Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Magink Displays December 2006

LONDON: With regulators waging war on unhealthy diets, cholesterol is an unpopular byproduct of some foods. But it may have found a new role in advertising.
An Israeli company called Magink has developed a billboard technology that uses, yes, a type of synthetically produced cholesterol to help display digital images. The material is sandwiched in a thin layer underneath a transparent screen. When electrical impulses are applied, the wily molecules change shape and size, forming full-color images.
JCDecaux, an outdoor advertising company based in France, tested the billboards during the Cannes International Film Festival last spring, and they are getting a longer look in London, where the billboard division of Clear Channel Communications has set up eight of the screens.
Under a new agreement, the Magink technology is set to be introduced next year in the United States by Lamar Outdoor Advertising, an American billboard operator. Lamar plans to set up an unspecified number of Magink billboards in the United States, starting in the second half of 2007.
This technology is one of a number of ways in which outdoor advertising companies are trying to update the old-fashioned billboard for the digital era. By replacing paper and paste with electronic screens, billboard companies can control advertising sites from a computer in an office, allowing advertisers to update them as they see fit.

Magink says its technology is an improvement on existing electronic billboard technologies like the LED, or light emitting diode. LEDs produce giant, colorful electronic images, but they sometimes fade in strong sunlight.
They also have a grainier picture than the Magink screens, which the company says offer high-resolution images that resemble paper rather than television screens.
"After a long period in which nothing changed in outdoor, this is unique," Ran Poliakine, founder of Magink.
Lamar has already installed hundreds of LED screens in a number of U.S. states, but their use has been restricted by regulations governing traffic safety or visual pollution, said Bill Ripp, director of Lamar's digital division.
Because the Magink screens give off less light, he said, "they might be better received in terms of the legislative environment."
While lawmakers and regulators may prefer a less glaring image, some advertisers are skeptical.
In London, Clear Channel has been operating Magink billboards for several months but is still trying to iron out problems with them, said Barry Sayer, chief executive of the British division of Clear Channel Outdoor.
"I must say, advertiser support has been low," he said. "It's a bit of an education process."
Clear Channel has made the billboards available free to advertisers like The Independent, Sayer said, but some potential clients want to see a brighter image before committing to running campaigns.
He said the company was working on that problem with Magink and intended to attract paying customers by early next year.
Several low-cost airlines, attracted by the ability to update fare offers throughout the day, have expressed interest, Sayer said.
Another potential problem is the relatively small size of Magink screens, which are restricted, for now, to 6 meters by 3 meters, or about 20 feet by 10 feet. In the United States, a typical billboard alongside a highway is 48 feet by 14 feet.
Poliakine said Magink, which is privately held and based in a suburb of Jerusalem, is developing a larger billboard. The company has received interest in its technology from billboard operators in other markets, too, he said.
While digital billboards are more expensive to install than the paper kind, the Magink screens cost less than half the roughly $25,000 price of an LED-based billboard, he said.
The Magink screens also cost less to run because they use only one- tenth as much power as an LED screen, Poliakine said. Instead of emitting light, the technology uses reflected light from the sun, or an artificial source at night, to help create the images.
"We'd like to do our digital revolution as energy-conservatively as we can," Sayer said.LONDON: With regulators waging war on unhealthy diets, cholesterol is an unpopular byproduct of some foods. But it may have found a new role in advertising.
An Israeli company called Magink has developed a billboard technology that uses, yes, a type of synthetically produced cholesterol to help display digital images. The material is sandwiched in a thin layer underneath a transparent screen. When electrical impulses are applied, the wily molecules change shape and size, forming full-color images.
JCDecaux, an outdoor advertising company based in France, tested the billboards during the Cannes International Film Festival last spring, and they are getting a longer look in London, where the billboard division of Clear Channel Communications has set up eight of the screens.
Under a new agreement, the Magink technology is set to be introduced next year in the United States by Lamar Outdoor Advertising, an American billboard operator. Lamar plans to set up an unspecified number of Magink billboards in the United States, starting in the second half of 2007.
This technology is one of a number of ways in which outdoor advertising companies are trying to update the old-fashioned billboard for the digital era. By replacing paper and paste with electronic screens, billboard companies can control advertising sites from a computer in an office, allowing advertisers to update them as they see fit.

Magink says its technology is an improvement on existing electronic billboard technologies like the LED, or light emitting diode. LEDs produce giant, colorful electronic images, but they sometimes fade in strong sunlight.
They also have a grainier picture than the Magink screens, which the company says offer high-resolution images that resemble paper rather than television screens.
"After a long period in which nothing changed in outdoor, this is unique," Ran Poliakine, founder of Magink.
Lamar has already installed hundreds of LED screens in a number of U.S. states, but their use has been restricted by regulations governing traffic safety or visual pollution, said Bill Ripp, director of Lamar's digital division.
Because the Magink screens give off less light, he said, "they might be better received in terms of the legislative environment."
While lawmakers and regulators may prefer a less glaring image, some advertisers are skeptical.
In London, Clear Channel has been operating Magink billboards for several months but is still trying to iron out problems with them, said Barry Sayer, chief executive of the British division of Clear Channel Outdoor.
"I must say, advertiser support has been low," he said. "It's a bit of an education process."
Clear Channel has made the billboards available free to advertisers like The Independent, Sayer said, but some potential clients want to see a brighter image before committing to running campaigns.
He said the company was working on that problem with Magink and intended to attract paying customers by early next year.
Several low-cost airlines, attracted by the ability to update fare offers throughout the day, have expressed interest, Sayer said.
Another potential problem is the relatively small size of Magink screens, which are restricted, for now, to 6 meters by 3 meters, or about 20 feet by 10 feet. In the United States, a typical billboard alongside a highway is 48 feet by 14 feet.
Poliakine said Magink, which is privately held and based in a suburb of Jerusalem, is developing a larger billboard. The company has received interest in its technology from billboard operators in other markets, too, he said.
While digital billboards are more expensive to install than the paper kind, the Magink screens cost less than half the roughly $25,000 price of an LED-based billboard, he said.
The Magink screens also cost less to run because they use only one- tenth as much power as an LED screen, Poliakine said. Instead of emitting light, the technology uses reflected light from the sun, or an artificial source at night, to help create the images.
"We'd like to do our digital revolution as energy-conservatively as we can," Sayer said.

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