Nov 8 2007
Las Vegas is known for its bright lights and giant signage. The marquees, billboards and illuminated wonders of the Wynn, Treasure Island, The Venetian, Bally's and PlanetHollywood gleam with promises for thrill-seekers and wide-eyed tourists and gargantuan profitability for their owners, the casinos and hotels that make Vegas come alive at night.
They used to be neon; now they are mostly digital. But underneath all that garish, glitzy signage is a revolution on a smaller and equally mind-boggling scale. It is a revolution in the handling, placement and content of the smaller digital signage by a start-up called AzureFire, LLC, founded by Austrian entrepreneur Helmut Kuhn, who hopes to unearth a new world of possibilities for Digital Signage.
Speaking somewhat philosophically, founder Helmut Kuhn comments, "This is an awesome place for signs. But mostly people think of the big, blazing neon and gigantic LED signs. AzureFire concentrates on the smaller signs, the ones you see in hotels, shops, lobbies of movie theatres, etc. We want to them to shine more brightly, too. We want to stoke those little lights as well." Right now, AzureFire is focusing on the Hospitality industry, providing its cutting edge style of digital signage and interactive kiosk solutions with a heavy concentration on targeting and content."
Originally from Vienna, the multi-talented Audio Visual Designer and Engineer, Helmut Kuhn, staked his claim in the United States, creating AV designs for casinos and hospitality in Las Vegas and Atlantic City as well as various venues throughout California. Helmut, also a photographer, is also noted for his state-of-the-art Race&Sportsbook AV designs. He and his staff are highly conversant in markets throughout North America, particularly in the metropolitan service areas.
Digital signage is already a part of Las Vegas, which some might say is, in fact, the national capital of digital signage. But still, as everywhere else, the content potential of this remarkable new technology has yet to be fully uncovered. According to Kuhn, "AzureFire's mission is to help unleash the potential for creative marketing inherent in digital signage." Anyone can sell and set up a sign, but with digital signage, the creation of effective, targeted and impactful content opens a new world for advertisers.
"This is any time, any kind, any place, anybody type of advertising; the single most flexible, targetable, content-rich form of advertising ever created on planet earth," says Daniel Huard, AzureFire's Director Business Development, "Why? It can do anything that any other type of advertising can do - from conveying multiple, rotating messages; supporting any kind of sophisticated video; generating any type of graphic or SFX content-enhancing background. We didn't invent the technology but we deploy it new, highly customizable ways, using the best creative advertising minds in the industry. If I were to make a prediction, I would say that AzureFire will do for digital signage what Vermeer did for the paintbrush and what Michelangelo did for a block of marble. We will move this entire media to another level by shaping it precisely in the form our clients need to maximize their own profitability."
Content is King to AzureFire. Their team helps their clients to strategize, set-up and deploy a very user-friendly digital signage assembly. Digital Signage by AzureFire allows for elegant solutions as the signage system comprises content, network management, software, displays with the capacity for real-time messaging. Once installed, utilizing a well-thought out template-based technology, even a company's most non-technical associates may log into a fully secure system and make text changes. To do this, they can make changes from a cell phone, iPhone, web browser or sophisticated, integrated automation systems developed by Creston or AMX. Content may be mixed with announcements of specific events, live feeds: news and entertainment, stock updates, sports, weather; any content the client wants and needs. Scala, the worldwide market leader in digital signage network software is the backbone of AzureFire Digital Signage. With Scala, there is the profound ability for scalability, to create projects on virtually any scale or size.
" Sure, AzureFire has all the technical means at its disposal to set-up and train its clients to fully utilize this amazing promotional tool", says Dena Mara, Art Director, "But technology itself is soulless. For us, creating content is paramount to AzureFire's unique mission. For this reason, Helmut's outreach for staffing has focused on creative marketing experts, whose eye is always on the targeted demographic. Because content and technology requires expert blending in digital signage, our full network consists of graphic designers, videographers, animators, photographers, programmers, engineers and copywriters who understand the possibilities for 21st century digital signage. As Art Director, my goal is always to make sure our client's campaigns carry the most fitting and visually sensitive graphic and photographic content for their goal; whether that demands a dramatic, elegant, comedic or straightforward approach.
The power of digital hasn't been lost on the masters of big signage either. All that remaining marvelous gigantic neon in Vegas is about to fold in 2012, a date neatly dovetailing with the end of the Mayan calendar. Some allege this curious date to be the end of the world but, from what it looks like, it probably means the end of neon. By 2012, big screen technology will dominate Las Vegas. The age of digital signage is upon us!