• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 28, 2010

Cemusa, a leading international outdoor advertising company, is set to introduce a new comprehensive digital signage system in New York City after winning the municipal Coordinated Street Furniture Franchise. Created by Show+Tell in partnership with Display Devices and WireSpring, the new digital out-of-home system includes newly designed bus stops and newsstands around the city.

The first wave of signage includes eight newsstands, each incorporating special 65-inch landscape screens and one 70-inch portrait LCD screen, engineered by Display Devices using Samsung technology to be readable in daylight.

The network also uses WireSpring's enterprise FireCast software for playback and scheduling of content to the screens, delivering video and other digital content for network-wide or geographically targeted campaigns. The 70-inch portrait screens will incorporate touchscreen capability, allowing the network to deliver interactive content and advertising.

Overall, Spain-based Cemusa has a presence in more than 160 cities and municipalities in Europe and the Americas and is expanding its U.S. footprint with contracts in New York, Miami-Dade, Atlanta and Boston.

In 2005, the company beat out competitors JCDecaux and Viacom to win a $1.4-billion, 20-year contract to install and operate street furniture signage for New York, including the construction of 3,300 bus shelters, 330 newsstands and 20 free-standing public toilets at no cost to the city.

Once the furniture is constructed, Cemusa pays fees to the city in return for the right to advertise on these public surfaces, The arrangement is expected to generate about $1 billion in revenue for the city over the two-decade period.