BrightSign Focuses on 4K HDR Video at ISE 2016

BrightSign reveals its HDR focus for 2016 and points out areas currently being untapped by digital signage ahead of Integrated Systems Europe 2015 in Amsterdam.

CI Staff

Commercial Integrator‘s sister publication across the pond CI Europe spoke to Jeff Hastings, CEO of BrightSign about what the digital signage media player manufacturer has in store for ISE 2016.

CI Europe: What is BrightSign focusing on in 2016?

Hastings: As a company, our focus in 2016 is on larger deployments and all the aspects that make them successful. We are dedicated to providing solutions for easy, deployable, manageable signage rollouts with regard to both hardware and content management.

As always, our focus is also on providing extremely reliable digital signage media players that strongly contribute to a low total cost of ownership (TCO) for our customers.

Secondly, we will focus on enabling richer interactive experiences incorporating the latest mobile engagement technologies so that customers can directly interact with digital signage.

What are the company’s views on any major trends in digital signage at the moment?

The market demand for high quality and an engaging experience with digital signage is going up every year and expectations are increasing even more rapidly in 2016. When presented with a display, people expect the same quality they see on their mobile phones and tablets with regard to interactivity and image/video quality.

“Once you’ve seen HDR on a 4K screen, you won’t be satisfied with anything else.”—Jeff Hastings, BrightSign

4K HDR, though new this year, will become a mainstream expectation – and engaging experiences such as touch-screen interactivity, swipe, push notifications to mobile and interaction with signage from mobile devices will be key to successful digital signage deployments.

Are there any areas in digital signage that BrightSign thinks are either untapped, or could be tapped into more by digital signage manufacturers?

There are very few areas that are substantially penetrated in digital signage. Airport flight information signage is basically the only market that’s heavily penetrated. Virtually every other vertical market is a wide open playing field for digital signage.

As a case in point, big brand flagship stores in Manhattan and high streets in London are bursting with impressive, high profile digital signage installations. In less major metropolitan cities, the same brands still exist with print and light boxes. Once the pilots and trials are complete and deemed successful, the opportunities will abound.

What is BrightSign most proud of?

Deployments continue to get bigger every year and as the size goes up, the importance of reliability is paramount. A core focus at BrightSign has been and continues to be designing and manufacturing the most reliable and robust digital signage player on the market.

Our players have a 0.16% failure rate, are available globally and are supported by a qualified network of authorised distribution partners and VARs that provide support and turnkey services to our customers.

What has BrightSign got planned for the year ahead?

In 2016 we will continue to innovate in support of all the new AV standards and technology. We will focus on lowering the total cost of ownership for our customers and ride the continued expansion of market opportunities in all areas of digital signage.

More ISE 2016 Coverage.

What will be the company’s main focus at ISE 2016?

We will be showcasing our players’ support of 4K HDR video in our booth at ISE. HDR vastly increases the colour gamut to 1,024 shades of each colour, enabling a display of colours that couldn’t be reproduced on screen before.

Together, the higher resolution of 4K and the increased luminosity and richer colours of HDR will transform the viewing experience. Once you’ve seen HDR on a 4K screen, you won’t be satisfied with anything else. The experience is as good as high quality print.

We will also demonstrate another in-demand technology feature supported in BrightSign’s 6.1 firmware: Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE) and beacon support for digital signage applications of all kinds. BrightSign supports virtually any USB–connected beacon. Programmable beacons can send push notifications to mobile devices via the BrightSignApp, and Bluetooth integration directly within the BrightSign player platform enables two–way communication between signage and customer.

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