Looking at it, and understanding what is happening, you probably think, gosh, why didn’t I think about this. It is so simple. Just because of its’ simplicity it is so brilliant. That is what creativity is all about, keep it simple. That also is why I think everybody can be a creative. Just do it (also a rather simple but creative one-liner by the way) and think about how you can create manners to create impact. Because impact most of the times starts with creativity. The most analytic, serious and boring people can be creative. The only thing needs to be done is to unloose them. We always organize creative moments once a month with everybody in the company (accountants, coffee girls, creative guys, everybody). Just let their imagination flow. You will be astonished by their inspiration. And they will too.

Below a couple of extra creative visuals. Just for fun.

• Displays will no longer be passive one-way dialogue devices, within the next year or two it will be rare that you can’t touch and interact with a display, they will become two-way dialogue portals, communicating in all directions, all at once.
• Everyone will have a physical and digital life; a digital presence on one or more social networks that compliments their physical place in the world and the message needs to reach them in both places.
• The personal display, or what we are currently calling mobile devices, will dominate and the large public format display will become a beacon seeking to draw our personal devices in to whatever message they want us to participate in.
• The software and hardware to drive all of this is a commodity, those of us who make a living in digital signage will need to adopt products that provide a platform from which to create unique value for our clients, otherwise we are just order takers, creating nothing innovative, left with only one tactic to win business – fight on price.
• The days of locked in, long term, heavy cancellation fee contracts are gone, no one in their right mind will accept this anymore. Users want to come and go as needed, ramp up or contract on a moments notice.
• Integration partners need the freedom to extend solutions with no restrictions so that they can move as fast and as nimbly as they possibly can – resellers need open source solutions with extensive API’s that provide them with the ability to create what they want, when they want.
• Integrators need a forum to bring their innovative wares to market, the means of creating and selling their intellectual property on a mass basis rather than one-off customizations.
• Simple is the order of the day. If there is demand for crazy complexity by 20% of your market that causes the remaining 80% to spend all of their time trying to remember how to use your application then don’t do it. Make simple, easy to use and eloquent products. These are the web apps that will dominate tomorrow.
• All innovation is happening on the web. Okay, maybe not all, but what is left is such a small fraction it isn‘t worth considering.
• The sky is the limit for digital signage. Our market is growing by leaps and bounds and our partners need the tools to scale their businesses in an unlimited way, with no restrictions or capacity worries.

Given these inevitable trends we don’t think this is about digital signage any longer, we feel the market is even bigger than we all thought and we refer to this opportunity as a digital display convergence.

Ryan Cahoy is Managing Director of Rise Holdings, the parent company of Rise Vision(web app provider for digital signage management) and Rise Display (complete solution provider of LED Tickers, Video Walls, and Interactive Technologies). Follow Ryan’s posts on both company blogs at www.risevision.com/digitalsignageblogandwww.risedisplay.com/blog.

“When are you going to release x feature?” is a reasonable question, just make sure to treat the answer as an estimate.  In most cases the date a software provider will give you is based on their rough analysis of the requirement.  Software development is unpredictable, with many moving parts and small tweeks that turn into major projects.

As development progresses we learn that doing a feature as originally designed may require changing the core infrastructure.  Maybe it’s not worth it any more because the added complexity or changes to other areas aren’t worth the benefit of the small feature request.

Whether you are a client or an AV integrator don’t be afraid to ask questions and understand the direction of your software partner, but don’t get too caught up in the detail and demand to see proof of everything coming.  By the time you see that feature a new one will come up that you want to see, then another, and another.  It is a never ending cycle and a good software partner will NEVER be done.

If you ever find out the software is done with no future plans start looking for a new partner, while what they have may be good today they certainly won’t be following the technology curve and going to where you need them to be tomorrow.

Ryan Cahoy is Managing Director of Rise Holdings, the parent company of Rise Vision (web app provider for digital signage management) and Rise Display (complete solution provider of LED Tickers, Video Walls, and Interactive Technologies). Follow Ryan’s posts on both company blogs at www.risevision.com/digitalsignageblog and www.risedisplay.com/blog.