System Builder Gets Creative With Kiosks

While enhanced LCD technology and lower-cost software to create and display dynamic digital content are key to the digital signage solution, custom-built small-form-factor PCs are the engines that drive digital signage and put custom-system builders at the forefront of the booming market.

Fusion Microsystems, a system builder in Centennial, Colo., is expanding its digital signage business beyond the airport terminal to include hotels and automobile repair shops, among others.

Joe Stopski, Fusion's vice president of business relations and development, said that his company already has arrival, departure and ticketing digital signage systems installed in 29 airports with five more projects in the works. But the company is moving away from airports to find additional growth for its digital signage solutions.

"In the hotels that surround the airports, we are getting kiosks into the hotel lobby and giving people the ability to check in for their flights prior to getting to the airport," Stopski said. "We are bringing convenience to the airline passenger."

And Fusion is bringing an additional potential revenue stream to its customers. Stopski said hotels can use digital signage, including airline kiosks, to sell advertising to companies wanting to pitch their wares to hotel guests and the traveling public.

Stopski said digital signage is a solution with a broad array of potential solutions. "We decided to take this to another level and say, 'OK, where else can we deploy this?' " he said.

Next up for Fusion is putting customer kiosks in automotive repair franchise operations such as Meineke Car Center, which has 900 locations in North America. Fusion is working on a beta to install kiosks in the waiting room at Meineke franchises that will enable its customers to order discount auto parts from Auto Parts Direct and have the Meineke shop install them. If the Meineke repair person finds a problem with the customer's vehicle while installing mufflers or brakes, the primary repair service offered by Meineke, the customer can walk over to the kiosk and order parts 20 percent to 50 percent cheaper than can be found elsewhere.

"The parts can then be drop-shipped to Meineke, and they can schedule the service," Stopski said. "The Meineke shop gets the labor, which is bottom-line profit, and a referral commission."

Added Paul Ramirez, Fusion's president and CEO: "It's like having an extra salesperson in the lobby. It's keeping their bays filled with different jobs. People were walking away because they couldn't get certain parts. This solution captures business that was being lost."

Fusion kiosks are built around a Mini-ITX form factor, which minimizes moving parts and accommodates small, reliable custom systems needed for kiosk applications. The kiosks have external power supplies and use passive heat sinks. In addition, the systems use flash memory, rather than hard disks, as well as Intel chipsets running Windows.

"In the past, the costs were prohibitive," Stopski said. "But we've been able to work with our partners in Taiwan and are now able to go to market with a cost-effective solution with something around the price of a traditional PC." And Ramirez said parts could be swapped out in seconds in the event of a component failure. "Minimum downtime is our goal," he said.

Kevin Harlow, VAR channel development manager at AOpen America, San Jose, Calif., said the retail space is booming for digital signage. And he said digital signage applications are spreading through hotels, casinos, doctors' offices, hospitals and restaurants.

"When I go to conferences and shows, the majority of the VARs want to look into digital signage," he said.

NEXT: Meeting demand for digital signage solutions

To meet the growing demand for digital signage solutions, AOpen builds a small-form-factor PC that can be mounted on the back of an LCD monitor. "It's semi-ruggedized and uses only 65 watts of power," he said.

AOpen's Digital Engine 945 uses laptop components to help achieve its small size and runs quieter than the maximum allowed for library noise.

"It measures 25 decibels, where a library is 29 decibels," he said. "In high-traffic areas, you are not going to hear the hard drive running or the fans cooling."

Boldata Systems, a custom-system builder in Fremont, Calif., counts digital signage as its fastest-growing market, according to Andy Kretzer, director of sales and marketing. In North America, the company builds custom systems for about a dozen solution providers that sell digital signage solutions used in everything from kiosks to elevators. "It fits nicely with our mini-PC line," Kretzer said.

He points out that most of his company's digital signage customers are ISVs using Boldata's unique form-factor PCs with their own software, content and network. But all of that is about to change. To take advantage of the burgeoning digital signage market, Boldata plans to develop a generic, turnkey solution.

"We see the digital signage market exploding, and it behooves us to have something that is completely turnkey for some of our customers. This could be a great revenue stream for VARs who don't currently have a [digital signage] application," he said.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Kretzer said he met with numerous vendors in an effort to find partners for a turnkey digital signage solution. One of the most intriguing potential partners was 3M, he said. The company has a new product that uses crystals to display digital images on glass and other surfaces. Customers could use the device for window displays or movie posters, for example, he said.

"The shapes aren't limited to a rectangle and parts of the display can be active and part can be a static image," he said.

With innovations like that, the digital signage market likely will continue to morph into a multifaceted opportunity for some time to come.