• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 23, 2010

Ryan Laul is out as head of the U.S. operations of Hyperspace, the advanced digital out-of-home advertising unit of Posterscope. The move follows the merger of Aegis Group's Posterscope with Havas' Chrysalis unit late last year into a new global out-of-home and experiential marketing behemoth that is jointly owned by the two agency holding companies, and likely signals a restructuring of Hyperspace.

Details could not be discerned at presstime, but in a posting Monday on Facebook, Laul said Friday would be his last day at Hyperspace, and that he is "weighing his options."

Laul, who has been managing director of Hyperspace since September 2006, joined Posterscope in 2004, and had been an out-of-home media specialist at Publicis' Zenith Media unit before that.

While the bulk of Postercope's activity is still in traditional, static outdoor media, digital out-of-home has been its fastest-growing and sexiest segment, and in a 2008 interview, Laul described how Hyperspace was exploring new, almost sci-fi, applications straight out of "Minority Report."

"Those technologies are already here," he said. "Interactive, motion-sensitive projection and display technologies. They are here, and they are relatively easy to deploy. The real issue is cost. But as the cost of the technology comes down, and as we get better at using them, you will begin to see them applied. It's really amazing, because you literally don't need a wall. You can project signage on a roadside without a bulletin board. You don't need a physical structure, you can just project an image. I mean, just look at the overhead shots from the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing. Each shot was covered with LEDs and overhead illumination. Buildings are now building elements in for LED images and projections. It's just lighting and display, but it will bring us the ability to project and display images almost anywhere. Right now, we're limited by cost. This is high-tech stuff that costs an exorbitant amount of money, but as the costs come down, and as people get better at managing the technology and understanding how to marry an image to it, you will see more of it deployed. It may come down to the point where you can have a digital storescape. We've already begun doing things for MTV and also for iShares. Basically, you take over a vacant storefront and you can put a projector in it, or LEDs, or monitors. It depends on the storefront, but you have to think of it as a blank canvas and how you can use it."