NTV Moneymaker: Digital Display Content

It’s not as sexy or fun as dressing all in black, but providing custom content for corporate digital displays is likely to produce a lot more NewTeeVee-type jobs in the near future, if the boom in display hardware is any indicator.

That was just one of the takeaways we had from a quick phone chat with MediaTile CEO Keith Kelsen, whose company said that it was adding EvDO Rev A support to its flat-panel displays in an announcement this week at NAB. Talking while walking through the noisy Vegas show floor, Kelsen said that the digital display market is booming, creating a rapidly expanding need for fresh content to fill those always-on screens.

There’s not much rocket science to digital displays — they are in stores, malls, hotels, more places by the minute — and MediaTile’s addition of EvDO support right in the display device seems to add a layer of install and administration simplicity that foretells even more growth.

The MediaTile “display in a box” “Digital Sign in a Box” offering lets customers install signs anywhere there is a cell data network and have instant web-based control and administration, Kelsen says. Unlike other digital-display offerings, like the newest from networking giant Cisco, MediaTile’s deployment doesn’t require IT-staff experience to install cabling and network connections.

While MediaTile, which has been offering cellular-based display systems since 2004, “can’t keep up with demand” right now, Kelsen says that the real demand is for quality content. “These displays are really new direct broadcast networks,” he said. “The content will always be what the consumer relates to, and it has to be relevant to where the display is located.”

MediaTile does offer a starter kit of canned content that can be interspersed with messages or commercials from the display owner, but Kelsen sees a whole new media market ready for development. “It’s a race right now, and whoever gets there first, wins,” he said. Vloggers: on your mark, set, go!

NTV Moneymaker is an irregular feature in which we showcase a way to make a living with your video skills.