I like to think I'm a man who knows what he's looking for at a trade show, and when you're spoilt for choice it's a strategy that helps. ISE is a trove of delights ranging from AV, home automation and kiosks all the way through to digital signage, and everywhere you look there is a proof of concept, established power player or a barn-storming new technology waiting to be integrated into a display solution.

NEC has been making noise about Vukunet, which attracted so much press interest this morning that the room was bulging at the seams. It's a platform which aims to make advertising via digital screens easier for everyone, from the media owners through agencies, with NEC making its revenue from a percentage of the transaction fees. With the intention of pushing money-pulling platforms into pharmaceutical and other tricky, multi-faceted markets, one gets the impression that the company's extensive trials are going to pay off. Look out for a launch in early April.

DynaScan says that its High Bright Series DS2 LCD screen

outstrips its nearest competition by some 3,000 nits

I'm not sure how many wayfinding designers are paying attention to digital signage as a delivery mechanism just yet, but if this show is anything to go by these systems will be powering through in the next few years. Turnkey solutions like friendlyway's in-store navigation are making strides in the retail markets, particularly in malls and larger urban spaces. And Sharp's landscape screens are proving handy in the RAI (which suffers from a lack of static signs naming halls clearly), with their touchscreens standing up to heavy interest. This market, surely, must be on the verge of breaking through into the mainstream.

On the software front, I hear that signagelive has had one hell of a day – and not only because of its DOOH loos, whose giggle factor belies their frightening, soon-to-happen ubiquity. Talk on the floor says that Raffi Vartian, recently brought into the fold from CoolSign, is pushing forward an aggressive strategy to shake up the dominance of other players in the USA, and that the company is quietly confident of strident growth this year. Largest global network by the end of 2012? We'll have to wait and see – but the company is running a really cool reactive technology which plays ads to suit the current nearby demographic, and I bet that isn't going to hurt when it comes to procurement in retail and other massive chains.

The murmurs today concern the absence of Camvine, who simply haven't appeared. I'm particularly disappointed as I think the company's Coda system is a great turnkey bundle, but being a no-show at ISE is big news, and we're still waiting for a proper announcement. As ever, stay tuned to Output for the latest.

Speaking of turnkey, though, DV Signage has appeared with a natty little booth and a surprisingly comprehensive range of out-of-the-box options. MessageBox is a highly simplified lobby, concierge and noticeboard solution with an entry point of €300 (￡249) for a kit that's ready to go, while the multi-zone SignBox product is at an affordable price for corporations, education and hotels. Thinking ahead about the practicalities around the end use is so important when developing for sign and display, and DV seems to be paying attention to the right applications.

My catch o' the day, though, is DynaScan. This screen manufacturer faces a tough ride as it comes up against LG, NEC and Samsung, but its new 55" (1.4m) DS2 LCD screen outputs an awesome 5,000 nits, with crazily bright whites and excellent colour calibration combining to make their stand light up the entire hall. I identified Carrefour and the O2 Arena in London on the company's picture wall, and was given live demonstrations of how DynaScan screens really consider the requirements of out-of-home installations, like avoiding colour shift and making the hardware fanless and dustproof. This company is looking for distributors in the UK and Europe, and with a massive entertainment name already on its books it shouldn't be a hard sell. The 360? display also shows promise, especially in countries where this format is particularly successful, like France and Germany.

Last, but not least, I've spent a lot of time with Advantech today helping with a video project, and it's struck me that it's easy to forget about the systems that actually drive all these magical output devices. Advantech and Philips talked me through their industry partnerships and the Open Pluggable Standard (OPS) – and I think that therein lies the future maturity of this market, which will fuel adoption in even more markets.