I have to say that I was impressed by the thoroughness of your article but a little disappointed by some of your observations.  The reason, it seems to me, is that you are looking at AV manufacturers to answer the question of how best to distribute signals in a digital signage world.  That in itself presents a challenge because while most of the AV companies you mentioned make terrific products, none of them focus primarily on the needs of digital signage network owners and operators.

That is where I’d like to introduce you to ComQi US, formed from the merger of Digital Signage pioneers Minicom Digital Signage and EnQii Holdings.  From the standpoint of Extension and Distribution of signals in Digital Signage networks, that is ALL that we do.  We have been designing and manufacturing solutions for the digital signage industry since 2001.  Our products do not behave, as you suggest in your article, the way our competitors behave because we have designed them to perform for 24/7 digital signage networks.  We back that performance up with a standard three year warranty – the first manufacturer to offer that warranty back in 2000.

What makes our solutions unique, besides the design input we receive from CMS manufacturers, screen manufacturers and network owners and operators, is the simplicity with which we approach the problem of getting a “video signal from point A to point B.”  We can do with a few SKU’s what many of the PRO-AV companies do with dozens of SKU’s.  This makes the design and deployment of our network solutions both simple and powerful.

I’d love the opportunity to walk you through a 30 minute presentation that differentiates ComQi from the rest of the field, after we illustrate the three scenarios where using Extension and Distribution in digital signage networks will always save you money over player at screen scenarios.  Are you interested?

Please contact me to arrange.

Digital Sunrise?  Or Analog Sunset?

I love HDBaseT so far.  Prices are coming down, and senders and recievers are starting to show up in equipment.  HDMI, ethernet and IR on one CAT6 cable!

For installations like sports bars, so far it’s hard to beat a component video matrix with Cat 5 baluns. 1080p is not really necessary, since most sporting events are recorded in 720p, and when you need to have 12 games going at once on dozens of TVs, an HDMI matrix is pretty cost prohibitive.