Revolutions are funny things.
Most are loud bloody affairs full of fury and stout umbrages.
Others sneak up on you with a quiet persistence.
The American Revolution created a completely new country and culture. The shock waves of the French Revolution are still oscillating through the system.
Then there are the movements which take power in simple, subtle actions. The Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia is a remarkable example of change without firing shots. In 1989 a movement lead by artists and students created a constant and unstoppable political uprising.
The protests started with the Jingling of keys to symbolize that is was time to unlock the doors of power and let others in.
The Velvet Revolution is not celebrated around the world with holidays and its glories are not immortalized in grand paintings. In fact, many do not know it happened at all. It was the foundational crack which facilitated astounding changes in Moscow.
Little Italy Is Now Chinatown
Another power shift may be happening on the show floor of Infocomm 2015.
Placed between the newest interfaces, HDBaseT collaborators, and the LED light brigades is the digital signage space.
The space is deceptive, overtaking real estate much as New York City’s Chinatown has taken over what was once Little Italy. On the face of it there can be some confusion as to what the to-do is all about, but these are the folks who are making the future.
The show floor in general is abuzz with talk of IoT, streaming delivery, cloud services and, subscription service solutions. While there has been a lot of dreaming, pontification and some actual application in the integration industry, the DOOH (digital out of home, or digital signage) folks have been doing it.
Watch a RealFiction digital signage demo complete with Star Wars treatment:
Tomorrow Is Today
Now before you scoff and dismiss this premise with an outdated view of digital signage as nothing more than flat panel hangs, listen up.
The content these systems provide is nearly ubiquitous for anyone who steps out the door of their home—from food menus to corporate messaging and point of sales systems. In order to feed these distributed endpoints a robust and low impact method of delivery is required.