The catchily-titled Integrated Systems Europe is a broad church, representing manufacturers and solutions providers from across the AV, automation, display and entertainment sectors. Vendors, integrators, events professionals and end users operating in both commercial and residential markets agree that it's the unmissable date on the European calendar, though: 60 percent simply don't go to any other trade show for this product portfolio, and with such diversity under a single roof it's easy to see why.
Digital signage is a core element of ISE 2013, presented as a cluster across halls 8, 9 and 10; 'smart building', 'residential solutions' and 'unified communications' receive similar zones. While multi-disciplinary manufacturers (such as Christie) might be found outside this bloc, it's a safe starting place if you're a newcomer – as 26 percent said they were last year.
ISE starts unofficially with conferences run on the day before the doors open. In AOpen's case this includes new solutions for wayfinding, MOOH and point-of-sale applications with technology partners such as Intel and Microsoft. That evening, to celebrate ISE's first decade in business, digital illusionist Marco Tempest will wow attendees with his unique blend of conjuring and future-looking technology as the keynote address: not to be missed if you're around at 6pm, with the official show launch party taking place not long thereafter.
über-geek devotees may miss the first day if they're still attending the MegaPixel Summit, a special conference on display technologies exceeding standard HD resolutions. Examining pixel generation, processing and display separately for the production of multi-component installations, this sub-event recognises the particular challenges in delivering projects of this nature and involves speakers from implicated manufacturers, including Christie, nVidia, Barco and Dataton.
While much of ISE 2013's comprehensive education programme focuses on home automation and best practice for AV integrators, there is some content of peripheral or greater interest to digital signage practitioners. If you're resolved to even higher resolution you could do worse than to sniff out the Planar presentation on '4K Display Technology' (room G110 at 10am), or if you also supply internal communications solutions you may enjoy Kramer Electronics's session discussing options for the ultra-modern boardroom. Keep an eye on the 3D Theatre, too: Philips and partners will be exploring the use of 3D technology for digital signage, advertising and heritage applications at 12.30pm on day one, and if you hang around until 2.15pm you'll catch LG and friendlyway on 3D videowalls for conferences.
InfoComm – one of the venture partners behind the show along with CEDIA – is an international AV association and will run a number of educational sessions on day two (Wednesday 30th) of interest to signage aficionados. I'll certainly be heading over at noon to take in 'Selling solutions not hardware – missed opportunities in the digital signage marketplace'. You'll have to pay in (€85 for non-members) but integrators Miguel Tresserras and David López promise to teach their 'approach to speaking the same language as the customer by focusing on needs, with the application coming as a consequence' – a valuable method learned empirically, if their blurb is to be believed. I wouldn't overlook IMCCA's talk on mobility and mobile video, too; although pitched mainly to the telepresence audience it might be worth a punt if you want to learn more about interoperability.
Our tags page will catch you up with announcements already made, but how, broadly speaking, can you expect to be illuminated? Last year's transparent displays and videowalls, 3D or otherwise, will be out in force and will have been through the mills required to make them more broadly applicable. We haven't heard much talk of gesture – perhaps because its applications are limited – but I wouldn't rule out seeing it on the Philips stand. Media players from Advantech and BrightSign have become faster and more reliable, and multi-touch display technologies will be more refined and ready for broader public use.
In my humble opinion it's the software developers who will have the most to gawp at. The Scala stand always shows off natty content integration, and we hear that signagelive has something up its sleeve – my guess would be an out-of-the-box option for low-end sign and display purposes. Dimedis, Yooba and Onelan are all bringing new offerings to Amsterdam, too, for installs of all sorts of scale and purpose.
These latter developments give us the core digital signage trend for this year. In many ways software, its capabilities and limitations determine the course of a project – so, I'd beat a path to these vendors if you really want divine revelation at ISE 2013.