Hospitality

As we multitask our way through our busy day, why not grocery-shop as we wait for the subway or train? This is what drove Tesco and Peapod to provide virtual grocery stores aimed at on-the-go commuters.

Virtual Grocery Stores are large displays (bill boards or digital signage display) with life sized pictures of common grocery items. Below each item, there is a unique QR barcode associated with the product for shoppers to purchase on the spot with their smartphones and schedule deliveries.

Tesco (South Korea and UK) and Peapod (US) have deployed these virtual grocery stores at public transit hubs like at the airports, subways/train stations, and bus stops, where tens of thousands of commuters gather, to deliver convenient grocery shopping between wait times. Tesco in South Korea and Peapod in US have adopted the static billboard platform, while Tesco in UK deployed interactive digital signage  for a cleaner look and smaller footprint.

According to Tesco, mobile revenue has more than doubled in the past 12 months. Interactive Media in Retail Group projects mobile commerce (m-commerce) to make up around 15% of all online sales by the end of 2012. In addition, a Nielsen survey found that 61% of respondents already use the internet to shop for groceries and one quarter of them plans to purchase groceries online in the next 6 months.

Is the virtual grocery store the next frontier to food shopping for our families in this digital era? We think so. So many commodities are already being purchased online; the virtual grocery store will be one more convent way to tackle our daily to-do list on-the-go and free up our time. We anticipate the static billboard to be upgraded to interactive digital signage very soon as this solution is a much more efficient way to deploy, mange, and lower TCO for business owners.

Have more questions on the right digital signage solution for your business? Learn more from this link here or ask us here on the blog.

Corporate names and trademarks stated herein are the property of their respective companies. Copyright^© 2012 ViewSonic Corporation. All rights reserved.

Digital signage solutions provide excellent revenue and margin opportunities for VARs who target the restaurant or QSR vertical. Nowadays, the VAR can benefit by selling signage as a total solution. This is due to the fact that there is margin opportunity in the hardware, installation, potential network configuration, service, and in some cases, content development.

The opportunity for digital signage sales has grown tremendously, and is broader than ever before. Here are just a few of the ways that your customers may be looking to implement these solutions:



Restaurants: We are especially seeing an increase in signage adoption rates by restaurant customers as prices come down and ease of use and simplicity increases. The most common restaurant application is the presentation of menu selections combined with government required nutritional information. This information can be updated in real-time with the use of simple digital signage content management solutions. In addition, promotional information can be added in the case of seasonal menu changes.

Employee training: New opportunities are becoming available with the use of network digital signage in the back office for employee training. Training content can be sent over the internet (WAN) for use by individual restaurant location. This adds benefits to the restaurant owners with lower insurance rates as well as provides the VAR another area of possible margin income.

Retail: Another growing opportunity as the prices and solutions become more affordable is retail. We are seeing smaller screen deployments as consumer information is moving closer to the display case. We have seen this at the POS cash out for some time, for example. We are also beginning to see smaller screen deployments such as 10-, 22-, and 32-inch in retail locations advertising product highlights and benefits. VARs can again benefit by targeting the retail signage vertical with a total solution that consists of screen, content management, network solutions — wired and wireless, and installation services. There are a category of VARs we call systems integrators that specialize in this kind of new business.

While these are the key areas driving today’s digital signage adoption, with the emerging array of add-on solutions (such as integrated mobile device credit card process and audience demography video analytics), the possibilities of digital signage are endless. To learn more about digital signage solutions, read here. How has digital signage helped to grow your business? What are your experiences with POP? Share with us here on the blog.

Corporate names and trademarks stated herein are the property of their respective companies. Copyright^© 2012 ViewSonic Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

The face of digital signage is rapidly changing, and its advancements in technology are pushing progression right along. Have you heard the term Open Pluggable Specification (OPS)? OPS architecture ties the digital signage ecosystem together with standardized interoperable hardware interface to drive effective component design, development and simplified integration complexity for lower implementation, deployment and management costs. An initiative from Intel®, OPS is a new technology concept that emerged about a year ago.

 



The OPS architecture modularizes the development of digital signage display panels and media players, thereby minimizing the implementation time for installation and eliminating other system complexities. While this clean solution ultimately benefits the integrator and end users, so far, only a few companies have adopted OPS technology. This is likely because people are accustomed to using an external media player (or PC) to run their media content on the signage display. Until the integrators and end users become more and more familiar with the benefits of OPS and industry demand increases, we believe it will still take some time before manufacturers and display OEMs adopt this new standard. However, with a company like Intel serving as the driving force behind this technology, things look very hopeful. Intel has launched multiple scalable intelligent software applications to enhance OPS display capabilities, such as Active Management Technology (AMT), Audience Impression Metrics Suite (AIM), Anonymous Video Analytics (AVA) and Near-Field Communication (NFC).

 

Will OPS architecture adaptation become successful? Only time will tell, but we believe in the benefits it provides. To learn more about ViewSonic’s OPS-enabled touch digital signage solutions in 42”, 46” and 65” sizes, click here. Have questions about what digital signage solutions are easiest for your business to maintain and upgrade? Ask us here on our blog.

Do you know the difference between a consumer and a professional TV? They’re both just big displays right? Wrong. When it comes to business displays, there’s actually quite a difference to the extensive control features offered. For instance, these new models feature USB cloning making it easy to manage internal programming and content duplication. It’s these features that make professional monitor with HDTV compatibility products ideal for public areas requiring automated controls such as restaurants, sports bars, business lobbies and hospitality environments.

 

Giving our customers a set of commercial solutions at competitive consumer price points, we are pleased to announce our brand new Professional HD Display Series of business TVs. Ranging in size from 19”- 65”, our new commercial TVs pair the latest in “edge white” LED panel technology with advanced control functionalities, including user programmability, automated control, duplication and custom calibration.

 

These VESA mount compatible professional HDTVs deliver brilliant image clarity and high contrast with saturated colors, in addition to versatile connectivity options to help you run your business (including DVI compatible HDMI input, PC, traditional RCA composite and YPbPr component video connectors). Across our larger 27”-65” models, we also have integrated further automated control programmability features like RS232 and IR inputs, as well as front panel lockout, volume limitation, active inputs on power up and programmable channel range.

 

To learn more about these new professional HDTVs, check out today’s Press Release here. Have questions about what features you need for your specific business display needs? Ask us here on the blog.

The National Restaurant Association (NRA) tradeshow has come and gone once more. Over the course of four days, more than 1,800 exhibitors and tens of thousands of attendees met to mold what the future will look like for the restaurant, foodservice and hospitality industries. Following this week’s show, we wanted to share what, in our opinion, were the most notable technological advancements and trends that will change the customer experience within these industries.

 

The standout technology at this show was digital menu boards. Restaurants are increasingly showing nutritional information and digital boards can help them make updates quickly and without additional costs. Whether wanting to easily switch from morning to evening menus, or advertise the new special of the day, it’s clear that eateries now have significant opportunities to promote their menus in a brand new way.

 

A trend popular at NRA this year was the use of tablets within restaurants to make the customer experience more seamless. Tablet implementation examples include the wait-staff using the devices to take orders, turning the tablet into a POS system to manage the front of house, or even placing tablets on tables to enable patrons to place their order themselves. It’s great to see that due to their mobility factor, the possibilities for tablets within dining establishments are nearly endless.

 

What technological advancements do you see impacting the foodservice industry? Have you experienced any of these above examples in your own dining experience? Did you like or dislike it? Share your thoughts with us!

 

 

Recent advancements in display technologies have made their mark on the television viewing experience. It’s hard to believe just how far we’ve come since only a few decades ago during the times of black and white TV. Over the years, TV sets have become larger in size, while becoming slimmer and sleeker in profile and overall appearance. Paired with display advancements such as a Full HD picture, “smart” Internet connections and LED backlighting, TV has never been more exciting – for both commercial applications, such as the hospitality industry and sports bars, as well as home entertainment.

 

However, with this new TV technology comes more inputs and hookup ports. For someone that’s not up on the latest technology, all these new shapes and types of connectors can be quite confusing. We think a recent New York Times article did an excellent job decoding today’s 21^st Century television with easy-to-understand descriptions and useful corresponding pictures to help you feel confident in hooking up your new television:

 

1. USB:  A data connection, often used to connect a wireless “dongle” that can get your TV onto your home’s Wi-Fi network. Once that’s in place, your TV can become a “smart TV,” pulling in Internet content (Netflix, Facebook) that you can access directly on the screen.

 

2. Optical Audio:  Also known as Toslink, this standard uses fiber optic cables to transmit high-quality audio from the display to a soundbar, home theater system or an amplifier. Some audio components have moved to the HDMI standard, but there are still many products old and new that use this cable.

 

3. HDMI:  The current standard for high-definition video and audio connections. HDMI cables carry high-definition video and surround-sound audio in one cable. The content is transmitted digitally, so there’s little to no signal degradation, even over long distances.

 

4. Component:  Before HDMI, this was the only way to send high-definition video from a device to a display. Component cables are divided into three plugs — red, green and blue — each carrying a part of the video signal. Component cables are video-only, so you still need an audio connection to hear anything. HDMI is rapidly replacing this standard.

 

5. Composite:  The most basic — and lowest in fidelity — video connection. Good for connecting older equipment like camcorders or game consoles that lack the newer, more capable standards. Composite video is often located next to stereo outputs (not to be confused with Component plugs).

 

6. Audio Out:  Also known as RCA jacks, these ubiquitous ports are either red or white, to represent the left and right channels of a stereo signal. They provide low-fidelity audio connections, in that they do not support surround sound.

 

7. LAN or Ethernet:  A connector that looks like a telephone cable, but is a little bigger. Used to connect to wired local area networks (aka “a home network”), the LAN jack is what you would use if you did not have Wi-Fi.

 

8. Ex Link:  Available on some TVs, the ex link connection allows you to adjust the angle of certain wall-mounted TVs by using your existing TV’s remote control.

 

 

9. Antenna In:  Also known as a coaxial cable connection. This threaded connection is used to attach an external antenna (to receive over-the-air broadcast signals) or, sometimes, a cable set-top box. Modern set-top boxes usually have HDMI or component connections for a higher-quality connection between devices, so it is unlikely you would use this port.

 

10. PC In:  Also known as a VGA connector, this is a way to connect a laptop or other personal computer to a television. This connection is video only, so you would need to set up an additional audio connection to hear whatever was coming out of your computer.

 

Did your TV set up confuse you? Would this guide have helped you keep all the new technology straight? Or are you planning to put this article to use in an upcoming television installation? Tell us about it here on the blog.

 

Images Sourced from:  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/03/21/technology/personaltech/hooking-up-a-new-tv-which-cable-goes-where.html