Category Archives: Digital Signage

Utilization Down, Fab Closure, What’s Next for Taiwan?

Posted by David Hsieh in Desktop Monitors, Digital Signage, Equipment, Flat Panel Displays, FPD Industry News, Mobile PCs, TVs on November 13, 2008 | 5 comments

By David Hsieh, Vice President, Greater China Market

TFT LCD makers are now suffering from a deep downturn. According to the latest Quarterly TFT LCD Cost Forecast Reports with Annual and Quarterly Projections, panel prices are approaching cash costs, and some panel makers are already selling products for less than cash cost. Meanwhile, prices continue to fall. DisplaySearch estimates that in Q3’08 global capacity utilization was merely 84.5%, the lowest in 12 quarters. Suppliers based in Taiwan—like AUO, CMO and CPT—have indicated that their capacity utilization will be only 60-70% in Q4’08. In the meantime, depreciation of the Korean Won gives Korean TFT LCD makers a cost advantage in their efforts to take market shares from Taiwanese makers. Continue Reading

World’s Biggest Retailer Walmart Refreshes In-Store Digital Signage

Posted by Chris Connery in Digital Signage, FPD Industry News on September 22, 2008 | 4 comments

By Chris Connery, Vice President, PC and Large Format Commercial Displays, DisplaySearch, David Hsieh, Vice President, Greater China Market, DisplaySearch , and Paul Gagnon – Director, North American TV Research, DisplaySearch

The world’s biggest retailer Walmart is on the minds of many in the FPD industry as it continues to grow as a major outlet for FPD TVs as well as other consumer electronics products. Equally important is how it goes about merchandising these products. In an announcement (finally) made earlier last week, Walmart announced a refresh to its in-store digital signage network now dubbed Walmart Smart Network. Walmart is often stated by many to be the US’s fifth largest TV network (behind NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX) due to the foot traffic of Walmart with “120-130 million viewers a month” often mentioned. This upgrade to the existing Walmart TV requires new Digital Signage displays, which is great news for the industry.

The roll-out was publicly stated to include 27,000 Public Display/Digital Signage solutions over a two-year period. The integrator is the US’s largest provider of Digital Signage, Thompson’s PRN (Premier Retail Networks http://www.prn.com/) which has recently struck a deal with display provider Planar.

Figure 1 Examples of PRN’s Current Solutions for Walmart: 15”, 42” and 57” LCD Displays

LEDs Take Center Stage at the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony

Posted by David Hsieh in Digital Signage on August 12, 2008 | No comments

By David Hsieh, Vice President, Greater China Market, DisplaySearch

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games opened at 8:08 pm on August 8, 2008. This time has special meaning because the number 8 symbolizes “fortune” in China. So much about the ceremony was wonderful: the very large scale of the ceremony, the splendid fireworks show, the spectacular demonstration of Chinese culture, and the amazing coordination of the thousands of actors involved.

Of course, for those of us who are in the display industry, the enormous LED display right in the middle of the Bird’s Nest was the best part! This LED display Continue Reading

Advertisers to Pay for Digital Signage Infrastructure Swap-out, Says US Capital’s Mass Transit System

Posted by Chris Connery in Digital Signage, FPD Industry News on May 5, 2008 | 2 comments

by Chris Connery, Vice President, PC and Large Format Commercial Displays

As digital signage efforts continue to grow both locally and worldwide, more and more major out-of-home initiatives are being implemented. In what may be one of the most aggressive examples of expectations set by the digital signage industry, the Washington DC metro system has recently issued a “zero dollar” bid for a wholesale infrastructure swap-out of its printed advertising to digital signage. Officially dubbed The Metro Channel (TMC), the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) has issued an official (and public) RFP for a no-cost contract to support the following components of a digital signage installation for the nation’s second largest transit system:

Financing
Design / Build
Operate, Maintain, Create Content and Sell content Continue Reading

Who Pays for Digital Signage Infrastructure Change?

Posted by Chris Connery in Digital Signage on March 26, 2008 | No comments

by Chris Connery, Vice President, PC and Large Format Commercial Displays

In the highest rated session of the 10th annual USFPD conference, industry leaders NEC, LGE and Samsung all presented their outlook for the future of large-size FPDs in commercial environments, most notably in the Digital Signage market. Signs of collaboration between display companies and out-of-home (OOH) media companies such as JCDecaux, ClearChannel and others are all around but it seems that each of these two very different markets (the FPD industry—including both the LCD and the Plasma sectors—and the OOH Media Industry) look at the market from very different perspectives. Many of the largest players in the FPD industry clearly see the out-of-home advertising market as THE next big market for flat panel displays. Continue Reading