It’s been a busy year for Christie as it builds out more distribution infrastructure. In the last 12 months, Christie opened a dedicated 500 square metres branch in Madrid… a new purpose-built facility in Dubai… the set up of an office in So. Africa… and even the acquisition of VR Solutions in Australia (which will be rebranded as Christie after closing).

And now the latest news in EMEA: Christie opens a new office in France near Paris with triple the surface area. The new facility now occupies over 1000 square metres and hosts an area dedicated to service and training.

It also has several dedicated spaces including a showroom for staging live demos, several rooms for seminars and training courses, along with an extended sales open space. Partners and service providers will receive training on Christie’s products such as projectors and video processors, along with hot technologies and software such as Christie Autostack and Christie Twist.

The French office covers various territories including France, the Netherlands, Belgium’s Wallonia and No. Africa.

The ITU gets its fingers into almost everything that touches telecom...which for them now includes the internet.  So it's no wonder that the ITU is lobbying for digital signage standards and also publishing its own thoughts on digital signage.

An ITU-T Technology Watch Report gives an overview of digital signage technologies and their major applications, assesses the latest trends in DOOH and outlines the need for interoperable standards for digital signage products. 

ITU-T Study Group 16 has already started work on a Framework for Digital Signage Services. Recognizing that a useful foundation has been laid for the similar IPTV application space of IPTV, much work remains to be done in order to achieve an all-embracing digital signage suite of standards. This suite, as envisioned by ITU, would also include screen-media formats and associated advertising units, network requirements, security and privacy enhancing solutions, test cases, etc. Extensive collaboration with the digital signage industry and its interest groups should contribute to taking the next steps without duplication of effort.

ITU-T Study Group 16 wants a particular focus on identifying links to related technologies (e.g., IPTV, cloud computing) and on leveraging the full potential of the medium: interactivity, pervasiveness and context awareness, and its integration into the Internet of Things.

Like in IPTV, ITU-T thinks it should consider organizing similar events (as in IPTV) to demonstrate seamless global interoperability of digital signage products of different vendors.

ClearOne releases its MagicBox on-premise Entry-Level Server (ELS) to extend its web-based, digital signage offering.

The ELS runs MagicBox WebSuite software applications for digital signage, including content creation and asset management inside a browser for content management experience--from design to verification. The ELS is available with upgradable licensing options to support 5, 15 or 25 media players.

In addition to releasing the ELS, the existing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud-based MagicBox WebSuite is also enhanced with some new features:

Says Tom Searcy, VP ClearOne Digital Signage Business. "New features in the MagicBox WebSuite software improve the control of multiple media players at one or many locations and also provide flexibility and access for multiple users with different management rights in the system. By offering both the ELS and SaaS models, our digital signage customers now have the option of hosting with either an on-premise server or a cloud-based solution, according to their digital signage requirements and business models."

Go MagicBox WebSuite Software

They’re calling it “the World’s Largest DOOH installation.” No wonder NanoLumens is celebrating.

Brazil’s newest (and most advanced) subway line, São Paulo Metro Line 4 also known as Yellow Line or ViaQuatro, will have Terra Latin America install nearly 2000 digital displays throughout the line’s 11 stations.

The centerpiece of the project will be the multi-million dollar installation of 8 large-format NanoLumens LED displays, including a 5-meter diameter by 2-meter tall 360-degree display. One million daily commuters will view these displays.

At the NanoLumens office, they are giving out sweet treats in the lobby. NanoLumens is so festive even the massive LED displays featured in their showroom are in Halloween spirit by dressing up as NanoLanterns.