The Dallas Cowboys don’t need to win the Superbowl to make it to the record books.  The stadium’s latest digital display clinched the 2010 Guinness World Record for “The World’s Biggest High-Definition Video Display.”  The Mitsubishi-created four sided display features a main screen measuring 70′ x 160′, the side screens measuring 29′ x 51′, weighs 600 tons, and has 10,584,064 LED lights, the equivalent of  3,268 52-inch televisions. Click Here for Article.

Buying full domination of Times Square digital billboards is soon to become a whole lot easier.  The area’s five main digital billboards, Clear Channel’s Spectacolor HD sign, ABC’s SuperSign, the NASDAQ and Reuters signs and News Corp.’s Astrovision sign will soon be known as the Times Square Domination. Though it will cost a pretty penny for advertisers (somewhere in the $500K-$750K range), audio capabilities and the visual grandness of networked screens will allow for the largest scale interactive digital platform in the country.  The consolidation will also allow a much smoother integration for one advertiser to target the daily 1.5 million viewers more effectively and easily. Click Here for Article.

The next of seemingly endless consolidations during 2009, particularly within the last 4 months.  TargetCast Networks, a digital network located in top tier casual dining restaurant chains such as T.G.I. Friday’s, Applebee’s, Chili’s, and Chevy’s has acquired Ripple TV, a digital network that targets viewers in stores such as Borders, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Tully’s Coffee, Robeks, and Einstein Bros.  The move will bring TCN’s original footprint form just over 1,000 locations and 1.5 million weekly viewers to now boast 1,400 locations, 3,425 screens, and double the weekly viewership to 3 million. Click Here for Article.

Gas Station TV made the next move in the battle of the gas station digital networks.  NBC Everywhere, the out of home division of NBC Universal, has partnered with GSTV to contribute local news, national news, and entertainment content to their at-the-pump digital network.  NBC, which originally represented Outcast (and PumptopTV consequently after the acquisition) now boasts an array of CBS programming, GSTV’s former content provider.

These content swaps are part of a larger reorganization within the digital gas station network arena that began with Outcast’s acquisition of PumptopTV back in June.  Currently the leader in terms of scale with 1,100+ stations and 12,600 screens, Outcast’s buildout is expected to reach 1,400 stations total by Q1 of next year.  GSTV comes in with less locations, 995 stations and 8,800+ screens, but their added value is a digital presence in C-Stores and the only pump network with Neilsen-audited metrics, vital in an industry where proper metrics standards is still in the works.  The big bonus this deal brings for NBC: leverage to sell ad space on the entire network.  Click Here for Article.

Eyeball awareness technology is revolutionizing the way we view ads.  Amnesty International’s new ad uses a small camera to detect whether a face is viewing the ad at any particular moment.  When the camera doesn’t detect a face, the ad shows a man abusing his wife.  When a face is detected, the ad waits a few seconds and the couple stops fighting and smile to try to appear normal, driving home the tagline “It Happens When Nobody Is Watching.”

This type of technology is a growing trend in digital signage, helping the move from viewers looking at ads to viewers interacting with ads, creating deeper message retention and increasing ROIs for advertisers.  The best part is that it can be implemented into almost any form of digital media. The downside, as with most new technology in the space, is cost.  But as network buildouts increase and display technologies advance, interactive elements such as eye awareness detectors could become a norm in environments where they are applicable. Click Here for Article.

Forget lightbulbs for digital out-of-home.  Until recently, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have led research buzz as the latest technology, allowing manufacturers to spread thin films made of organic compounds over thin, flexible materials and emit light when a current passes through them.

Now the focus is shifting to the possibilities using inorganic light emitting diodes (ILEDs) which allow for more powerful streams of light, especially on a bright sunny day.  Once dismissed as too expensive and tedious to experiment with, a newly developed ILED manufacturing process makes those issues a thing of the past and see-through digital displays the wave of the future.  It can allow for a bus to be completely wrapped in a digital mediamesh, giving passersby the appearance of a typical digital display without obstructing the view of the passengers inside.  While the quality can’t exactly mimic that of a Times Square LED (at least not yet), it opens the door for new and innovative ways of digitally wrapping surfaces once thought to be  unreachable.  Click Here for Article.

A new gas station digital network is in the works.  British Petroleum has signed a contract with Retail Media Company making them BP’s digital signage provider for displays at-the-pump and in c-stores.  Build out will encompass over 1,000 BP locations and programming will include original content in addition to the traditional traffic, weather, and commercials.  With only 2 major players on the digital gas station network scene, GSTV and Outcast (which acquired PumpTop TV a few months ago), this venture bodes to be of enough scale and intriguing content to give the other two a run for their money.  Click Here for Article.