New interactive video display system at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Café mimics high-end systems at a fraction of the cost.
Two West Coast companies have developed a new digital signage solution that allows restaurants, retailers and other individual companies to create the kind of dynamic, large screen video display systems previously available only to Fortune 500 companies with six and seven figure budgets.
mobootic, a Los Angeles specialist for in-store, mobile and online promotions, and TaDah, a Las Vegas manufacture of high-end LED light panels, have installed the first digital signage system of its kind at Bergamot Café in Santa Monica. The interactive video display system employs large LED light panels, designed to exhibit fine art, along with sophisticated media management software and a rear projection screen.
The video display system serves as the restaurant’s interactive menu board and also provides a hip ambience in keeping with the restaurant’s location inside Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station artist’s colony. The result is similar to the giant video displays used outside Las Vegas Casinos and at major trade shows, but at a fraction of the cost.
“This display system does what any good in-store promotion should; it creates an engaging and enjoyable experience for the customers, and it drives sales for the store,” says mobootic Founder Martin Libich. “We’ve brought in-store signage into the digital age—and made it affordable to individual businesses.”
The Bergamot Café installation features two large LED light panels flanking a rear projection display screen. The restaurant’s fixed menu is displayed on the LED light panels, while daily specials are displayed on the central panel along with glossy photos of food items and other merchant generated content. The restaurant’s owner can update the daily specials through a simple web interface. In store staff can modify the display with a few simple keystrokes, deleting menu items that are no longer available. The fixed menu panels can, themselves, be easily and inexpensively replaced to suit the restaurant’s needs.
Along with being highly functional, the video display system enhances the restaurant environment, creating a mood that welcomes 
patrons and encourages them to come back. It is also an eco-friendly solution, requiring a fraction of the electrical power used by conventional signage, while reducing the restaurant’s need for area lighting. Even the projection system, Casio’s innovative XJ-A140 GREEN SLIM Projector is environmentally, friendly, allowing for up to 20,000 hours of usage, which eliminates the downtime and cost associated with lamp usage.
“It’s clean, it’s beautiful, it catches the eye without being overbearing, and it fits perfectly into its environment,” says TaDah Business Development Manager Athena Perlmutter. “The combination of TaDah LED panels and the mobootic projection system provides the best of both worlds in terms of display systems. It’s perfect.”
Bergamot Café owner Jeff Stuppler says that the installation has been both an artistic and an economic success. “The screens literally stop my guests in their tracks,” he notes. “They’re beautiful, functional, scalable and have elevated the image and uniqueness of Bergamot Café. “
“In addition to its aesthetic, the system has been designed to save me money on labor hours eliminating the need to update my website and update the menu board, since the menu board imports the daily specials from the website each morning,” Stuppler adds. “The system has also been designed to make me money by promoting timely-targeted marketing messages within my four walls.”
Digital signage has become a common feature of the retail landscape but quality systems, with high resolution imagery and a high degree of interactivity have been beyond the reach of small retailers. mobootic and TaDah have managed to slash the cost by combining different types of display technology and through the use of proprietary software. “Previously, to create the solution at Bergamot Café would have cost four to six times as much,” Libich says.
mobootic and TaDah believe their digital signage solution can be applied to many types of businesses, including clothing stores, jewelry stores, art galleries, wineries and even hospitals. The 3-panel installation at Bergamot Café is only one of many possible configurations, as different numbers and sizes of LED panels and screens could be employed for varying applications. “Our panels can transform a space,” Perlmutter observes. “They provide a way to improve the aesthetics of an environment without knocking out a wall and spending a lot of money. And because people enjoy the space more, they more easily receive information, they are more relaxed, they stay longer, they buy more and return.”
About mobootic
mobootic (mo?bu??ti?k) is a full-service agency and consulting firm focused on product and brand promotion. mobootic offers affordable mobile, social and in-store solutions for direct-to-customer promotions that are relevant, just-in-time and completely up-to-date. The company’s flagship product is an Instore Dynamics solution based on custom developed Digital Signage software. For more information, visit www.mobootic.com
About Tadah
TaDAH Corp is in the advanced technology field of light propagation through transparent materials. The company, founded in 2003 released early 2005 its first product. TaDah invests significantly in R&D and process improvements for its scalable manufacturing line. For more information, visit www.tadahcorp.com
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Source: Linda Rosner
