle showroom — all you need is mains power.

Being a touch solution, the Blade invites patrons to tap an on-screen icon to request more information. A selection of brochures are available and the patron can have the desired material emailed to them. Naturally the sales team are also alerted for follow

up — alerting VW regarding the vehicle the patron is interested in as well as their name, along with age and gender data derived from the onboard Quividi real-time attention analytics solution.

It’s early days, and there are myriad potential applications for The Blade. Design to Production are in discussions about using The Blade to entertain children with interactive showroom games (“how many bales of hay can you fit into the back of an Amarok!”), acknowledging that keeping the family entertained allows patrons to dwell longer and have the time required to make a significant decision such as the purchase of a new car. Using Zytronic touch technology was part of the Blade’s design spec from the earliest design phase: “For the Blade to be interactive, was key,” confirms Peter Gordon. “That’s why we love Zytronic because they make the best products. The feedback


THE BLADE AT A GLANCE The Blade features a 55-inch double-sided HD display for an output that belies its small footprint and thin profile (40mm). The Blade also includes a low-profile base plate making it ideal for showrooms and tradeshows where it is not practical to have the unit permanently installed. Applications • Digital media enclosure for lobbies, cafes, university campuses, hotels and clubs. • Advertising display for retail environments, showrooms and tradeshows. • Digital directory for building and lift foyers. • Wayfinding for shopping centres and entertainment venues. • Interactive kiosk for retail applications. • Digital display for in-store promotions. Key Features • Black or white powder coated, corrosion resistant chassis. • Optional finishes include custom colours and stainless steel. • 55-inch double-sided slimline HD display (1920×1080). • Anti-glare, low iron, toughened glass panels (front and rear). • TruPulse Harmonic 10W audio speaker. • DPEMS remote electronic monitoring system.

Design To Production: d-p.com.au Zytronic: zytronic.co.uk

we received regarding The Blade from Integrated Systems Europe was very positive. People just couldn’t believe The Blade was touch enabled — they couldn’t figure out how we had such a narrow bezel. That’s a testament to the technology that Zytronic produces — it’s market leading.”

For Peter Gordon the magic is all in the narrow bezel and the success of future product development is in concealing the touch technology as to be almost invisible: “We’ve been manufacturing kiosks for quite some time; we know what impresses people; and it’s the size of the bezel that is always the key. The smaller that border; the more impressive the kiosk. Zytronic leads the market in this respect. I mean, Zytronic must be doing something right because everyone knows they’re the best!” 

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

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Extra Nextra Read All About it! Brisbane Nextra’s big LED drawcard

In Action

The VuePix Infiled team partnered with the creative team at Entwined to deliver an interactive digital signage platform for the brand new store of nextra at the Queen Street mall in Brisbane. Entwined was engaged to help transform the nextra store into an exciting interactive retail space. The whole concept was to deliver a unique customer experience, draw the attention of the passing by foot traffic and engage the store’s visitors in the ‘Game’ with dynamic entertaining content. Cameron Hanns, Director at Entwined, says: “This project was yet again another exciting opportunity for Entwined to flex our creative muscles, working with our partners at VuePix to provide this unique and dynamic very ‘Extra Nextra’! Working to a tight deadline we were definitely able to achieve the brief put to us. You cannot help to stop and look at these screens”.

GAME THEORY

ULA: www.ulagroup.com

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A few different LED and LCD displays were combined into one digital signage platform. The LED arch welcoming the customers into the store was created from VuePix Infiled E4.6 outdoor panels. It is used mainly for retail advertising, running through the latest promotions and drawing patron’s attention to the retail gaming desk.

The LED display inside the store, located in between the entrance and the serving counters, consists of VuePix Infiled ER2 indoor panels. With its size of 3m wide x 2m tall, it offers a perfect real estate to run any kind of promotion and advertising for the products and brands available within the Nextra store. “This was an exciting opportunity for us to partner once again with Entwined to deliver a unique customer experience with matching content being displayed on two different types of screens at the same time.“ comments Nathan Wright, VuePix Infiled Product Manager at ULA Group. “The ease of the service and installation of our ER series made this product a perfect choice for this application.” 


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www.dsmag.com.au Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

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Blooming ‘Eck Carousel @ Bloomingdale’s delights in digital

In Action

Bloomingdale’s flagship Manhattan location on 59th Street launched its ‘Carousel @ Bloomingdale’s’ pop-up shop to give customers a uniquely curated retail experience, where two floor-to-ceiling video walls immerse shoppers in a thematic visual landscape, created by award-winning Montreal design studio Float4. According to Float4 founder and creative director Alexandre Simionescu, “The goal is to create a meticulously curated environment that draws shoppers in with awe-inspiring visuals and ambience. In a normal retail environment, digital content is typically an add-on that supports existing sales displays and decor. At the Carousel, it is the decor. High-definition video walls encompass the entire area; shoppers find themselves immersed in a standalone boutique, surrounded by commodities related to the season’s theme.” The Carousel’s inaugural theme was titled Urban Explorer and it featured carefully curated products including stylish bicycle helmets, electronics, personal care items, luggage and more. To encapsulate the ‘urban explorer’ aesthetic, Float4 captured live footage throughout New York City and ‘urban explorers’ wearing and using some of the theme’s stand-out products. Float4 will develop six pieces of content for the Carousel’s first year, such as mixing live action footage and real-time graphics. Each piece will be approximately 10 minutes long, allowing customers to experience an entire storyline while shopping.

Float4: www.float4.com LG: www.lg.com.au

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This project also highlighted Float4’s mastery of digital media technology, requiring specialised equipment and meticulous planning to produce content for dynamic display ratios and resolutions. For the launch of the Urban Explorer theme, each video wall consisted of 25 ultra-thin 55-inch LG displays in a

5x5 configuration. With the inauguration of the current theme, each wall received an additional 10 displays, resulting in 7x5 video walls that measure 3m high by 11m wide.

URBAN EXPLORATION Since its construction, The Carousel has been a hit; Bloomingdale’s Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Frank Berman proclaims that it delivers a shopping experience unmatched by any other store. “As the retail landscape changes, we continually seek innovative ways to engage our customer,” Berman said. “The Carousel allows Bloomingdale’s to regularly offer up new products, new brands and an original immersive experience, all tied to a timely and engaging theme. The engulfing screens create a cocoon-like feel, virtually transporting guests to new destinations, while the combination of unexpected product, unique shopping environment and engaging experiences makes the Carousel like no other pop-up shop in the world.” According to Bloomingdale’s, the Carousel feels like a standalone boutique, and will have a dedicated entrance located on 60th Street between 3rd Avenue and Lexington Avenue. Each theme and piece of accompanying Float4 content will last two months, with guest experts curating product selections. “What’s great about this project is we get to do it six times over the next year. We’re given wide creative latitude to deliver the ultimate shopping experience,” Simionescu added. “Bloomingdale’s has created a truly unique retail concept, and we are thrilled to be their content development partner.” 


Playing it Safe Volvo’s Big Video Wall is Riding High

Digital signage is playing an increasingly significant role in vehicle showrooms, what with popularity of configurators, branding video, digital billboards and more. Here’s an interesting case study of signage in this Volvo showroom in New York. The showstopper is a 5 x 7-panel video wall but it’s accompanied by a virtual-reality vehicle design room, five zones of audio and a Swedish-designinspired coffee lounge. According to Nick Ehr, boss of the AV integrator, Broadcast Systems, the video wall injected some tech challenges: “Because a 5 x 7-screen design results in a non-standard aspect ratio and pixel count, we required a scalable, flexible video distribution system, and we knew ClearOne could deliver. The dynamic abilities of the ClearOne View Pro solution made it the ideal choice, allowing for custom resolutions, content scaling, and splitting the video wall into any number of custom-sized frames, even across bezels.”

The showroom’s General Manager, Nelson Guerrero, was open about the store focusing more on brand awareness than sales, specifically noting that exciting video content can extol the brand’s values – family, safety, technology, design – in a way that no static advertisement or vehicle showcase can match. He also cited the benefit of using advanced display solutions to reach today’s consumers, based on the overwhelming role digital displays now play in our daily lives.

In Action

Broadcast Systems also installed a special colour management tool that allows the integrator to adjust the colour temperature and image specifications for the video wall. The wide range of custom capabilities ensures every future need can be met with minimal labor or hardware changes. The ClearOne system also manages content for two additional flat screen HDTVs in the showroom. 

BRAND VALUES The video distribution solution uses a single ClearOne View Pro E120 Encoder to send signal to 35 ClearOne View Pro D210 decoders, one for each panel on the video wall. The ClearOne View Pro Panorama software and Console software allow operators to manage displays of any shape, size or resolution, which is becoming more important as companies opt for custom LCD and LED video walls that don’t have standard pixel counts or aspect ratios.

PAVT (ClearOne): www.pavt.com.au

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

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Comment:

Moon Shot Is the ultimate signage canvas ready for prime time?

Story: Mug Punter some questionable beliefs — no, not Scientology, that wouldn’t have been quite so tragic. One was adamant that the Earth is flat — yes, a genuine, I-don’t-care-what-you-say believer that the world is some kind of flat, round pancake-shape with a pizza crust at the edges to the stop the oceans dribbling off into space. To be fair, a lot of her rationale was based on plenty of dodgy internet stuff, and underpinned by some rather suspect ‘tomato plants’ in her back yard. The answer to any reasonable objection was, “That’s what they want you to think”. Including that the moon’s orbit around the Earth is probably just a bit of Stanley Kubrick trickery. Coincidentally, my other friend announced that mankind never landed on the moon, and all the moon-landing footage really is Stanley doing what he does best — and supposedly ruining his career in the process. This opinion was inspired by a Netflix documentary, it seems, which I’d say only offers genuine credibility if you go back to that veggie garden and the tomato bush.

W

hat’s with the picture of the unicorn?

While I promise this isn’t another shocked, post-election rant, I will mention something kind of relevant… maybe… to what happened at the polls. A tenuous, but definite, connection between unicorns and election results [and digital signage?! — Ed.].

In the morning following Bill’s demise, a couple of supposedly very well-informed experts from the ‘polling industry’ were pinned against a breakfast news couch and asked to explain how their polling results had failed so dismally to predict the result. One authority wisely said little — he knew when to keep his mouth shut — but the other launched into blaming the digital age and, specifically, the lack of telephone landlines and subsequent dearth of phonebook listingsm— because we’re all using mobile smartphones — meaning they were running out of people to call and ask about their voting preferences, get it? He went on to claim a solution was for the government to make public the digital phone register (it makes sense, in a disturbing, Orwellian way, that the ‘government’ supposedly has some list of every mobile phone number in use — probably kept next to the Big Red Button that will blow New Zealand out of the water). This would allow “every 34

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Australian to enjoy the opportunity of participating in a phone poll”. HORN OF A DILEMMA

Which brings us back to unicorns. Because as far as mythical creatures go I reckon unicorns would be on a par with this fabled, imaginary Australian who apparently enjoys being cold-called by an automated polling company and quizzed about their political preferences. In our digital age of endless avenues to grab the attention of the Great Unwashed Punter, the problem is to avoid crossing the line between being informative or interesting, and just really bloody annoying — like unsolicited phone calls. Heaps of digital signage has to overcome the same conundrum. Somehow creating a ‘Wow, look at that!’ reaction, rather than a grumpy, ‘Get that out of my face’ kind of response.

It used to be a real estate mantra, ‘location, location, location’ but these days it applies to digital signage too. In a stroke of genius, I was recently inspired to figure out the ultimate location for the bestest-ever, most effective, gob-smacking digital signage position. DOWN TO EARTH FRIENDS

First, I must digress and explain my inspiration. Two of my friends separately admitted to

So later, when I was later standing in the autumn night, staring up at the full moon and thinking, “How did I end up with so many nut-jobs as friends?” did I contemplate the mysteries of space? The awesome majesty of the lunar vision? Have any of those, “Why are we here?” inner conversations? Nope, it struck me, “What a great place for some digital signage”.

Because everyone looks at the moon, right? From lovers, to sad bastards, to the occasional werewolf, everyone sits out in the night and stares up at the moon. Whack a company logo up there and we’ll all be bloody impressed, not annoyed or feeling even slightly inconvenienced. MOON SHOT

Sure, the installation would need to be pretty big, but low-resolution — thus cheap —without spending big bucks on any 8K silliness. The cost of running it would be next to nothing thanks to a few solar panels, and maintenance would be bugger-all because the moon has no weather, no dust being stirred up, and no Banksy wannabes drawing phallic symbols with spray cans. And don’t forget — no rental fees. Nobody owns the moon.

All-in-all I reckon it would be a win-win. Instead of a boring blob in the night sky we’ll get colour and movement. And you’ll never miss any discounts being offered. Not annoying at all. 

Mug Punter is rational to a fault. None other than Elvis himself told him recently to steer clear of his conspiracy theorist compadres.


Welcome to a World of Interactivity

Project: Interactive Play Area Client: CBRE Location: Casey Shopping Centre Casey Shopping Centre Engagement Strategy: High-profile family-friendly attraction to the shopping centre.

Education, Fun & Engagement Engaging, interactive content for kids is not only fun but promotes the powers of concentration, awareness and retention as well as visual perception. Interactivity has the ability to create interactive playgrounds through touchscreens and projection. Whether it’s a touchscreen-based suite of games; high-engagement interactive projections on the floor, wall or ceiling; or something brand new, we can tailor a solution and program to suit your needs.

Interactivity Pty Ltd 1300 797 199 www.interactivity.com.au Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

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