USING INTERACTIVITY TO STREAMLINE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DIGITAL SIGNAGE BEST PRACTICES HOW TO IMPROVE DIGITALISATION IN THE WORKPLACE CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS ON KIOSKS IN OPEN SPACES POWERING DOWN DIGITAL SIGNAGE - FIVE STEPS TO REDUCE POWER CONSUMPTION OF DISPLAYSCONTENTS 2KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE A round up of some of the latest kiosk and digital signage news to hit the editor’s inbox. With energy costs rising at 30% year over year, businesses are increasingly concerned about reducing consumption. The good news is that there are simple measures that can be taken to reduce the energy used by signage with no impact on its effectiveness. Jeff Hastings at Brightsign highlights five ways to minimise the energy consumption of your digital signage network. 2KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE 06NEWS 05EDITOR’S NOTE 20POWERING DOWN YOUR DIGITAL SIGNAGE - FIVE STEPS TO REDUCE POWER CONSUMPTION OF YOUR DISPLAYS 16CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS ON KIOSKS IN OPEN SPACES Publisher: Abacus Communications Editor: Laura Vallis Advertising: sales@kdseurope.com www.kdseurope.com Surrey Technology Centre, Surrey Research Park, 40 Occam Road, Guildford, GU2 7YG ISSN 2756-1097 The author and publisher, and its officers and employees, do not accept any liability for any errors that may have occurred, or for any reliance on their contents. All trademarks and brand names are respected within our publication. However, the publishers accept no responsibility for any inadvertent misuse that may occur. This publication is protected by copyright © 2022 and accordingly must not be reproduced in any medium. All rights reserved. Pete Alcock, Head of Product Marketing at NMI takes a look at the expectations around contactless payments since the pandemic and going forward.Implementing digital transformation into your business is essential for success. But with technological advancements dominating the business world, it’s important to assess the digital additions within your company to discover if they are making the expected improvements. Rose Moody, Creative Director at Vitec explores five ways to improve digital experiences in the workplace. Nadav Avni, Chief Marketing Officer at Radix Technologies presents some tried- and-true ways to keep digital display devices functioning at their best. CONTENTS 3 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE 28FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE DIGITAL EXPERIENCES IN YOUR WORKPLACE 24DIGITAL SIGNAGE BEST PRACTICES In our increasingly digital world, interactivity has slowly become the connecting bridge between human interaction and the online sphere. In the AV industry, interactivity is double-edged, encapsulating how AV providers use digital signage to engage customers, and how consumers respond. Tim Matthews, Senior Product Manager, TV and Visual Solutions for Vestel discusses. Promotions, organisational changes and new recruits across the kiosk and digital signage industry. 32HOW BUSINESSES COULD USE INTERACTIVITY TO STREAMLINE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE 36MOVERS & SHAKERS Would you like to contribute to KDS? Please submit news stories, articles, press releases and industry expert opinions to Laura Vallis editor@kdseurope.com. Please include high resolution (300dpi+ CMYK) images. We publish all news and articles that adhere to our editorial guidelines free of charge. This ensures our content is unbiased and relevant to our industry. The views expressed in the articles and technical papers are those of the authors and are not endorsed by the publishers. KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE magazine (KDS), is the leading technical journal for manufacturers, integrators and deployers of self-service terminals and digital signage integrators. Previously known as Kiosk Solutions, our team at KDS understands the industry’s growing demands and responded by expanding into kiosk’s complementary digital signage and wayfinding markets and rebranding accordingly. Published six times a year, KDS reaches a readership of 25,000 individuals throughout the UK and Europe, comprised of customer service directors, design engineers, project managers, CIOs, CTOs, CFOs and many more. This presents a unique opportunity to reach a qualified audience not available through any other channel. Independent KDS is an independent publication, aiming to offer an objective view of the industry. Articles may present newsworthy acts and/ or opinions of named companies, but all measures are taken to ensure that articles within KDS report the objective facts without bias. Editorial We welcome contributions and submissions of news, features, thought leadership posts and interviews from companies and individuals regarding the kiosk and digital signage industry. Send your story to the editor: Laura Vallis at editor@kdseurope.com. All editorial that we receive from third parties is subject to the editor-in-chief's ultimate approval, and submission of an article is no guarantee of publication. To ensure that all articles meet the editorial policy, we reserve the right to edit the whole or part of any material selected for publication. You can find our editorial policy on our website by clicking HERE. Advertising If you would like to discuss one of our advertising or advertorial packages please contact sales@kdseurope.com.While Covid may not be right at the forefront of our minds anymore, it’s definitely still there in the background. Yes, some good came from the awareness of Covid related healthy and safe activities, such as washing hands more regularly and frequent cleaning and sanitisation of public areas. And for our industry, there was also a positive increase in kiosk and digital signage usage. However, how we take these learnings going forward may not only pay dividends for our personal safety, it could also help broaden our industry further. Leading our feature articles in this issue, we take a look at the expectations around contactless payments on kiosks in open spaces since the pandemic. We ask how consumer behaviour and business confidence can impact the industry while forging opportunities. But increased usage of kiosks and digital signage also increases power consumption. With energy costs escalating at such a high rate, businesses are more and more concerned about reducing these bills. We consider some measures that can be taken to reduce the energy used with minimum impact on efficacy. We also explore ways of keeping digital display devices functioning at their best. Brightly lit digital signage may engage an audience positively, but a poorly maintained display can have the opposite effect if it can’t be viewed or is not displaying clearly or messaging is out of date. We love to hear your thoughts, opinions and considerations on the kiosk and digital signage industry, so why not get in touch to find out how you can get those opinions published? Did you know that we publish our feature articles free of charge? Get in touch with me at editor@kdseurope.com and join our KDS Europe thought leadership team. It’s a great way of getting your opinions out in the ether and provides our readership with thought-provoking and challenging narratives. I look forward to hearing from you. Laura Vallis Editor FOREWORD 5 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE TAKING THE POSITIVESNEWS IN BRIEF 6KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE MYTHOS MOZART INSPIRES WITH PIXERA The MYTHOS MOZART exhibition introduces visitors to the life and work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the form of a state-of-the-art immersive experience. The exhibition consists of five different rooms (‘Mozart’s world’). ‘REQUIEM – MOZART’S DEATH’, filled with 1,500 candles created by the British-German designer Moritz Waldemeyer. ‘VIENNA 1791 – MOZART’S CITY’ is a tour through historical Vienna in the form of 360° projections that combines cityscapes with a balloon ride. The third room, ‘WORLD MUSIC – MOZART‘S LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC’, is defined by interactive elements. ‘GENIUS – MOZART COMPOSING’, allows visitors to enter Mozart’s creative mind in the form of thousands of synaptic connections framed by light and music. In the final room, the LA-based new media artist Refik Anadol used artificial intelligence and millions of data points to create ‘MAGIC FLUTE – MOZART FOREVER’, an evocative world of fantastical imagery. The soundscape for the experience was composed and re-arranged by MYTHOS MOZART’s Musical Director, Walter Werzowa. The first preparations for the epic project began in 2019 and combined artistic and technical know-how of the highest calibre. PIXERA media server systems from AV Stumpfl were employed as the main video playback system. A total of eight PIXERA two, and three PIXERA one servers were installed to handle the video content and data. NSIGN.TV WINS DIGITAL SIGNAGE AWARD nsign.tv has won the Digital Signage Award 2022 in the ‘Retail’ category for a digital transformation project in Spain of a major multinational dedicated to retail. The Digital Signage Awards are the independent international awards in the field of digital signage, DOOH advertising and digital visual experiences. The digital transformation project for which nsign.tv has been awarded is one of the largest digital signage deployments carried out in Spain in recent years. The project included the digitisation of 14 stores of the multinational in different cities of Spain where a total of 500 broadcast points were installed (digital signage screens, LCDs, video walls, totems, projectors, LEDs etc), fully managed by the nsign.tv software platform. ViewSonic has introduced an industry-first 135in All-in-One Direct View LED display solution kit with a foldable screen. The foldable design significantly reduces the packaging size by nearly 50%, compared to the previous generation, offering greater convenience for transportation. With pre-assembled systems and a built-in motorised stand, this solution kit is ready for instant use, perfect for events, exhibitions, or any short-term usage. “In advancing our All-in-One LED Display Solution Kit series, we’ve taken the latest generation to new heights by extending the foldable concept to the extra-large display, adding tremendous convenience for various business uses,” said Dean Tsai, General Manager of Projector & LED Display Business Unit at ViewSonic. “With a folding 135in large screen, the new solution kit delivers stunning audio-visuals with greater mobility and lowered shipping cost. It can be widely used in the rental business, hospitality, or other industries. By improving the flexibility of our solution, we hope to assist customers to achieve their business goals.“ The 135in LED display can easily fit into both traditional freight elevators and large passenger elevators. The kit is pre-assembled with LED modules, cabinets, a system control box, and a motorised floor stand, all fitting into a moveable flight case. Once unboxed, the solution kit can be set up in minutes, saving time and effort for installation. VIEWSONIC UNVEILS FOLDABLE LED DISPLAY SOLUTION Moreover, with just a press of the control buttons, the stand height can be adjusted effortlessly to a maximum 65cm, and three heights can be set as preferences for convenient recurring use. With the 360° silent wheels, the display can be moved freely from one place to another.IMAGEHOLDERS KIOSK WINS FOR PADDY POWER imageHOLDERS’ bespoke kiosk technology has helped Paddy Power bridge the gap between online and in-store betting, with new interactive podium designs encouraging and optimising customer engagement. The new kiosk designs have an Elo 32in colour screen that offers Paddy Power customers a visually engaging array of features previously only available online. Along with core sporting information, the kiosk serves up data segmented by price, stats, markets, tipsters and visualised form. The screen is mounted at a comfortable height for standing customers, with a large display and wide viewing angle for multiple people to see it at the same time. In this way the imageHOLDERS kiosk is a digital evolution of the classic form guide pinned to the shop wall, but providing a world of richer, more engaging information. Reclaiming that wall space is a bonus, too. Paddy Power has been an imageHOLDERS customer since 2015, with the two brands collaborating on an ever-evolving range of retail solutions for the bookmaker’s 600+ retail shops. 7 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE NEWS IN BRIEF Do you have news to share? Publish your news and company announcements here. Contact: editor@kdseurope.com STAR MICRONICS DEMONSTRATES LATEST CLOUD SOLUTIONS At Restaurant & Bar Tech Live 2022 held in October 2022 at ExCel, London, Star Micronics exhibited its latest solutions for hospitality POS, mobile ordering, food labelling and self-service kiosk applications. These were demonstrated with a range of key hospitality payment and online ordering software partners. Introducing a number of new hardware products for hospitality POS and self- service kiosks alongside unique technologies critical to the changing nature of the hospitality sector, Star recognises POS technology has an increasingly important role to play in meeting higher customer expectations as well as demand for greater levels of convenience and choice. Star is renowned for reliable receipt, food label and kitchen order printing. Its CloudPRNT technology is available across a range of thermal receipt and label printers as well as matrix kitchen printers, providing the largest range of multi- platform remote cloud receipt and online ordering printers available today. The technology benefits hospitality venues by enabling customer orders to be sent directly to the printer from an online ordering service or app, eliminating the need for an additional tablet in the bar or restaurant. Moreover, Star CloudPRNT enabled printers are able to receive orders from multiple channels including POS, tablet, web and cloud which results in an efficient ordering and transaction process for any hospitality business. For venues that prefer a fully managed service, StarPrinter.Online dedicated service enables businesses to manage the printer estate with minimal setup time and cost. This allows printing direct from an ordering website through the REST API or direct from the page with JavaScript, or even via email; order emails can be forwarded directly to the chef’s printer for preparation. The ordering service can not only communicate directly with the printer to create print jobs but also receive the status of the printer estate. Thanks to an online dashboard, users have an overview of all devices and activity including reliable tracking of print jobs with notification of device status changes, barcode scans, new device connections to a group, etc. Additional printers and peripherals can simply be added without the need for server upgrades.NEWS IN BRIEF 8KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE NEW DISPLAYS FROM RDS Review Display Systems (RDS) has announced the introduction of a new range of high-performance, small-size TFT display modules. Available in a wide range of sizes and resolutions the full line-up of TFT displays offers excellent optical performance and features IPS (in-plane switching) technology, which ensures highly consistent image reproduction and colour saturation from all viewing angles (up/down, left/right). Contrast ratios are specified from 500:1 to 800:1. High brightness, white LED backlights are used throughout, providing brightness specifications ranging from 500cd/sqm up to 1000cd/sqm, which ensure display images are sunlight readable in high ambient light or outdoor environments. Justin Coleman, Display Business Manager, RDS said, “The new range of high-performance, small-size TFT modules produce bright, colourful display images, and will enable RDS to support a diverse range of portable and static applications including in-vehicle devices such as dashcams, domestic monitoring and metering equipment, and e-mobility systems to name but a few. Additionally, we can offer semi-custom display options to meet user specific requirements.” A range of display data interfaces are available. A wide operating temperature range of -30°C to +80°C ensures the display modules will operate reliably and dependably in extreme temperature environments. Projected capacitive and resistive touch panel options are supported to enable the implementation of on- screen graphical user interfaces. RDS can also offer user-defined display customisation to meet application specific display requirements. AIRXTOUCH PROVIDES ARENDT HEADQUARTERS WITH TOUCHLESS INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY iNUI Studio has announced the opening of a new vertical market – corporate industry – with the successful deployment of 29 of their interactive AIRxTOUCH KIOSKs at the headquarters of Arendt. The law firm was looking for an interactive solution to create an innovative and casual channel of communication with their staff, bringing them services while reinforcing social cohesion. With the staff in mind, Arendt chose a touchless solution enabling safe interactions to equip each Coffee Corner of two buildings. Through these interactive displays, they can interact with modules such as real-time traffic conditions, upcoming events, restaurant menu, internal communications and downloads. They can also reply to surveys, browse the photo reports to remember past events and share the screen with a colleague to have some fun! The interactive content delivered on the kiosks is directly managed by the Marketing and Communications Team of Arendt using SKA, the Azure cloud-based software platform also developed by iNUI Studio. This no-code solution enables Arendt’s marketing team to stay focused and have all hands on their communication strategy, without having to think about technical aspects. “Aesthetic has always been at the epicentre of the concept when we designed our product. Installing our systems in beautiful buildings such as Arendt’s is really great. The systems have been produced with an exclusive ‘Frosted white’ accent colour and they have been fixed to the wall, resulting in a very neat setup. Making this provision for prestigious clients in the corporate industry for their Coffee Corners and Reception areas is a part of our business development strategy, in Europe and North America,” said Olivier Raulot, Founder and CEO, iNUI Studio. “The way employees can communicate and connect with each other is crucial in a well-oiled workplace. The interactive AIRxTOUCH KIOSK, in combination with iNUI’s software platform, allows organisations to help their employees to feel heard, improve efficiency and provide an entertaining experience. Samsung’s professional displays have been an essential part in creating this stable and safe environment that performs on the highest level,” said Kristof Willems, Head of Product Management, Samsung Benelux. Based on powerful proprietary image processing algorithms, the patented AIR TOUCH technology delivers exceptional mid-air interaction (4cm from the screen) and the most complete User Experience available on the market. Allowing click, double-click, drag and drop, slide, and zoom interactions – with a precision of 3mm – AIR TOUCH is as easy to use as a conventional touch device.NEWS IN BRIEF 9 KIOSK AND DIGITAL SIGNAGE MAGAZINE VuWall has partnered with SkySoft-ATM to enhance control room operations with a comprehensive and integrated video wall solution. SkySoft’s best-in-class recording and playback solution is now compatible with VuWall’s TRx centralised video wall management platform. This integrated solution empowers operators with complete video wall management and control, recording and playback, for post-action review and incident analysis. “In air traffic management and control room monitoring environments, the first priority is live data and visuals, but there’s also a very pressing need to be able to review that information,” said Gregor Erler, Business Development at SkySoft-ATM. “SkySoft solutions allow operators to replay and analyse video, audio and data after they’ve occurred. Now, with this partnership, they can do that for entire video walls.” SkySoft’s software enables organisations to record the content of a video wall of any size, thanks to its modular and scalable architecture. This aligns perfectly with VuWall’s own approach to visualisation systems. Together, the companies solve the challenge of recording the huge number of pixels of a video wall with full synchronicity. “VuWall is continuously innovating on what it means to be a ‘comprehensive’ visualisation solutions provider,” said Maryse Montagne, Executive VP, Strategic Alliances at VuWall. “With SkySoft’s rich recording and playback capabilities combined with TRx, operators have the information they need, whenever they need it, and exactly how they need it to make faster better decisions.” In modern control rooms, a constant increase of live visual information and data streams come together. Operators must collaborate on a variety of systems, where they are able to act and react in real-time. But when decisions must be made within seconds, sometimes operators need to have a second look for a post-action review. SkySoft’s software features encrypted storage of video and audio data, with export capabilities; integration with third-party video and audio sources; and an intuitive, easy-to-use replay user interface. Together, SkySoft and VuWall, bring a complete and interoperable visualisation solution to control room operations that is secure, scalable and user-friendly. SENECA ANNOUNCES EXPANSION INTO EUROPE Seneca has announced that it is extending its operations in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. As part of the development, Seneca has expanded its integration and manufacturing operation within its Budapest facility to assemble an extensive range of products supporting the visual media and physical security markets. Part of Arrow’s intelligent solutions business, Seneca recently received Best of Show awards in the Audio Visual Technology category at the Integrated Systems Europe 2022 in Barcelona for its Element series media players and xConnect Guardian monitoring software. This recognition was mirrored in North America during InfoComm, where the Element was granted the Digital Signage Magazine Best in Market 2022 Award. James Stannard, VP sales of Arrow’s intelligent solutions business in EMEA, said, “These awards cement Seneca’s position in the industry as a world-class team of visual media experts and underscore the importance of our decision to expand our dedicated resources in EMEA.” VUWALL CERTIFIES SKYSOFT-ATM RECORDING AND PLAYBACK SOFTWARE ZYTRONIC UNVEILS PLAYER INTERFACE DEVELOPMENTS Zytronic has exhibited its latest player interface developments integrated into a slot-machine demonstration unit at this year’s G2E in October. The unit combines a variety of interactive solutions that aim to capture the imagination of system designers to create the winning touch. Visitors to the stand were able to experience the all-glass 19.5in interactive video button deck with a wireless phone charger and non- mechanical glass touch-enabled ‘bash’ button positioned within the transparent area of the button deck. The raised button also enables a tactile feel preferred by players when compared to an inert flat touchscreen. In addition to responding to a player’s tap, the button features a ring machined into its perimeter that dynamically changes it into a joggle wheel, enabling additional game features when appropriate software and content have been designed. The phone charger and the bash button appear to float without any visible cables, making this button deck stand out. Instead, they are powered through the glass via near-invisible 10-micron copper electrode tracks printed within the glass button deck structure, resulting in a sleek, uncluttered design. Overall, the entire button deck is easy to clean, not affected by fluid contamination on the surface, resilient to scratches from watches or other jewellery and can withstand some severe blows from over-enthusiastic gamers.Next >