At InfoComm last week, I ran into a number of AV contracting companies looking at digital signage offerings. Really? …you say… But I mean, the big AV rental companies that have the in-house AV contracts for the big business hotel chains. This has traditionally been a “rental and staging” market phenomenon, not digital signage.
But things are changing.
I remember, when InfoComm was in Anaheim, couple years back, I went to a dinner at a country club, hosted by Unique Business Solutions (provider of rental management software to AV rental companies). I sat, at that dinner, at a table with five or six guys, to execs– from the most prominent AV rental companies in the U.S. When I brought up the subject of digital signage, and why I thought it was a natural fit for all of them, almost everyone at the table said they had looked at it, and they really were not interested. Their business model on the AV rental side–renting AV gear to the meetings that book into a big hotel–did not really accommodate the more permanent installation aspect of digital signage.
Several of the guys–owners of big, sophisticated AV companies, said that it was a nuisance when a big hotel asked them “if they could do some digital signage in the lobby”. It was more trouble than it was worth, most agreed. The hotel often half-expected them to throw in some digital signage offerings as part of the AV contract. Not much $ to be made, they said. I mentioned that I knew some providers… Omnivex, X20, and some integrators, that were doing quite well in that market.
But that was then. This is now. At this year’s InfoComm in Orlando, a good friend of mine who was for years, up until about a year ago, one of the top closers for a major Hotel rental AV company–getting the big chains to sign on to his firm for the in-house AV contract–is still at the same company, but he is now selling digital signage services to those same clients (I emphasize “selling”, not giving away). We chatted quite a bit at InfoComm last week. He’s doing great. And so is his company.
What can I say? I love it when I’m right…