The Billboard Insider Podcast
00:08:10 · Don Szczepaniak, Dave Westburg
[00:08:10] S2: You know, there are. But I would say that the biggest difference... And as you know, there are... For your people who who listen or in the industry, you know, a typical billboard in the prison view, it's a one pull. You basically pull up in a truck. A crane comes by, grabs the whole 14 by 48 billboard, sticks it on the sign, and in a couple hours, you have basically swapped out a billboard or put a new one in as long as the infrastructure's there. In Times Square, as you mentioned, you know, the multiples of that sign had to be brought in in basically four foot by four foot sections Wow. And built in those small sections from the ground up because of the space constraints and the time constraints in Times Square. And so that was the biggest difference. I think we actually have a stop stop action video that we posted on... Online that shows that sign being built, and it was built over the course of a couple weeks. But you can literally see, like, putting Lego blocks together, this thing going up row after row after row. And I think that's the... Probably the biggest challenge because you're building on the site, and the customer still wants all the things that anybody else would expect. They want a seamless sign that looks great, that looks like it's one piece of canvas, and that then delivers as one piece of canvas. You just gotta be able to do that on-site, build it one piece at a time. [00:09:28] S0: We will put a link to that video into the show notes. Let's take a break here for a word from our sponsor.
00:09:28 · Dave Westburg, S1
[00:09:28] S0: We will put a link to that video into the show notes. Let's take a break here for a word from our sponsor. [00:09:35] S1: Adomni easily connects with Daktronics, Formetco, Prismview, or Watchfire billboards and enables advertisers and agencies to quickly find and buy your unsold billboard space. With AudienceIQ technology, advertisers can target consumer profiles such as demographics, behavior, and interests that travel past your billboards. Join the fastest growing out of home network with over 100,000 digital screens. Visit adomni.com or email sells@adomni.com to learn more. Mention this Billboard Insider Podcast to receive one free year of Adomni's white labeled booking engine on your website. [00:10:14] S0: China tariffs have been big in the news. What's the current impact of tariffs on digital billboard components, Don?
00:10:21 · Don Szczepaniak
[00:10:21] S2: It was a huge issue last summer. I spent... Personally spent a lot of time in DC testifying and and working the halls of congress as a... As representative of Prismview to get our message across about a US manufacturer in the middle of Utah was being impacted by tariffs that were designed to even the playing field against Chinese competitors. And in some cases, we're having the opposite effect. But at the same time, we we were working that. We also were really looking at our supply chain and our ability to deliver for customers. And so what Samsung did, what Prismview did, is we we simply moved out of China. I guess the impact did have maybe a a stated effect or an intended effect. And we we shifted our excess production of modules. And, again, we still produce three shifts a day at Logan, but we shifted our excess capacity for modules. We shifted it from China to a facility in Tijuana. It wasn't the only reason we moved. We shortened our supply chain, quicker response. We moved to a Samsung owned facility, so Samsung world class quality and control. So all those things contributed, but the tariffs did contribute to our decision to really move our production out of China and move it closer to home. That being said, all LED manufacturers are still being impacted by, you know, tariffs on LED because, let's face it, you know, into... When it comes to surface mount LED and other forms of commercial LED, they all get produced in China. That's still an impact. It impacts everybody equally, but it impacts us all.
00:11:58 · Dave Westburg, Don Szczepaniak
[00:11:58] S0: Am I right? Were a couple stages. Are the tariffs now up to 20 or 25% on digital billboard components? And also, weren't there... There were a few workarounds people were able to do where maybe early on they were shipping LED components elsewhere to be assembled or or shipping them in a form that might not be tariff to be tariffed. But, am I right with the recent tariffs that it's very, very hard to work around what is in essence a 25% price increase? [00:12:26] S2: Yeah. You... And you're... You are right. The tariff what gets thrown around is 25%. It is actually a scale a scale that starts at 10 for some components and goes up to 25. But Mhmm. But for the components that are in production of LED, it's mostly 25. It is true. Prismview, like everybody else, has looked at those workarounds, how we go ahead and produce in certain countries, how we procure, where we procure. You can certainly do what you can, but the various rounds of tariffs have certainly closed off more and more of that. I will say this because of the flexibility we have as a Samsung affiliate, we were able to move our operation very quickly and avoid a tariff impact for anything that we were producing in China by going to Mexico. And we still produce and ensemble in in The US. And so Mhmm. We've actually made a statement to our customers that, you know, the tariffs impact will not be passed along to them. We are able to do that because the impact to us was pretty negligible. Yep. Some others, not so much.
00:12:26 · Don Szczepaniak, Dave Westburg
[00:12:26] S2: Yeah. You... And you're... You are right. The tariff what gets thrown around is 25%. It is actually a scale a scale that starts at 10 for some components and goes up to 25. But Mhmm. But for the components that are in production of LED, it's mostly 25. It is true. Prismview, like everybody else, has looked at those workarounds, how we go ahead and produce in certain countries, how we procure, where we procure. You can certainly do what you can, but the various rounds of tariffs have certainly closed off more and more of that. I will say this because of the flexibility we have as a Samsung affiliate, we were able to move our operation very quickly and avoid a tariff impact for anything that we were producing in China by going to Mexico. And we still produce and ensemble in in The US. And so Mhmm. We've actually made a statement to our customers that, you know, the tariffs impact will not be passed along to them. We are able to do that because the impact to us was pretty negligible. Yep. Some others, not so much. [00:13:23] S0: It seems like there was a big move if if China was being tariffed to move elsewhere to other countries. But the way it's been put to me is, well, there may be choke points because everyone's trying to move to other countries. So pricing at other other countries' plants go up, where if it's being produced in, for instance, your own company's plant, you know you have the access to the resources and it can get it at a reasonable price.
00:13:23 · Dave Westburg, Don Szczepaniak
[00:13:23] S0: It seems like there was a big move if if China was being tariffed to move elsewhere to other countries. But the way it's been put to me is, well, there may be choke points because everyone's trying to move to other countries. So pricing at other other countries' plants go up, where if it's being produced in, for instance, your own company's plant, you know you have the access to the resources and it can get it at a reasonable price. [00:13:46] S2: Absolutely. It's why production in Logan is so critical and important to us. It's more than symbolic. It is a way for us to really help control our destiny. And, you know, and, again, producing at an already operating Samsung plant where we're able to move very quickly and not experience some of those choke points of others trying to move around. It allows the opportunity to really do that and not impact our customers with pricing at all. [00:14:08] S0: What trends, Don, are you seeing in digital billboard design? [00:14:12] S2: So it's interesting. I've I've actually done some keynote addresses on it over the last year. You know, I always say in the LED business, it's it's getting bigger, smaller, more and less all at the same time. And so... But but it's simply for digital for the out of home, you know, you are coursing this really drive towards higher resolution. [00:14:33] S0: Yes. [00:14:33] S2: There was a time in Times Square when a 16 millimeter through all sign was perfectly fine. In fact, there were higher pixel pitches. [00:14:41] S0: Isn't one Times Square eight eight millimeters? Parts of that sign?