Digicom Technology News


Over the past 2 months Digicom have hosted two very successful events and we must thank all who attended. On the 24th September we were in Cisco's demonstration showroom in East Point Business Park.  Cisco's impressive demonstration facility boasts both desktop and meeting room video conferencing systems.

Attendees were informed of the developments in both video conferencing endpoints and the wider unified communications usage from Cisco's Niall Doyle and Peter Fox from Digicom. During the session Niall dialled into Cisco's demonstration facility in the UK. This gave attendees an insight into the quality of Cisco's products and the capabilities of features such as data sharing.

Also demonstrated was Cisco's Unified Communications Manager (CallManager) which is the powerful call-processing component of the Cisco Unified Communications Solution. This system provides management of your contacts and easy access to voice, video, instant messaging and mobility.



The second event we hosted was in the Merron Hotel on 14th November, the theme being "Control Your Costs". Issues such as increased governance, compliance and risk (GCR) remain difficult to control and quantify. We put together a panel of 4 industry experts from Mazars, Laserfiche, Digicom and Ricoh in the areas of enterprise content management (ECM), GCR and document security to present on these topics.


Catherine Walsh, Outsourcing Director at Mazars emphasised that regulation and compliance applies to all organisations. She used Mazars as a case study to detail what is essential to effective compliance.

The ECM presentations delivered by Fearghal Kearney and Edwin Pahk highlighted the challenges of content, workforce reduction, risk management and siloed departments. These challenges can be overcome with the successful deployment of Laserfiche, an enterprise level ECM system. At its core Laserfiche caters for an approach to ECM that creates immediate value and adapts to new and changing business requirements in real time.

Steve Mulroy an expert in document security from Ricoh identified numerous examples where companies from various countries had experienced security breaches. From printers being hacked remotely to data leakages in hospitals amongst others were sited as causes of the breaches. When issues such as the above are brought into the spotlight by the media it can have serious consequences for an organisations such as a tumbling share price or questioning of credibility.

While all presenters were from different backgrounds the common theme being highlighted was the importance of ensuring sustainable business operations.

To demonstrate both Laseriche and Ricoh's technology in action we had a breakout room where attendees could have an informal discussion with the experts to discover what their problems are and how the talked about solutions could help them.

Please click here to view the presentations.

Don't forget our events for 2013:

Wednesday 13th February - Polycom video conferencing
Wednesday 20th February - Follow up "Control Your Costs" event
Wednesday April 24th - AV & OT event



Irish Whiskey Collection Store
The Retail Excellence Awards are about celebrating retail stores and promoting best practice in the Irish retail industry. This awards ceremony has become one of the most anticipated and prestigious events on the retail calendar. It has become the benchmark by which the best in retail are judged.

The winners of the National Company of the Year/Industry Leader and Retail Store of the Year were The Loop, Dublin Airport and The Irish Whiskey Collection, Terminal 2 respectively. Within these retail spaces, Digicom were nominated to design and install a digital signage system which comprised of both hardware and software.

David Fitzsimons, Chief Executive of Retail Excellence commented "What Aer Rianta International and specifically The Loop have been doing at Dublin Airport is inspirational. They have reinvented airport shopping not just in Ireland but across the world". Part of their success was the meticulous research they carried out. The DAA do very little without speaking to the customer first. The ideas that they have are researched with their customers after talking to them one on one or in focus groups. Outcomes of the research included installing flat panel screens with digital signage.

There are many features and benefits not offered by static displays and signage that the retail space in Terminal 2 in now experiencing. The dynamic digital signage is grabbing customer's attention and is influencing their purchasing decision right at the point of purchase. It is also eliminating the high cost of creating and distributing print ad campaigns. The digital signage system in place is instant and offers the ability to change promotions immediately for various products or particular customers. Another advantage of the digital displays over static is that the retailers have the potential to earn money with their digital signage network by selling advertising space to their suppliers.

The big challenge to the DAA was how to engage with a new breed of customer that views the airport as a bus stop. Impressively the DAA have delivered on this front having experienced a 30% increase in Irish whiskey sales since the opening of the Irish Whiskey Collection store in T2. Their digital signage system has played a significant role in achieving engagement with customers.

Whether it is intended to build a brand, influence customer behaviour or simply provide information, the dynamic visual experience created by digital signage will ultimately increase sales.

Please click here for more information on the Retail Excellence Awards.

NEC Display has introduced the VE281 and VE281X mobile projectors, which are aimed at small meeting rooms, schools and conference room installs. Both projectors are specified at 2,800 lumens, offer auto power on and quick startup/shutdown, an Eco Mode, a carbon savings meter and extended filter life. They also have energy-saving features such as NEC's Intelligent Driving Scheme (IDS2) technology to extend the lamp life of the projector up to 6,000 hours in Eco Mode and 4,000 hours in normal use.


The VE281 is native SVGA (800x600) resolution and the VE281X is native XGA (1024x768) resolution, using a one-chip DLP engine with a BrilliantColor chip with a specified contrast ratio of 3,000:1. Inputs include HDMI and VGA (both ports automatically turn on the projector when they detect a signal). The VE281 and VE281X will be available in January 2013.

If you would like more information on projectors, please contact Digicom today.


Over the past few years, personal video conferencing has promised to enter the enterprise mainstream, with laptops, tablets, and phones operating on upgraded networks capable of supporting real-time audio and video communications. Many corporations are looking to embrace personal video conferencing as both a stand-alone application and as part of an overall Unified Communications (UC) deployment because rich media communications can speed decision making, help build stronger teams, and ultimately drive top line revenues as part of a sales strategy. Avaya recently commissioned a study with the aim of establishing the requirements for successfully deploying pervasive personal video. Below is a brief discussion and results from the study.

Many of today's crop of personal video conferencing systems have overcome the limitations of the past – ease of use, video quality, bandwidth management, and reliability. And while many enterprise managers may have the perception that wide-scale deployment of personal video would be possible only as part of a UC platform rollout, it is actually very achievable and affordable using traditional MCUbased video conferencing. An added benefit to MCU-based video is its extensive feature set and room systems compatibility which contrasts with many UC-based solutions. Rolling out a personal video conferencing service to managers and information workers has significant benefits beyond travel savings – including improved team building, better integration of resources, and faster decision making while allowing for a richer interaction. A factor that is often overlooked is the need to deploy to a critical mass of users. Scale is essential to making video calling an everyday experience. Configuring the network to support personal video conferencing and the required bandwidth is an important step, but not one that is particularly onerous with today's technology and services.

The follow are the results of the study:

  • Enterprises should evaluate the new generation of personal video conferencing solutions as a vehicle to increase sales, strengthen partnerships, and improve internal team building. The current crop of personal video collaboration solutions are enterprise-ready and overcome the scalability, reliability, and quality issues that plagued desktop video conferencing years ago. 
  • Avoid creating islands of communication. Integrate room systems with personal and mobile video conferencing solutions, bringing added value to both sets of investments. Integrated deployments should support high quality audio and video and easy connections inside and outside the firewall.
  • Create a small, end-user driven team of product champions with participation from at least one high level executive. Have IT represented on the team, but do not have only IT department members. Include the network specialists and line-of-business users.
  • Communicate internally to all involved with information on what will happen and when so that colleagues can monitor the progress of the deployment project. Include training sessions and provide documentation on how to use the new solution effectively.
  • Communicate after the deployment about how the solution is being used and what benefits workers are seeing. This will encourage others to use video, making the solution more valuable to all.
If you would like more information on video conferencing, please contact Digicom today.

NEC Display announced the addition of 10 Digital Signage/Content Creation Solutions. These product bundles introduce customers to the digital signage industry with easy-to-use solutions that include everything needed to run content on a single digital screen. Available in digital screen sizes up to 65 inches, each bundle includes an NEC V, P or X Series display, a single board computer to source digital signage content, a wall mount kit compatible for both landscape and portrait orientations, an Ultrablok surge suppressor, NEC’s Content Management Software (CMS) and a voucher good for two hours toward NEC Content Creation Services.

NEC’s Digital Signage Solutions provide a complete bundled product for customers that need a commercial-grade display and computer to source basic content. The V422-PC bundle includes a 42” V422 display and NET-SBC-04 single board computer seamlessly integrated utilizing the expansion slot of the display. This built-in functionality allows for a clean, hidden integration while reducing the bill of materials needed for installation.


  • Bundled solution includes 42” NEC V422 and NET-SBC-04 single board computer for simple digital signage
  • Full 1080p high-definition resolution provides stunning detail
  • Commercial-grade LCD panel and components
  • Expanded connectivity with digital loop through
  • TileMatrix™ allows you to create video walls up 10 x10
  • Ethernet and RS-232 Control and Communication allows for ease in remote monitoring
  • NEC’s Content Management Software (CMS), a SaaS web-based digital signage software, is available at no charge
If you would like more information on digital signage, please contact Digicom today.