But, the long answer is it will. Huh?

Since you elected to read past the short answer or at least this far let me begin with a clarification on all of this, and my apologies for the controversy this might cause for some.

There is no such thing as digital signage. There used to be. But there isn’t anymore. Trust me, I should know, I am one of the first of a very small group of people that started doing this stuff back in the early nineties. Back then we built stand alone applications that drove LED displays and they moved with time to LCD and all of it used proprietary formats. Advertisers advertised on TV, radio and print. Digital signage was used as barbershop poles to attract customers or as information displays to inform employees. There wasn’t much more to it then that.

Then the Internet exploded. People stopped watching TV in droves, newspapers and print mediums started imploding and the only thing that seems to have survived so far is radio. And we all started saying “I don’t know, check the web” or “Google it”. We all started looking to the Internet for what we needed every moment of the day and as can be expected advertisers followed us. While all of this was going on someone got the great idea that digital signage was all about the digital out of home (DOOH) network. And DOOH was very special, it needed it’s own standards bodies, etc. and we needed advertisers to consider it as it’s own medium. And we needed them to buy up space in droves and everyone started running around talking about 1,000′s of display roll-outs to umpteen different locations, next month, and they were going to make millions, if not billions, and other crazy talk like that. And the business types, myself included, in DOOH or whatever you wanted to call it, started building out proprietary systems to support this new market cause we either didn’t know better, or we wanted to lock the customer in. I confess, it was both for me.

And, the changes didn’t stop there. We now have what I call personal displays. These are the mobile phones, the smart phones and the Ipads and soon to be followed by Android slates, yes, I am a cynic, I didn’t say Windows Mobile slates, and the giants of web advertising (Google) and the hardware that most of this runs on (Apple) started fighting over who would buy what mobile advertising company. And if that wasn’t enough, TV or what is left of it, is being ripped out of the cable giant hands and is being delivered to all of us across the ubiquitous IP network – the Internet. Hulu, Apple TV and now Google TV, are all coming to take the cable giants lunch.

Which brings us to right here, right now. So… what does all of this mean for digital signage? It doesn’t exist anymore as we know it:

• There are displays – my desktop, my notebook, my smart phone, my Ipad and, dare I say it “back to the future”, the large format barber shop pole display.
• The mechanism for delivering the message is the web. Read Internet.
• The medium of the web is HTML.
• Interoperability across all displays and mediums and their delivery mechanisms is critical. Interoperability means open, non-proprietary standards that will enable everyone to partake, add and leverage what is available.

So where do us now extinct digital signage types fit? We have to become enablers of all of the above. We have to fit and deliver within the convergence of the display, delivery mechanism, content medium and the open standards and we must do it such that our customers can create once and deliver everywhere with maximum interoperability. Don’t sweat this, this is what we’re doing for you with the Rise Vision platform (unabashed plug I know!).

Enough ranting I’m sure. Back to the question. How will we support proof of play? We will enable advertising systems and their logging (proof of play) that work across all display types so that the campaign can be managed across all mediums. We’re not going to build this. We’re going to enable through interoperability the use of other systems that specialize in just this. We’re working on it and it will be available, in time, in Rise Vision.

• Why is the Rise Vision platform better than it’s predecessor, the Rise Display Network application?
• How does a Network Operator sell this system?
• Why would an end user want a premium subscription from a Network Operator versus a free subscription?

Without further adieu let’s see if I can answer these:

Why is the Rise Vision platform better than it’s predecessor, the Rise Display Network application?

We call it a “platform” rather than an “app” because it let’s our Network Operators build niche specific product offerings for their customers on top of it. They don’t just use and resell an app,  they take advantage of the platform to create a unique offering.

There are no proprietary formats. All content is HTML and more importantly HTML5. Our user interface provides for a simple means for anyone to create Presentations but more importantly any web designer can bypass the editor and create completely customized web pages – if it can be done on the web it can be done on our digital signage. All of the skills that web designers have amassed creating great web experiences are fully transferable to the Rise Vision platform.

You can use this platform to create niche market specific content, wrap it as a Gadget, and make it available to all of your clients, in their Presentations, within the niche market you target. We have given you the means to wrap and package those competitive advantages and make them easily transferrable to all of your clients.

Your Presentations are a web page. Practically anything that runs on the web, is available as a web service, embed or snippet, can be placed in your Presentation. The interoperability possibilities are endless, especially when it comes to leveraging social media and bringing that interaction to your displays.

Your Presentations can be interactive. Any form of touch or remote interface that supports a web page is able to support our Presentations.

Your Presentations are location aware. They know where they are being shown. You can leverage all forms of social media and location based marketing, just place that gadget, widget, web snippet, whatever, into your Presentation and send it to a 1,000 different locations and each location will show what is specifically relevant to where that display is.

Your Presentations are a URL. Send that URL to anyone or link to it from any web page and your intended audience can immediately view that Presentation from their browser. No software to install.

And we took it a step further. Our server manages digital signage. It talks to our user application with the exact same API that we have made available to you at http://code.google.com/p/risevision/ and it serves that content to your displays via that same API, and, it can bundle Gadgets right into your content with our Gadget Extensions API at http://code.google.com/p/risegadgets/. Our User interface, Viewer and Gadget applications are all open source. You can use any of them to build your own applications. This means that not only can you completely customize your content but you can also wrap it in an app that speaks directly to the market you are after, IF YOU SO CHOOSE. This isn’t mandatory and you don’t need to start building out apps, it’s here, for those who want it.

And to make it even easier, all documentation that we publish is available under a creative commons license. Take what we have done and use it as the basis to document your new app.

And last, but definitely not least. This platform can scale. We built in on the Google App Engine which means that we never, ever, have to worry about server loads and international access points. Roll out as many displays as you want, wherever you want.

How does a Network Operator sell this system?

Take advantage of all of the above and provide your clients with a product that no one else can. A product that speaks specifically to your client’s needs and what they want to do.

Why would an end user want a premium subscription from a Network Operator versus a free subscription?

Free subscriptions only update once per day, they have no support, and they are advertising sponsored. You provide provide premium subscriptions that update nearly instantly, that are fully supported by you, you bring all of the above customization to the client and any or all of the following; consulting, procurement, deployment, training, creative, ad management, monitoring, support, on-site maintenance and customized development. We don’t do this. Free subscriptions don’t provide this. Free subscriptions just provide a very easy way for someone to learn what’s possible and if they are serious about digital signage they are going to need the expertise of a Network Operator to roll it out and manage it.

One last point. The beta roll-out to existing Network Operators starts next Tuesday.

Google Gadgets are dynamic web content that can be placed on any page on the web. Gadgets can be games, mini applications, news feeds, maps or any content…

With Google Gadgets anyone who has a free Google account can create and publish them without having to pay for the cost of hosting them like you would with a traditional web page. Other users can add the Gadget to their iGoogle page or altenatively web designers can copy and modify the Gadget and put it on their web site. Gadgets can be hosted directly on the Google directory as well as on the user’s iGoogle home page. Google Gadgets do not need to be published to the public Google directory if the gadget creator doesn’t wish to.

And here is the next best part; you can host your Gadget in the Google cloud and put it on everyone of your displays for absolutely no cost. You don’t need to pay a thing to have that Gadget hosted.

Gadgets can be simple or complex, and anyone can make the simple version. You don’t need to be a programmer, you just need an idea and the Google Gadget Editor, which you can add to your iGoogle Page, preview all your Gadgets there and when you’re ready, save your Gadget to the Google cloud. The best introduction on how to do this that I have found is this one http://www.seoish.com/how-to-make-google-gadgets/. It will take about 20 minutes to go through all 7 steps and by the end of it you will know just about everything that you need to make or manage the development of Gadgets. For the more complex Gadgets, you may want to contract a Professional Gadget Developer, of which there are plenty. Just do a Google search for “Google Gadget Developers” to see what I mean.

To get your Presentations started we are creating what we call Seed Gadgets. These are generic Gadgets that we’re building that anyone can use to add content to their Presentations. The Gadgets have been built with the same Developer API that is available to you and we have released all of them as Open Source under an MIT License on a Google Project here. We want you to take them, use them, modify them, whatever you need to build the amazing content that you want to make. Some of the Gadgets that we have created so far include:

• Single Image and Text Gadget
• Google Presentation Gadget
• RSS Gadget
• Background Gadget
• Google Wave Gadget

• Video Player Gadget
• Veetle IPTV Gadget
• Sliderocket Presentation Gadget
• Picasa Image Slideshow Gadget

And now here is where you come in. I need ideas for more Gadgets. I would like to build and release one or two per month from this point on. Please keep in mind that we don’t want to build niche market specific Gadgets, that is where you, our Operators, come in, but we do want to build and seed an amazing set of core Gadgets. So, what Gadgets would you like me to build? If you have any ideas drop us a note to support@risevision.com.

Take a look at some of the features of Sliderocket:

• Import existing Powerpoint slideshows into Sliderocket
• Create polls that users can text in their responses to and it updates in real time
• Show quotes from famous or historical people.
• Stock prices that update in real time.
• Twitter feeds based on keywords that update in real time.
• Link to Google Spreadsheets and create graphs from those spreadsheets that update when any data is changed.
• Add Youtube videos directly into the presentation.

You can create a Sliderocket presentation and insert it into your existing RDN presentations using the “Share” link provided, and we are currently building a Gadget for the next release that supports Sliderocket presentations for which the specifications are here.

What is the maximum number of displays that an operator can have? Is 5,000 too many?

No. Because we have used the Google App Engine our application can scale on demand, and the way App Engine is constructed the more demand there is, the more computing cycles Google devotes to it. It actually gets faster. Not slower.

Are there regional limitations? What happens if those 5,000 displays are in Europe?

Once again because we have used the Google App engine for our backbone we have no geographic limitations.

If I have 5,000 displays under 1 Network Operator account does it still only cost $150 per month?

Yes. That’s all it costs.

When a Network Operator brands the application is the Rise brand visible anywhere?

Yes. Our user application has a Powered By Google Apps and a Platform by Rise Vision link in the bottom footer. The Terms of Service and Privacy are ours for legal reasons, otherwise all other markings, banners, help, support, sales and news URL’s are customizable. Our help and forum sites are branded by us but a Network Operator can replace the links to them if they so choose. And further, we have released all of the content on these sites under a creative commons license. Any network operator can take the content we provide and repurpose it for themselves. It should be further noted that our user application has been released under an open source license as well and all the API’s that it uses to communicate with our core server are public. You can take our source and build / brand your own application that uses our server if your so inclined.

Why are you publishing your price?

The cost of software is being driven to zero. That means the margins for supporting complex sales structures and channels, each with their own overheads, etc. cannot be sustained. Given this our operator subscriptions and pricing will be available from our web site and publicly known as that will be the only distribution point we will use, aside from an affiliate program to be released later. How much an operator marks our cost up is up to them, but given that we publish our price and the entire industry, not just us, is driving the cost of software to zero, I would not put a business model around this margin point. Sorry, I just wouldn’t do it, this change is inevitable. I would instead build a business around what we don’t do; hardware, consulting, procurement, creative, custom development, support, monitoring, advertising, etc. etc. These are the critical services that every digital signage user needs to compliment our product.

Will existing Network Operators be able to continue to add to displays to the existing Rise Display Network?

Yes, but the Rise Display Network software is at it’s end of life. Given this we do not recommend that you role out new, large networks on it. It will have minimal maintenance and all innovation will be focussed on the new platform, which provides so many more opportunities for an Operator to add value to their network.

The new Rise Vision Operator Subscription price of $150 per account when compared to the Rise Display Network cost of $15 per display will not be cost effective for small networks of less than 10 displays.

Right. It won’t. And this is a perfect opportunity for the larger Network Operators to provide this service to small networks. This is where you can add value.

What is the difference between a Free, Premium and Operator subscription?

Any user can sign up for a Free Subscription but those displays only update once per day, they don’t have monitoring or support and the application is advertising supported. If a User wants their displays to update almost instantly, have monitoring and no advertising then they need a Premium Subscription. To have a Premium Subscription the User must sign up with an Operator. The cost of the Premium Subscription is between the Operator and the Premium user. An Operator subscription has the ability to have as many clients, users and displays under them as they want, it costs $150 per month, they can brand their network and they provide support to their Premium accounts with all of their other services.

What does advertising supported mean on the free version?

It means that we are reserving the right to include advertising both in the system to manage the digital signage content and also on the actual target digital signage display. At this point we don’t know if or how we will do this, but we want to put it on the table that we are going to keep that option open for ourselves. Keep in mind this only applies to the free version.

Will our subnetwork accounts also be charged $150 per month 3 years from now?

You will be charged $150 per month for each network operator account that you have, including your own. A network operator account gives the account holder the ability to manage sub accounts and brand their network. Any regular accounts, i.e. typical end user digital signage accounts, are included within the $150 per month fee for your network operator account. You won’t be charged for those.

Will we be able to purchase the current version at a cost of $15 per month?

We will continue to support the current version of Rise Display Network but we cannot guarantee the price charged. We are currently negotiating with Dow Jones as they have imposed a fee for every display that shows their index and we will unfortunately have to pass that cost along once it is confirmed, and as everyone migrates to the new system the number of appliances on the Rise Display Network will continue to decline and we could come to the point where the costs of running that network are only being carried by a few remaining appliances. At that point we may have to adjust pricing as well. The cost of operating the Rise Display Network is considerably greater than the cost of operating the new Rise Vision Application.

Who can be a beta tester?

Only our existing resellers. Sorry, we’re not opening it to anyone else until we have a full public release in the fall.

Will a TV tuner be able to be used with the new software?

First thing to keep in mind is that the new system is wide open. Anyone can add anything to it if they choose to. Either by creating a Google Gadget, writing custom HTML or creating their own applications for Players or the actual user interface to manage the system. We have open sourced most of the applications, used open source gadgets and we have published all of our API’s.

Having said that. At this point in time we are not prepared to support hardware directly. We are trying desperately to be completely hardware independent. This especially includes TV Tuners. However, we are currently building a gadget to support IPTV and that gadget can utilize a TV tuner as the source of that content.

How are we going to make money?

Making money is defined as the difference between what you earn and what you spend. If you don’t spend much it doesn’t take much to make money.

By moving to the Google App engine we are going realize considerable savings.

By becoming a virtual organization we have realized considerable savings – I am very glad to tell you that we just shut down our last in-office server on Friday and put our pbx in the cloud. Our really big, very nice office in Etobicoke is up for sublet and we’re looking for a new space, that is much smaller, and only has one purpose – to facilitate getting together every couple of weeks for product planning sessions.

By releasing open source applications and API’s for the platform and using HTML, HTML5 and Google Gadgets for our content, we are allowing you, our resellers and integrators, to make this your application, highly customized where you want it to be, we only focus on the platform, nothing else.

And we’re done with traditional marketing and all regurgitated hype that goes with it. I particularly started jumping up and down yelling yes! yes! yes! when I read this post on Dave Hayne’s blog last week; ”… Imagine an industry in which no one beat their chests emptily about being the global leader in cutting-edge, state of the art signage solutions that help businesses cross the chasm into the 21st century!!! What an inflection point! Without all that blabber, companies would actually have to say what they do and why people  should care. I know … a crazy thought.” Thank you Dave!

This blog and the new web site that will launch in the fall is our vehicle to reach you. We’re going to tell it like it is – for good or for bad. We are not hiring PR people to wrap it all up in corporate speak. We’re not going to send glossy catalogues to you in the mail and we sure as heck are not going to spam you either. We’re going to use our web site, our blog and a soon to be released referral/affiliate program to spread what we do. We’re only charging $150 per month for our network operator service so we’re not going to hire expensive sales types to travel the world to meet with you, talk to you and generally harangue you. We’re making a limited version of the product free and if you like it, take out an operator account and if you don’t – pretend you never tried it.

If you want to pay for the hype, the gloss, the corporate bloat, the salespeople, their travel costs, expensive trade shows, and all of that other stuff that we just don’t think adds any value to the product, then you should definitely check out a few of our competitors. We on the other hand are going to focus on making sure we have the lowest cost of operation in the industry, and, we also have a few other new revenue sources that we’re just not prepared to talk about quite yet. Stay tuned!

What should a reseller charge?

It is up to you to create value and therefore determine your price. If your going to take our product and not provide expertise, procurement, deployment, creative, advertising, development, support, monitoring or any other number of really valuable services that digital signage users need and we don’t provide, forget it, the end user isn’t going to need you that much.  However, if you do provide one or more of the above then that is worth a premium and you need to charge for it. How much? That depends upon what you provide, what your cost basis is, and your volume. In other words, we are not giving guidance on price, our only advice is to make sure that you add great services to our network, and if you do, make sure you charge for them – cause the end user will need you.

When will we provide media player bundles?

When we release the public version, currently targeting the fall, we will also provide a very simple link that media player manufacturers can use to include our digital signage service on their players. There won’t be any charge for this.

Do we have recommended media player specs for the new system?

Not yet. But we will publish them during the beta release.

What are the features of the new system – will it cover all of the current functionality that we offer?

The new Rise Vision application is simpler. We have removed much of the multi-site functionality that made Rise Display Network complicated to understand and was rarely used. We have further removed the media library. There are so many great services that provide media asset management and we just don’t feel that we need to create it. Once again we only want to focus on where we can add great value – the digital signage platform – and we are going to use others that have it as their focus to manage online media. Otherwise, if your an existing reseller, the best way to know the differences is to check out the beta. Also, over the next few weeks we are going to open our development process to allow you to review and contribute to what we build and when. So if it isn’t in the app today it will likely be in the app shortly thereafter if what you want is wanted by all and if it falls into the area that we specialize in.

I hope the above helps. And if there are more questions or clarifications needed please don’t hesitate to let us know.

We spent the afternoon yesterday reviewing feedback from our alpha testing and we encountered an interesting situation. The alpha user is creating an interactive video wall for a very particular niche of customers. Very exciting project.

During the review we realized that we have a conundrum as to where we stand on customization. The user wanted more functionality from our core application to support their implementation and we realized that if we did that, we would be adding complexity to our interface that could complicate the app for all of our other regular users as they might never need or want that functionality, and, we could impede how far the alpha tester could take their application. This last point needs a little further explanation. We have created an open application. It uses HTML and Google Gadgets for Presentations and it has a whole slew of API’s that will allow anyone to replace any app that we provide with their own. They can use as much or as little HTML, Javascript, Flash, Silverlight or whatever web based technology they want to make their Presentation really fly. We could never, ever, match that level or number of options. But we can provide a platform to make it all happen. Given this, if we said “don’t worry about that customization, we will include functions to support it”, it is likely that we could impede the number of options and the flexibility of those options available to the alpha developer. In other words, our compromise to generically support their customization would never be as specialized as what they could create using all of the tools that our open source platform facilitates for them. By supporting the customization we would be doing both them and all of our other end users a disservice. Needless to say we ending up saying no to customization, but we did throw in a few compromises to help them as best we can.

In the process we also ended up drawing out the following diagram to help us understand the situation better:

What we realized was that the more specialization that an Integrator wants to bring to their Presentation or End User experience, the more custom HTML and supporting applications that they will have to create and inject into the platform. Which is great, because it means that anyone can create just about anything that they want to without having to worry about all of the complexity of managing the platform and delivery to the network of displays. But, it also comes with a price. The more customized the situation, the less that the Integrator can take advantage of the existing (generic) end user interaction functions. The more specialized they make their application, the less they can take advantage of what is provided for free in the platform. Given this it is very important to understand where your offer will fall on the above continuum and what the pros and cons of that placement will be.

A couple of things to keep in mind about the beta program:

• The user interface is not final, it is functional at this point, and once we have the functionality proven we’re going to take off some of the sharp edges and make it look a little better.
• We have a number of testing gadgets and presentation templates and all of them, to be honest, are pretty ugly. They were created solely to prove concepts and test applications. Over the next couple of months we will be finalizing the core gadgets and template presentations that will ship with the public release – but be forewarned, they are not here now so if you are looking for finished content that looks really great, probably best to delay your beta sign-up until September.
• The beta app should not be used for real world deployments, it isn’t ready! However, we strongly encourage you to kick it’s tires, give feedback and work out your strategies for deployment to your market niches when you’re ready.

All of which begs the question, what will this new release cost? Well, I can finally tell you how this will work, and please accept my apologies for the delay in getting this to you. It has been a somewhat complicated road to this conclusion – but, I think the result is dead simple.

There is a free version that’s available to everyone but it only updates content once per day, is advertising supported and the displays are not monitored. This means if you change the content on the displays those changes will only be applied once per day and if the display goes offline you won’t be able to tell.

And then there is the premium version, which is only available from you, our Resellers. It updates every minute, the displays are monitored and you can brand it as your solution – pretty much the same way you do it now in Rise Display Network, and just like Rise Display Network, you can create networks of clients beneath your company that you can easily manage, monitor and support. And what will this cost you, our existing Resellers? Nothing for the next 3 years. Yup, you heard it right, NOTHING until September 30, 2013. This is our way of saying thanks to our existing Resellers for sticking with us through this transition.

And what happens after three years? Or what will it cost a new Reseller to sign-up once we launch? $150 per month – no commitments – cancel at anytime – and you can have unlimited clients and displays on your branded network and we provide forum and email based support to you. You make the network by adding your value to it – by including your services for content creation, procurement, deployment, training, development, advertising, network monitoring, support and maintenance, just to a name a few of the possible value points.

A little math example. If you have 100 displays with us now this costs you 100 times $15 per display per month, or $1,500 per month. If you move all of those displays from Rise Display Network to Rise Vision it costs you $0 (ZERO) per month up til September 30, 2013 and after that it costs you $150 per month for your Reseller account, nothing for the displays. And if you add another 200 displays after you move over it still costs you nothing for the next three years and after that it still only costs you $150 per month.

How are we doing this? We have managed to reduce our cost of operation to what we believe is the lowest in the industry. Our new application is an open source digital signage platform that we built on top of the Google App engine. We don’t have to procure, manage or monitor servers. We don’t have to worry about global access points. And we only pay for what we use and we can instantly ramp up service as needed because we’re sitting on top of the worlds biggest and most redundant network that has ever been created – Google. And, we concentrated on building a platform that could be extended and modified by every web developer. We didn’t build everything and the kitchen sink. We focused on creating an open source platform that you could extend and add content to you as you please and we stripped out all of the other noise. Yup, we like it. And we hope you will too.

Project Summary
Until recently, they did not have a very efficient way to communicate the menu to the students and building staff. “We would post a small 8″×10″ sign board on the wall in several spots, with the full week’s menu. The students would have to walk to the sign, check to see what was being served in each line and then go to that line. This caused crowding at the cashier stands and delays in the lines.”

What they needed was a better way to display the menus to the students to avoid crowding. Their solution to this problem was to hang a large digital menu board on the wall where all of the students could see the menus without blocking any of the busy lunchtime traffic. “We needed to convey the daily menu for each of the lunch lines, and we also wanted to be able to reach the students at the Senior High School in a ‘techie’ way that they could relate to.”

The Solution
The department selected Rise Display to supply them with everything that they required to implement their plan. “Rise had what we needed and it didn’t look too complicated to run or set up or change,” said Ms. Maas. “To piece together a solution by myself was just not feasible — time-wise, product-wise or content-wise.” The display solution that Rise provided to Wayzata High School included not only the large LCD screen itself, but also the user-friendly Display Wire software that lets Ms. Maas change the menus herself from day to day.

Results
“We are very pleased with both the sign and its content. The district maintenance staff installed the screens, the district electrician installed the Rise engine and the district carpenter built a box around each screen to match the wood in the rest of the building. The whole setup looks very sharp. One major advantage is that there are no visible buttons. We have received many compliments on the set up.”

And the Display Wire software they use to run the sign? “Once everything was up and running, it all ran smoothly. It has been great. It’s very easy to learn and maintain.”

According to Ms. Maas, their new LCD display is a huge hit with both staff and students. “The staff loved the high school signs. Now the kids don’t crowd around the cashier stands to look at the menus — they can look above the lines and tell very quickly what is being served on each line. Some start looking as they are coming down the hall.”

“And best of all, the kids are constantly commenting on how cool the signs are.”

Thanks!