The one thing now needed is standardization, and David Haynes, director of sales for Canada, Broadsign International, Montreal, and Ed Voltan, president, Catalyst Media Group, Toronto, were among those calling for standardization and a common currency for audience metrics at the jadn.TV conference Apr.8/08 in Montreal.

"A common currency for audience metrics is the number one issue for making digital more profitable," said Voltan. "We must quantify and qualify our audience. Counting the number of screens won't cut it. Right now, metrics are all over the map. Plus, the terminology of operations is often misunderstood or misrepresented. Canadian Outdoor Measurement Bureau figures are based on static screens, but advertisers, media planners and buyers want to know how often their ads in a loop are seen. We have to develop a formula."

"We need standardized ad shapes, and we need standard rate cards," said Haynes. Once these are formalized, he forecast, media planners and buyers will be putting digital signage in their budgets on a regular basis. Helping this will be the fact panel prices and mounting bracket prices are dropping, which is helping grow the industry.

Just because ad shapes should be standardized that doesn't mean that the screens should be one shape, size or material, however. Adrian Cotterill, president of WeAreON, based in the U.K., said that, rather than the horizontal shapes of screens that prevail in Canada, the European community has moved more and more towards vertical screens.

"Think of them in terms of posters," Cotterill said. "They're in the out-of-home budgets." He spoke of having seen screens in human shapes, screens in L-shapes and as square borders centered by mannequins, as well as screens embedded in concrete.

The most prevalent area of growth in digital signage is in retail. With 75% of all purchasing decisions made in-store, grocery stores are adopting digital signage in great numbers, are as food courts, malls, and in increasing amounts, drugstores. But others mentioned by speakers included:
. medical clincs; ("They're hot," said Haynes.)
. mass merchandisers such as Wal-Mart;
. automobile dealers;
. in taxis ("A major growth area," said Bill Gerba, CEO, Wirespring Technologies, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.)
. gas pump tops;
. vending machines. (A big growth possibility," Gerba said.)

"New applications in healthcare, transit and corporate communications are fueling demand for 'big screen' digital signage," said Gerba.

What we'll see more of in the future:
. LED backlits;
. OLEDs (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes: brighter, thinner, lighter, faster, cooler, and clearer close up);
. Barcode screens that allow a mobile device to take a photo and get a coupon;
. Digital street furniture;
. User-generated content;
- and cities complaining of digital clutter!

And what we should see less of in the future:
. 30-sec. ads (too long for digital signs except in rare cases such as in medical waiting rooms);
. news and weather strips.

"News tickers are the worst thing on digital signs," said Cotterill. "And if you want to know the weather, look out the window."

Figures of the size of the digital industry are hard to come by. Gerba quoted several figures by several different companies. One figure given was $1.3 billion in the U.S., a 28% increase over 2006. He said that merchandising units are outpacing advertising units two-to-one.

And, like other speakers, Gerba agreed that measurement continues to be a challenge.