Pervasive.TV

Digital Signage Expo 2008: Business Models plus IT, IP and TV

At the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas last week, the business models were far more interesting than most of the technologies on display. Everybody uses commodity information technologies, Internet Protocol networks and LCD or plasma flat panel displays. But the businesses they build around these common tools are in turn interesting, exciting, confusing or just a bit nutty. This week, I'll be reporting on the digital signage companies I visited, the conference sessions I attended and the smart people I talked to at the show. (Subscribe at the top of the next column to get the updates.) To a number of us, it seems a bit like the Internet in 1996: a few seasoned pioneers, a lot of sketchy upstarts, and a handful of big companies like Cisco staking out early acreage before the rush. Stay tuned.

Theatrical TV: 30 Foot Sex Goddesses Backup Elton John

The Mitsubishi Diamond Vision video wall at Las Vegas' Caesar's Palace Coliseum is a stunning use of out-of-home video. The $6 million LED screen measures 34 feet by 110 feet, the back wall of the 4,000 seat theater installed for Celine Dion in 2003. I'm sure Celine is wonderful, but I saw Elton John's Red Piano Tour with theatrical videos by director/photographer David LaChapelle.

House-sized images of Marilyn Monroe (portrayed by Susan Griffiths), Pam Anderson (poledancing x 5), Justin Timberlake and an army of buff, scantily clad dancers augment the songs in many different video styles spread across the 110 foot digital canvas. (The Red Piano Tour returns to Caesar's in March 2008.)

• View my YouTube playlist of clips from Elton John's Red Piano Tour.

With tickets starting at $250, filling 4,000 seats in Vegas means delivering a lot more spectacle than a singer/songwriter -- even a superstar -- with a six piece band. The wall-sized TV meets our expectations by illustrating the familiar songbook with edgy, sexy, sometimes surreal moving images full of visual references and emotional appeal. It's breathtaking performance art.

Wearable Video: Philips Lumalive Launches at IFA

Here's the kind of environmental video we described in Five Platforms. At the IFA show in Germany this month, Philips demonstrated Lumalive, colored LEDs embedded in textiles made into T-shirts, jackets and sofa coverings. It's very low res since the light has to shine through a layer of fabric, and for wearable apps the control circuitry and battery have to be minimal to save weight. There's probably not enough power for real-time updates over WiFi or 3G networks, although on-board storage and a Bluetooth link to a mobile phone gateway wouldn't be too hard to image.

Philips is looking for partners to commercialize the product, and inevitably the company's press packet touts the "dynamic advertising" possibilities. But it would be nice to think that today's digital youth would think up some more personal and creative applications.

Wretched Excess: Backpack TV Commercials

Japanese entrepreneur Emiko Miki, president of Tokyo-based Universal Planner Inc., has had a turbulent transpacific career in entertainment technology. Her latest invention, Chibi Vision, is a "mobile kiosk" with a 7 inch LCD built into a backpack like a walking sandwich board. Advertisers can rent the unit for 70,000 yen ($675) per day plus a "Back-Pack Girl." I suppose it's just a portable DVD player mounted inside the leather backpack, but she's got a U.S. patent for it! (also seen in Wired and Engadget)