12.10.2007 — The Motor City Casino in Detroit is building a new facility, and digital signage is an integral part.

Monitors can inform patrons of anything from two-for-one lunch specials to the $1,500 jackpot that just hit on slot machine 8 in row 12. And a value-added reseller (VAR) is putting the system together with stock components.

That VAR is Immersion Graphics Inc., located in aptly named Commerce, Mich. The company was in the high-end visual display market when a year and a half ago it started investigating digital signage.

"Our typical customer … will pay for value add," says president Pat Hernandez. "What we primarily focused on were the areas of digital signage that we wanted to pursue to maintain our levels of margin."

Planar Systems' CoolSign software with an existing slot machine interface added content control to Immersion Graphics' audio and video expertise.

A Wide-Open Field

Digital signage is everywhere: airports, subways, banks, gas stations, schools, and hotels.

Such systems used to be the province of specialized providers, but new software, partnerships and falling hardware prices make it accessible to all.

Virtually any business can benefit -- and integrators and VARs can profit from services fetching 25 percent to 40 percent margins.

Consumers have become inured to static displays, but eye-catching movement and integration of entertainment and information translate into solid benefits. When waiting in a space with digital displays, for example, people perceive that their wait time is reduced, notes Dan Smith, Samsung's director of pro A/V marketing and sales.

Retailers often find that digital signage brings a hard boost in sales, says Mary Meeker, president of MEM Systems, a systems integrator in Bonsall, Calif.

But what really stokes retailers' interest in digital displays is IT content management. Using static signage is expensive and inefficient, says James Condon, senior vice president of video media services at PlayNetwork Inc., an integrated media services company in Redmond, Wash.

Many companies are terrible about rolling out traditional in-store signage with the right materials in the right place at the right time.

"In retail, the average is 70 percent [store] compliance" with main office directions, Condon says.

That means companies waste almost a third of the money they spend. That puts IT experts into the sweet spot.

"The market has gotten really heated up in the last six months or so," says Dave Sallander, president of Sherlock Systems Inc., a Buffalo Grove, Ill., VAR involved with digital signage since 2002.

A recent project for a downtown Chicago condo development involved 16 screens, in various rooms, showing current inventory and marketing messages.

Software from 3M and video equipment from ATEN Technology enable Sherlock to individually customize the screen contents.

A Wealth of Possibilities

Businesses are just starting to get digital signage power. For example, a restaurant that has a jukebox touchscreen control at every table and directories at office complexes that also provide afternoon traffic updates.

Businesses even sell advertising space as an additional revenue source.

"Think of walking into a car dealer," says Jon Young, North American sales vice president of Israel-based in-store media firm YCD Multimedia Ltd.