LONDON — At KioskCom Self Service Expo Europe and The Digital Signage Show Europe, it was difficult to determine where one show ended and the other began. The reason was a line-up of kiosk and digital signage products that seemed to blur the lines between the two categories.
On the kiosk side of the tradeshow floor, attendees saw queue management systems from both New Vision and Cammax, which made use of both kiosks and digital signs. For use in applications from delis to doctor's offices, the units allowed users to input their information via touchscreen kiosk and receive a numbered ticket. Their numbers were then automatically sent to screens around the facility, and back-end software managed the number-calling.
Meanwhile, on the digital signage end of the floor, attendees had their hands all over the screens, mainly because a majority of exhibitors featured touch technology as part of their signage solutions.
Popular with show visitors was the U-Touch/Next Window booth, which had an impressive lineup of branded screens, all of which were touch-enabled. Blurring the line between digital signage and kiosk was the Car Finder, an all-weather enclosed screen that let travelers find their cars at the airport by license plate number or parking garage ticket.
Samsung's booth was certainly a highlight from a digital signage standpoint. Samsung showed Samsung ID, a video wall solution launched in recent months and shown in the U.K. for the first time at KioskCom. The unit comes with a base that anchors the screens, which can then be stacked up to five-high using interlocking posts.
Randhana, commercial manager for Samsung, said that the video wall at the show took only about 20 minutes to set up, while other video walls can take several hours to assemble. Using the posts, screens can pivot, allowing the wall to be convex or concave as well as flat.
Here are some other highlights from the show floor:
XPERIENCE WIRELESS showed the DT Research mobile tablet, which Trevor Bingham of Xperience said is being used by Tesco's grocery pickers who collect orders placed online. The tablets are also used by Cadbury's, the U.K.'s largest chocolate provider.
PREEDY SOLUTIONS, a glass processor, used its glass expertise to develop a large-scale optical touchscreen. Images were shown using a short-throw projector placed behind the glass.
NETKEY announced at the show that its digital signage software is now available in both software-as-a-service and licensed packaged formats. Bob Ventresca, director of marketing for Netkey, said the software has seen success in a wide spectrum of markets including out-of-home advertising, corporate communications, education, healthcare, government, transportation, retail, banking and financial services, and tourism and hospitality.
Offering a different kind of touch technology, 3M MICROTOUCH featured an interactive game on its large-format screens. 3M uses Dispersive Signal Technology, where piezos are mounted on each corner and read "waves" activated by contact with the surface.
KIOSK MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS was part of the show's largest partner booth, along with HEMISPEHRE WEST for currency handling, PROVISIO for kiosk lockdown, CREDIT CALL for payment processes and HYPERCOM for chip and PIN solutions.
RITTAL's highlight was a movable wall kiosk that could shift up and down at the touch of a button. Rittal's Peter Hill said the unit operates on a threaded spindle rather than using a motor to virtually eliminate operating noise.
STAR MICRONICS' thermal and dot matrix kiosk printers were on display in a Royal Mail postal kiosk and a Marks & Spencer wine recommendation kiosk. Jennie Miller of Star said the printers took care of printing receipts as well as package labels.
ALLPAY.NET showed a Diebold machine for housing councils that allows tenants to pay rent on properties. Similar to an ATM, the units accept credit/debit and can accept up to 100 mixed bulk notes.
DICOLL released a budget kiosk at the show, which is designed to be assembled by the deployer to ease shipping.
"It's multi-function, relatively customizable and aimed at the sub-£2,000 market," said David Gibbins of Dicoll.
Coffee drinkers hovered around GWD MEDIA's booth, as the company was giving away coffee from a self-service dispensing machine. GWD creates remote monitoring systems for kiosks, and is installed on 650 Coffee Nation machines across the U.K. Jed Fraser, CMO of GWD, said the systems detect and alert operators if the machine's supplies are low, as well as provide real-time statistics about the number of cups dispensed.
STOREFRONT.COM's DIMA-award-winning photo kiosks were on display, running the company's Omnishop photo software. In addition to developing digital photos, the kiosks allow retailers to offer other services through the interface, such as deli and prescriptions ordering, wine pairing and flower ordering.
VERIFONE released its Vx700 PIN pad and card reader combo at KioskCom, which is designed to thwart efforts to skim PINs or card stripes.
EUROSIGN's integrated digital screens got attention from attendees who saw their own face on the screen. Eurosign, developed by Ireland's Radiant Europe, used a Quividi audience measurement solution that calculated how many impressions the screen received by detecting the number of times peoples' eyes met the screen. Each day the counts were well over 1,500.
