Sixteen:Nine - All Digital Signage, Some Snark
00:21:51 · Balthasar Mayer, Dave Haynes, Antonia Hamberger
[00:21:51] S1: Yes. Yes. This this is a big goal for us. Yeah. Yeah. And did you need to sign an autograph? [00:21:57] S0: I have signed autographs. Absolutely bizarre. I'm just like, can you sign your business card? Because there's somebody back in the office that'll just be thrown in there. Really? I was like, I don't wanna see it. What's what's gone wrong in your life? But the big thing that has always stuck with me is the number of times that companies have told me that part of their onboarding process now for new employees is, you know, there's the parking lot, here's your parking assignment, here's this, that's your desk, here's your WiFi password and so on. Here's the instructions for healthcare and this and that, but here's what you need to do on a daily basis. You need to subscribe to this thing and you need to be reading it every day to stay current on this industry. And I've had, oh, dozens of people tell me that, that I'm I'm just kind of part of their their workplace operations that they told people as part of learning this business, you need to be reading this every day. And that's always been, you know, really heartening and nice to hear. [00:23:00] S2: Nice. Nice. So apart from reading Sixteen:Nine every day, which is an obvious thing to do, part [00:23:08] S1: of your daily reads [00:23:09] S0: or should be I'm doing it too. [00:23:10] S2: Should be part of your daily routine. What advice would you give to someone just entering the industry?
00:23:10 · Antonia Hamberger, Dave Haynes
[00:23:10] S2: Should be part of your daily routine. What advice would you give to someone just entering the industry? [00:23:18] S0: Learn it. That's the flip side of what I was just saying is I'm always astonished at how many people I run into who've been in this industry for ten years or more, and they had no idea about 69 or anything else that they're not learning about their industry. That just... I'm I'm flabbergasted by that. Like, how can you work in an industry without investing any time to learn, you know, emerging technologies and trends and everything else. So I I would say just, like, invest the time, make sure you invest the time to to read about it and look at things with curiosity, but also with a degree of skepticism. Because as you guys well know, there's a lot of trade press and a lot of PR that's just cheerleading. It's just shaking the pom poms about, you know, this is amazing and, you know, this the this is the world first and all that. And, you know, I've spent eighteen years calling bullshit on things that's not the world first and if it is, like who cares? Can be the world's first but this has no business application, it's just eye candy. So spend the time to look at stuff, try to get your head past the wow factor and the eye candy side of things because we collectively go to trade shows and we will see people at certain stands, I won't name them, but you just see them slack jawed staring at this technology, there's oh my god that's amazing and I'm looking at it going [00:24:50] S2: Did hear the word hologram just now? [00:24:53] S0: I didn't say it
00:24:53 · Dave Haynes, Antonia Hamberger
[00:24:53] S0: I didn't say it [00:24:55] S2: but I saw you thinking it. [00:24:57] S0: Yes, It's just like think about what the business application is, what you're going to do with it and get past whether you think it's amazing looking because as I've said for years and years, iCandy and Wow factor have very short shelf lives. Know they're exciting the first time you see it, time, time you just walk right on by it and that's a lot of money to spend on something that people aren't really paying attention to. Some of the best digital signage out there, I started using the term boring signage a few years ago, some of the best digital signage is like crushingly boring but incredibly relevant to the people who are looking at it like how how busy is this washroom? Do I turn left or right? Is this line up faster if I go this way or that way? It's just data, but it's immediately relevant to the people who want to know this. They don't need to see a hologram of somebody dancing or whatever or pretending they're a security control agent. They just need something saying this line over here because we're using AI to measure or computer vision to measure the density of lineups that this one's going to take five minutes, the [00:26:17] S2: one you're right in front of right now
00:26:17 · Antonia Hamberger, Dave Haynes, Balthasar Mayer
[00:26:17] S2: one you're right in front of right now [00:26:18] S0: is going take you twelve minutes so they're going to go to the left down to the other one and that's going to load balance the venue which is awesome. It just makes operations better but it's for people who are all about the eye candy it's like oh it's not very exciting. Yeah. But it works, it beautifully serves its purpose. [00:26:39] S2: So learn about the industry. Take your time learning everything you can. Learn about new emerging technologies and don't get wowed too easily by flashy stuff. [00:26:50] S0: And and view everything with a degree of skepticism and a business mind set of, okay, even if this is super cool, would anybody use it or does this scale? Like, you know, some of this stuff that's amazing, but given the cost of it, there's there's never gonna be a whole bunch of them. [00:27:08] S2: Yeah. So Balthasar, do you wanna throw some rapid fire? [00:27:12] S0: Yeah. Know. Yes. [00:27:14] S2: Take that, Dave. [00:27:15] S1: So so Dave, you you run Sixteen:Nine now, almost for twenty years. You gave great insights for the industry. And yeah, you're giving over to us, to Invidis. I really, really hope that we can keep up the spirit of Sixteen:Nine. We will try our best. Yeah, we talk Big [00:27:35] S0: smelly shoes to fill. [00:27:38] S1: Well, the smelly part we can Yeah. So we have I think it's a pretty nine question now. Okay. And now we have 16 rapid fire questions for you. Sounds like [00:27:49] S0: a game show. It's a fabulous part
00:27:49 · Dave Haynes, Balthasar Mayer, Antonia Hamberger
[00:27:49] S0: a game show. It's a fabulous part [00:27:51] S1: of a celebration for your part. I have 16 questions. You try to answer them as rapidly as possible. Since this is your exit interview and your celebration, you're allowed to put one sentence into it. [00:28:04] S0: Okay. [00:28:05] S1: We are not that strict with the rules. [00:28:07] S2: We're little flexible today. [00:28:08] S1: We are little flexible today, yeah. [00:28:09] S2: Today on our very first podcast. [00:28:11] S1: Oh, on our very first Yes, that's all. You need another sip of beer? Are you ready? I'm good. Okay, okay, then let's begin. What is your first big thing you do in retirement? [00:28:24] S0: Oh, it's boring yard work. [00:28:27] S1: Boring yard work. Okay. After the show, wine or beer? [00:28:32] S0: After what show? Ibiza. Well, that's Spain, so that's wine. And in Phuket? That'd be beer because it's hot. [00:28:41] S2: What do [00:28:42] S1: you like more? Conferences or trade shows? Conferences. In conference, on stage or in the audience? [00:28:48] S0: I like both. Blog or newspaper? Well, I'm a newspaper guy, but I I... You know, the... Unfortunately, I I love the tactile side of newspapers, but they're hard to find. So if I'm in New York, I'll I'll pick up the times. Okay. Hardware or software? Hardware. Hologram or micro LED? Micro LED. [00:29:11] S1: What was the coolest story you covered in '69? Oh, boy. That's that's hard to [00:29:18] S0: give a snappy answer to. [00:29:20] S1: You can have top three because it's the exit interview. We we...
00:29:20 · Balthasar Mayer, Dave Haynes, Antonia Hamberger
[00:29:20] S1: You can have top three because it's the exit interview. We we... [00:29:25] S0: I would say going to China, going to Taiwan, And, man, I always remember that I called it the LED billboard that ate Times Square. It was back in, like, ten years ago or something in front of the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. They lit up what at that time was the biggest LED board certainly in in The United States and probably among the biggest in the world. And I I saw the room where they have all the servers and everything else, and then I was there when they turned the thing on. That was pretty cool. True micro LED or OLED? They're so different. True micro LED is still in its infancy. OLED is getting a lot better than it used to be. But I still don't see it as a digital signage project... Product by and large. [00:30:15] S1: Okay. I messed up the numbers, but what was the silliest story you covered? [00:30:19] S0: The silliest story? Also talk three aloud. Well, most of those I just don't run. What is [00:30:30] S1: the silliest then? We changed the question. What was the absolute silliest press release you got? [00:30:36] S0: It's it's a tie between those that are Guinness World Records and those that are win Frost and Sullivan Awards, which you buy. You don't win an award, you buy a Frost and Sullivan Award. [00:30:49] S1: I I have to say I love the Guinness World Records stories, yeah, you're right. You're right. The coolest person in Digital Signage, interviewed. [00:30:57] S0: The coolest? Can I say the best interview? [00:31:00] S2: Yeah. Yeah.