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CONTENTS ISSUE 25 2018
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)
20 COVER STORY 20 Awe & Wonder: Content heroes, Moment Factory, produces something special at Changi Airport. COMMENT 26 Security Clearance: Spinetix’s Diego Santa Cruz explains why we can’t afford to ignore signage security. 32 DigitalSignage Magazine Video: Latest eye-catching tech on our YouTube channel 34 Mug Punter: Waiting Game IN ACTION 8 West is Best: Giant digital scoreboards in Optus Stadium
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10 12 16 18 22 24 28 30
LED Departures: Heinemann’s creative duty free signage Gone Fishing: Harbord Diggers touchscreen marvel Linger Longer: Tuggerah Super Centre’s interactive play area Emotional Baggage: Melbourne Airport LED art installation Stable Performance: Inglis Thoroughbred Sales quits horsing around. Do The Bus Stop: e-ink revolutionises Sydney buses Buying With Your Eyes: 10K signage sells apartments LED Gangnam Style: Samsung helps create Seoul’s new Times Square
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 © 2018 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. 24/9/18
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Editorial:
Ads Don’t Subtract. But We Delight In The Creative
Story: Christopher Holder
annexed the space, while autonomous organisations, say the ICC Sydney, have incorporated signage into upgrades and run the content scheduling and media buying themselves. DOOH advertising is now a mundane part of our lives and we regard it with about as much surprise and anticipation as an ad for Four’n Twenty pies between overs of an Ashes Boxing Day Test broadcast. But that’s not to say that digital signage doesn’t have the capacity to surprise and delight.
Our cover this issue celebrates creative digital signage. In this case the hero is content from Moment Factory — a Canadian company whose creative talents are sought the world over — while the LED hardware is none too shabby (kudos to Nanolumens). Elsewhere this issue you’ll discover even more creativity and nary a DOOH advertisement to be seen! Here’s a smattering:
You have to admire Melbourne Airport’s brave decision to hand its new luggage carousel digital signage over to artists rather than ad buyers. We wish the venture all the best — I imagine as a digital artist that it would be quite a remarkable pixel-rich sandpit to play in (with a 12-zone Bose Professional audio system to match!).
digital signage is fast becoming the domain of the creatives rather than just the agencies
I
ssue 1 of DigitalSignage was throbbing with expectation. Like pundits the world over we were barracking for ‘critical mass’, breathlessly anticipating the signage ‘tipping point’, when the messiah would come and legitimise digital signage as an advertising platform. If only there were enough connected screens around the world, then the big ad buyers would have to take digital signage seriously. Digital signage, or digital out of home (DOOH) would become an integral piece of the ad spend pie, along with TV, radio, print and online.
Where would that tipping point come from? Who would bank roll it? Would it be the much-vaunted US 7-Eleven network? (That turned out to be more like the antichrist than the messiah.) The reality would be far less dramatic.
Traditional out of home companies such as oOH! Media, JCDecaux, APN and others have largely
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Harbord Diggers has chosen to invest in a touchenabled video wall, designed to engage and amuse. (Prendi, take a bow.) Shopping centres are spending up on interactive touch in their play areas, designed to amuse and educate. (A round of applause for Interactivity.)
As our ever-irreverent Mug Punter points out in his back-page column, the next fertile frontier for digital signage is in corporate lobbies. Again, it’s never been a better time to be a digital artist.
So as I welcome you to Issue 25, DigitalSignage remains aquiver, albeit for different reasons, as digital signage is fast becoming the domain of the creatives rather than the agencies.
And with that, we salute the innovators, the bluesky thinkers along with those who put in the hard yards for getting us here. Christopher Holder, Editorial Director chris@alchemedia.com.au
AN EXPERIENCE AT
EVERY TURN EVERY MOMENT MATTERS LEARN MORE AT: DAKTRONICS.COM/SHOPPINGCENTERS Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
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Wide Wide West Perth’s Optus Stadium is a signage masterpiece. Story: Derek Powell
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Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
STADIUM LED HALL OF FAME Daktronics dominates the Australian stadium LED screen market — with screens in 18 of the most significant stadiums. The two in Perth Stadium are the biggest stadium screens in the country.
P
erth Stadium, or now, Optus Stadium, thanks to a rumoured $50m naming rights deal, is Australia’s newest major sporting venue and the third-largest sporting stadium in the country by capacity, with 60,000 seats. Since opening in January 2018 the venue has already hosted several major sporting events including One-Day International Cricket, Big Bash, Rugby League, and Rugby Union; plus two sold-out Ed Sheeran concerts; and of course a dozen AFL games, in less than six months.
At a reported cost of $1.6b, everything about this venue is massive. The stadium boasts two of the biggest screens in the southern hemisphere, plus more than 1000 displays spread throughout the interior. MAN OF STEELE
The entire complex was built by Multiplex; the original audiovisual specification was developed by consultants Marshall Day with Rutledge AV taking over the responsibility for construction delivery. Elijah Steele (Rutledge AV Project Manager) spent three years immersed in the project:
Perth Stadium: 10.24m x 33.28m Melbourne Cricket Ground: 13.17m x 25.24m Sydney Cricket Ground: 10.97m x 24.87m
“While we obviously took note of Etihad Stadium, the MCG, and, of course, the Adelaide Oval, we tried to take a ‘clean slate’ approach, because the outcome Optus Stadium wanted was a ‘fans first’ experience in a multi-purpose stadium,” Elijah explained. “A stadium used for so many different sports events, as well as concerts and everything else is quite rare. There are not many other stadiums around Australia that can support that.” BIG SCREENS, BIG UNDERTAKING
The impressive Daktronics LED displays in the bowl are 10.24m by 33.28m (some 8 million pixels, all up) but the horsepower and manpower behind these monsters is even more impressive.
The turnkey contract with Brookfield Multiplex was for the design, build, installation and maintenance for all LED displays and control system at Optus Stadium. The sheer scale and complexity of the operating functionality and integration with the audiovisual system is by far the most advanced and complicated installation within Australia. To give a sense of the job at hand, Daktronics Australia’s Blair Robertson shared the extent of the manpower involved over the course of the installation and three-month commissioning phase:
Adelaide Oval: 9.88m x 18.65m Etihad Stadium: 6.58m x 12.8m Skilled Park Stadium: 5.85m x 10.24m
• 3 full-time project managers • 10 full-time installers, 12 months on site • 2 mechanical engineers • 1 electrical engineer • 1 thermal engineer • 1 programmer
Rather than being a couple of digital scoreboards, or ‘dumb’ endpoints for content, the Daktronics control system (the Venus Control Suite) provides a single point of control for all LED and IPTV displays throughout the complex.
The control suite was tweaked to send triggers to the sound and lighting system providing a synchronised presentation for the Philips lighting and audiovisual set pieces (the stadium is something to behold when in full ‘Vegas Mode’!). The Venus Control Suite also allows the stadium to access diagnostics status for any LED display within the system (including remote access).
Using Real Time Data (RTD) integration with Champion Data, the Daktronics can display the latest stats from other games of interest to patrons including AFL, cricket, rugby union/league and soccer.
Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
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LED Departures Heinemann Squares Up with Aurora LED
In Action
It can be tough to stand out from the crowd. In the halls of Sydney Airport’s International Departures, retailing is taken to another level. Digital signage plays a key role in attracting attention. So much so, in fact, that ‘ordinary’ LCD and video walls can sometimes lack the impact you might regularly expect. Heinemann Duty Free, was well aware of this trap. It wanted something high-impact and something that would clearly differentiate its offering. Heinemann approached Avico Electronics with an interesting brief: a four-faceted LED ‘cube’ for its flagship duty free store at Sydney Airport International terminal. The cube needed to have ‘seamless’ corner joins. The cube would be taller than it would be wide (approx. 900m wide by 1200mm high) to effectively ‘box’ a large structural column. The installation would need to look superb and attract topend advertising clients, such as luxe liquor suppliers.
TOP SHELF ADVERTISERS
Westan ( Aurora LED Signage): 1300 963 963 or www.westan.com.au Avico: (02) 9624 7977 or www.avico.com.au
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Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
Avico spec’ed Aurora LED for the project. The Aurora LED tiles are fine pixel pitch (P1.8), providing all the resolution needed to display the high-end content. The display uses Qbic media players and a Smartsign CMS. Avico took the inevitable Sydney Airport security restrictions in its stride — working over three nights, after hours. The resulting installation is eye popping. With a 1500 nits
capacity, the screen has all the brightness needed (and more) to attract attention. More than that, the fine pixel-pitch resolution and superior colour rendition has instantly attracted high-end advertisers who guard their image (and the integrity of their trademark brand colours) extremely fiercely. The innovative four-faceted LED augments an existing 8m x 4m Aurora LED display. The hi-def P3.9mm indoor SMD screen packs 3000-nit brightness capacity, is front serviceable, and features 16-bit greyscale, and 1/8-second scan rate performance. Behind the scenes is Novastar control gear (2 x VX4 processors) and Crestron control, which takes care of temperature and brightness sensing along with event triggering.
Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
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GONE FISHING Harbord Diggers’ new foyer harbours an amazing digital, interactive aquarium.
J
ust what every foyer needs: a digital interactive aquarium!
There’s plenty more to recommend the new Harbord Diggers. It’s a $160m redevelopment on Sydney’s North Shore, that’s taking the primo NSW clubs concept to a whole new level: accommodation, restaurants, bars, entertainment, childcare, a gym, gaming, and an old people’s home… It’s huge, impressive, and fast becoming a one-stop destination for Harbord, Manly and beyond.
The 12-panel video wall is quite dazzling. Harbord Diggers have partnered with Prendi, a Brisbanebased digital signage solutions provider which specialises in delivering interactive solutions such as this.
“When Harbord Diggers approached us, they had plans for a 12-screen video wall.” says James Ingram, Prendi’s Managing Director. “We instantly knew this would be sure to catch the attention of any visitor walking into the space. The key however, is to have content that maximises and utilises the full capabilities of this fantastic touchscreen videowall. This content needed to be in-keeping with the environment and appealing to their intergenerational community. To do so, we have developed a state-of-the-art interactive aquarium.”
The Harbord Diggers Interactive Wall is a multifaceted solution, bringing together much more than just an underwater aquarium scene. GO FISH
On the left you’ll see a floating social media feed, which pulls content directly from @HarbordDiggers-tagged Instagram photos. The interactive feed gives users the opportunity to enlarge and drag the images around the video wall. With this solution, Prendi developed a custom back-end portal which allows Harbord Diggers to approve posts to feature. On the right is an option for users to interact further with the videowall; press ‘Feed Fish’ and a suite of animal animations are unlocked. Alternatively, click on ‘History’ and you can watch key videos about the Harbord Diggers journey. “We have also integrated basic artificial intelligence into the solution.” James explains, “Bubbles appear at your fingertips when interacting with the videowall, and schools of fish will become curious and investigate the bubbles. It’s these ‘small’ details which add depth and immersion to the overall solution.”
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PHASE 2
If all that wasn’t enough, there’s more in store for the video wall. Harbord Diggers and Prendi have already begun development of Phase 2, which will see more advanced interactivity, including artificial intelligence, real-time effects and new scenes. Stay tuned.
Prendi: (07) 3844 1134 or www.prendi.com.au
THE TECH: BUILT LIKE A ‘TANK’ The video wall system was integrated and installed by Fredon. Selecting a seamless touch-enabled video wall was a crucial decision. A touch-enabled single display is relatively easy to come by, but as soon as you go larger — in this case, a 4x3 video wall — the options are restricted to specialised vendors. One of the biggest names in large-format touch is Planar. Planar’s Clarity Matrix G3 LCD Video Wall System combines an ultra-narrow bezel with powerful video processing, management and associated electronics. Harbord Diggers uses a 46-inch high brightness (800 nits) MX version of the product. There’s only 1.7mm bezel-to-bezel, providing that nearly-seamless look you want in a video wall. Installers appreciate the integrated EasyAxis mounting system. The result is a video wall that protrudes less than 10cm from the surface behind. Unlike other manufacturers, Planar provides the video wall processing as part of the system, which takes care of any scaling duties, and can handle multiple sources for Brady Bunch-style multi views and/or picture-in-picture. In this case, Prendi provided and installed a beefy, Intel i9-based, custom-built PC to serve the content. The Windows box runs 3x Quadro video cards with a Sync II card outputting at an eye-watering 7680x5760/60p. Planar is accustomed to dealing with customers with unique and exacting demands and its products are designed to always be up. There’s plenty of redundancy so you can hot swap components and never miss a beat.
Midwich (Planar): 1300 666 099 or midwich.com.au Fredon Technology: www.fredon.com.au
Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
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Using The Ol’ Noodle Fusion Signage CMS Woks A Treat
In Action There are some 100 Noodle Box and Wokinabox quick service restaurants across Australia. Each is to receive an impressive digital upgrade. As a franchise, a restaurant undergoes a mandatory fiveyearly refresh, and in this round digital menuboards will provide a new customer focus. The new digital menuboards display the standard menu but can also provide local area marketing and a place to advertise a local menu addition. Moreover, Schweppes is on board, contributing to the cost of the rollout in exchange for marketing of its beverage offering. The typical retail configuration sees four Philips D Line 43inch commercial panels arrayed in the ‘canopy’ area above the counter where customers places their order. The entire digital menuboard network is managed by the Fusion Signage CMS, thanks to a Prendi design.
Westan (Philips, Fusion Signage): 1300 963 963 or www.westan.com.au Prendi: www.prendi.com.au
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Stephen Russell is AR Concepts National Project Manager, charged with the responsibility of the nationwide rollout. “I’ve had plenty of experience with Philips,” commented Stephen Russell. “I recently specified D Line and, prior to that, the Q Series of Philips commercial displays in a 500-screen digital menuboard rollout for a US pizza delivery chain. The D Line has always been a reliable and a solid performer.
SIMPLE CMS “I hadn’t worked with the Fusion Signage CMS until I joined AR Concepts,” continued Stephen Russell. “It was already being implemented and our graphic designer reported he was very happy with it — it does what we need it to do in a QSR environment. “Using Fusion, we can load our static menuboard designs as well as MP4s if we need to. “It’s easy to operate. Our scheduling people can apply day parts, as well as territories and regions, and we can quickly see the status of the screens at any particular time. “It’s a great-value package that does what we need it to do.” And how has the rollout been going thus far? “We’re about 20 percent of the way through the rollout and our franchisees are already reporting good results. “The digital menuboards are really driving the ‘limited time’ sales, and the customers are commenting that the menuboards are easy to read and provide an extra level of interest. “Schweppes likes the platform as well — they’re very keen. The screens give them a good return on investment when their promotions are displayed.”
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Linger Longer Putting ‘active’ back into interactive play areas
In Action
‘Linger longer’. It rolls off the tongue but for every shopping centre manager it’s one of those crucial KPIs: ‘How do we keep our customers on site just that little bit longer?’ Increasingly, the answer is keeping the pre-schoolers happy. And the answer is very often an upgrade to the play activities.
The latest Interactivity-designed play area has gone into Tuggerah Super Centre, and it’s a beauty.
NEW SPACE, NEW OPPORTUNITY
INTERACTIVE FISH
With the recent relocation of one of Tuggerah Super Centre’s key tenants to the new Level 1, space was created on the Ground Floor. Aventus has long recognised the value of engaging with the young family market, and the new space provided the opportunity to reset the bar in retail centre kids play areas with this latest edition.
The interactive touchscreen games are for slightly older kids and provide a menu of puzzle games to keep them interested and occupied.
The shopping centre already had a small play area in that precinct, but determined that a play area ‘attraction’ would do wonders to activate that zone.
Epson Projection: www.epson.com.au
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One drawcard of an Interactivity play area is how the digital components are educational — this is nothing like sitting your child in front of an iPad. “That was a key concern for us,” concurred Julie Meehan. “There’s a vocal opinion that the whole point of a play area is to get kids away from a screen. The Interactivity digital offering is educational and that was really important to us. Especially the interactive fish pond. Kids of all ages can jump and play on it. Even babies love it. The digital elements are stimulating brains as well as providing a physical component.”
Interactivity is a curious unicorn of a business that designs, builds, integrates and installs play areas that combine the best of the old and new school: namely, old-school, ‘climb and jump’ play equipment with new-school interactive digital play activations.
Interactivity: 1300 797 199 or www.interactivity.com.au
POND LIFE
The new Interactivity-designed and built play area is the result. “It was instantly noticed. During construction we had parents ringing to ask if the new play area was open,” remarked Tuggerah Super Centre Manager, Julie Meehan. “The play area quickly attracted regulars. People would use the play area as a meeting place. It’s just added to the customer experience, because the kids are happy.”
The interactive fish pond is a real favourite for Interactivity’s clients and kids. A projected animation of fish swim across a themed ‘pond’ and using an infrared interactive beam, the fish respond to the kids’ movement. Children can’t stop jumping and chasing the fish. Interactivity customises the game and the aquatic life depending on the location. “The principal reason for the play area is to give customers a reason to stay longer,” observed Julie Meehan. “And with young families it helps our week day trade as well. It’s achieving all that. And it’s certainly influenced traffic for that part of the centre, by providing a new attractive destination for our customers with little ones.”
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Emotional Baggage Melbourne Airport’s 85m statement LED for digital art
In Action
If you’ve been through Melbourne Airport’s international arrivals hall this year you can’t help but notice something really quite extraordinary. Surrounding a new baggage carousel is an 85m ribbon of digital signage. The display was installed by ENGIE Service — AV, and uses 2.5mm pixel pitch SiliconCore LED panels. The LED ribbon is a platform for immersive art installations — an opportunity to offer passengers a positive and engaging experience, as well as provide a sense of depth to the space.
Siliconcore: silicon-core.com Bose: www.bose.pro.com
The SiliconCore 2.5mm display offers a complete canvas of 33600 x 405 pixels at an impressive brightness of 1700 nits, and 160° vertical and horizontal viewing angles. The display features SiliconCore’s patented Common Cathode technology, which enables high resolution, colour and brightness uniformity, as well as low power consumption. A standout feature of the display is its 90 degree angles. Existing architecture had to have cut outs around the screen to accommodate fire doors and chutes. SiliconCore assisted with the entire process, partnering with ENGIE to deliver the design and frame of the LED ribbon.
AIR TIME There are 44 Bose DS16FP loudspeakers distributed throughout the space in 12 independent zones. That’s a lot of granular flexibility, and at first glance you might be wondering 18
Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
why a big public space needs so many zones. The answer is an artistic one: The AV system design, led primarily by Glenn Yole of ENGIE Services — AV, needed the ability for the audio to follow the movement of the video. Imagine, if you will, a piece of content advertising Australia’s favourite steam engine, the Puffing Billy. Now imagine the audio following the video as it snakes its way around the space. Awesome! “We chose the Bose loudspeakers because they’re priced right, their aesthetic is spot on and they’ve proven to us they can perform all day long,” noted Myke Ireland, ENGIE Services AV National Technology Manager. As project system integrator, ENGIE worked through the complexities of the project and was determined to not settle for second best: “This space is potentially open 24/7 and we needed a loudspeaker system that could keep up, and the Bose systems are always built really well.” “If you look at the photos of the install you can hardly see that the Bose loudspeakers are there. The architects were very particular about the appearance of the space and Bose ticks that box perfectly. We used a mixture of black and white models to match the colour of the recesses.” It’s refreshing to hear that the signage will be used to provide a unique canvas for emerging digital artists rather than yet another advertising platform.
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Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
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Awe & Wonder Moment Factory produces something special at Changi Airport
Content Focus It’s often said that ‘content is king’ and we know that without compelling content, digital signage quickly becomes stagnant and even counter productive — turning people off. One of the world’s best content producers is Moment Factory out of Montreal. Changi Airport commissioned Moment Factory to produce two media features each designed to create wonder and captivate audiences in unique ways. The project illustrates how the best public space signage always surprises and delights. There’s no point playing it safe or being bland. Moment Factory worked with the client for months on this job and it shows.
SECURITY SCREENING ZONE
Moment Factory: momentfactory.com Nanolumens: nanolumens.com
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The security screening zone is now transformed thanks to a large NanoLumens LED install. The media wall displays high altitude landscapes with virtual bas-relief sculptures that subtly come to life. • The total resolution of the Security Area screen is 10,704 x 768 pixels, for a total pixel space of 8,220,672 pixels. • Its dimensions are 70m wide by 5m tall. • The LED pitch of the screen is 6mm.
HERITAGE ZONE In the heritage zone, real and virtual traditional shop house façades create a backdrop for local culture and storytelling. Appearing static at first, the two LED façades spring to life with an engaging neighbourhood love story that brings two Peranakan families together. Music was a key ingredient for this show, provided by Dick Lee. His uniquely Singaporean sensibility adds a level of detail that helps to incorporate all the elements. One of the most challenging aspects was working and testing in an active construction site. The virtual lighting in Peranakan Love Story needed to perfectly match the ambient lighting conditions of the space to achieve the trompe l’oeil effect. A user-friendly show control system was designed, provided by the integrators, E&E, that allows a flexibility and simplicity in programming content. This ensures that the local staff can adjust and optimise the content schedule in just minutes, as inevitably there will be times, either in an emergency situation or something else that’s unforeseen when the content won’t be helpful.
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STABLE PERFORMANCE Inglis thoroughbred sales turns over hundreds of millions of dollars. Now it has a signage and IPTV system that keeps pace. Story: Christopher Holder
T
he horses are the real stars. And when you consider that many of these thoroughbreds can go for $1m or more at auction, you begin to appreciate the reasoning for the $140m investment. The newly developed precinct features more than 800 stables, extensive parade space for horses, a 5-star hotel with 144 rooms, state-of-the-art conferencing facilities, all-day dining, as well as a leisure and retail complex with over 1000 parking spots. The main game is the handful of thoroughbred auctions. To give you a sense of what’s at stake, the Inglis top tier sale — the Easter yearling sale — sees somewhere between 500 and 600 horses sold at an average of some $350,000! The company knows what it’s doing; it’s been in the business of selling racehorses for well over 100 years — initially in Pitt Street, Sydney, then on a Randwick site, and now in Sydney’s west at a Warwick Farm Racecourse property.
The Warwick Farm move has allowed Inglis to expand operations, not just in terms of how many horses are for sale — it’s planning on offering 1000 horses at next year’s Classic Yearling Sale — but also the number of potential bidders and those interested. WIND IN THE SALES
Come auction day, all the action is focussed on the sales arena. Part auction house, part concert venue, the sales arena allows the hundreds of horses to be efficiently auctioned at the best price possible. On average, a horse is sold every two minutes over the days of the auction.
The horse is led onto the stage; it’s vital statistics are displayed; the auctioneer begins the bidding; the bid 22
Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
spotters in the crowd ensure all bids are recognised; the auctioneer’s assistant updates the bids for the displays in real time and adjusts the bidding increments; and the winning bidder is instantly approached by sales staff with an iPad — a signature later, the horse has changed hands and the new owner has all the details texted and emailed to their phone. The atmosphere is crazy-hyped: millions of dollars are changing hands, everyday lovers of good horse-flesh are rubbing shoulders with sheiks and royalty; people are lapping up the hospitality and vibing off the excitement of the auction — after all, here is where the next Black Caviar or Takeover Target is being discovered. It’s fast paced and intoxicatingly glamorous. IPTV: CONTROL OF WHAT, WHERE & WHEN
Digital signage plays a key role. The entire AV package was designed, integrated and installed by The P.A. People. The most prominent component of the signage are the large-format LED displays from VuePix but of equal importance is the Exterity IPTV system that drives all the screens around the entire campus, taking live video on auction day, or any pre-recorded source (such as the horses’ vital statistics) and making it available anywhere.
Putting all your video content on the network has real advantages. Every screen is an IP endpoint and, via the Exterity software, CIO Deane Jacobs and his team can program what content goes to which destination and at what time. Deane Jacobs: “The Exterity IPTV systems gives us a huge amount of flexibility in being able to control devices and zones — scheduling IPTV devices to change channels before an auction starts and to show other channels after the auction, such as auction results and advertising. This sort of centralised
control — whether that’s from a laptop or an iPad — has proved invaluable.” SCREENS ON THE TROT
The showstopping LED screens provide all the clarity and brightness the auctions need. In the adrenalincharged excitement of a sale, clearly conveyed and accurate information is crucial, and the QE series VuePix LED displays provide it in spades. Two larger screens (each 4.5m wide and 2.5m high) are positioned next to the entrances of the parade ring on each side, with an additional 2.5m wide and 1.5m high screen installed in the middle of the ring above the speaker’s desk. The screens will display the current bidding in different currencies, along with information on the horse and even video of the horse in action.
With the fine pixel pitch of 2.6mm, slimline design and lightweight aluminium frame, the installation of the new VuePix screens was quick and seamless. Deane Jacobs: “The screens are big enough for everybody in the room to see the detail and that’s the most important thing. And the screens have proven themselves outside of auction day as well. We recently hosted a conference where we patched in a Stanford University professor via video conference. So we had the professor up on the centre screen, with his notes he was speaking to on the other screens left and right. The displays are performing really well.” William Inglis Hotel: www.williaminglis.com.au The P.A. People: (02) 8755 8700 or www.papeople.com.au Midwich (Exterity): 1300 666 099 or www.midwich.com.au ULA Group (VuePix): 1300 852 476 or www.ulagroup.com
SOUND ON THE HOOF The final piece of the presentation puzzle is the audio. In this case a Bose ShowMatch concert PA powered by Bose network amplifiers. It was crucial the sound system excited the crowd without exciting the highly reverberant space, which is why The P.A. People specified the Bose loudspeaker system, a system well known for its ability to tailor the dispersion of the sound to the room.
Bose Professional: www.bose.pro.com
Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
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Do The Bus Stop e-paper has found its mass transit sweetspot.
In Action
Story: Christopher Holder
Visionect: www.visionect.com Mercury Innovation: www.mercuryinnovation.com.au
Imagine a cityscape where parking signs display information appropriate to the time of day — not four, five or eight possible parking restrictions. (Some parking signs are about as indecipherable as an iPhone service agreement.) Imagine being able to book a delivery spot in the CBD and then it returning to regular parking after you’ve made your delivery. Ditto a disabled spot: those heading into the city with a disability could reserve a park outside their appointment rather than doing laps of the block. Once the appointment is complete, the spot returns to being for general parking. Cities are becoming congested. They’re suffering under 21st century pressures while enduring parking infrastructure that hasn’t changed since the 1950s. Parking and road-borne transport is hard work, yet so much about our cities’ infrastructure is archaic or not fit for purpose. Who hasn’t sat impotently at an empty intersection waiting for a redundant red arrow to turn green? It’s as infuriating as it is damaging to the efficient flow of a city’s traffic arteries.
INKED DEAL Visionect and Aussie company, Mercury Innovation, have joined forces to deliver better and more accessible public transport solutions. The deal combines Visionect’s e-ink expertise with Mercury Innovation’s experience in the design of customer-focused public transportation products and systems. The first product to come from the collaboration is Urban, a solar-powered bus information board that has been deployed in Sydney by Transport for NSW. Future products will all focus on e-ink info boards and notification screens that are cost effective to install, self contained, off the grid, solar powered and feature great visibility in all light conditions. DigitalSignage spoke to Mercury Innovation’s Design Director,
Enrique Esquivel, about Urban.
DigitalSignage: When did all this get started for you? Enrique Esquivel: We went looking worldwide for a weatherproof, outdoor e-paper solution and got talking to Visionect. This was when we were working on the Moore Park electronic ink signage solution. There are now 365 e-ink signs 24
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out there and they’ve been working for around five years now. [Editor’s note: the Moore Park signage system is used to manage traffic flow to and fro the city on event days.]
SYDNEY INNOVATIONS DigitalSignage: You took what you learnt from that system and began thinking about how to package it up into products for related applications, such as the Urban? Enrique Esquivel: That’s right. We designed a hardware package that would be environmentally bulletproof — water, UV, tamperproof etc. — that would allow for a street deployment. Then we manage the content. In the case of the Sydney roll out of Urban we take the real time information from Transport NSW and our CMS interprets how it’s displayed — making it appropriate and useful for the location. They’re solar powered and autonomous, which really helps to keep installation costs down. DigitalSignage: Do you pull content other than simply when the next bus is arriving? Enrique Esquivel: Information is really important to consumers if a bus is delayed or cancelled. We provide that information, which allows the commuter to make choices about how to respond rather than wondering what happened to their bus. In some instances we’ll provide additional information about an alternative route on another stop or alternative transport, such as the train. Another feature in Sydney is ‘seat availability’. So we can let a passenger know if the next bus is full and they can decide to squeeze on or perhaps wait for the following bus which may not be so packed. DigitalSignage: I guess bad news is still better than no news? Enrique Esquivel: That’s right. And that’s been an issue with the bus system. Unlike the trains, the service provider can’t talk directly to passenger at the point of contact. Now they can. DigitalSignage: Every city in the world is potentially a customer? Enrique Esquivel: We’d like to think so! We do currently have a number of other international trial sites.
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Technology:
Security Detail: The Price of Security in Digital Signage Diego Santa Cruz, PhD, is Technology Architect at Spinetix. Diego has been passionate about Spinetix product security for more than 10 years now, making every effort to deliver, secure, reliable and well-integrated products. He co-founded Spinetix and is in charge of systems level development at the company.
Story: Diego Santa Cruz
D
uring the past two years there have been a slew of important cybersecurity attacks, among them the most (in)famous being WannaCry, NotPetya... and the list goes on. There have also been fundamental security vulnerabilities discovered, like Meltdown and Spectre.
WannaCry and NotPetya have caused severe disruption to IT services and costly remediation for those affected [hundreds of millions, according to a report I read in Wired magazine recently — Ed.] In addition, those attacks didn’t spare any industry – from manufacturing, health, government agencies to smaller scale businesses. Services and manufacturing facilities had to be shut down several days on end to recover operations. In recent years there have also been countless other lower profile attacks specific to digital signage infrastructure, but no less damaging. The effects of these range from the relatively benign “please secure your system” message to ransom and even the display of hardcore porn in public places, like Washington’s Union’s Station in May 2017. CORE REQUIREMENT
Common sense says that as the prevalence of connected digital signage systems increases, the number of attacks will not diminish, so it’s important to have security as a core requirement when planning, deploying and operating digital signage solutions. Unfortunately, when selecting products for a new project the security aspect is most often ignored and the main decision points are acquisition price, operational costs, features and performance. Common misconceptions: ‘it won’t happen to us’ and ‘all solution providers are equally secure’. When, in fact, the risk of a security attack is real and not without consequences. A breach may cost you downtime, lost advertising revenue, and even your company image.
Another common misconception is that a piece of software can remain secure without any action. Any software will have unknown vulnerabilities, so it is important that when they become known they are fixed in a timely manner and the fixes can be deployed efficiently. CONSIDERATIONS
It’s important to know the weak points of your digital signage network. If you’re in a public place, then the most visible and easy to evaluate weak point is the screens’ physical security. Much more difficult to assess is the security of the digital signage player, the security of the display itself if connected and 26
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how protected is the network in which the player is installed.
Then there is the security of the content acquisition, distribution and production that also needs to be evaluated. And finally, how to ensure operators follow good security practices. All these aspects should be considered from planning stage. Adding security as an afterthought can be impossible or very costly once you are tied to a product. QUESTION & ANSWER
Evaluating the security of a system is a hard problem, but there are some basic questions you should consider:
• Is the solution provider well established? • Do they have a good track record? • Do they provide regular security updates? • For how long will the selected product be maintained? • Are they transparent about which security issues are addressed on each update? • How are updates distributed and how costly is to deploy these? • How good is the backwards-compatibility of updates? • Does it have a good support service which you can reach?
HOW MUCH?
Security comes at a cost, and it should be no surprise that a secure solution is costlier, although the converse is of course not true. Developing secure systems is hard and thus has an extra cost. Maintaining a vulnerable platform is time consuming and thus has an extra cost attached.
Once you have selected a provider that suits your security needs you should also apply sound security principles to the deployment and operation. Diminish the attack surface as much as possible by disabling unnecessary services and do not expose the services on the network beyond what is really required for operations. Do not expose your devices directly on the Internet and use a firewall to protect the player’s network. Ensure that operators are properly trained to not fall prey and use strong and unique passwords. BOTTOM LINE
All of this may seem like a lot to consider, but if the right security related questions are considered from the start of a project and the security aspects are integrated in the selection process it should not be that hard to choose the proper products that will diminish the risk of falling victim to a successful attack.
A breach may cost you downtime, lost advertising revenue, and even your company image
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BUYING WITH YOUR EYES As the age-old marketing axiom goes: people buy with their eyes. Few are more aware of this than property agent and marketing group CBRE. Story: Christopher Holder
C
BRE is selling apartments in a landmark $350m high-rise development in downtown Brisbane, and the ‘buy with your eyes’ approach has been taken to a whole new level.
Each apartment for sale can be individually virtually inspected. Thanks to some next-level artist’s renderings, buyers can look at the layout and, indeed, the views from their would-be abode. All this is at the fingertips of the CBRE sales consultant. Via an iPad app the appropriate room is dialled up and shown to the buyer.
But not just any old computer monitor or wall-mounted TV, a huge 6x4 LG commercial video wall. The impact is exponentially more amazing. The effect of the huge canvas is awe-inspiring. MOON SHOT
sat down with the creative and technical brains behind the video wall, Cuan Naidoo, CEO of Q1 Design, to find out how and why.
DigitalSignage
“Q1 Design was approached by CBRE, and they wanted something outstanding. They wanted something to match the development; something that hasn’t been done before.” Cuan pitched the idea of a high resolution video wall. But not simply a feature that might act as good-looking wallpaper but an asset CBRE could use as an integral part of its sales arsenal. The wow-factor kicker: this would be an 8K video wall, that could display the architectural renders in glorious detail. 10K RUN
Once Cuan and his team looked into designing a sizeable video wall, they quickly discovered that video wall processors dealing in resolutions 28
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beyond 4K were as rare as hens’ teeth, and even then, formidably expensive.
Q1 applied its technical nous to building a custom solution that could provide the processing grunt to run a large video wall.
And after some additional research, Q1 determined that powering a UW 10K video wall was no more or less demanding than an 8K wall. Some more determined Googling established that this project would probably, arguably, and in all likelihood, be a world first. (Let’s run with ‘world first’ until we’re proven otherwise! — Ed.) SALES WEAPON
For Q1 Design, the one beautiful spin-off of building their own PC video wall processor was the ability to design their own control app to run the content. This has proven to be a huge drawcard. Not only is the content impressive, it’s entirely under the control of the sales agent in the room via an iPad. Cuan Naidoo: “When you think about it, a video wall is a huge investment but they’re more often than not under utilised, simply displaying looping video and pictures. Then when that content goes out of date, the process to update it is so tedious, people don’t bother. So you sink a bunch of money into an asset that is soon obsolete. Meanwhile, this video wall is an integral part of the sales process for the apartments.”
It’s fascinating to watch clients being taken through the sales pitch. It’s impressive to watch as the sales agent, nimbly armed with an iPad, taps a few buttons to instantly change interior layouts, plans and view shots on the 10K video wall. The client is instantly and completely engaged. The video wall might provide the eye candy to attract people off the street, but it’s as a sales tool that it really comes into its own.
ABOUT THE 10K LG VIDEO WALL The video wall uses 24 x 55BM5 LG Commercial displays. The bezels on these displays are wafer thin at 0.9mm, making them perfect for that virtually-seamless video wall look. They’re also thin from a front-to-back perspective, which is important in a job such as this where floor space is limited and, say, an equivalent LED display would occupy more space. Finally, heat is a consideration. Again, being in a confined commercial space, the efficiency of the LG screens help to keep air conditioning costs down. Q1 Design and its installation team did an impressive job. When you say an installation has to be ‘millimetre perfect’… well that’s an understatement when the bezel is only 0.9mm. It’s tough enough to precisely align screens in a regular video wall — even with the best mounting hardware — but even tougher when you have an ‘elbow’ articulation in the video wall such as this. Another advantage of the LG Commercial display is its IPS (In Plane Switching) feature, which helps the display to appear equally bright across the full 120° field of view. The LG displays weren’t the cheapest option but Q1 was quite determined to convince the client it was money well spent. Cuan Naidoo: “I use a JB Hifi analogy with my clients: you can look at two TVs in the showroom that spec out the same but anyone can tell the difference between the name brand, like LG, and the no-name knock off. “You go to all this effort to design something that will stop people in their tracks, so you want to be confident in the display. You want all the displays to look the same in 12 months. “And don’t be tempted to grey import. We purchased ours through Quantum Sphere and they provide great service and back up. In fact, on this job I don’t mind telling you, one of the panels arrived damaged — it can happen. The Quantum Sphere guys sent over a replacement immediately. If I’d grey imported the equipment, that one dead panel would have negated any savings.” Finally, a word on the 10K resolution. Most technical types will tell you’re flushing pixels down the toilet and paying more than you need to. But in an application such as this where the client is viewing the wall from only a few metres away, the extra pixel count is appreciated and the results are sublime.
Quantum Sphere: 1300 571 188 or qsphere.com.au Q1 Design: 1300 882 844 or www.q1design.net LG: www.lg.com.au
Digital Place-Based Media & Technology
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LED Gangnam Style Samsung’s huge curved LED in Seoul
In Action
Samsung: displaysolutions.samsung.com
Times Square in Manhattan, New York, is one of the iconic scenes of the sleepless city, filled with glamorous advertisements that draw 20 million tourists every year. A similar sight is unfolding in the centre of Korea’s capital city of Seoul, with the COEX (convention, exhibition, and shopping complex) and World Trade Center area in the city’s business district of Gangnam-gu, designated as Korea’s first ‘free outdoor advertisement zone’. The LED Signage took seven months to install and is four times the size of a basketball court with a total surface area of 1620sqm. This was made possible by connecting two LED displays together by a curved edge. The scale of the curved display is truly breathtaking when seen upfront, with the screen demonstrating vivid colour representation and clarity even in the brightest sunlight. Sungwook Yoon, with Samsung Electronics’ Building Solution Group, led the installation, and made the bold decision to run the screen around the corner of the building: “This new display can be used to show one content item, or separately to show different content. This flexibility of use enables more effective ways to deliver immersive content.” Specifically, when two sides of two displays meet in a perpendicular configuration, the content is likely to be distorted. But, if the two displays are connected by the curved display, content can be represented without any distortion. This is a key strength of Samsung’s new Smart LED Signage.
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FREE SIGNAGE PROGRAM In terms of brightness, the team sought to realise the best quality in the industry: up to 9000 nits so that it can show clear images even in bright sunlight. The Samsung Smart LED Signage also automatically adjusts its brightness. Too much brightness can make drivers or pedestrians uncomfortable, so the Smart LED Signage lowers or increases its brightness according to the movement of the sun. The signage uses some 31,000 LED display modules and is a remarkable 10mm pixel pitch (super fine for a huge outdoor display such as this). The display is rated up to 100,000 hours of use. Samsung Smart LED Signage supports resolution of 7840 x 1952 pixel — almost twice the resolution of UHD. With a high refresh rate of 49,920Hz, it depicts smooth and uniform images without distortion. The high resolution and clear content representation is perfect for displaying 3D advertisements, for example K-Pop performances. Samsung Electronics will continue its involvement in Korea’s free outdoor advertisement zone project with its Smart LED Signage for the next 10 years. The project aims to help raise the brand value of Seoul through development and promotion of the city as a ‘global digital media landmark’. The Smart LED Signage will help bolster the local economy and help the city gain competitiveness with an exciting new tourist attraction as its next landmark.
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DigitalSignage Video Search for ‘Digital Signage Magazine’ in YouTube DigitalSignage YouTube channel has plenty to keep you interested. Check out our bite-size videos demonstrating what’s brand new in the world of out of home digital. The biggest and best from LG, Samsung, SiliconCore and more. Go to YouTube, search on ‘Digital Signage Magazine’ and hit the subscribe button before you cruise through the video.
VuePix’s huge LED Twin Towns Canvas
Aurora LED Displays in Melbourne’s Transport Hotel
LG Video Wall at Southern Cross Uni
Planar Matrix Multi-Touch Panels
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Comment:
Waiting Game Can you match it with your foyer?
Story: Mug Punter
B
ack in the good ol’ days of football, meat pies, Sunday roasts with your mum, and blatant sexism, all any decent company needed in the foyer was a few plastic potplants, pastel colours on the walls, some framed prints of dogs playing poker, and piles of out-of-date National Geographic magazines — oh, and a stunningly attractive receptionist. The kind of girl who just oozes sensuality and seems to be offering to satisfy your every crazed fantasy just by asking you to take a seat.
(Yes, my wife made me watch Mad Men until, thankfully, Game of Thrones came along and proper cultural balance in the household was restored.)
Things improved over time. The plants became real — and cost a zillion dollars a month to be watered, fed and swapped around by some enterprising green-fingered type. You had to provide a water cooler that tasted like a dentist’s mouthwash. A telly was bunged in the corner with Ray Martin well and truly muted. The receptionist was allowed to be married without being too obvious about it.
Now, walking into any corporate foyer is required to be an experience akin to stepping into the wildest, most fantastical Disney World attraction ever. The walls are covered in floor-to-ceiling 4K, 3D displays showing stuff like extreme snow-boarding, surfing through ‘tubes’ surrounded by sharks ... okay, and maybe the occasional flash of a company logo and building map. It’s meant to be a mind-blowing, gob-smacking first impression that will convince prospective clients just how awesomely fantastic the corporation can be. It’s the bestest ever company ever ... just like, ever. It’s creating a problem.
FORTUNE 500 FOYER
The question can be asked — just how impressive are the staff and facilities beyond that receptionist desk? In other words, how well does your company performance live up to the hype of your newfangled foyer? Take, for instance, an accountant’s business. The waiting area is festooned with high-res displays showing clients’ brilliantly successful projects, touchscreen stations with AV presentations, and a 60-inch 4K telly with Doctor Phil well and truly muted. That’s a hard act to follow, and when you finally get to walk into someone’s office you’re
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expecting at least C-3P0 behind the desk, or perhaps Leonardo DiCaprio dressed in a suit made from hundred-dollar bills.
Instead, you’ve got a short, balding sort of bloke who insists you keep the ticket stubs from your supermarket deli section so you can claim lunch on your tax return. It’s hardly The Wolf of Wall Street. CARPARK KINDA GUY
So forget sexism, ageism, racism and bigotry. The HR departments have way bigger things to consider, and need to look at new employees in an entirely different way. You may have gadzoodles of qualifications, maybe were a Rhodes scholar, and topped every class you ever attended. Only to be told, “Yes, but you’re not very exciting, are you? Not like our foyer. I’m sorry, but you’re more a concrete carpark kind of personality.” Aspirants for any vacancies in the corporation may need to acquire extra skills — like sword-swallowing, juggling chainsaws, or lion-taming — to have that edge over the other applicants. Perhaps a wide selection of vibrant costumes to wear across the week, like a chicken suit, Spiderman tights, and for the girls, the latest Wonder Woman get-up. Anything really, as long as it spices up the office and keeps everything stimulating with vivid colour and movement. Fortunately, anybody dressed in a chicken suit is, by default, in glorious 3D. RAZING STANDARDS
It’s yet another level of stress inflicted on our lives: matching up to the waiting room. And I’d suggest we do what we can to ameliorate the pain.
The answer might be to put in place some sort of standards that apply to certain types of organisations, and determine just how high-tech each foyer is allowed to be. So sure, if you are selling extreme
snow-boarding adventures and surfing safaris, by all means have countless 4K displays showing someone risking multiple bone fractures or being eaten by a white pointer. However, if you’re an accountant — even a Big Four accountant — you can only have one screen in the foyer and it has to only show spreadsheets. Unless you specialise in tax. Then you can have videos of luxury yachts in the Bahamas and vast wine cellars.
A lot of companies will fall between these two benchmarks, and that’s where regulators and inspectors can be useful, and even consulting firms who can advise on just what is and isn’t permitted in your foyer — we’re creating a whole new industry here. It won’t be easy and some sections of the digital signage world may oppose any restrictions, but don’t forget this would work both ways. Some multi-national, multi-everything corporation might be told it has a too boring foyer with just plastic pot-plants and a septic water cooler. Money needs to be spent, displays should be installed, stuff needs to be 4K-ed and 3D-ed across every wall. Another solution might be customer service and to not ever have anyone waiting in the foyer... odd concept, I know. It’ll never fly.
Mug Punter’s opinion of accountants are wholly his own and do not reflect those of the publisher, which is working hard on its wine cellar.
Welcome to a World of Interactivity
Project: Interactive Play Area Client: Aventus Property Location: Tuggerah Shopping Centre Engagement Results: Reactivation of an area experiencing lower foot traffic from the relocation of a key tenant. Greater weekday activity, with young families lingering and meeting at the play area.
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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