There's no more primal desire than thirst, so there's pretty much a guaranteed audience for Splash, the newest product from Aquamedia Advertising, a Spanish digital out-of-home advertising company based in Barcelona: it's basically a fancy water dispenser with three built-in 42-inch LCD displays, one per side (except for the back of the unit), plus a 23-inch touchscreen offering all sorts of interactive possibilities.

Barnes & Noble College Booksellers is joining forces with Scentsa Media Networks to create a new digital signage network comprising 1,000 screens in over 400 out of B&N's total 624 college bookstores. The B&N College Bookstore Media Network will provide advertisers with opportunities to reach college students near the point of purchase with live, high-definition media streams showing content tailored for the college audience, including videos, news briefs, sports, local weather, and university updates.

he digital out-of-home market is growing by leaps and bounds, and the trend is reflected in the industry's trade organization's expanding membership. This week the Digital Place-Based Advertising Association announced three new members: PlaceWise Media, DOmedia, and Ayuda Media Systems, bringing the total number of members to 31.

Meredith Corp.'s video division, Meredith Video Studios, is joining forces with Premier Retail Networks to develop, create, and produce custom video content for PRN's digital place-based video network in retail and supermarket locations around the U.S.

A number of digital out-of-home networks have sprung up over the last few years targeting one of the most engaged captive audiences there is -- patients in healthcare venues, including doctors' offices and hospitals. This week brought new developments in the healthcare DO business, including a new healthcare-focused network from Adcentricity, and new research from the Wellness Network.

This week brought another strategic partnership in the digital out-of-home advertising arena, with the announcement that Titan will serve as the exclusive sales and marketing agent for TargetCast Networks, which operates 3,500 screens in 1,200 locations nationwide -- concentrated in national and regional casual dining and fast casual restaurants including Applebee's, Chili's, T.G.I. Friday's, Outback, Tully's, Seattle's Best, and Coffee Bean, among others.

Digital out-of-home will be one of the fastest-growing media around the world over the next five years, according to Magna Global's latest ad forecast, with a compounded annual growth rate of 15.2% from 2011-2016. That puts it behind just two other media -- the super-hot categories of online video, poised to grow at an average rate of 19.6% per year over the same period, and mobile, which will grow at an average rate of 19.4% per year.

New Yorkers who commuted through New York's Penn Station last month may have noticed something a bit unusual: digital screens greeting passersby by name, offering customized video based on their preferences.