The Digital Signage ExpertAll the Digital Signage and AV industry was looking to Amsterdam this week. And I think we all agree that everyone in the industry went there with mixed feelings: what will be the effect of the current market climate on the show? Will the halls be empty? Will we talk business or hot air?
To my surprise I was positively surprised already at the entrance – long lines, masses of people from all over the globe. Yes! The market is alive and kicking, business goes on. But yes, all with tremendous caution. Talks about the “today”, not “tomorrow”. No-one knows what tomorrow brings. Carpe diem, by all means.
No technology revolutions. Careful evolution. Digital Signage everywhere. Only last year, DS was still a niche at ISE. This year DS EVERYWHERE! Even a manufacturer of beds with storable slide-in screens pretended doing DS. The reports of analysts predicting 25% growth of DS in spite of the crisis made their impacts, so everyone tries to jump on the running train. Whether real or virtual added value. The market starts to become crowded of various vendors in all segments. Remains to be seen who will become victim of the economy this year (one of the big news in aisles were the cynical layoff numbers by some of the big players). It was refreshing for us to be rather in the positive news with the setup of our new Minicom Digital Signage spin-off division (http://www.minicomdigitalsignage.com/av.htm) which was announced the day before the opening and spread all the forums and news.
One more thing making us, Minicom, proud was our presence on the NEC booth. They presented their full lineup of public displays through our DS Vision 3000 system in a very prominent spot, including the internal receiver module built into the NEC slot.
Bottom line: compliments to the organizers. You really succeeded to turn this event to a central platform of networking, meeting and mingeling. It became a real hotspot of the industry, to see and to be seen.