Awaking Giant

Ronni Guggenheim, President of Minicom Europe, reports live from Moscow....
Dismart, one of the pioneers and leading suppliers of digital signage solutions in Russia, have succeeded to attract the attention and presence of some 80 persons to their Digital Signage conference in Moscow. Participants come from all over Russia as well a CIS countries, such as various –stan countries, Ukraine, etc. Dismart is the distributor of Scala and Minicom in Russia and has served several high profile projects, such as Mega, Ramstor, Russian Railway stations, etc.

The resonance to the call is very encouraging. It shows that the Russian giant is waking up. It is shoppers’ paradise here, there is consumption capital, money can buy anything. Now, retailers try to figure out how they can bring the everything to the buyers. In a country of the size of Russia, digital signage is an optimal vehicle to convey content to thousands of remote places. Just imagine the cost savings of sending content instantaneously to a display instead of sending a poster to Kaliningrad, Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg…. And just imagine how many local players and integrators suddenly follow this trend market, hence, you will always full house events, such as last year’s ISE Russia, Kramer’s AV Club event or today’s Dismart Seminar.

What fascinates me again and again in this country is the thirst and hunger of each individual to learn. There is interaction, there are conversations and presentations are bi-directional, with questions and feedback coming back. As a result, integrators and their engineers work highly independent. Historically being isolated, having been forced to solve problems alone, without external help, in a creative manner, with workarounds and innovative ideas, these people could be good personal examples for many of western integrators and resellers, who too quickly finger point and get rid of their responsibilities.

In one aspect Russia is leading the world: the big outdoor, billboard companies, such as Gallery, News Outdoor have jumped onto the digital signage train in a very early stage. They have showed vision and sensitivity to the evolution of the market. It is yet to be seen when the western giants such as CBS and JCD will wake up and stop considering the digital signage market as competitive. On the flip side, we currently are observing a slowdown on current major rollouts. The big network owners such as Gallery are waiting to see the ROI on their investments. We are in a consolidation phase and some of the cards are re-mixed.
The technology may change but tha old adage remains the same - It's never boring in Russia!