DailyDOOH

In an effort to broaden its membership, to be more inclusive of the industry and to be sure that it is addressing the needs of all its constituents, the Digital Signage Federation is adding new committees to focus on their interests.

Following on, from the one set up last fall for the end user segment, co-chaired by Len Dudis from Seaworld Parks & Entertainment and Janna Rider from Dairy Queen, we learned today that two new committees are being formed, one to focus especially on the systems installers, integrators and distributors; and the other to focus specifically on the DOOH network operators.

Chairmen of these latter have not yet been decided.

We don’t know yet how many people are attending #dse2015 but it’s certainly a diversified group.

With a couple of hours, in addition to knowing that there are contingents from Brazil and Mexico (each with booths as well), we’ve met up with people from South Korea, Canada, and Nigeria, along with all areas of the US.

Of course, there are all sorts of people we know that stopped off to say hello, including Daniel Fleischer from Ayuda – pictured here with Gina Stratford from Yesco (the billboard side, she stressed, not the electronic part that’s been sold), the Brauns Sr. & Jr., Greg Patrick from NEC Display Systems, Barry Frey from Digital Place-Based Advertising Association, and, of course, Richard Lebovitz and the ever-helpful Geri Wolff from the DSE, and numerous others.

We’ve also caught up with new friends we hadn’t met before, such as Bobby Taylor of All Pro Sound, and Andres Trivino of TransitScreen.

Tonight we’ll be attending The Peter J. Solomon reception and then the VIP reception. A long day but really worthwhile.

I am sure there was nothing underhand here but they (whoever ‘they’ maybe) sure kept the news quiet that, in February 2015, Mark Boidman was appointed as a Member of the Advisory Board at Gimbal, Inc.

How do we know? Gossip at #dse2015 primarily but confirmed by Boidman’s very own Wikipedia page.

Former Posterscope COO Ray Rotolo has joined Qualcomm spin-off Gimbal, Inc. as Senior Vice President of Out of Home Assets.

It appears that Ray actually finished up at Posterscope at the end of last year – all confirmed by Ray’s LinkedIn page here (he is NOT the last to be leaving either, see stories we have up tomorrow and again later next week)

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Regular readers will know our general apathy towards panels and the Internet of Things panel which was part of the Digital Out of Home Strategy Summit here at #dse2015 did not prove us wrong…

The panel was made up of great speakers (see below) – all of whom we would have liked to hear more from.

It’s really important that good, well vetted and well briefed speakers get 30 minutes minimum and the audience – via the chair or moderator, get to drill down on interesting topics. These speakers were great BUT the audience did NOT get to hear enough from any of them. A real shame and a missed opportunity.

#dse2015 got underway early Tuesday morning with a special Digital Signage Federation panel examining – in front of a full house – the trends that are helping the digital signage/digital out-of-home industry grow.

After being introduced by Brian Gorg, executive director of the DSF, Kim Sarubbi, president and CEO, Saddle Ranch Digital and immediate past chairman of the DSF, acted as moderator, questioning the panel composed of Ken Goldberg, CEO, Real Digital Media and chairman, DSF; Vidya Nagarajan, product manager, Google; and Randy Dearborn, vice-president multimedia and guest technology, MGM Resorts International, and DSF vice-chairman.

The group touched on a range of topics including smart screens, HTML, mobile, costs going down, more stability in the industry, content, beacons, LED Technology, analytics, apps and NFC in retail, screens in QSR and fast casual restaurants, ROI, screen sizes. Bandwidth and more. While there was no ‘news’ per se during the conference, it was a good round-up and of great interest, especially to some first-time attendees here in Las Vegas to learn what’s new and what’s what.

Noted especially were Dearborn’s announcements of several trials of technology being tried out by MGM Resorts, which is keen to stay at the top of what is available and what can be offered. We particularly noted his comment that “if consumers don’t adapt, it’s all for nothing,” when discussing what’s being done in the fast food and casual dining sector.

In discussing retail, Goldberg showed a preference for NFC over iBeacons, saying that it was “less complicated.”

And Nagarajan had particular interest in the connected world.

All in all, it was a good, general round-up of current trends and was enthusiastically received by the audience.

Here’s a clever (and opportune) idea from Onix Networking Corp. who are putting together a Google Hangout on Monday, March 16 at 1:00 pm EDT billed as a ‘#dse2015 recap’.

Onix say that attendees will hear the latest news, technologies and tools presented at #dse2015 and will be able to ask questions of two Onix Digital Signage Certified Experts and a Google Chrome Specialist.

Steve Holly, a Digital Signage Certified Expert from Onix said “We want to provide the highlights of the #dse2015 and our insights to all, including those who could not attend the conference.”

Registration for the Google Hangout can be found here.

The Outdoor Advertising Association of America will present the 2015 OBIE Hall of Fame Award to HBO, alongside this year’s OBIE winners at the 74th OBIE Awards ceremony on Tuesday, May 12, during the 2015 OAAA\TAB National Convention + Expo in San Diego, CA.

Established in 1992, the OBIE Hall of Fame was created to recognize brands that have built an enduring legacy through the consistent use of the Out-of-Home advertising medium over many years.

“HBO is a brand that is constantly delivering entertaining, engaging advertising,” says Dave Loew, 2015 OBIE chief judge and creative director at Leo Burnett, Chicago. “HBO has an amazing track record of OOH work, so persuasive and so compelling time and time again.”

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Ronni Guggenheim’s latest sinecure as Managing Director/Geschäftsführer at Navori SA didn’t last long (September 2014 – March 2015, i.e. seven months).

There were rumours at #ISE2015 that he had been jettisoned (or was about to be) which we obliquely referred to in the middle of February here.

Ronnie’s LinkedIn profile now reads jobless Co Founder, Startup in Mobile Space March 2015 – Present (1 month) which we believe is this company.

RMG Networks (NASDAQ: RMGN) Monday released preliminary results for its fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2014, ahead of the company’s scheduled presentation at the 27th Annual ROTH Conference in order that management can discuss updated financial information with the investment community (there is of course NO OBLIGATION to issue preliminary results in the future).

The announcement said that it expected Sequential Adjusted Revenue Growth to Exceed 30% in the Fourth Quarter With Stable Adjusted Gross Margin and Improved Adjusted EBITDA.

Quarterly Adjusted Revenue was expected to be approximately $18.6 Million for Fourth Quarter 2014 and Adjusted Revenue of Approximately $61.8 Million for Full-Year 2014

Both of the company’s business units are expected to show strong sequential fourth quarter adjusted revenue growth. In its Enterprise and Media businesses, fourth quarter adjusted revenue is expected to be $13.1 million and $5.5 million, respectively.

Amateur sleuthing note here: If RMG Enterprise business was $13m for the quarter that means ‘they’ (the division) are something like a $52m business for the year – that is REAL growth in two years – when RMG Networks bought Symon Corporation, it was a $40m business with $8m EBITDA.

These preliminary financial results are subject to completion of the company’s customary year-end closing and review procedures and audit by the company’s independent registered public accounting firm.

Bob Michelson, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We executed well in the fourth quarter and our results are encouraging as we expect strong sequential growth in both adjusted revenue and adjusted EBITDA. In addition, we continued to successfully implement the strategic initiatives that we expect will further establish the platform for long-term success.”

“Since the third quarter, we have brought to market the first three products in our ‘Six New Products in Six Months’ initiative, strengthening our product portfolio with unique solutions,” continued Mr. Michelson. “In addition, our sales team has significantly bolstered the number of seven-figure deals in our pipeline. This steadfast focus on product innovation, global coordination and sales team productivity has begun to drive the momentum that we believe will deliver accelerated growth beginning later this year.”

By the close of the day nine million shares had been traded compared to a more normal average daily volume, over the past 30 days, of 11,000 shares. Shares in RMG Networks, which closed just a little over a dollar last week, rose 65% on the news an closed at $1.74.