The first quarter of 2021 has come to an end, and we’re no closer to stable ground, it seems. The world is adapting, but even though we try our hardest to keep up with the changes, they just keep coming. Outdoor events are changing their plans each month and one of the larger OOH events that had confirmed its plans last month has already changed them. In other news this month, you’ll see what happens when you don’t secure a video wall properly, what outdoor advertising and gambling have in common, the evolution of LEDs into the movie industry, and where to find the best content for your digital signage campaigns. It’s been a busy month, so let’s get started!
The dangers of a video wall
Video walls are always an exceptional sight. Yet, people are sometimes blind sighted by their glamour and forget that a video wall is a fairly heavy piece of equipment. If not secured properly, it can cause a lot of damage.
Carlos Orduz, a reporter for ESPN Colombia, sadly, found himself seated in front of an unstable video wall. Orduz was part of a panel for ESPN FC Radio and was sitting idly when the falling video wall pinned him face-down on the desk in the blink of an eye, as you’ll surely find in the embedded clip below, after probably replaying it a few times. Fortunately, he walked away unscathed and with a unique story to tell and hopefully one to laugh about.
El señor golpe que se acaba de llevar el Olímpico Orduz @orduzrubio en Espn Radio fue tremendo, ojalá no pase a mayores #ESPNRadioColombia pic.twitter.com/fsYtave0cy
— Manuel Rojas (@RojasManuel) March 10, 2021
ISE scales back to four regional events
It’s become quite difficult to keep track of all the events in the industry as they keep changing so quickly! We recently did an update on the changes some of the major OOH events have gone through. But we already have an update.
Integrated Systems Europe 2021 was to take place in June. Quite recently, however, the officials stated that the event is scaling back to four regional events. It will be a two-day hybrid event in Barcelona, followed by three more events taking place in other European cities.
“Our exhibitors have made it clear that there is a desire to get the industry together, but on a local level,” said ISE Managing Director Mike Blackman. The show will have live and online components. This is the schedule for ISE in June 2021:
- Fira Barcelona (1-2 June)
- Munich (8-9 June)
- Amsterdam (15-16 June)
- London (23-24 June)
Out-of-Home grows in the lottery world
Out-of-Home advertising is spreading into each industry in the world, and lottery and games of chance is one of them!
Lottery players appear to respond quite well to Out-of-Home advertising, if recent Geopath numbers are any indication. According to statistics, 74% of those who bought a state lottery ticket in the past 12 months have recalled seeing an OOh ad in the past 30 days. This indicates that lottery outdoor ads are seen and perceived by lottery inclined players who are in turn likely to respond to it. This also applies to other weekly games.
If we take a look at how the lottery has continuously grown in popularity over the years, OOH has a pretty solid audience to work with.
Fine pitch LED video walls to expand to movie sets
We can always count on 16:9 for interesting insights! In a recent article, Dave Haynes highlighted the growth of fine pitch LED video walls. While they are quite fresh in the technology world, direct view LEDs are already more commonly used on movie sets. Their advantages over standard green screens are obvious. Not only does it bypass all the work needed to merge the actor into a background, it also gives them something tangible to react to.
One example of this virtual set in practice is the Star Wars series The Mandalorian. Over 50% of its first season was filmed using ground-breaking new methology. This is yet another example of the evolution of displays. We saw a glimpse of it when cinemas began using video walls to replace projectors. Even though that particular thread of evolution was halted by the pandemic of 2020, we can now see its growth here.
Finding copyright free content for digital signage campaigns
We recently focused on bringing you a selection of free content components for your digital signage campaigns. Starting with something simple like a background photo to add to a menu, or a visual animation relevant to your brand or for in-store ambiance. There are so many sources out there, so why not make use of them?
Here! Let me whip up an image out of thin air. It’s a photo of something we haven’t seen since 2019!
Most sources we gave you are free to use, some require attribution. Even if you find that stunning piece of content to use, why not reference it? Adding a line “courtesy of…” is really not going to damage you in any way. It might even look more professional. Regardless of how you feel on the matter, last week we published an article on finding the best copyright free (and mostly reference free) stock videos for your digital signage campaigns. A month before that, we focused on the best copyright free (and mostly reference) free stock photos.
In the month ahead, we’ll look into showing you how to quickly incorporate the content you found into your OnSign TV platform. And in case you haven’t already tried it out, give it a shot for free, so you’ll be ready!
