Thursday, May 31, 2007
TV: Coming Soon To A Road Near You
byAs if there aren’t enough distractions for drivers nowadays, you can add one more to the list: digital motion billboards. New technologies are enabling a whole host of options that could eventually emulate large super-sized television screens.
Both Sony and Phillips recently introduced thin, flexible OLED video screen technology that could revolutionize outdoor advertising as well as make video possible almost anywhere or on anything—even on clothes.
The new OLED technology still has a long way to go to make “outdoor TV” a reality, but a host of other companies are ready to fill the gap between the paper and vinyl boards of yesterday and full-motion video in the future. These include conventional LED displays and a new entrant, MagInk. Both LED and MagInk allow on-the-fly changes to messages, but the MagInk process has reduced the cost of manufacturing a display to under $50,000 per board, about a tenth of the LED outdoor display cost.
Obviously, the point of outdoor advertising is to get your attention, but that attention comes at a price. In this case, it’s distraction from the road. Imagine a busy city commute where competing high-tech billboards vie for your attention not for just a quick glance at headline, but to watch a commercial. Where do you draw the line between a free market and public safety?
Federal and state authorities are already funding studies to determine if a legitimate safety issue exists. Some cities have enacted temporary moratoriums on the advanced billboard technology until studies are concluded.
Personally, I think the advanced TV-like billboards will be like all other advertising. If it is good the audience will notice it. If the idea and execution sucks, no technology will save it from being ignored. As far as safety is concerned, I don’t know how they could be any worse than many other major distractions that divert a driver’s attention: cell phones, nav systems, DVDs, text messaging, etc.
