Hello everyone! You might know me as the managing editor of rAVe [PUBS], co-host of rAVe [TV] or, if you attended DSE and/or LDI 2023, perhaps you know me as that woman who came around and strong-armed you into shooting product videos. Just kidding! I know you all secretly love being the star of a product demo video and you can’t convince me otherwise.

This was my second year at DSE and my first time getting to cover LDI from a full capacity. And honestly? It was so cool. At a first glance, I think it might not seem like DSE and LDI would be likely collaborators. After all, one is a trade show focusing on digital signage. The other is a trade show focused on live events. But very quickly, this year’s DSE show proved to be about more than 16:9 informational displays. The products and solutions at DSE were beautiful! In fact, the show partnered with multiple companies and even some artists to show that digital signage can and should be beautiful.

Today I spent some time over in the DSE side learning more about digital signage content — there were a TON of content companies this year. I would say even moreso than display companies and other hardware. I think that says something interesting about the importance of content over everything else. If you want to see a little bit of what the show floor looks like, I think this episode of rAVe [TV] gives you a good idea. I interview Jamie Reilly from Moment Factory (who is SO cool and knowledgeable and fun to talk to) and she even talks some about the work Moment Factory did on the Sphere so definitely check it out because I know y’all like that. Also, Susan Wilhite from Bluefin joined to talk about a really cool luncheon WAVIT hosted at the show — all about giving career advice to fellow women. You can watch the full episode below.

I also walk you around the show floor of DSE so you can check it out for yourself. But if you don’t want to watch that whole thing (which look, hosting by yourself is hard. Gary had a conflict come up and couldn’t make this show — I am not used to hosting this solo!), I can tell you about some really cool stuff that I saw.

• ChargerGoGo — This was the most creative use of a digital signage kiosk that I’ve seen in a while. This allows you to scan a QR code and essentially pay to rent a portable charger for a set amount of time and then return it to the kiosk, which doubles as a charger bank. This is a great example of digital signage + live events because I immediately thought of its use at a music festival. Your phone will never be dead again! Keep taking those concert videos!
• BlueZoo — I’ve talked about this company before. Everyone in the digital signage community talks a lot about the importance of getting your digital signage SEEN and being able to measure HOW seen it is. You know, ROI and all that. But how do you really measure how successful a digital signage install is? This is an interesting answer to that problem. It measures real-time foot traffic by using mobile phone signals as a proxy for people. You may be thinking about the crux of ROI and privacy. I don’t blame you. But BlueZoo talks a lot about helping people keep their information private and simply measuring when a phone comes near. Check them out!
• Fulldome Pro — Another example of how art is mixing with digital signage, Fulldome Pro had a lovely, Epcot-ball-esque installation in the middle of the DSE show floor. I walked inside and I was (seemingly) transported onto a stage with a ballet troupe, performing all around me. I show a little bit of it in the show floor tour above but you can also check out the full product video on our website very soon.

Alright — that’s enough from me for one day. Tomorrow I’ll focus a little more on LDI and what that show was like! Keep a lookout for my next piece. Bye!