1. Please describe your company’s primary product or service.
Keywest Technology launched a digital signage revolution in 2001 with the introduction of MediaXtreme, one of the first truly convergent media players on the market. This unit was ahead of its time in the sense that it had web, video, multimedia and character generator functions all wrapped into a turnkey package. It was difficult to classify the MediaXtreme back then because the word “digital signage” was not yet widely used. So today, it is known as the MediaXtreme media server. It has many input/output configurations, supports all flat panel resolutions including HDMI, and most importantly has unique editor software designed for digital signage production. The original MediaXtreme was for narrowcast applications only, but for 2007, we have added a complete interactive version that turns ordinary flat panels into interactive kiosks using a standard PC. MediaXtreme is available in several pre-configured levels starting with the entry-level Media POD, but our abilities include customized versions for cutting-edge enterprise solutions.
2. What makes your company unique?
There is not a single item that makes Keywest Technology unique. Instead, just as the “Keys” of Florida are made up of a number of islands, Keywest Technology possess a number of attributes that help position us to be leaders in our respective field of digital signage software development and execution.
Five of the most defining attributes are:
3. What is your marketing philosophy for the self-service industry?
We are dedicated to the idea that digital technology should make communicating powerful ideas easy, effective and fast. To this end, all Keywest Technology digital signage customers share a common desire: to communicate effectively with technology that lets them dedicate their time and creative talent to communicating, rather than spending the same energy on trying to use or maintain the technology. Our entire focus is therefore centered on the marketing philosophy that, “technically, it’s a day at the beach”.
4. What other business sectors do you operate in?
Keywest Technology has two major product divisions. Besides digital signage, we also manufacture key products for the television industry. Two configurations of the MediaXtreme media server exclusively support digital broadcast signals that are used by television stations, cable companies and public narrowcast channels. We also supply industry-wide one of the most popular logo or “bug” inserters in broadcast television commonly known as LogoSTAR. The LogoSTAR line includes products that range from simple analog insertion all the way to HDTV. Finally, the Big VooDoo series from Keywest Technology is our hardware-based digital video processing equipment. This series includes digital video converters, video frame synchronizers and several video picture-in-picture devices that give broadcasters programmable flexibility.
5. Give a brief history of the company.
Founded in 1999 with professional television roots stretching back to 1979, Keywest Technology recognized early on that the transition from analog to digital media using Information Technology was helping to propel an unprecedented change in communications and that an entirely new group of communicators were emerging.
To help bridge the gap from the past to this emerging future, Keywest Technology acquired Grunder Display Group in 1999, which provided the core digital technology that Keywest still uses to this day. Even though the Grunder company dabbled in television products manufactured under the Feral Industries name, Grunder Display Group engineered and developed the majority of its digital video knowledge through government contracting.
Our next technology asset acquisition occurred in early 2001 with the buyout of Video Data Systems. This innovative company based in Hauppauge, NY, provided Keywest the fundamental IT technology to move us from a hardware-centered company to a software-based mindset. Soon after this acquisition, we launched MediaXtreme and the rest is history.
Today, Keywest Technology offers a robust lineup of powerful digital signage software, players and information channel generators that is used across a broad communications landscape, including corporate and private information channel applications, CATV revenue-generators, such as cable classified advertising channels, civilian government and military command channels, education, public access, hospitality and retail applications, to name a few.
6. Why did you join Self Service & Kiosk Association?
Even though we are a technology-based company, we recognize the value of smart marketing. We believe SSKA is in the forefront of not only representing emerging technologies, but is correctly positioned to best understand and facilitate marketing processes using cutting-edge technologies. Rather than blindly ignoring or embracing new marketing concepts, SSKA has assembled a solid strategy built on tested market concepts that build synergy with the entire industry. We want to be a part of this synergy.
7. What do you like about our industry? What are some of the challenges?
Our digital universe is balanced by the Yin and Yang principle. On one side of Keywest Technology, we develop television products for a highly regulated and defined industry that is tightly controlled by the FCC. For arguments sake, let’s call this the Yin. The counter-force in our world is provided by the digital signage or kiosk industry, or the Yang, if you will. The very nature of digital signage in all of it permutations is just the opposite of broadcast. In the broadcast marketplace, the industry sets the standards, but in the digital signage industry, the customer ultimately sets the standards. This concept may be strange to some, but we find this to be a cure for an overly regulated industry. The biggest challenge will be to keep digital signage from losing its edge by those concerned only about regulation, control, monopolies and pleasing stockholders. The very nature of digital signage requires that it remain unfettered so marketers can apply it in a way that serves customers best.
8. What does the future hold for your company’s success in the self-service industry?
We think the future looks bright for any company that sees its future as one long cycle of evolution. If anything characterizes the future, it will be change. We have something to offer the kiosk industry that is innovative and different. Our interactive digital signage software and related products will not take away from the growth already being realized in the kiosk industry but will help expand major markets that previously resisted interactive technology because it was perceived as either too expensive or technically difficult. The kiosk industry is perfectly positioned to take advantage of a sea change in marketing practices that want quantifiable results. Like the Internet, digital signage and kiosk technology is capable of providing realtime feedback and analysis of strategies. Measurements, collected both internally or externally, can be taken in real-world environments and related to actual results. The age of marketing by the sophist is over; some just don’t know it yet.
