A Newman Lake sign shop has developed a digital sign system allowing a flat-screen TV along with the company's proprietary controller device to become a sales tool for stores or other venues to display ads, menus, and videos.

Jamison Signs Inc., located at 25211 E. Trent, recently teamed with a programmer to develop software for the new system that relies on cloud-based computing, and the sign company also built the electronic hardware for the controller.

The system requires Wi-Fi availability where signs are installed, allowing for remote changes to digital content on the monitor displays from any Internet-based device. Meanwhile, the 20-year-old company continues to offer its traditional large-format digital printing and sign-making services that include three-dimensional letters, numbers, and wall murals.

"We saw a real need for something that changes, and that stores can put their weekly specials on and use for more than a menu," says owner Ken Jamison about his company's digital systems. "This will display a menu, scroll specials, and then run full HD television commercial videos with sound."

"We found a cost-effective way to produce the systems," he says, adding that means lower prices for customers as compared to similar digital signs today available through national companies.

The company's other services include making vehicles wraps, banners, sandwich-board signs, and electronic signs. It has five employees including Jamison.

Aaron Glaesemann, a Jamison employee who does graphic design and tech support, adds that with cloud computing and wireless capability, the company can remotely and instantly upload content to a client's sign, or pre-program ads to run at certain times. The company plans in about three months to offer an option for customers to control the systems, while still offering warranty and support.

The company first developed the digital sign system about four months ago for use in grocery stores, and Trading Co. Stores was its first customer, using a few of the systems for displays in its deli and coffee shop areas.

"We focus on interior decor and signs for stores such as inside of a grocery store," Jamison says.

After realizing the digital system's flexibility for a number of clients, however, Jamison Signs plans to grow the new system's sales both here and nationally, along with its new digital management services. Those services include graphic designing, uploading ad or video content provided by a client or through an ad agency, and troubleshooting any technical concerns from its Newman Lake shop.

While seeking to ramp up sales of digital sign systems, Jamison plans to assemble its controller devices at its 8,000-square-foot building, which also has spaces devoted to sign-making equipment, including a big computer-driven router table for cutting metal, foam, and plastic to make dimensional signs.

Jamison offers two options for sales of its digital sign systems. Under one option, it provides the customer with the flat-screen TV and controller devices and sets up the system. Under the other option, it provides just the controller device, and sets up the system to run on the client's TV screen.

"There is an endless amount of layout images," Jamison adds. "It can run public service announcements. There are good uses for restaurants, schools, and in hotel lobby spaces. You can program it to come on with certain ads at a scheduled time. It's more flexible than other systems."

He adds, "We hope to go national in the next six months. It doesn't matter that we're here; we can sell them anywhere, and we're much more cost-effective. This unit can be in Japan, and we can control it from here. It's our hardware and software."

If Jamison Signs provides the full system with a 42-inch display, digital controller, and installation, a typical price starts at just under $2,000 for a basic system, Jamison says. If a client provides and installs a flat-screen TV, the cost for the controller only and onsite setup starts at about $800.

Additionally, for a paid service that typically ranges from $69 a month to $99 a week, Jamison is offering management services for the digital system displays for clients. Jamison says businesses here usually have to rely on such a service from a national third-party company rather than from a Spokane-area provider.

"As long as the customer has Wi-Fi, we can control that monitor," Glaesemann says. "You can change it with virtually any Internet device."

Glaesemann says the controllers also can stream Web content, and run videos in high-definition resolution.

"We've already upgraded the system once, and when we do that there is no additional charge to the customer," Glaesemann says. "We can upgrade them all from here. If a client loses Wi-Fi, it will still run the same display it had, but if you want to update that content, you'll need Wi-Fi."

As an example, they say, the system can be programmed to hold a stationary deli menu for a period of time before quickly switching to a display for a weekly special or short video commercial. Jamison can add graphic elements with movement, such as flames flickering. Additionally, the system can display a smaller video box to run ads, while the large portion of the television screen displays the main content.

"A big difference with ours is a lower-cost hardware used in the controller," Jamison says. "We built the software to make it do what we want it to do, so it's low-cost to the client."

Jamison founded the company in the Spokane Valley in 1992 and moved it to its current location about six years ago, after purchasing the former Newman Lake Hardware building. Previously, he operated the company out of a large shop in a residential area near the home of his father, who now is retired but previously was in the sign business as well.

Jamison says the company's revenue grew by about 10 percent to 20 percent annually each year since he started it, until a decline in 2010 that he attributes to the recession. However, he adds, in the past year, "Revenue is trending up a bit."

Jamison says one of the benefits of the digital signs for business customers is the ability to have ads—and even menus—with graphics that have motion as a background feature or as part of the main display. The motion attracts viewer attention, and he says that Trading Co. managers report that their digital signs are helping them sell more products featured on the displays.

"Signs are not going to go away," Jamison says. "This adds to them and is attractive to newer generations of people who have grown up with computers. It's a sales aid and offers the ability to make instant changes and attract attention with motion. It's just going to keep growing."

He adds. "People buy these to sell more products, and it works."