Ingram Micro Digital Signage Practice Gains Partners

The Santa Ana, Calif.-based distributor launched the Digital Signage Practice Group at a recent VentureTech meeting. As with other distributors, the company has been dabbling in the digital signage solutions over the past two years, and in April it added a key ingredient by bringing 3M Digital Signage's applications onto its line card, according to Kevin Prewett, vice president of vendor management at Ingram Micro.

"This was the point in time when we really started to bring the solution together," Prewett said Thursday at the Electronic House Expo in Long Beach, Calif., where vendors were displaying the latest home-automation technology. "We're very happy with the space today, and that's why you're starting to get focus and attention from all the [Ingram Micro] teams."

Ingram Micro's digital signage initiative includes pre- and post-sales technical support, training programs and access to its demo lab plus assistance in developing marketing content, Prewett said. The distributor also is working on devising SKUs for digital signage configuration services, he added.

Though audio/visual integrators, which comprise a chunk of the EHX Expo attendees, have been active in digital signage from the onset, the growing market is an easy target for solution providers with networking skills, thanks to applications like 3M Digital Signage, Prewett said, noting that digital signage solutions are turning up everywhere, from churches, to warehouses to manufacturing floors.

Not all of the solution providers in the Digital Signage Practice Group are VentureTech members, but solution providers with unique geographical or vertical market coverage are welcome to join, according to Prewett.

At the show, one of Ingram's vendors, Avocent, highlighted its new MXP 1000 MD, a high-definition wired and wireless extender that can transmit high-definition video to multiple points. The product could be useful in outdoor settings where it's hard to run cable, the company said.