FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan 16, 2007

NEC Display Solutions and Cisco Collaborate for Digital Signage Solution

Display Solutions from NEC and State-of-the-Market Networking from Cisco Deliver Dynamic Digital Signage Combination

CHICAGO, IL -­ ­ NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc., the best-selling, large-screen commercial LCD display supplier in the world, and Cisco, today announced a collaboration between the two companies that will deliver a function-rich digital signage solution to address the growing needs of the digital signage market.

NEC Display Solutions, a pioneer in the digital signage sector, will offer its suite of award-winning large-screen MultiSync LCD displays while Cisco will offer its Cisco Digital Signage solution to provide digital signage customers rich marketing, advertising and training functionality ­ in addition to unique operational ease and efficiency. Cisco’s Digital Signage solution, announced today, is an advanced offering for management, publishing and playback of digital media on networked digital signage displays.

“We haven’t seen the full potential of digital signage due to a lack of flexible network-based offerings. The Cisco Digital Signage and NEC Display Solutions combination has the potential to drive digital signage into prime time,” said Melissa Webster, program director, Content and Digital Media Technologies, IDC. “Global operations and rapidly changing business conditions require signs that can be adjusted quickly, and with the way this solution uses the network as the platform, this can be done remotely. It’s clear that enterprises will be able to gain strong support from these two leading companies.”

For end-users, this collaboration is a big step in simplifying the complexities customers and solution providers faced in the early digital signage market. In the past, solution installation and integration could be complex and lengthy. Now, with the support of industry leaders NEC and Cisco, businesses and solutions providers have the resources they need to manage and scale the solution, which will help decrease time to deployment.

“Because digital signage applications are no longer in their infancy, retailers on the forefront of using this medium are looking for more robust, less operationally complex solutions,” said TJ Trojan, President and COO at NEC Display Solutions. “The collaboration between Cisco Systems and NEC Display Solutions is not only expected to drive rapid growth for the two companies, but also will bring advanced features for greater digital merchandising functionality and superior flexibility to our customers, providing them clear and easy system management.”

NEC-DS has developed relationships with the key industry players needed to deliver the most dynamic display solutions available. By bringing together these strategic partnerships and a heritage of display technology, NEC-DS is able to offer a single point of contact in order to provide turnkey solutions for a wide range of markets, environments and applications.

“Cisco is focused on making it easy for customers to deploy and operate digital signage networks. Our commitment to customer success is demonstrated by the end-to-end Cisco-NEC solution — a fully integrated solution that can scale as customers grow their use of digital signage,” said Thomas Wyatt, General Manager of Cisco’s Digital Media Management group. “This new segment is growing quickly —we expect the market to be a multi-billion market in a few short years. With industry leaders Cisco and NEC working together, enterprises will now have a market-leading solution supporting them as they deploy digital signage networks.”

NEC-DS is at the forefront of new advances in flat-panel LCD technologies, which are increasingly being used in dynamic digital signage. The company’s display products, in conjunction with NEC Display Solutions’ many partners and system integrators, create innovative signage messaging solutions aimed at better promoting product and service brands, and more effectively communicating vital and actionable information. In the retail segment, these industry-unique efforts draw customers to specific products, drive impulse and add-on sales, and improve margins.

Cisco Digital Signage is an advanced solution for management, publishing and playback of digital media on networked digital signage displays. The solution is comprised of two products: The Cisco Digital Media Manager, a Web-based software application that controls the creation, management and publishing of digital media to digital signage displays, and the Cisco Digital Media Player, a small form-factor device that controls playback of the video, graphics and text on displays.

About Cisco Systems
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

About NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc.
Headquartered in Itasca, Ill., NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc., is a leading provider of innovative LCD displays and integrated display solutions. NEC Display Solutions develops leading-edge visual technology and customer-focused solutions for the consumer, enterprise, professional, medical and digital signage markets. NEC Display Solutions ranked as the #1 stand-alone LCD monitor provider in the U.S. in the commercial market for CY2005, according to NPD*, and as the #1 best-selling large-screen commercial LCD monitor provider worldwide for all of CY2005, according to DisplaySearch. For more information, please call 1-866-NEC-MORE, or visit www.necdisplay.com/solutions

NEC Display
500 Park Blvd, suite 1100
Itasca, IL 60143
Phone: 630-467-3000
E-Mail: tdreyer@necdisplay.com
Website URL: www.necdisplay.com