Intel head of digital signage Jose Avalos was scheduled to talk about "Using an intelligent and innovative digital signage strategy to reduce total cost of ownership" at today's Digital Signage Strategies Forum in London. 

But after polling the audience he went off track a bit and dwelt more on Intel's view of the future of the digital signage industry - and on the company's inititatives to both grow the industry as a whole and to create a preference for Intel's technology in the sector.

Intel obviously sees digital signage as a growth industry and an opportunity to get into a less-than mature market early on, and it's already partnering with fellow big-boy Microsoft to leverage their way into the sector.

And now that Microsoft has announced its digital signage-friendly Windows Embedded 7, reps from both companies at the show today dropped a bombshell during Avalos' talk, the availability of what Avalos called "a reliable and standards-based media player platform for the digital signage industry."

The jointly developed Digital Signage Evaluation Kit is aimed at simplifying and speeding the time to market of signage deployments. Using Windows Embedded 7 and Intel's Core I.5 processor, the kit solves many of the technical issues deployers face, says Lorraine Bardeen, Windows Embedded EMEA marketing manager. 

According to a website link provided by Avalos, "the Digital Signage Evaluation Kit (DSEK-10) offers device manufacturers and software developers an open media player platform that is optimized for digital signage applications."

The DSEK is an integrated hardware and software platform that has been tested extensively by the companies' joint engineering team, Bardeen says, which will allow digital signage deployers to spendmore time on content and less on the technical issues.

"They can spend more time on 'wow'-factor," she said. "Their job is to meet the needs of their business...not spend time integrating the hardware and the software."