DailyDOOH

During the holidays, we found that mobile companies were continuing to rake in investment dollars, with the latest we noticed being Jawbone, a San Francisco-based mobile products and services company.

Jawbone has raised $40 million in funding from a combination of Deutsche Telekom, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, private investor Yuri Milner, and investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management. These investors join Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital and investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management, and collectively bring Jawbone’s funding to nearly $210 million.

The company plans to broaden its offerings and expand its global footprint.

In November Jawbone released Up, a new type of product for the company. The Up system is a wristband and an iOS app that together track the user’s daily activity, sleep patterns and eating habits to help attain a healthier lifestyle. We understand that, while some of the initial wristbands failed, Jawbone emerged relatively unscathed by quickly acknowledging the problem and offering no-questions-asked replacements.

Adam Wilson (ex AMX) only lasted 12 months at dZine as ‘Direct Sales Manager for the UK’ it seems as we now see that he has setup his own business called INTEVI digital signage.

Their website proper is still a WIP but (as you can see above) his facebook page says that he is in partnership with Tom Scott (ex AMX also we think) and bills the fledgling Digital Media business as ‘Smart Products, Intelligent Solutions, Brilliant People’

We’ve learned that the Outdoor Advertising Association of America, Washington, D.C., spent $160,214 to lobby the U.S. Congress in the third quarter of 2011 on legislation to reauthorize funding for highway and other transportation projects.

The group spent $182,676 on lobbying in the third quarter of the previous year and $200,996 in the second quarter of 2011.

The industry group represents billboard owners and companies that sell advertising space on billboards, bus and train stations and other outdoor areas.

The organization filed its spending report in October with the House clerk’s office. We’re curious to learn how successful the lobbying efforts have been.

The 2012 International CES kicks off the year for all those interested in computers, consumer electronics, gadgets and the like 10th January to 13th in (where else) Las Vegas.

In London BETT 2012 starts on 11th January catering for the education sector and continues through to 14th.

The NRF 101st Annual Convention is in New York 15th January through to the 18th.

Mobile FirstLook 2012 is conveniently the day after on 19th January also in New York.

A week later the Mobile Marketing Summit happens in Toronto 24th, 25th and 26th January. Also in Toronto on the 25th and 26th is the Dx3 Canada Digital Trade Show and also on the 25th is an NFC Bootcamp in Santa Clara.

At the end of the month it’s really the beginning of February (if you know what we mean) cos’ Monday 30th January sees both the AOpen Partner Event and DiSCO effectively kick off ISE 2012.

ISE 2012 starts Tuesday 31st January (and continues to 2nd February). Also on 31st january in Dubai is the Sign And Graphic Imaging Middle East event in Dubai.

Mediapost’s Digital Out of Home Forum is taking place on 11th April 2012 in New York City.

The agenda for the one day #DiSCO12 event that traditionally takes place the day before #ISE2012 proper in Amsterdam each year (that will be 30th January 2012) has now taken shape.

The agenda (which we think is final) is: –

• 09.00 Welcome Address:
  Oliver Schwede, invidis consulting
• 09.10 Keynote Address
  Oliver Schwede & Florian Rotberg, invidis consulting
• 10.40 Engaging Customer: Mobile Phone Applications for the Retail Ajay Chowdhury, ComQi
• 11.50 Emerging Technologies: Gesture Control
  Dr. Ulrich Leitner, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute
• 12.30 Interactive Sales in Retail: Next Generation Surface. Samsung development partner
• 14.00 Engaging Customer: Interactive Retail Media. Denis Zeltser, VIVID Interactive

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Venezuela giant toy store chain Hobby 2000, has taken advantage of its digital signage network this Christmas promoting the latest trends on toys and offers to all its clients.

Having worked closely with digital signage specialist Imvinet, the store now boosts its own news channel.

Imvinet has installed, designed and is managing the news channel, which can be remotely changed and varied according to local promotions, depending on what each store would like to offer.

The stores have 40” and 32” Samsung LCD screen, which shows promotional advertising and cartoons for entertaining customers. The digital signage network is also used to train staff in each locality.

In September 2011 “The position of business development at Haivision was eliminated” and at a stroke all round good guy (and best-wingman-ever) Raffi Vartian was looking for a job.

Not surprisingly, offers for his services came flooding in (we had at least three requests for his new contact info) and it’s pretty certain that he had his pick of jobs all lined up well before Santa Claus was due to visit Chicago.

Seriously smart move then for Jason Cremins, CEO of signagelive to (this week) appoint Raffi to head up their (further) development of North and South America.

Raffi, we are told will be responsible for establishing strategic partnerships, securing resellers and distributors, and directing marketing strategy.

Jason told us “Raffi is well known and respected in the digital signage industry and a fantastic addition to our team. He brings broad industry experience, a track record of anticipating market trends and a relentlessly positive attitude that will be well received by resellers, strategic partners and end-customers alike.”

Raffi spoke to us over Skype and said “I am thrilled to join Jason and the rest of the signagelive team”

He added “The product is amazing, my fellow team members are so impressive, and the business model has the capacity to become the new standard in the industry. I am energized to engage with new and existing partners to share our clear vision for the market: a reliable, flexible and fully-supported product that delivers a predictable business model for your media delivery needs.”

Raffi’s official title does not (strangely) have ‘wingman’ in it, it is we believe Raffi Vartian, Strategic Development, Americas.

Raffi’s first official appearance for signagelive will be at #ISE2012 on their Stand P115 in Hall 10.

Additional reporting by editor-in-chief Adrian Cotterill

Like many who visited #InfoComm11 last June we made it a point to go see omniSHAPES on display publicly for the first time from Reutlingen, Germany based eyevis.

We are still trying to get confirmation from eyevis themselves (to be fair they have been rather good to work with to date and have been most helpful) but it’s likely that European AV folks will get a chance to see the technology for themselves in Amsterdam at #ISE2012.

It’s been six months since we last saw the new display technology and it will be interesting to see how far the product has progressed since then.

Tokyo-based beverage company Asahi Soft Drinks has launched a vending machine that not only offers drinks but also sends out Wi-Fi signals within a 50m radius.

The Wi-Fi will be available for free, is accessible with multiple devices, without registration, and for anyone to use for about 30 minutes, whether you buy a drink or not. After logging in, users will see various location-specific information on the home screen, for example on local stores, or sightseeing spots.

There are plans to set up 1,000 of these vending machines in five different regions in Japan (Tokyo, Sendai, Chubu, Kinki, and Fukuoka) in the first year. The plan is to roll out a total of 10,000 units in the next five years. The reach of this network could potentially turn the whole of Japan into a hot spot.

Asahi is currently operating 250,000 vending machines all over Japan.