The View From ISE 2020 - Totems Getting A Conscience

PassageWay exhibited as part of the UK Department for International Trade 'Innovation is Great' Pavilion at this years ISE exhibition and conference at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam. 

Lasting 4 days, the show is massive, even allowing for the 50 or so companies that withdrew due to Coronavirus fears. Whilst the show covers everything AV, one of the larger halls was dedicated to Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) and everything associated with the market. 

The show echoed the youthful exuberance of visiting a fairground; huge, beautiful digital displays and screens of all shapes and sizes displaying a myriad of creativity, many offering interactive innovations. Whilst an amuse-bouche for the eyes, what seemed lacking amongst many of the totem suppliers was a visible environmental conscience, both in terms of manufacturing/recycling of totems and the societal benefits that totems could be applied to. 

Much of the DOOH market is concerned with advertising, in one form or other. There appear to be few in the marketplace really looking at the environmental and societal challenges facing our towns and cities. 

Of course, digital totems aren't cheap, sizeable investment is needed both for initial deployment and ongoing maintenance/replacement (an average totem screen is expected to last about 8 years). Naturally, advertising is an obvious route for generating revenue to cover costs and maximise return but society isn't all about buying stuff and we believe there should be a better balance between ad revenue and civic engagement to improve place-based experience whilst supporting environmental goals. 

So, it was inspiring on visiting the Infinitus stand to see a mock-up of their imotion safety point totem. Infinitus is an outdoor digital signage manufacturer* with deployments of their technology across the globe. Infinitus developed the imotion totem for Smart City deployments and it features a range of sensors, including dust, pressure, humidity, CO2, wind speed, temperature, ozone and air filtering along with inbuilt voice activation and NFC. The totem boasts a large 75 inch LCD screen which can be used to display the collected data alongside ads and other content such as PassageWay real-time local mobility and digital wayfinding signs. 

Whilst still a concept, the Infinitus imotion totem shows how manufacturers are innovating to develop products that benefit people, places and communities whilst also maximising commercial opportunities through generating longer dwell times. A movement which we think is most welcome.