Panasonic‘s 103in. plasma screens are displayed in all their glory at the company’s booth (C2401) as those big, bad boys continue to proliferate into the digital signage realm. We covered one of their earliest applications a while back at a California casino, and now company officials are offering up several case studies involving those screens. It’s all part of moving them into what Panasonic calls “high impact spaces” for digital signage–using giant displays in digital signage situations that consumers can’t possibly be used to from their home or business interactions with flat-panel displays. They told me about the first ones going into public mall spaces recently–one in New York (The Westchester Mall in White Plains) and one in New Jersey (the Newport Centre Mall in Jersey City), and promise more are on the way. more…

Started InfoComm 2008 this morning with a nice chat with Furman‘s marketing manager, John Benz (booth C3483). We got to talking about the often misunderstood world of power management, Furman’s stock in trade, and the company’s efforts to do something about that. John explains that companies like Furman compete with the antiquated notion that their products aren’t needed, as much as with direct competitors–”we mainly compete with the wall outlet,” is how he put it. Even many contractors, he says, are still having a hard time fully understanding the world of power management and control.

He then mentioned the variety of educational material the company supplies with each of its products and on its Web site, including a new series of AC Power Management videos to address these issues. (Check out www.furmansound.com/video.php) to see them. more…