Case Study-Solara360 Digital Signage Ad Network

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KEYWEST TECHNOLOGY CASE STUDY

DiGiTAL SiGNAGE PrODUCT SPOTLiGHT

SimPLiCiTY, rELiAbiLiTY AND rEmOTE CONTrOL briNG SUCCESS TO SOLArA360 DiGiTAL SiGNAGE frANCHiSiNG PLAN

What happens when you cross the appeal of professional and collegiate sports with the potential of generating substantial ad revenue from mom-and-pop business owners who’ve never even thought they could afford to advertise in such a high-profile environment?

Dorn Beattie, CEO of Solara360 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is hoping the answer is explosive growth, satisfied adver-tisers and thousands of new businesses to make this powerful combination of sports and advertising a reality.

Eight years ago, Beattie moved forward on development of a digital signage ad network for sports bars throughout North America. His business model was straightforward. Offer sports bars his own proprietary displays, digital signage player and associated cabling and gear for free. In exchange for the digital signage system, Solara360 would populate an onscreen “L” around two sides of the games being shown with ads from small businesses in the area costing as little as $200 per month.

A few years later, Beattie was ready to come to market with his turnkey digital signage solution. Within weeks of offering his system, Beattie had 32 contracts signed with sports bar owners to deploy his digital signage. Unfortunately, at that very moment the recession of 2008-09 hit; funding dried up, and Beattie was left looking for a new business model to bring his vision to market.

THE CHALLENGEAfter regrouping and exploring his options, Beattie settled on a franchise business model and went through the rigorous process of becoming a member of both the Cana-dian Franchise Association (CFA) and the International Franchise Association (IFA).

With this new business model, the franchisees would purchase the right to rollout the digital signage ad network at 10 sports bars within a well-defined geographical area. As part of the deal, franchisees would buy all of the monitors, digital signage players and ancillary equipment needed to deploy the network. They then could begin selling advertis-ing to local businesses and generate revenue.

While this approach made financial sense for Solara360, adopting a franchise model in which franchisees may have a limited technical background made it essential that the digital signage system was easy to install, remotely controllable and required minimal on-premise intervention.

Additionally, because Solara360’s target audience is sports bars, the digital signage system would have to leave the incoming video source of games –whether cable, satellite or telco TV- untouched to both ensure smooth, real-time display of game action and guarantee that no one ran afoul of copyright laws governing retransmission of televised events.




THE SOLUTiONBeattie turned to Keywest Technology’s MediaZone Pro digital signage player for the ad network’s playback solution. Each sports bar is outfitted with a single MediaZone Pro and accompanying distribution amplifier to playout a customized playlist of ad-vertising in the “L” shaped graphic to each digital sign in the bar.

Franchisees are given an easy-to-follow manual for installation of the system. From the moment the MediaZone Pro and monitors are turned on, the digital signage sys-tem reports to Solara360 via the Internet that it is in service and ready for use. Local ads sold by a franchisee are built into a playlist generated by Beattie’s company in Vancouver and the ad content and playlist are transported via the Internet to the onsite MediaZone Pro for playback.

To display sports action in real-time with no processing by the digital signage player, Beattie developed a display technology based on LCD glass from Samsung, a proprietary video board that allows the display to bring in an HD source through one monitor input and an additional video input to bring in the advertising “L” that is placed around the video.

THE rESULTSince adopting the franchise model and assembling an easy-to-install, remotely controllable package of digital signage technology based on the Keywest Technology MediaZone Pro and LCD displays using So-lara360’ proprietary technology, Beattie has placed his ad network roll-out on an upward trajectory.

One secret to Solara360’s successful advertising methodology is the uninterrupted television programming

that is required to satisfy the needs of broadcasters, bar owners and fans alike.

Solara360 displays capitalize on proprietary picture-in-picture (PiP) technology that leaves

the original broadcast untouched.

Visit Solara360 on the web: http://www.advertising.solara360.com

“We are offering small business owners TV style advertising with a captive audience of 100,000 per

month for the same price of a black-and-white ad in a community newspaper”




Installation of the twelfth franchi-see’s digital signage systems recently was completed, and Beattie sees good things ahead for his sports bar-based digital signage ad network. Eventually, he envisions having Solara360 franchi-sees sprouting up in contiguous geo-graphic areas that together cover large swaths of the continent. He says one day in the not too distant future he will have 500 franchise locations. At that point, Beattie adds, he will be able to attract national brands to advertise on the network.

In the meantime, Beattie sees his net-work delivering a valuable service to local businesses that they can afford. “We are offering small business owners TV style advertising with a captive audience of 100,000 per month for the same price of a black-and-white ad in a community newspaper,” he said.

“By focusing on making the solution easy to install, reliable and remotely controllable via the Internet, we are making it pos-sible for people to buy franchises even if they are not technically oriented,” he said. “Keywest Technology’s MediaZone Pro is a big part of making that happen.”

Hanging around the bar, sitting at a table, or standing to cheer one’s favorite sports team, carefully positioned Solara360 screens provide patrons uninterrupted sports programming

with occasional, unobtrusive advertising.




LAN

MY BARMY BAR

50” monitors inside bar

mEDiAZONE PrO Player

Documents

Case Study-Solara360 Digital Signage Ad Network