Other companies might use the digital signs to provide employee training as well, said Thomas Wyatt, general manager of digital management at Cisco. A bank might use the technology to update customers on services as they wait in line, he added.
Michael Chang, president at Fantasia Coffee and Tea in Cupertino, Calif., started using the Cisco Digital Signage system last week at the checkout counter at one of the company's Milpitas stores to display still pictures of store products.
"Today, it is pictures, and later we could put on video and maybe provide information about the health benefits of tea," Chang said. "So we kind of entertain people while they are in line."
The digital video format allows quicker changes to the information than printing the signs the store needs, Chang said. Data is sent from a Wi-Fi router in the store to the display. Eventually, Chang could send the video data from a central location to five stores. Also in the future, Chang wants to allow nearby stores to advertise on his display, to bring in a small revenue stream to pay for the technology.
The system includes Cisco's Digital Media Manager, a Web-based software application, and its Digital Media Player, a small hardware device that controls playback of video, graphics and text on video displays, Wyatt said. The player is US$1,495, while the Manager is based on a customer's configuration, he said. In September, Cisco announced two Digital Media Encoders to help create the type of media that could be distributed over the digital signage network.
Cisco expects the global market for digital signage products will be more than $2 billion in 2010, Wyatt said.
Melissa Webster, an analyst at market research firm IDC, said there are already a "tremendous number" of digital signage providers today, perhaps hundreds, that work in a "highly fragmented market." Almost all the vendors are small, but larger ones tend to focus on building advertising networks or deploying outdoor signs.
Sony Corp. sells displays but also began to sell a digital signage system in Europe last year, she said. The systems so far have been customized, and Cisco's new product represents the first major effort to offer a standards-based, plug-and-play system, Webster said.
"I think we will see very rapid uptake once there are large, standards-oriented vendors in the market," such as Cisco, she said.
A customer will benefit from the flexibility of the technology, Webster noted. Retailers "can deploy a new promotion across hundreds of stores in a nationwide chain literally at the push of a button," she said. But local customization of the content would be possible to allow a store that's experiencing mild weather to push merchandise different from a store in an area enduring snowstorms, Webster added.