Digital Signage Magazine is proud to unveil the winners of its 2021 DIGI Awards.
"Even in the midst of a pandemic, digital signage professionals have continued to innovate" said Megan A. Dutta, content director, Digital Signage Magazine. "The winners of the 2021 DIGI Awards have released new, state-of-the-art products, and have created stunning installations."
Chosen by a panel of highly regarded digital signage-focused integrators, consultants, and end users, here are the 2021 DIGI Award winners.
Best Digital Signage Application: Corporate
Four Winds Interactive—Ferguson
With 1,400 locations, 10 distribution centers, and 27,000 associates, Ferguson needed a streamlined, enterprise-wide communications network for its 1,000 screen signage network, and selected Four Winds Interactive (FWI) as its digital signage vendor. To immediately solve its network uptime challenges, Ferguson not only replaced its underlying digital signage management platform with FWI, the company also replaced all of its existing content players. Because FWI’s enterprise platform is compatible with multiple-player platforms, Ferguson had the opportunity to leverage BrightSign players. To streamline every aspect of content contribution, scheduling, and device management, Ferguson leverages FWI Cloud. By enabling location-specific content contribution while still maintaining control of global messaging, the company ensures each location can update its screens with a list of scheduled appointments, special events, and more, without sacrificing the ability to maintain a consistent customer experience.
Best Digital Signage Application: Digital Signage As Art
Sharp NEC Display Solutions—Light Up The Night
With many jurisdictions placing limits on public gatherings, LuminArtz—an organization celebrating local and regional creatives through the art of projection—refused to let the COVID-19 situation get them down and used Sharp NEC Display projectors to provide art to the community. One such project took place at the Wenham Museum, located on Boston’s North Shore, and local video artist and technologist Pamela Hersch managed the technical aspects of the Light Up The Night project. The installation had to be done swiftly to avoid drawing a crowd, as LuminArtz wanted to maintain social distancing protocols. To ensure that the exhibit could reach a broad audience, Lyn Burke, director of LuminArtz, livestreamed a video of the content along with commentary to accompany the visuals on Facebook Events and Instagram. The program lasted approximately half an hour, providing stunning visuals celebrating childhood, connecting generations, and honoring heritage.
Best Digital Signage Application: Education
Nanolumens/Baker Audio Visual—The Ron Clark Academy
A 52-foot-diameter, circular Nanolumens LED screen installed on the ceiling brought the "wow" factor to The Ron Clark Academy; the system was installed by Baker Audio Visual. With content reminiscent of Harry Potter’s adventures, the system is a performance and educational aid for the school’s students and educators, who come from all over the world to participate in events and training. When not being used as an educational tool, the screen displays scenes of dragons flying overhead and landing on the rim, and looking down into the room. A robust QSC sound system is hidden discreetly within the space’s Gothic columns to supply voice and program audio reinforcement. The backbone of the system consists of a Show Stage 4x4k display processor, Crestron Control processor, QSC amplifiers/DSP, Datapath server, and more.
Best Digital Signage Application: Entertainment
OpenEye Global—Madame Tussauds Hollywood
Designed by OpenEye Global, the Jimmy Kimmel Experience at Madame Tussauds is a fully immersive film set that transports guests to Jimmy Kimmel Live to become part of the magic of television. Kimmel stands front and center to greet guests, who usually stop to get a selfie with him. As fans move through the experience, they are able to participate in a taped “Pedestrian Question” interview, and then it’s showtime! Each guest becomes the star of the show, enjoying 15 seconds of fame as their interview is broadcast on the big screen for all to see. Following their on-screen debut, guests make their way through the set for more interactive photo opportunities, including taking a seat in the coveted director’s chair, getting a feel for what it’s like behind the scenes as they head backstage, and more.
Best Digital Signage Application: Large Venue
Samsung Electronics America/Prismview—SoFi Stadium
Hollywood Park, a 298-acre entertainment venue and home to SoFi Stadium, was looking for a display technology partner who could create a unique and one-of-a-kind fan experience that takes sports, concerts, and live events to a new level. Thanks to the 70,000 square-foot-dual side, center-hung videoboard, as well as other LED displays integrated throughout the venue, Samsung and Hollywood Park have created a dynamic, memorable, and interactive fan experience.
Click here to read more about the SoFi Stadium install.
Best Digital Signage Application: Transportation
Pixel Inspiration—Heathrow Airport
WH Smith engaged Pixel Inspiration to create a stunning digital signage art installation at its store in Terminal 2 of London's famed Heathrow Airport. Framing the store entrance is a striking 25x4m LED fascia where each half of the display shows attention-grabbing marketing content from both WH Smith and Well Pharmacy. At the side entrance, there are three external facing portrait screens that showcase artwork from WH Smith’s suppliers to passers-by. The store’s interior also boasts various digital elements, including six brand-dedicated screens at the end of each gondola, a landscape 3x1 screen array, and back-to-back portrait screens highlighting the latest tech offers and availability. The final digital element can be found within the store’s souvenir area—a digitized Big Ben clock face with synchronized audio which plays the clock tower’s iconic hourly chimes.
Best Digital Signage Product: COVID-19 Solution (TIE)
22Miles Protection-as-a-Service
Protection-as-a-Service (PaaS) by 22Miles is a suite of integrated technology features and capabilities developed to address viral pandemics and the evolving safety measures of social distancing. PaaS offers integrated solutions within 22Miles' customizable software platform and features a growing number of options for businesses and organizations spanning key markets.
Diversified VitalSign
Diversified’s VitalSign body temperature check kiosk, powered by Aurora Multimedia, helps clients protect what’s important—the safety of their people and those around them. Designed to detect elevated body temperatures within one second from 18- to 36-inches away, the VitalSign kiosk is a contactless, FDA-compliant solution that supports efficient and non-intrusive temperature scanning for anyone entering a facility with visual and audible alerts. Based on trusted engineering, the accurate sensor generates reading at +/- 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit and adds an extra layer of safety to facilities.
Best Digital Signage Product: Display (Non-dvLED)
Peerless-AV 65-inch Xtreme High Bright Outdoor Display
Featuring a fully sealed, IP66 Rated design and a patented Dynamic Thermal Transfer System, the 65-inch Xtreme High Bright Outdoor Display is built to withstand the harsh outdoor elements, making it the ideal digital signage or entertainment solution for any professional application.
Best Digital Signage Product: Indoor LED
LG MAGNIT (model LSAB)
LG MAGNIT is designed to deliver groundbreaking picture quality and durability, as well as streamlined installation—making it an ideal signage solution for convention centers, corporate settings, hotel lobbies, luxury boutique stores, broadcast studios, control rooms, exhibition halls, and museums.
Best Digital Signage Product: Innovation
Visix Voice Recognizer Widget for AxisTV Signage Suite
The Voice Recognizer Widget (VRW) lets AxisTV Signage Suite clients turn any display into an interactive sign by adding a voice user interface. Users simply drag and drop the widget onto any layout, then set custom parameters that instruct the sign what to listen for and how to respond to requests. It can be used on single displays, banks of screens, and video walls in any environment. Real-world application of the VRW allows viewers to walk up to any display, ask for the material they want, and then immediately see that content on screen. AxisTV Signage Suite users simply design the various content options, employ the VRW, enter speech triggers, and configure those triggers to launch the appropriate content.
Best Digital Signage Product: Outdoor LED
Planar HRO Series
The Planar HRO Series of high resolution outdoor LED video walls brings bright, ultra-high definition video outside. As a high brightness, fine pixel pitch LED offering that is built for close-up daylight video viewing, the Planar HRO Series delivers impactful visual experiences for audiences even in direct sunlight.
Best Digital Signage Product: Software
Appspace
Appspace’s workplace experience platform is designed to help organizations improve their company culture by making it easy to publish consistent and streamlined communication for all employees—no matter where they work. The company's new publishing bots extend the reach of in-office digital signage communication shared via its platform and publishes directly into the enterprise messaging apps teams use every day. Using pre-formatted templates, users can schedule posts to reach the right group at the right time using existing channels.
