InfoComm 2013 will devote more attention to digital signage at its annual event, June 8-14 in Orlando, Florida.

Digital signage is one of the most rapidly expanding fields in pro AV with applications in retail, corporate, hospitality, institutional markets and more.

So what will there be to see at InfoComm 2013 in digital signage?

The new InfoComm Executive Director and CEO David Labuskes, CTS, RCDD says “…InfoComm 2013 is the largest digital signage marketplace for institutional buyers and technology managers in retail, government, corporate and hospitality spaces.”

The Digital Signage Pavilion on the show floor will show innovative products from the manufacturers, best practices presentations and training.

The Digital Signage Presentation Stage, located in the pavilion, will feature case studies and strategic advice throughout the show.

Without much fan fair, Barco bought one of the leading wireless transmission (wireless high-resolution video and audio) company today for $7.1 million dollars.

Founded in Taiwan in 2003 and employing about 60 people, AWIND technology is used in the majority of the projector manufacturers for wireless video/audio transmission (e.g., Epson, Sharp and Sony).

AWIND's wireless transmission system includes its own branded "black box" hardware, embedded firmware, wireless networking and software for Windows, Mac, Mobile and Linux. The system supports resolutions up 2048x1536.

You may also know AWIND from its USB dongle called WiGA, which allows for video and audio from a Mac or PC via a USB port to a projector or HDTV:

Obviously Barco will leverage AWIND for its ClickShare strategy. This is a good move for Barco since well over 65% of the wireless video and audio transmission systems (without Apple's AirPlay) on the market are using the AWIND technology.

Go Barco's ClickShare

Go AWIND

When you search the word “Sapphire” on Google Search, you’ll find 174 million references but Sapphire Technology comes up first, Number One even ahead of its namesake, the valuable gem.

While visitors at ISE might have been unfamiliar with this new entry in digital signage, some will recognize the Sapphire Technology brand as a famous maker of computer graphics cards.

Like Intel or Microsoft, Sapphire Technology is making the jump from IT to digital signage. Unlike Intel or Microsoft, Sapphire showed up with a stand at ISE.

They showcased a lineup of AV signal distribution and digital signage hardware and software offerings at ISE 2013-- with player PCs, extenders, splitters and video wall components driving a number of demos at the show.

At ISE, MultiTouch exhibited “the world’s most advanced multi-touch display, the MultiTaction Cell 55” with ultra-thin bezel, All-in-One 42” & 55” multi-touch displays with Windows 8, MultiTaction Management Suite and its first application, MultiTaction Site Manager for remote management of interactive displays.

You could also find a prototype of Android on MultiTaction and a demo of Hybrid Tracking, MultiTouch’s new technology that allows interactive displays to be used in bright external lighting conditions

MultiTouch debuted the MultiTaction Codice. Personalized for each user in the form of a 2D barcode, Codice allows all digital signage, and other interactive display users, to send content directly to their emails just by using their personal ‘Codice’ marker.

We got a chance to see a sneak peek of the new Scala Enterprise this week. Visitors of Digital Signage Expo 2013 will be able to experience the newest version of Scala’s software that includes a totally redesigned user experience, new features and improvements.

Scala will showcase HTML5 and Android player support, the usage of interactive features on mobile devices to engage with retail and corporate communications audiences, new Facebook and Twitter integrations and Scala’s collaboration with the new Samsung Smart Signage Platform.

Swiss digital signage manufacturer SpinetiX introduced at ISE a new software called Elementi to make it easy to create and organize digital signage projects. Customers can choose between three license types of Elementi, all compatible with the range of SpinetiX HMP Hyper Media Player devices:

Elementi S allows for a quick project creation thanks user tools such as icon based toolbars, ‘drag & drop’ actions and media timelines.

Elementi M, a powerful answer for team based content editing and publishing. In a multi user environment, team members can have different roles and access to a shared network.

Elementi X is the all in one digital signage solution for ultimate professionals. Elementi X allows experts monetizing Fusion template, skin and widget creation. It comes with a full set of advanced developer tools.

A free trial version of Elementi – available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Chinese – can be downloaded.

Go Download a Free Trial Version of Elementi

More than 10,000 of the hottest technology products from more than 925 companies will be featured at InfoComm 2013 in Orlando, Florida, June 8-14.

We know what you are thinking: you just finished a big ISE (infoComm’s sister show in Europe) and you have show fatigue written all over your face. So why should you attend InfoComm in USA?

Not everybody in Europe should. But InfoComm 2013 will have more than 500,000 net square feet of show floor exhibits and special events space. More than 35,000 professionals will attend the show and more than 4500 international attendees from 90 countries outside of North America will make that decision to visit InfoComm 2013.

You may have easily missed a great new product at ISE 2013 because it was a big show. But here we are thinking about a product you missed because the company didn’t join ISE 2013. It wasn’t there.

The company missed ISE 2013-- not because it has no money and not because it had a conflict like BETT. (It did have a stand at BETT but the company didn’t bother to bring the “AV” along to BETT either.)

By now you may have guessed we are talking about Microsoft.

Last year Microsoft traded their multi-touch Surface brand to their PC division to bail out their receding position laptops. Then Microsoft bought Perceptive Pixel, the multi-touch display company best known for making the giant touchscreen used on CNN.