Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Toshiba America Business Solutions, in making its first appearance at #dse2015, came in impressively with one of the bigger booths at the exhibit, making a statement that it’s ready to play with the big boys in the digital signage space.
“We’re showing our full range including hardware, content management, literally offering a turnkey operation,” Joe Contreras, director, product and solutions marketing, Toshiba’s Electronic Imaging Division, said.
We had met Joe last November is Los Angeles when the company launched its LA Interactive at the Staples Centre, which was, to some extent, Toshiba’s first big public statement in the digital signage space, although it had already been quietly deploying its products in another stadium and other places.
We noticed that Toshiba had one of our favorite interactive pieces from LA Interactive, its Touch & Get kiosk, as part of its exhibit that was attracting attention.
“We’re offering a broader line in Q2 and Q3, and retail is getting bigger for us,” said Contreras. (Toshiba had bought IBM’s retail POS division back in 2012, which gave it a base in that sector.) “We now have an entire line for retail and are showing what we can offer in that sector. We also have healthcare, as well as sports and retail, and all these are working together.”
Attendees saw Toshiba’s diverse array of Ellumina’s Virtuoso and Experience Manager platforms and its Touch & Get kiosk fulfill for a variety of vertical markets including retail, healthcare and sports and entertainment. Experience Manager enables organizations to manage networked interactive media experiences. By incorporating both live and pre-programmed content in an engaging manner, it delivers targeted content by time, location, and demographic making it ideal for virtually any retail environment. Experience Manager is particularly suited for implementation wherever people congregate such as malls, airports, sports and entertainment venues, grocery stores and other retail outlets.
Virtuoso, Toshiba’s other Ellumina platform on display at DSE 2015, couples touch screen technology and interactive software capability. Tailored to heighten the consumer experience, Virtuoso presents information in a compelling manner to more effectively promote products and services.
One of the things we missed seeing was Toshiba’s Virtual Dressing Room. This one-of-a-kind offering helps remove any of the guesswork involved in the clothes-buying process. Through its gesture-controlled interface, shoppers are capable of seeing how a particular garment may fit and appear – without having to physically try on the item – by glancing at a virtual mirror.
“We’ve had 4K in our consumer products since last year and this year are introducing it in our commercial line,” Contreras said.
Toshiba partners with ComQi for content management, and has its own Virtuoso system for interactive products.
“We’re now trying to build out farther with facial recognition and audience measurement, so we can offer everything a client might require,” Contreras said.
This is a company that, once into the digital signage sector, is showing that it means to play and play big quickly.
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