By Lyle Bunn

As Las Vegas plays host to the annual InfoComm tradeshow and conference this June, delegates can feast their eyes outside the event on some of the most advanced applications of dynamic digital display.

The competition for entertainment, dining, attraction, and gaming dollars is intense, and the use of digital signage has become an art form as it has grown as a competitive tool. Architectural media, which integrates dynamic display into physical structures, and the use of single or tiled flat panels for ambiance, branding, and merchandising make Las Vegas a symphony of light-based messages.

In a new deployment at the World Market near Freemont Street, 130 digital signage displays are networked to serve the current 1500 furniture industry tenants with news and promotional capabilities (and complete synchronization with PDA devices and search tools that help buyers and sellers connect) in this business-tobusiness facility that is becoming the nexus of North America’s furnishings industry. The World Market deployment will be a featured case study during InfoComm 2010.

In a new deployment at the World Market near Freemont Street, 130 digital signage displays are networked to serve the current 1500 furniture industry tenants with news and promotional capabilities.

The casino environment uses digital signage (DS) for several purposes.

• To establish and heighten aspiration: Where retailers workplace, sports venue, and campuses use DS to remind and motivate attitudes and motivate behaviors toward a desired action and outcome, casino DS must do this especially well.

• To present a call to action: Viewer engagement with placebased media offers the opportunity to inform, brand, and merchandise simultaneously. The merchandising aspect is in motivating action by the viewer and “activating” a buying decision.

• Reinforce the brand: A key to the perceived quality of an experience is to reinforce a sense of the value proposition and motivate future engagement.

Casinos offer a challenging patron and prospect environment in which many digital signage practices are being advanced to:

• Define and refine communications goals
• Maximize the relevance of content messaging
• Harmonize the look and feel of content with the presentation environment and viewer experience
• Compose content messaging to attract attention and motivate action
• Clarify optimal playloop, daypart, and content triggering structures
• Viewer targeting
• “Localize” content
• Minimize costs through content repurposing, refreshment, and layering
• Link to databases and RSS feeds
• Optimize digital signage related to other communications devices

While casinos are a complex and demanding communications environment where messages must compete for attention, the best practices of other message consumption environments such as retail, sports, arts, attractions, work, and study environments can apply.

Lyle Bunn is an independent consultant and educator in North America’s Digital Signage industry. Lyle@LyleBunn.com