Interactive Donor wall in the Synnex Booth

While 3 days on my feet working a booth at Infocomm seemed like an eternity, I spoke to several AV integrators that didn’t even have a chance to see the entire exhibit hall over the 3 days.  The show floor continues to grow year after year and I was impressed with how the digital signage section has grown into a sizable footprint.  Just a few years ago it was a small portion of the show while today it has evolved into one of the feature areas.

While I did see lots of “new” technology from vendors and partners I didn’t run into anything that blew me away as revolutionary.  There were a lot of new software faces or people evolving their product from another area into software for digital signage but the most common theme was “me to”.  The one trend that I did notice with all of the software companies was the advancements into interactivity.  If there is one inevitable trend in digital signage it is the fact that people want to touch the content and interact with it.  As software and content advance to improve the user experience the hardware and touch technology are getting more economical and more functional making for a bright and exciting future for digital signage.

Interactive Touch Screens, Software-as-a-Service

I was flying through the Greenville, SC airport a few weeks ago when I noticed some Flight Information Displays with an unusual static sign on them – “Do Not Touch Screen”.

This tells me not only has the public embraced digital signage, but they want to interact with it.   The advancements in touch screen technology from personal communication devices such as iPhones and Blackberries have trained us how to interact with content and as a society we have come to expect every LCD display to be respond to our touch.

As interactivity becomes more common it will be less about the content and more about the experience.  Just telling your client about your latest promotions or programs won’t be enough.  They will want to touch it, resize it, make it larger, zoom in, or move on to something that is of more interest to them all of this while providing an experience that is fun and cool.

The inevitable trend for 2009 and beyond is interactivity, so if you are considering digtial signage you should investigate making it interactive.

Interactive Touch Screens