Intel, Microsoft and NEC team to tackle digital signage

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 10 November 2010 16:00

IT Industry - Strategy

Three of the world's biggest names in IT - Intel, Microsoft and NEC have teamed up in a bid to tackle the growing global market for digital signage, by offering an integrated digital signage system to the global market.

They say that their collaboration will result in "an optimised digital signage platform that addresses the retail and digital signage market segment's need for a more streamlined, high performance and highly reliable solution that supports digital content, interactivity, intelligence and lifecycle management."

According to Jose Avalos, director of retail and digital signage at Intel, "This alliance is a fundamental component to easing the fragmented digital signage industry as it exists now. By developing digital signage devices in accordance with Intel's Open Pluggable Specification, companies such as NEC will be able to make digital signage experiences everywhere more intelligent, interactive and connected."

The digital signage market is booming, a recent survey from Frost & Sullivan of the Australian market is tipping 12 percent annual growth for the next few years, details at end of this article.

NEC is joining an existing digital signage alliance between Intel and Microsoft announced in January 2010 to develop and promote a validated platform for intelligent digital signage applications.

NEC says it will integrate solutions and services including content management and media distribution with this digital signage platform, which is based on the Intel Core i5/i7 processor running Windows Embedded Standard 7. According to NEC, the three companies have discussed collaboration in the areas of hardware, software, system integration and services.

"NEC's joining this alliance will further promote the concept of intelligent digital signage and embody next generation digital signage products. This includes a strategic cloud computing collaboration, which is intended to eventually increase alignment between NEC, Intel and Microsoft," NEC said.

According to NEC the collaboration will focus on four aspects of digital signage.

- The three will collaborate on new control devices and displays based on Intel architecture. NEC says it will add a newly developed controller module and display specialised for digital signage based on the Open Pluggable Specification (OPS), Intel's initiative to standardise the design and development of digital signs.

- They will collaborate to develop software applications running Windows Embedded Standard 7 with Windows 7 technologies. These include Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Touch and Windows Flip 3D navigation for multigesture touch interfaces and context-aware applications.

- NEC will enhance its audience measurement solutions by increasing accuracy of its age and gender recognition technology.

- NEC's operation management functions will be enhanced with remote management functions from Intel Active Management technology such as power management and software upgrading of displays and controllers.

'¢ According to Frost & Sullivan, Australia's fledgling digital signage systems market is expected to grow at a steady compound rate of more than 12 percent per annum to reach $58.4m by 2013.

In its Australia Digital Signage Systems Market Report 2010, F&S says that, although the global financial crisis has forced many companies to cut back on spending and some vendors are experiencing lengthy sales cycles, interest in digital signage systems is growing. "A primary driver for sales in 2009 was the decline of hardware prices, particularly among plasma and crystal display (LCD) systems."

The report suggests that a continuing shift in advertising dollars from print media to channels such as the Internet and digital signage will drive further growth in the digital signage systems market in the years ahead.

However, according to F&S's ANZ ICT research director, Audrey William, "The single biggest issue facing the digital signage systems market remains the challenge of demonstrating return on investment. Every company needs to be able to identify the right metrics to measure activity that links their screens to actual customer purchases. For those that successfully solve this, there are vast opportunities to get in early and capitalise on the many public locations in Australia that haven't yet moved towards digital advertising."