At the back of hall ten at ISE, a cluster of retail-minded display specialists worked their magic. Behind and alongside the enormous videowalls from the likes of Samsung, Scala and LG, some of the subtler options on the market made their mark – and drew significant crowds, despite their smaller stand space.

I had always associated BrightSign with media players but the manufacturer presented a couple of great solutions for the retail market that display printers and other more analogue-based signage specialists could get their teeth into, including a portrait-orientated tabletop product that offers an easy entry point for smaller stores. In a move similar to DV Europe's entry-level bundle, BrightSign has also adapted one of its easier deployments to draw text data from an RSS feed or database query and overlay it on an existing design – in short, it's an easy option for waiting areas in lobbies and surgeries, or even for smaller menuboard applications.

Also in that vicinity was Bouncepad, with its new freestanding iPad enclosure attracting significant attention, and a number of other retail-orientated specialists demonstrating smaller-format options. But conspicuous by its absence was Camvine; sadly, it was confirmed that the introductory digital signage solutions provider had indeed gone to the wall. The company's package of an easily navigable content management interface and a compact media player box made for a winning combination in my book, and I hope that more providers in this space will think beyond their own industry in this way to make digital signage more accessible.

I commented in my piece from day two about touch systems, and I had a number of discussions in the closing hours of ISE about their relevance. Polytouch's multiple touch-point screens have been used for retail, restaurant and various other applications, and the company's chief executive Frieder Hansen made the valid point about failure tolerance: multi-touch devices won't screw up an input form because somebody has rested their wrist on the surface. But the niftiest bit was the ability to make this into a night-ready solution thanks to its electrical, rather than optical, method of receiving touch, and with its game-table proof-of-concept also on offer I think this will raise some cool campaigns in the bar and nightclub sectors.

However nifty the kiosk or bright the screen, what are the real applications for touch? Healthcare, education, transport and some point-of-sale are the obvious answers, but there was a sentiment at ISE that propelling touch as a cure-all retail solution isn't so smart. I agree with those saying that putting e-commerce into shops seems somehow counter-intuitive, and have to say I think gesture and mobile control interfaces are likely to be more popular in shopping centres and airports. Either way, though, there have been some exciting developments in the field, and now we need to see how integrators choose to use them; all case studies of touch versus the alternatives are welcome on my desk.

Understanding the digital signage world as one comes in from the outside, as I did a few years ago, is a tricky process because of the various component parts that make up any given installation. Magenta Research's Rob Muddiman, director of international sales, discussed with me the importance of logistics and access in larger-scale installs, much of which comes down to the planning – but also the switches and cables, allowing for reliable central control, and therefore more impressive options when it comes to content delivery.

My final catch o' the day was for another larger-scale technology – this time on the software side. While Onelan's heritage is in its player hardware, its new offering, Cyclone, is a content management system with a powerful geovisualisation tool for larger networks. Steve Robinson, product manager, forecasts an expansion in network footprint and cites the use of smaller screens as a coming trend in the 'new era' of digital signage – and that efficient control of these assets is vital to scalability. Allowing for rapid zooming in and out to the regional or store levels and containing a clever tagging solution for player type control, the mapping element of Cyclone is a visual indicator for the development that lies beneath. Core to its function is the ability to manage any player and adapt playlists and content; this hardware agnosticism is sure to become vital, given the rapid development of the technology and uptake of adoption in this sector. Look out for Cyclone's beta launch in the very near future.