DigitalSignage Issue 22 by Alchemedia Publishing

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

Physical product driven content triggers

Smart Billboard content with live vehicle model recognition

3 output player

4 output player

12 output player

SMARTER CONNECTED DIGITAL

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

Digital Engagement. On Display. Samsung SMART Signage Platform, powered by Tizen™ OS.

Featuring an enhanced fourth generation Samsung SMART Signage Platform (SSSP 4.0) powered by the Tizen™ operating system, Samsung’s P Series digital display solutions help expand visual display possibilities, improve management and create vivid and memorable audience experiences.

CMS Server

Triple Video Tags For Web App

Smooth Text Scrolling & Moving Effects

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Server App (Node.JS)

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Scalable and secure Architecture helps enable safe information exchange, vital for security-reliant finance, government and IoT industries.

Centralised remote management Manage and adjust individual displays or display groups remotely via the SSSP 4.0’s central server.

Samsung Display Solutions, for inviting and modern customer experiences. For enquires please contact our Business Desk T: 1800 31 32 33 | E: businessdesk@samsung.com Please visit www.samsung.com.au/business for more information.

CONTENTS ISSUE 22 2017

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

Advertising Office: (02) 9986 1188 PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086

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

Editorial Director: Christopher Holder (chris@dsmag.com.au) Publisher: Philip Spencer (philip@dsmag.com.au)

Art Director: Dominic Carey (dominic@alchemedia.com.au) Graphic Design: Daniel Howard (daniel@alchemedia.com.au) Contributing Editor: Graeme Hague (news@dsmag.com.au) Accounts: Jaedd Asthana (jaedd@alchemedia.com.au) Circulation Manager: Mim Mulcahy (subscriptions@dsmag.com.au)

FEATURE STORY 6 Showstopper: ICC Sydney’s $1.5b signage playground TECHNOLOGY 24 LG Wallaper OLED 30 Samsung QLED 32 Haivision Media Platform COMMENT 14 Directional Audio 34 Mug Punter

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

IN ACTION 12 What a Cracker!: Box Hill Shopping Centre Augmented Reality 14 University of Warwick’s megaresolution video wall 16 Pizza Caper’s digital menuboard rollout 18 Road Tech Marine uses signage for loyalty program 20 Channel 7’s host Olympics broadcast studio 22 Heritage Bank retail solution 26 oOh! Media weather-parting solution for AAMI

alchemedia publishing pty ltd (ABN: 34 074 431 628) PO Box 6216, Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086 info@alchemedia.com.au All material in this magazine is copyright © 2017 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. 27/4/17

“

ICC SYDNEY PROJECT

• Supplied & Installed LED Display Tech • 28 separate outdoor LED Displays • ~1100sqm Unilumin LED in Total

Big Screen Projects’ live events expertise was instrumental to the success of the [ICC Sydney] digital signage execution. They know how to build these structures in such a way that they can be easily serviced and managed. — Nick Orsatti, Director, Fredon Technology, ICC Sydney AV Integrator

” Pictured: ICC Sydney’s ‘Birdsmouth’ unique 3D, multifaceted LED feature. Supplied and installed by Big Screen Projects.

Big Screen Projects proudly specifies Unilumin high-quality, high-performance LED products & solutions.

CALL: 1300 278 118 OR VISIT: BIGSCREENPROJECTS.COM.AU Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

showstopper The new $1.5b ICC Sydney is a world-class digital signage playground.

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

he new ICC Sydney is a digital signage showpiece… wonderland, even. Within the $1.5b venue there all manner of signage taking care of all manner of duties — from the entirely ornamental to the utterly work-aday, yet utterly necessary, mundane. Managing the digital signage department is Ricky Chivers. It’s been a baptism of fire as he becomes familiar with the enormous variety of screens he has at his disposal and the demands of the clients.

There are 350 ‘end points’ in total. This could be an information panel outside one of the dozens of meeting rooms, a screen above the reception desk, a display mounted into the front of a smart lectern, one of the startling ‘blades’ on the promenade or, indeed, the showstopping ‘birdsmouth’ feature at the steps of The Theatre.

of the meeting rooms) in overflow situations.

Using ACA’s web-based interface, it’s easy to lasso-in social media contributions to the screens, where moderated Twitter feeds can appear on screens in The Theatre concourse or Instagram photos from The Ballroom can be reproduced on the Blade screens, for example.

The sky’s the limit really, and we’ll doubtlessly soon see how a clever promoter or event organiser may want to leverage the power of the displays to theme or takeover the precinct. 

Moreover the screens can often be addressed and co-opted in a whole variety of configurations. Those reception desk screens: there are 27 of them in a row. Address them individually or pop an uninterrupted rendition of Bayeaux tapestry on them! The 19 blades? They could all mirror the same content or 19 different displays or anything in between. ANYTHING ANYWHERE

Driving the signage and IPTV system is Cotag Media’s ACA Engine. Cotag is an Australian developer and worked with ICC Sydney and the AV integrator Fredon Technology to fine tune its platform for the showpiece project.

The IPTV aspect of the system means any vision can appear on any screen anywhere in the venue. Back of house screens can take vision from The Theatre stage or indeed the smaller theatres — the Darling and Pyrmont Theatres — can take vision from a plenary session at 8000-cap Theatre (or any

BIRDSMOUTH The ‘Birdsmouth’ is the signage showstopper. It’s a one-of-a-kind 3D, multifaceted LED jawdropper. The truth is: it wasn’t originally intended to be a digital signage feature at all, rather a more standard facade work. Which makes sense of the eccentric nature of the angles and fascias — in other words, no one in their right mind would intentionally design digital signage to be so tricky to install and maintain! “It was certainly a challenge to install,” recalled Big Screen Projects’ Toby Waley. “The south face and the west face weren’t on the same angle. The mitre where they came together was tough. We had to custom build the LED panels. The last panel that went in took 100 man hours to install — it was so tight in that join.” Content for the Birdsmouth is served by a Christie Coolux Pandoras Box — a powerful media server that can take care of all the warping and masking. Being three dimensional (with three different LED faces) it’s not as easy as simply flowing content to the screens, perspective needs to be taken

into account. For example, it took some experimentation before Toby Waley and the ICC Sydney digital signage team could nominate which is the ‘top’ of the Birdsmouth. Eventually a 3D map was authored which allowed the team to walk clients through how best to supply content and ensure the content was rendered to the screens in the best possible way. Effectively it’s a 4K canvas with a mask overlay. Toby Waley has been working with Unilumin LED for years now and has the utmost confidence in its product that comes out of China. “This is a high profile installation so I wasn’t taking any chances; and the conditions can be quite harsh — high temperatures at times, and lot of salty sea spray in the atmosphere — but I have full confidence in the product.” Most of the installation occurred during the hottest week of the year. Toby tested the Birdsmouth during a sizzling 45°+ day and all the LED diagnostics demonstrated the Unilumin panels were operating within predicted ranges.

There are 350 ‘end points’ in total. This could be an information panel outside one of the dozens of meeting rooms, a display mounted into the front of a smart lectern, or, indeed, the showstopping ‘birdsmouth’ feature at the steps of The Theatre Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

LED: FINE CHINA Toby Waley, Big Screen Projects: The general assumption is that anyone can go to the Far East and buy LED. Like anything out of China, there’s a full range of quality from world class to totally shonky. If you don’t know what you’re buying then you can easily buy a lemon. I’ve been looking at LED for well over a decade. I’ve been to China countless times, and walked through dozens of factories. I now exclusively only use Unilumin LED. I’ve found them to be the best supplier. I’ve spent time with Unilumin to ensure the product is totally suited to the Australian environment and in that time I’ve observed that its LED is better built to withstand our extreme temperatures and harsh conditions. I’ve found Unilumin’s R&D dept and QC to be unmatched — the number of R&D guys on the factory floor

LOOKING SHARP: BLADES Some 19 signage ‘blades’ line the Darling Harbourside. Monolithic and shiny, these polished stainless steel features are impossible to ignore. Big Screen Projects took care of the installation and commissioning. The screens are, again, 6mm pixel pitch Unilumin SMD LED. One of the earliest applications of the blades saw them feature in the shooting of a Hollywood picture. Most of the first quarter of 2017 saw the ICC Sydney digital signage team experiment with the use of the signs; testing content. Already it’s obvious the blades will make for potent event information screens, advertising and wayfinding. The blades can all display mirrored content or each can be individually addressable, making for some mouthwatering possibilities. What’s more, harbourside events or special events at Tumbalong Park will all benefit from the use of the blades. “That part of the harbour sees some very large crowds at times,” observed Toby Waley. “The blades will be a very powerful asset on those occasions. The digital signage is powerful but it’s the shiny, stainless steel fascia that’s proving to be popular as a mirrored surface for people to dance in front of. Quite the craze!”

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

is incredible. And it’s not a show they put on for a visitor — the information we exchange shows they’re continually reviewing their product. The level of testing is extreme. For example, they have chambers where they expose the product to spray salt water for days and create an 80° environment, all to ensure the specifications are tested. That level of testing isn’t common and they’re doing it for the right reasons — to ensure reliability and customer satisfaction. The ICC Sydney project represents five different shipments — 1100sqm of LED all up. Prior to each shipment being despatched I’d go to the factory with a tech. Although I’m delighted with the Unilumin quality, this job has my company’s name on it so I wanted to be personally sure the shipment was up to everyone’s expectations.

Unilumin has been surprised by the level of testing we do — they might not see it in other customers — but I’m from a technical background so I’ll always be the first to grab an allen key, pull out a module and look at what’s behind it. We’ll randomly pick panels in a shipment and measure internal temperature, read the light output levels, power usage etc. I’m pleased to report that the Unilumin LED has always been up to spec. I was determined for the ICC Sydney job to be done to the best of our abilities. The quality of a project with this kind of profile doesn’t just reflect on the reputation of Big Screen Projects but on the industry’s reputation as a whole. Unilumin: www.unilumin.com Big Screen Projects: 1300 278 118 or bigscreenprojects.com.au

Make it Your Own

Visit the new Lectrum website to visualise and customise your Lectrum lectern

Proudly made in Sydney. Exported to the world.

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

ARTWALL The artwall isn’t so much digital signage as a one-off, set ’n’ forget piece of public art. If you’re thinking of buying some space as a novel means of popping the question to your better half, forget it — the display isn’t updated or managed, as such. That said, it’s still an awe-inspiring display. The 16mm pitch pitch Unilumin LED display is a whopping 96m long and 4m high. The 6000-dot pixel canvas is filled by Ryoji Ikeda, and the artist was more than up to speed with the demands of the medium. Not content with stunning visuals, Ryoji has authored an eightchannel soundtrack for the artwork — the 24 loudspeakers provide audio that matches the position of the onscreen action.

FURTHER CONTACTS ICC Sydney: www.iccsydney.com.au ASL (AV Consultant): www.audiosystemslogic.com.au Stowe Fredon Joint Venture (AV Integrator): www.fredon.com.au Show Technology (Coolux): www.showtech.com.au ACA Projects (CoTag Media): www.acaprojects.com

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

Infinite Possibilities

Retail

Create a retail space that is smarter, faster and more intuitive. With the Android OS powering Philips displays, bring the digital world into your store.

Philips’ ‘Powered by Android™’, system-onchip (SOC) Professional Display Solutions are changing digital signage forever.

Hospitality Choose from an ever-growing collection of apps, games and services to maximise your guests’ experience. Better still, personal device connectivity will give your rooms a sophisticated modern touch.

Still Using Media Players? The possibilities are infinite with Android. With its unrivalled speed, usability and app availability, Philips Professional Display Solutions Android-

powered displays allow for more customisation, are faster and more powerful, and have a wealth of apps available for a wide range of markets.

What a Cracker Box Hill Shopping Centre augmented reality

As you can imagine, then, Chinese New Year is a big deal in the area.

Box Hill Central shopping centre worked with Interactivity on an augmented reality activation that would engage and entertain the Chinese community during the festive period. The idea was to have a kiosk that allowed people to superimpose any one of the 12 characters of the Chinese Zodiac onto a selfie photo. The customer taps their email address into the system and can elect to Like the shopping centre’s Facebook page. Using a Kinect camera, the process is largely gesture-based, and it’s fun and eye catching for passing shoppers. 12

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

800 600 400 200 0 13 th Ja n Sa Su t M n on Tu W e ed Th u Fr i Sa Su t M n on Tu W e ed Th u Fr i Sa Su t M n on Tu W e ed Th u Fr i Sa Su t M n on Tu W e ed Th u Su Fr n Si 12 a th t Fe b

ox Hill, in Melbourne’s east, has a huge Chinese community and is well known for the best dumplings in town.

Fr i

1000

Key:

Total Photos

Total Emails

Facebook Opt In

The advantages for the landlord, Vicinity, are various: an attraction that draws traffic to that part of the mall; something that entertains all ages; provides social media engagement with the shopping centre; and results in a spike in Facebook Likes for the centre.

GROUP LOVE:

GROUP SELFIES WERE POPULAR – QUITE OFTEN UP TO 4 PEOPLE

Interactivity took care of the complete activation from the hardware integration, software, to the colourful, backdrop and themeing: “Interactivity worked closely with Vicinity and the local Chinese community to ensure this activation was fun but also GROUP LOVE: culturally appropriate,” noted Interactivity’s GROUP SELFIES WERE POPULAR – QUITE OFTEN UP TO 4 PEOPLE Technical Director, Maddi Goricane.

MULTIPLE USE:

HOW RUDE:

IN SLOW PERIOD PEOPLE TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY NAUGHTY PHOTOS WERE MANUALLY REMOVED TO TAKE FOUR OR MORE PHOTOS. (ON THE SAME DAY) PRIOR TO HITTING FACEBOOK

Much more than a feel-good gift to the consumer, the activation provides a wealth of vital metrics for Vicinity as the property manager, some of which we’ve reproduced here.  Interactivity: 1300 797 199 or HOW RUDE:

MULTIPLE USE:

GROUP LOVE: www.interactivity.com.au

NAUGHTY PHOTOS WERE MANUALLY REMOVED IN SLOW PERIOD PEOPLE TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY (ON THE SAME DAY) PRIOR TO HITTING FACEBOOK TO TAKE FOUR OR MORE PHOTOS.

HOW RUDE:

RETURN PUT ON A HAPPY FACE: PERFORMANCE:

GROUP SELFIES WERE POPULAR – QUITE OFTEN UP TO 4 PEOPLE

MULTIPLE USE:

NAUGHTY PHOTOS WERE MANUALLY UPON INSPECTION OF THE PHOTOS, THERE WERE IN SLOW PERIODREMOVED PEOPLE TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY ALL THE USERS ARE SMILING AND LAUGHING (ON THE SAME DAY) PRIOR TO FOUR HITTING MANY REPEAT USERS OVER MANY DAYS TO TAKE OR FACEBOOK MORE PHOTOS.

RETURN PUT ON A HAPPY FACE: PERFORMANCE:

CROWDED HOUR: SHELF LIFE:

ALMOST ALL OF THE PHOTOS HAVE UPON INSPECTION OF THE PHOTOS, THERE WERE ALL THE USERS ARE SMILING AND LAUGHING THE BUSIEST PERIODS CROWDS WATCHING ONE AND OF LAUGHING MANY REPEAT USERS OVER MANY DAYS WAS THE LAST WEEKEND

CROWDED HOUR: SHELF LIFE:

ALMOST ALL OF THE ONE PHOTOS HAVE OF THE BUSIEST PERIODS CROWDS WATCHING AND WAS LAUGHING THE LAST WEEKEND

RETURN PERFORMANCE:

PUT ON A HAPPY FACE: UPON INSPECTION OF THE PHOTOS, THERE WERE ALL THE USERS ARE SMILING AND LAUGHING MANY REPEAT USERS OVER MANY DAYS

SHELF LIFE:

ONE OF THE BUSIEST PERIODS WAS THE LAST WEEKEND

CROWDED HOUR:

ALMOST ALL OF THE PHOTOS HAVE CROWDS WATCHING AND LAUGHING

KODAK MOMENT:

MOST SHOTS INVOLVED FAMILIES CREATING NEW MEMORIES

KODAK MOMENT:

MOST SHOTS INVOLVED FAMILIES CREATING NEW MEMORIES

KODAK MOMENT:

MOST SHOTS INVOLVED FAMILIES CREATING NEW MEMORIES

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

Oculus Prime tvONE Drives 16K Video Wall

In Action

When you walk into the University of Warwick’s new A$30m teaching and learning building, The Oculus, you’re greeted by an expansive fourscreen 16K-resolution videowall that’s driven by tvONE’s Coriomaster processor. The videowall displays a range of art displays, timetables of upcoming activity in the building, and live-streams of lectures and other events in the main lecture theatres. The videowall is comprised of four NEC X981UHD 4K panels arranged in portrait orientation, with content supplied by five Onelan 4K players via the tvONE Coriomaster C3-540 videowall processor. Ian Mason, AV Analyst at the University of Warwick, said, “The video wall in the entrance area is our showcase for what is happening in the University. It can be used for anything from promoting departmental events and sporting successes to streaming graduation ceremonies and the annual Coventry v Warwick Varsity match. The tvONE Coriomaster has given us unique flexibility — we can use each screen as an individual display, or combine all four into one massive, and hugely impressive, 16K resolution show screen.”

Corsair Solutions (tvONE): www.corsairsolutions.com.au VideoPro (OneLAN): videopro.co.nz or www.onelan.com

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

The Oculus in the UK’s University of Warwick is an impressive sight. This stunning building was designed exclusively for its purpose as the university’s first completely dedicated teaching structure. It boasts two auditoriums, 12 state-of-the-art flexible teaching spaces, and a number of social learning and network spaces. The auditoriums, the 500-seat OC1.05 and the 250-person OC0.03 both use tvONE Coriomaster mini C3-510s to edge-blend the output of the Panasonic PT-RZ12K projectors onto the screen. 

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Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

One With The Lot Pizza Capers’ Digital Menuboards

In Action

The Retail Food Group has been in operation for over 25 years and has developed nine diverse and successful food brands plus three wholesale coffee providers. As part of the Retail Food Group, Pizza Capers is a franchised pizza store with over 70 outlets in Australia. Since its inception in 1996, Pizza Capers has been bringing a fresh, tasty pizza product to a competitive market. The Pizza Capers difference is in the customer experience as opposed to the ongoing price war that was existent between its two main competitors.

MOVING TO DIGITAL

CV Media & Design: 1300 332 029 or cvmediadesign.com.au Westan (Philips): 1300 963 963 or westan.com.au

Pizza Capers’ aesthetic was well developed, with its uncomplicated yet stylish store design. However, with the growing integration of digital trends into quick service and dine-in restaurants, they felt the need to implement more progressive technologies to ensure their customers were enjoying the best in-store experience. They were looking to take their traditional menus and develop them to be more visually engaging digital platform.

THE SOLUTION CV Media and Design was able to deliver a complete digital solution for the upgrade of the Pizza Capers menu boards, including the development of new art works and animation. Taking into consideration each store has different store specifications; the team delivered three trial stores, testing the functionality of the signs, the Appspace software platform and the artwork within the different spaces. The technology allows all of the signs to sync and alternate

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

through traditional menu content, animations and displays of new products and special offers. Through a cloud-based content management system, the content can be easily updated in real time and in accordance with the store to store requirements for their offers. The solution links three Philips 43-inch full HD Q-Line screens to display all of the specially designed content.

MORE ABOUT PHILIPS Q-LINE The Philips Q-Line display is a backlit LCD panel designed for commercial use. It comes with internal memory to store and playback content, and as such is ideal for digital signage applications such as this. It also ships with a SmartPower function for energy saving. The backlight intensity can be controlled and preset by the system to reduce the power consumption by up to 50%, which saves substantially on energy costs during long hours of commercial operation.

TOPPINGS The installations at the three trial stores have been very successful and injected new life into the existing environments. The franchisees along with Retail Food Group have been impressed with the performance of the network and the team’s delivery on the software, digital technology, animation and art works. CV Media & Design will be the official supplier of digital screens for all existing Pizza Capers stores wishing to participate in the digital menuboard upgrade. 

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tions. a ll a t s in e e fr s s e ick & str u q o t y a w w e n The Hey rack builders and service engineers! How much do you like power supplies and small devices? How much do you love it when you have one small device like a transmitter, scaler, DA, etc. fail and in order to get it out of the rack you have to cut 50 cable ties, wipe the blood off of 4 new scratches and pray that you haven’t unplugged anything by accident? tvONE has developed a universal rack mounting system for all manufacture’s small devices – different sizes and different voltages! Throw away the power supplies! And even cool them! Comes in three sizes, 4RU, 5RU, 6RU. It’s called the ONErack.

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

Great Outdoors Road Tech Marine retail upgrade

In Action

Road Tech Marine (RTM) wears its heart and name on its sleeve. It’s all about encouraging Aussies to get out on the water, into the bush or do a ‘big lap’ in the caravan. Building community engagement is important to RTM, with its retail outlets rolling out digital signage to help encourage devotees to connect with the brand and with other die hards in store. RTM and Soanar (the distributor of ELO Digital Signage in Australia) are both part of the Jaycar Electronics group. This meant that the design and installation of the project, as well as the subsequent hosting and management of the signage could all be handled in-house without the need of an integrator. Heading up the rollout is Dave Burns, the Digital Delivery Manager for the Jaycar Electronics Group: “This is our RTM concept store. We’ve had a redesign, remodel, restructure, a full renovation inside and we also wanted the addition of the interactive screens to help make our stores experiential.”

INSPIRATION ZONE Road Tech Marine: www.roadtechmarine.com.au Soanar (Elo Distributor): 1300 365 551 or www.soanar.com

Dave Burns: The digital signage is in the middle of the store in our Inspiration Zone, which is a bench dedicated to the Cruisin’ Club. Cruisin’ Club is our loyalty program and you’ll find customer’s photos on cork boards as a backdrop, showing their four wheel drive and caravanning adventures. It’s quite a focal point. Currently, the signage design is based around three interactive Elo touchscreens. Two tablets are devoted to encouraging customers to sign up to the loyalty program, and the third, an Elo touchscreen, provides a kiosk view of the RTM website. The customer can now come in, sign up online and become a part of the club, and all that’s self-serve. And then in the future we can load custom applications; use them as video screens; as POS signage; as web portals and browsers; and more. All that’s managed from EloView — Elo’s solution for remote content deployment and device management.

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

BIGGER PICTURE Dave Burns: The in-store digital signage is an important piece in the relaunch of our Cruisin’ Club program. Over time people will see where others have been, and they’ll have access to our blog site to peruse short stories and people’s experiences of different destinations. They can plan their next trip; jump on our website; get more information about the products they’re looking at; and explore additional content we’ve hosted on our YouTube channel. It’s a window to all the community-focussed content we’re providing.

ELO SOLUTION DigitalSignage: What are the advantages of the Elo product? Dave Burns: With its screens and CMS, Elo offers an all-inone solution and has pedigree in this space — for example, some of the world’s largest quick service restaurant chains rely on Elo. We’re using an Android tablet running EloView software pre-installed. We’re using the tablets’ built-in wi-fi for the internet connection but you can use a fixed LAN connection, which is great for reliable download speed and network stability. The EloView program allows us to monitor and maintain the units. EloView has some advanced logging and reporting features. You can manage your screens into customisable groups — whether that be sites, or a particular zone across all your stores. It means you can easily update one tablet or a group, push content to an individual stores or every screen in your network at once. DigitalSignage: What’s the big plan? Dave Burns: The plan is to roll out signage in all our future store refits. We want an experiential retail environment where grey nomads and tech savvy boaties can engage/learn/educate and order using self serve touch kiosks. We want POS display systems that are easy to use and with the functionality to stream information in a timely manner. ELO digital signage and the ELOview CMS provides the best solution now and on the road ahead. 

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Olympian Effort

The Channel 7 host broadcast studio featured one of the finest LED screens seen in this region. Story: Christopher Holder

quick recap, because the Olympics seems a long time ago now. Channel 7 was the host broadcaster. Meanwhile the NEP Group was appointed by NBC Olympics to provide the mobile broadcasting and engineering consulting for its production. NEP pitched Channel 7 a design for a host broadcast studio in its Sydney facility. A key piece of the pitch was a beautiful, curved video backdrop.

Channel 7 went for it and work immediately started on building the so-called Rio Central Studio.

NEP’s Head of Production, Angus Millar, set about finding the right screen… the best screen he could lay his hands on for the set. DigitalSignage chatted with Angus on set last August during the pre-recording of one of the 7pm packages with anchor Hamish McLachlan. STUDIO PITCH

Angus Millar: Our primary focus was to deliver a screen that would do better than any other in broadcast terms. LED screen resolution is important because the worse it is, the more patterning and effects you get on camera. So you get more 20

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

artefacts, and when the cameras travels and the lens are wide, like we’re using, you end up with unusable pictures.

Our commitment to our client Channel 7 was to provide the best possible big-screen display for them and that meant going below 3mm pixel pitch, and this 1.8mm pixel pitch display from VuePix, well, as you can see, looks stunning to the eye and even better on camera. FACE OF COLOUR

DigitalSignage: Is refresh rate important?

Angus Millar: That’s mainly overcome by using ClearScan in the cameras — fiddling around with shutter speeds until we get rid of the lines.

We’re running the 6 x HD feeds that hit the screen through a VPro colour converter, so we’re colour converting on the run. The technical director, who’s pointing the cameras, is also colour-correcting the screen on the run. It means that when we’re putting faces on the big screen — say, we’re doing a live cross to Bruce [McAvaney] in Rio — we can colour-correct for skin tone.

DigitalSignage: Colour is obviously an important consideration in a broadcast screen?

Angus Millar: Gamma and colour management is a bit of a dark art, and there are people dedicated to it, looking at the camera images and painting them and exposing them — that’s real-time, live, base band video being processed. It’s a big deal getting faces matching — the face of the host matching the face that’s on the screen. DigitalSignage: How different is lighting a TV broadcast set when you have a screen like this?

Angus Millar: Our lighting director arrives at a particular colour temperature and we set the cameras for that. There are some adjustments in the software in the screen, so we find the colour temperature in the screen that works best. You can’t necessarily match the numbers and think they’ll line up. A lot of it’s done by eye on the line-up monitors until you find the right setting. Then we just leave it up to the actual colour-correcting units once we’ve got the right colour temperature in the screen and it’s looking good. FINDING THE BEST

DigitalSignage: There are a lot of impressive LED screens out there at the moment. So you were a little bit spoilt for choice I suppose?

SCREEN SPECS The VuePix S series features ‘black LEDs’, designed to provide a superior HD image with high contrast, deep blacks and vibrant colours. The slim design with advanced ventilation doesn’t require any fans for cooling, making the screen well suited to delicate installations like TV studios, where noise levels need to be kept to a minimum. The NEP screen consisted of 80 panels in a 16 x 5 configuration, making it almost 7.5m long and 2.3m high. With the native resolution of over 4000 pixels horizontally and 1280 pixels vertically — 5.2 million pixels in all. ULA (VuePix): 1300 852 476 or sales@ulagroup.com

Angus Millar: This was the best possible screen we could get hold of in the country. At the time no other provider could give us a sub-2mm or even sub-2.5mm LED screen. So ULA and VuePix was really the only option for us to deliver what we wanted for Channel 7, which was completely pristine HD images — well, images we could shoot with an HD camera without showing up the resolution of the screen.

this very tight radius?” The smaller the pixel pitch, the harder it gets, because the pixels can end up touching each other when you bend them in. Nathan [Wright] and the ULA team had to do the testing and they also came up with some bespoke bits of engineering to bolt them together.

Angus Millar: It’s running at 30% brightness, so this screen’s got a lot of power to go. Once we found the right lighting level, the screen brightness was set so the exposure worked. That’s where we landed.

DigitalSignage: How do you calibrate a curved screen like this?

DigitalSignage: Screen brightness not a big concern in a dark studio?

DigitalSignage: And reliability?

Angus Millar: It’s been very, very solid and it’s been on the entire time; the screen’s been powered up for three weeks solid. CURVACEOUS

DigitalSignage: How was the screen assembled?

Angus Millar: One of the first questions we put to ULA was: “can you make the screen conform to

The actual assembly and hanging of the screen was very delicate; it took a lot of time. Because the pixels themselves are so tiny, they’re very delicate and if you push too far you’ll pop a pixel. It took a couple of days. Painstaking.

Angus Millar: With a DSLR and a laptop. It took a guy to point the camera at the cabinets and find any hotspots and deal with them. DigitalSignage: What happens if a panel did go down?

Angus Millar: The power supplies are hotswappable. Replacing front LEDs is harder but it can be done.

Angus Millar: The system is now called Avid Graphics — used to be called Orad Systems before Avid bought them. They can provide a system that feeds the big screen, does the standard broadcast graphics and does the augmented reality objects we put in the foreground. So it’s one, big graphics engine that feeds the screens. DigitalSignage: Has it worked as expected?

Angus Millar: It was very, very hard getting it all functioning correctly. The software is very bespoke but once it’s on the screen it displays beautifully. DigitalSignage: It’s like choreography isn’t it, the host has to virtually interact with the onscreen graphics.

Angus Millar: That’s why we’ve got so many monitors, the host has to see if there’s an augmented object in front of them; the host has to see everything so they can think: “Oh yeah I’m pointing at this thing that isn’t physically there”. 

AUGMENTED GRAPHICS

DigitalSignage: How does the augmented reality graphics work? Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

ON THE MONEY Heritage Bank’s retail presence invests in digital.

eritage Bank enlisted the services of DAT Media to deploy a digital signage solution across its network of branches to enhance the customer experience and streamline marketing communications. In addition to video walls and high-brightness customer-facing display screens, Heritage Bank recognised an opportunity to engage customers, lower perceived wait times, and make life easier for customers with touchscreen kiosks, which allow them to explore product information, email themselves soft-copy brochures, request a callback to make an appointment and to search branch BSB numbers.

DAT Media developed a bespoke touchscreen application in accordance to a specific brief. The app was developed on Google’s Chrome Operating System (Chrome OS) for use on the ultra-thin AOPEN 22-inch Commercial 22

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

Chromebase all-in-one touch-screen display. The Commercial Chromebase is a solid-state device designed for commercial use and is extremely robust and secure, making it ideal for interactive kiosks in high traffic environments.

The second Heritage Bank branch to feature the touchscreen technology was Brisbane’s Garden City branch. As a flagship digital branch Garden City is a great example of how DAT Media’s Chrome digital signage solution is helping to enhance the customer experience, leverage dynamic marketing communications and boost productivity using multiple displays. BANK JOB

Powered by DAT Media and with all digital signage equipment running on the Chrome platform, Heritage Bank have established a reliable, secure, easy-to-use system to bring the in-branch digital experience to life. The Laqorr digital signage content management system allows control of content

and devices from a cloud based dashboard to easily manage multiple screens & locations securely from the one portal. Jane Calder, General Manager Marketing at Heritage Bank, followed the design and roll out every step of the way: “We are putting people first in the digital age by using digital signage and kiosks to connect with and engage our customers and to streamline Heritage Bank’s marketing communications. After trying DIY in-store digital and another digital signage company, we decided to partner with DAT Media and use its Laqorr content management system (CMS) on the Google Chrome platform. We find the system intuitive and easy-to-use and the Chrome platform provides reliable, secure and robust technology to future-proof our in-branch digital strategy”.  DAT Media: (07) 5575 7798 or www.datmedia.com.au

Philips Video Wall DAT Media selected Philips video wall display products for the Heritage Bank project. The Philips BDL4988XL 49-inch display is instantly attractive on account of its super-narrow bezel that helps create that ‘almost-seamless’ video wall look — nothing worse than seeing important content getting lost in the seams between screens. But a video wall display needs more than an ultra narrow bezel. Just as important is a uniformity of colour, ensuring the video wall appears as one large display rather than a patchwork of screens arrayed together with different picture qualities — I think we’ve all witnessed this in older video walls or video walls using inferior display technology. A ‘failover’ function is also important: If the display loses touch with its primary video source for whatever reason, the Philips BDL4988XL calls on user-defined fallback content from its internal memory, which means you don’t have the embarrassment of a dead screen. The BDL4988XL is a highbrightness display that easily cuts through daylight and architectural lighting. What’s more it’s miserly with its power usage and is rated for 24/7 operation. Westan (Philips): 1300 963 963 or westan.com.au

Front Window: Facing into the shopping mall in the front window of the branch a well placed 65-inch Philips commercial digital display panel engages shoppers, invites customers inside and highlights Heritage Bank’s current promotions.

Branch Entry: Inside the branch multiple high-bright 49-inch Philips commercial screens continue to connect with customers and profile helpful information for branch staff associates and consumers alike. In addition, two of these Philips 49inch screens are double sided and face outside to where shoppers use the parking paystation near the ATM.

Right Partner

Video Wall: A standout feature in all new Heritage Bank branches is a 2 x 2 video wall which comprises four 55-inch Philips commercial screens with extra fine bezels, captivating branch visitors from behind the tellers. The landscape video walls feature Heritage Bank’s marketing team’s latest digital video campaigns along with corporate branding and lifestyle images.

Touch Screen: The in-branch touchscreen kiosk serves as a self-service tool for customers looking for something in particular. The touchscreen app enables customers using the Commercial Chromebase device to access and email themselves e-brochures for information about loans, credit cards, savings accounts, insurance and more. Other helpful uses include a BSB search tool and an appointment setting function. The device has also proved to be a valuable tool for branch associates to connect with customers and guide them through the best products and services according to their needs.

This rollout wasn’t Heritage Bank’s first foray into digital signage but partnering with DAT Media coupled with a rock solid marketing strategy made for a very different result. DAT Media General Manager, Sam Dalzell, comments: “There’s no shortage of digital signage being rolled out in retail, and the banking sector is no different. But in DAT Media’s experience, much of it isn’t particularly well resolved: clients struggle to maintain it and often struggle to understand exactly what it’s purpose is. “For the signage network to really succeed it needs a strong client strategy and a robust technical platform underlying it. When that comes together then you have every chance of success.” Technically, DAT Media points to Google’s Chrome OS as the crucial missing piece of the digital signage puzzle. Designed specifically for an internet of things (IoT) world, Chrome OS is rock solid, starts up in an instant, and is super-secure. Neal French, Asia Pacific & Japan Lead (Chrome & Android for Work): “We have been working with DAT Media to support Heritage Bank’s digital transformation for over a year now. It is exciting to see how Chrome technology is providing Heritage Bank customers with a rich in-branch digital experience. DAT Media are great to work with and they treat the customer experience as their number one priority. We at Google are excited to continue this journey with Heritage and DAT Media.”

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

LG Rolls Out Wallpaper OLED innovations keep coming

In Action

LG continues to find new and innovative ways to roll out its OLED display technology. The recently launched ‘Wallpaper’ commercial display really is something to behold. It’s razor thin, lightweight, flexible and customisable. The only thing that it isn’t, is cheap: but if you have a high-end installation that requires a stunning display solution then you owe it to yourself to investigate LG’s product.

WHAT IT IS

LG Commercial: 1300 547 253 or lg.com.au/commercial

LG isn’t the only vendor doing OLED but it’s by far the most market-ready — LG has a suite of OLED based product (including Dual-View Flat and Curved-Tiling) that’s ready to roll. If you’ve not seen OLED in action then you’ll be amazed by the awe-inspiring picture with perfect blacks and incredible colour, even from wide viewing angles. The superior colour and contrast is down to the fact that each pixel is turned on and off completely, meaning off is truly black rather than doing its best to block out light.

ROLLING OUT WALLPAPER Boasting accurate colour reproduction, ‘limitless’ colour contrast and wide viewing angles ideal for any high-end installation, the LG OLED Wallpaper commercial display undoubtedly represents a new way to display eye-catching content. The 55-inch display weighs less than 6kg and has a razor-thin depth that is just 3.65mm. The Wallpaper display can be mounted either vertically or horizontally for a customisable display design. Ultraslim mounting brackets with a magnetic mat create a 24

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

Hi-Res Wall: The 65-inch LG OLED Video Wall display features 4K UHD resolution, providing an impressive canvas when bound together.

seamless design that becomes one with the wall. Electronic components are housed in a separate control box connected to the display with a 2m cable. The LG OLED Wallpaper commercial display offers a full HD picture (1920 x 1080) and ultra-fast motion-picture response time for a lifelike viewing experience. The display offers 64GB of internal memory, content scheduling and wi-fi connectivity through the use of a wi-fi USB dongle for ease of installation and end-user operation.

IN GLASS That’s the big news. Just to wrap up some other additions you may not have caught up with: In-Glass Wallpaper is designed with dual-sided ultra-slim OLED panels in a glass pane. The In-Glass Wallpaper LG OLED display is perfect for boutiques, art galleries and other businesses that want to add a sophisticated touch to their interior décor. The solution will be available in standing and hanging versions to provide businesses flexible options.

LG OLED VIDEO WALLS The new 65-inch LG OLED Video Wall display is planned for imminent release. The display features a 4K UHD resolution, a 16:9 aspect ratio and ultra-wide viewing angles. When tiled together, the displays create an eye-catching video wall that’s bound to add artistic value and enhance consumer engagement in premium spaces including museums, airport lounges and high-end retail environments.

Glassy: LG’s In-Glass Wallpaper provides a classy display alternative, shipping in standing or hanging options.

DUAL VIEW CURVED TILING The Dual-View Curved Tiling LG OLED displays offer a beautifully curved design using slim tiles to form customisable displays that link combinations of two to eight tiles together. The 65-inch portrait display boasts a depth under 9mm, and an eye-catching, dual-sided view to offer customers a twosided experience while providing retailers a way to utilise their space efficiently. Each screen boasts 4K Ultra HD resolution (3840 x 2160), showcasing a bigger, bolder and more lifelike viewing experience to capture consumer attention effortlessly. High-performance system-on-a-chip (SoC) and a 128GB internal memory capacity enable perfect UHD-synced playback without the need for PCs or media players.

DUAL VIEW FLAT The Dual-View Flat LG OLED display also offers a spaceefficient dual-sided view to provide customers a two-sided media experience in full HD (1920 x 1080). With an even slimmer depth, measuring under 8mm and three different installation options, this 55-inch flat OLED commercial display allows retailers to plan a more efficient layout while utilising a high-end display solution. Additionally, the display has the unique ability to swap and mirror content on either side of the screen with a simple press of a remote control button. The screen can be installed in three customisable ways — ceiling suspension, wall-mount and floor stand — to allow the most efficient use in any retail space. 

Wafer Thin: LG’s 55-inch OLED Wallpaper display weighs less than 6kg and has a razor-thin depth of just 3.65mm.

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

Rain or Shine AAMI’s digital campaign pulses to the weather map’s beat

In Action

AAMI’s latest advertising campaign for its Roadside Assistance service harnesses oOhmedia’s digital media by scheduling creative to run according to the weather conditions. AAMI’s digital campaign has multiple creative executions based on sunny, rainy, cloudy and windy weather conditions with headers such as: “You’ll be singing in the rain with AAMI Roadside Assistance” and “No matter what the clouds bring, we’re here to help”. Each creative execution will run to match the weather locally using oOh!media’s digital media weather triggering technology which uses a RSS weather feed from the Bureau of Meteorology. Brendon Cook CEO of oOh!media said the weather triggering technology enables contextually-relevant connections between advertisers and motorists.

oOh! Media: www.oohmedia.com.au

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

“It’s a really smart concept for an insurance company to leverage the local weather conditions to attract attention, relate to the audience and promote its service.” AAMI Brand Manager Anthony Russell said, “By tapping into local weather conditions and dynamically serving ads to match, we’re grabbing drivers’ attention in an entertaining and relevant way which will increase recall for the advertising and brand.

“Weather is a natural fit for any insurance company, but our positioning of being ‘not very insurancey’ enabled us to have a bit of fun with the advertising and we’re all really proud of the finished product.” Mr Russell said. Together Starcom and oOh! have created stronger consumer connections for AAMI’s Roadside Assistance campaign by optimising its coverage, content and technology. AAMI’s weather-triggered Roadside Assistance starts this week, across five states, for one month, in landmark roadside locations such as the spectacular new digital billboard in North Melbourne, Rundle Mall in Adelaide, Story Bridge in Brisbane, Mitchell Freeway in Perth and Southern Cross Drive in Sydney. High-impact, classic billboard advertising will complement AAMI’s digital creative to build and sustain awareness for the entire three months of the campaign. 

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Technology:

Directional Audio Completes The Picture Clive O’Brien is co-owner and CEO of EAV Technology, a Melbourne-based distributor of broadcast and AV equipment. Clive has over 50 years experience in the broadcast and AV industries in Australia and founded EAV Technology over 30 years ago with his wife, Barbara Ward. Clive is passionate about providing innovative solutions to the AV and digital signage market in Australia.

Column: Clive O’Brien

ay back in 1927, The Jazz Singer motion picture stunned the world by synchronising sound with vision… and everything changed. Or did it?

In 2017, we live in a world dominated by visual messages, and digital signage is at the forefront in delivering those messages. But how many times do we see expensive and elaborate video walls, or digital signage in retail outlets where the sound is turned off ?

The challenges of combining sound with digital signage are well-known to both AV professionals and end-users alike — noisy environments, privacy issues and focusing your audio so that it doesn’t collide with other audio or disturb other people. So how do we overcome these challenges? How do we engage our audience when we’re competing with a sea of visual messages? Enter directional speakers: focused sound which can target single or small groups of listeners. ASKING FOR DIRECTIONALS

There are several directional speaker technologies currently on the market, and the most intriguing of these would have to be ultrasonic speakers. Evolving from underwater sonar experiments in the 1960s, ultrasonic speakers are now available commercially. Unlike traditional speakers, which push air, these speakers use ultrasonic sound, comprised of very small wavelengths, normally outside the range of human hearing. The transducer in the speaker modulates the ultrasound signal to change the way it moves through the air, while the properties of the air itself render the ultrasound audible to humans. This results in a highly directional ‘beam’ of sound, just like a spotlight, which can be used to project audio content to a highly-localised area, for example, in front of a digital sign or billboard. The viewer can hear the audio clearly in the target zone, about 1m wide, whereas others standing just outside of the ultrasonic beam will barely hear anything and, often, will not hear the audio at all. Conversely, the reflectivity of such a tight audio beam can be used to bounce audio off a screen or another surface, to make the sound appear to originate from that surface.

In either case, the properties of ultrasound produce an ‘in your head’ audio experience for the listener, akin to telepathy. The effect is uniquely engaging and ideally suited to targeted messaging or atmospheric audio. 28

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

LINE UP

Line array speakers are another popular technology used for directional or focussed audio. Directional line array speakers are typically comprised of multiple small drivers arranged in a ‘sound bar’ or ceiling tile format.

While not as directional as ultrasonic speakers, they cover a wider dynamic range and use nanosecond signal delay to the outer drivers to deliver a focussed audio ‘sweet spot’ directly in front of the speaker. Outside of the sweet spot, the audio level drops off significantly, to a point where it mixes in with the ambient noise.

They are ideal in noisy environments, such as shopping malls, or airport boarding gates, where you want maximum clarity directly in front of your digital signage, or to create an ‘audio zone’ in front of your display. They also come in a variety of sizes, to complement video walls, single monitor displays or digital kiosks. SHOWER TIME

Parabolic speakers (often called Sound Domes or Sound Showers) are a unique focussed audio solution for digital signage. Consisting of a stereo driver projecting audio into an open acrylic dome, they are reminiscent of the Cone of Silence in the TV series Get Smart, or a prop from a 1950s science fiction movie.

The sound is reflected by the dome and concentrated in a defined area underneath the speaker. Parabolic speakers can localise sound to either a single or small group of listeners, with minimal audio bleed beyond the width of the dome itself. As well as providing focussed audio output for digital signage, kiosks and POS displays, parabolic speakers have the additional advantage of an eye-catching design, while giving the viewer a visual cue as to where to experience the audio for the display. HALF THE MESSAGE

Whichever directional audio solution you choose, there’s no doubting the effectiveness of using directional audio in your digital signage installation. Your digital signage delivers a targeted message, but if you don’t have targeted sound to capture your audience and convey that message, they may be missing out on half the picture. With directional speakers completing the picture, the future of digital signage is sound. 

Clive O’Brien can be reached at cliveo@eavtech.com.au

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Stunning Samsung Samsung launch QLED. Heads are turned.

Technology

Samsung has some exciting new additions to its SMART Signage lineup — the quantum-dot powered QLED SignageUHD displays and fine pixel pitch IF Series LED signage.

QLED: DOT ON

Samsung: displaysolutions. samsung.com or ent.service@samsung.com

DigitalSignage saw Samsung’s new QLED displays in action at the ISE show in Amsterdam earlier in the year. There are two models (55- and 65-inch) and they instantly impress with their brilliance and detail. The quantum dot integration enables Samsung’s new QLED Signage to balance light and dark brightness and preserve gradation for a presentation that is deeper and more realistic than that offered by conventional LED/LCD. The blacks are definitely blacker, the whites sharper and the colours more precise, even in a space ‘contaminated’ by plenty of natural light and house fluoros at the RAI exhibition hall.

IF SERIES LED Maybe not as instantly visually stunning, but no less impressive is the new range of LED signage. Samsung didn’t have much of an LED offering a few years ago, and now it has a range that feels mature and really well resolved. The fine pixel pitch IF Series (P1.5, P2.0 and P2.5 models) provide a strong combination of excellent picture quality and intuitive management. The IF Series LED displays combine Samsung’s high-quality video processing and picture tuning technologies to add 30

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

clarity and sophistication to business-ready content — all within a compact, low-maintenance design. Samsung’s IF Series LED displays incorporate a host of customised features to add realism and detail to static and interactive content. Through specialised scene adaptation, each IF Series LED display analyses and fine tunes greyscale levels within each frame to maximise contrast, and remove glare and visual distortion. A complementary dynamic peaking setting enables displays to achieve peak brightness levels up to two times higher than that of standard LED maximum brightness specifications. For added installation versatility, the IF Series LED displays employ a no-nonsense design that offers both full-front and rear access. As a result, maintenance and installation is simplified. An advanced cabinet structure further drives smoother implementation, and eliminates the LED module and catwalk space gaps that tend to accompany more challenging frontal layouts. The IF Series’ user-friendly design allows the displays to get up and running faster, and with minimal ensuing maintenance required. Samsung’s complementary LED Signage Box (S-Box) transmits UHD content across multiple screens without requiring expensive splitters or external conversion boxes. Users additionally can configure signal redundancy through their existing cable structures, and conveniently create, schedule and deploy content from a single location through the embedded MagicInfo platform. 

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Right Platform Haivision wrangles video

In Action

Haivision, a company best known for its bulletproof media players, is launching Media Platform, bringing enterprises an end-to-end solution for corporate live event streaming, IPTV and team collaboration. According to Haivision, Media Platform is the only enterprise video solution that combines the ability to reach global audiences, to centrally manage screens of any kind, and to aggregate video workflows from any location over the network.

THREE EDITIONS Haivision Media Platform is available in three editions:

Midwich (Haivision): 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au

• All Hands & Internal Live Events: The Haivision Media Platform Enterprise Edition is designed for multi-site organisations that want to reach every employee globally with a harmonised media experience for live events and on-demand content. • IPTV & Live Corporate Content: The Haivision Media Platform Site Edition is ideal for centrally managing and distributing IPTV with live and on-demand corporate content to every screen within a facility, including auditoriums, lobbies, break rooms and conference areas. • Team Collaboration: The Haivision Media Platform Workgroup Edition helps research teams record, analyse and review multiple video sources for all kinds of research including usability testing, focus groups, skills assessment, simulations, event analysis, training and education.

THE FEATURES The Haivision Media Platform offers a compelling suite of features:

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

• End-to-End Enterprise Video Workflow: delivers low latency live video workflows from the source to the viewer. This solution spans Haivision encoders, third-party digital television head ends, the Haivision eCDN, all the way through to browsers, Haivision Play mobile applications and centrally managed set-top boxes. • Hybrid Premise/Cloud and eCDN: Haivision’s very simplified approach leverages on-premise, cloud and hybrid video distribution options to fit any organisation’s individual network infrastructure. • Administrative Control and Group Viewing: The Haivision Media Platform tailors the media experience for every viewer and also provides centralised management of displays for public areas and group viewing. • Remote Contribution: Haivision Media Platform helps organisations easily stream live presentations and events from virtually anywhere thanks to Haivision’s SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) technology. With just an Internet connection, organisations can broadcast a secure, high quality, low latency live event from any remote office, conference room or off-site location. • End-to-End Security: AES 128/256 encryption and support for Active Directory, LDAP and SSO ensures that employees only have access to the videos they need and content is protected from unauthorised viewing, copying and redistribution. Based on technology originally launched under the company’s Calypso brand, the Haivision Media Platform is currently installed within hundreds of organisations, helping people across the world work more efficiently with video for communications, collaboration, training and research. 

INTEGRATE AUGUST 2017

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Comment:

Signage Turns Corner

Story: Mug Punter

fter some extensive research (meaning, I bought a six-pack of beer, a packet of chips, and I surfed the net) I’ve discovered how architects design modern public buildings nowadays. The secret is in the conceptual stage — when they create those big plastic, table-top models with model trains and papier-mâché parks, and Lego characters.

For the main building they take a perfectly square, cardboard box (or rectangular, probably) and sit it in the middle of the table. Then using a laptop with specialised, architectural design software installed, they smash the computer on top of the cardboard several times until it’s all squished into weird shapes and poking out in odd angles — and say, “There you go. We’ll build that.” Think I’m wrong? Have a look at Federation Square. The new-ish UTS building. And the new ICC Sydney is another example, except maybe they used a smart phone for the cardboard-boxbashing thing instead of something heavier. It’s not quite squished enough. CRAZY CONTOURS

It’s all very well for architects to decide that crazy contours and whacky windows can provide some sort of character, but they’re not the poor bastards who have to hang a painting on the wall — or any digital signage, for that matter. Have they seen the latest high-resolution displays lately? Sure, maybe they can show 8K resolution in 40 gadzillion colours, but they’re still square and flat. Square and flat, right? Is that so hard?! Maybe, before any architect is commissioned for a building, they should be made to pass one of those kindergarten tests where you have to shove a square peg through a round hole?

There’s been a trend for years now that, rather than have some kind of digital signage screen, the building has a digital signage wall. It doesn’t matter what shape is involved, the entire wall is the display. The ICC Sydney Birdsmouth entrance to The Theatre is a perfect case in point. Which means the graphic designers for any digital signage displayed there are going to need a lot of coffee and doughnuts to come with images that will work on an obtuse, squircleshaped nonagon. Good luck with that. Imagine the things that could go inadvertently wrong trying to display innocent people and products on bizarreshaped surfaces. A Presidential visit? Donald Trump’s hair might be distorted into something really, really silly, for instance. 34

Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

HI-RISE PIXEL

Don’t panic, ultimately I reckon the problem will go away, because I also know the real future of CBD architecture. It’s almost inevitable. If you’re one of those folks who can never quite grasp the math behind screen resolutions, pixel size, dots-per-inch and all that other boffin nonsense about the size of your telly, you might want to look away now. Buildings of the next decade or so will be constructed entirely of display screens — the outside, at least. Every square centimetre of any office block, apartments or skyscraper will be just pixels. Which means there won’t be any need for weirdo-inspired shapes and architectural, thinktank design sessions involving mind-altering drugs. Everything will be nice and square — and will look entirely different every day. Forget about advertising, I mean total appearance.

Imagine it. Every morning, the CEO of the company will say, “What building do we want to be today?” The decision might be to mimic the Empire State Building and voila, thanks to digital signage, modern technology and a rather pedestrian imagination on the part of the CEO, the entire outside of the office block will transform to display a full-sized image of the Empire State Building, complete with King Kong and a scantily-clad Fay Wray, if you like. The next day it might be the Eiffel Tower, or the Taj Mahal. The possibilities are endless (if you’ve drunk as much coffee as I have this morning). In decades to come, with the whole CBD comprised of pixel-only structures, cities could decide to reproduce other cities for a laugh. So, one day, at the flick of a

switch Sydney might want to look like London, or Adelaide will want to look like... well, anything would be an improvement.

There will some small problems. Lots of people will smash their noses into virtual doorways instead of the real ones. And the posties on their little red scooters will struggle to deliver the mail properly, because they can’t find your mailbox. On the plus side, those window-cleaning guys who abseil up and down skyscrapers will be a growth industry — until they invent the self-cleaning digital display. By the way, if you’re worried about electricity demands and the power grid, don’t. By then, structures the size of the Sydney Harbour Bridge will be completely powered by a single AAA battery. CORNERED MARKET

More importantly, we’ll be rid of these ‘squashed cardboard box with an egg carton glued on top’ public construction designs. We’ll have proper buildings with proper corners and sides, and normal doors. Because future architecture will demand they be nice and square to accommodate gluing thousands of digital signage screens to the outside. Common sense will prevail. I hope you all appreciate that someone is using their imagination around here. 

Two hours from the nearest skyscraper, Mug Punter feels safely insulated from his futurist conjecturing.

Welcome to a World of Interactivity

Project: Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Playground Client: Vicinity Location: Box Hill North Shopping Centre Engagement Results: Measurably improved foot traffic in food court

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 itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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

Touch the future Digital Place-Based Media & Technology

Make your message go further Our 86BH5C Ultra Stretch has a four-part display and provides a 58:9 ratio. More impressively the Ultra display enhances your retail or corporate messaging making it stand out from the pack. It’s easy to harness the extra screen real estate afforded by the 86BH5C. It comes with:

• • • • •

Ultra Stretch resolution (3840 x 600) Wide format 58:9 4 panel divisions Landscape or portrait Daisy chain installation

Multiple Content Creation

To see it in all its glory, scan the QR code or visit us at partner.lge.com/au Screen not to scale.