“I absolutely think this can work in a quick-service market,” Tippets says. “In McDonald’s, Arby’s, Wendy’s, Quiznos, or Subway the same things happen. I walk in and stare at the menuboard, and you’ve got a chance to influence me with upsell opportunities. You can introduce me to a new menu item I might not have seen, and the franchise owner also has a chance to share in revenue,” Tippets says.

Presser reports that his company was recently awarded a sizeable contract with a quick-service company and has similar plans with other traditional dining restaurants.

Although some diners might recoil at the thought of advertisements in their face while they eat, Tippets says that advertisements and a news ticker can be a welcome distraction while waiting for a meal. “If I am waiting for my food, I might want to be distracted,” he says. “Perceived wait time is less if I am distracted. That 7 to 10 minutes goes by a lot faster,” he says.

While diner managers expressed some reservations about putting televisions in their establishments at the onset, Presser says positive patron response and a promise of a cut from the advertising revenue helped usher in the big screens.

Each diner gets the television installed for little to no cost, shares some of the ad revenue, and OVN takes care of advertising sales. So far, Presser says, he has a wonderful renewal rate with advertisers.

The technology behind the advertising network is facilitated by another partner, Microspace Communications Corporation, which uses it’s VELOCITY satellite service to beam content to each diner location. Helius’ MediaWrite content distribution management system figures out which advertisements go where, and Microspace beams it there via satellite, where a Helius router unpacks the information and sends it to the LCD televisions, according to a Helius press release.

“The affinity of Microspace’s satellite delivery with Helius’ turnkey hardware/software solution offered a cost efficient and streamlined solution for a network of this size,” OVN’s Vice President of Operations Robert Goldner says in the release. “In addition, satellite is point-to-multipoint, which translates into a faster network that is suited to Out of Home Alternative Media.”

While OVN is just two years old, Helius has been around for a decade and saw digital signage as the logical next step for the company. The company has been in the business of moving data and IP video, had success in corporate training via IP, and saw a clear similarity between broadcasting training content and broadcasting digital advertisements, Tippets says.

After hooking up with OVN, Tippets says his company developed a new generation of the Helius software and hardware. “Instead of just distributing ad spots, now we have a whole workflow scheduling engine at the top end. OVN can check whether an ad can run at a certain time, when the ad stops, and so on,” Tippets says. Now, OVN can create an automated playlist for advertisements that can be customized for each diner. The system will also alert managers if a new advertisement has not been put into a playlist, and it can automatically remove advertisements from the loop after a certain period of time.

With the development of these technologies, the digital signage arena is set to expand dramatically. InfoComm International (infocomm.org), the audiovisual and information communications industries international trade association, reports that digital signage is one of the fastest growing segments of the industry.

According to the International Communications Industries Association’s 2004 Market Definition and Strategy Study, the audiovisual industry reported revenues of almost $18.9 billion and expects a 9.6 percent growth rate over the next five years.

This fast-growing market will likely infiltrate the quick-service market sooner than later. Along with soft-drink machines and hamburgers, high-definition television monitors could soon become a mainstay at your neighborhood quick-serve.