The ubiquitous nature of digital signage is reflected in the winning projects in this year’s Digital Signage Expo Apex & Content Awards. The 2009 Apex Award winners were chosen from a field of 71 entrants by a panel of independent industry experts in these six categories: environmental design integration, retail, finance/banking, public spaces, interactive innovation and hospitality.

The winners are:

• Retail: Sprint (Overland Park, Kansas) and Scala Inc. (Exton, Pa.) for the Sprint Studio Store, which features a 17-screen digital screen network that can be programmed to run individual messages in a specific zone, or synchronized messages across all the screens.

• Environmental design integration: United Mobile Broadcasting Corp. (Toronto) and Omnivex Corp. (Concord, Ont.) for an advertising-based digital broadcasting network being used in more than 400 railcars in the Toronto transit system.

• Finance/banking: Thomson Reuters (New York) and Wireless Ronin Technologies for “InfoPoint”, a live news and pictures digital display network for the financial market.

• Public space: JetBlue Airways Corp. (New York) and NEC Display Solutions (Itasca, Ill.) for the43-screen digital signage ring of 40-inch NEC LCD monitors at the new Terminal 5 in John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

• Interactive innovation: Sprint and Wireless Ronin Technologies for creating a wireless, technology-driven experience for visitors to the new Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

• Hospitality: Theater chain SF BIO (Stockholm, Sweden) and Scala for a network of digital menu boards and dynamic movie posters.

In addition, the following five digital signage projects won Content Awards, based on the following criteria: content that delivered the intended message; overall production quality; and creative use of new or unique content elements and/or technology.

The five content winners were:

• Retail Entertainment Design (Bellevue, Wash.) for McDonald’s – RED created three separate high-definition entertainment features for the fast-food giant’s new in-store network.

• X2O Media for (Montreal) for the Motorola Innovation Center – X2O created a state-of-the-art facility that lets customers and partners learn more about Motorola’s current and future products interactively.

• C-nario (Tel Aviv, Israel) and Tim Hunter Design Group (New York) for Harrah’s Resort Outdoor Display – C-nario and Hunter teamed to create content for the world’s largest outdoor video display at Harrah’s Resort Waterfront Tower in Atlantic City, N.J., featuring four-large scale facades that play different 3D digital models synchronously.

• LocaModa (Cambridge, Mass.) for Jumbli – LocaModa launched the world’s first interactive word game that connects online audiences in social utilities to audiences in New York’s Times Square and 1200 other social locations.

• Niles Creative Group (New York) for The Comcast Experience – In Comcast’s Philadelphia headquarters lobby, Niles mounted 83-foot-wide, 10-million pixel LED wall.