A week from now, if the planets align and airlines behave, I should be in Barcelona – picking up my badge at the Fira Gran Via for Integrated Systems Europe 2026.
I tend not to book many, if any, meetings at ISE, because it is hard enough getting around all of the exhibition halls and all the stands, without realizing I have three minutes to make a meeting two halls over. That said, I do have a handful of things set up, and undoubtedly more will come up.
What I mostly do is wander – somewhat with a plan in mind of must-sees … or see if I have time. As noted in an earlier post, I like to go to the back of the halls and pay attention to little stands along the side or on the concourse – ‘cuz that’s where the start-ups are, and v1 of something is often way more interesting than v5.4b of a product I’ve been seeing forever. I usually stay the hell away from the big display halls on day 1 and 2 because they are JAMMED.
The 2026 show is tracking to be massive once again, with 1 million plus sq. ft. of exhibitor space and more than 1,700 stands. I went on the ISE site and did a search by category, which kicked back an indication that 518 exhibitors say Digital Signage is among their products or services. In reality, hundreds of those are only kinda sorta barely in this sector, like people who sell mikes and speakers that complement projects. But there are scores of exhibitors run by people who wake up in the morning thinking about screens and software.
As is always the case, many of the largest stands are for the display guys – with Samsung appearing to have the largest footprint, followed by LG. Panasonic has a surprisingly large space (though that tends to be mostly about projection) and Sony and Sharp have stands that are maybe 1/4 the size of Samsung. Dynascan has quite a big area in Hall 3. The two fastest-rising Chinese flat panel manufacturers, Hisense and TCL, are in Hall 1 – which is designated for unified communications and education. I am guessing they are over there because the main display hall is booked out. TCL is also at the rear of hall 2 via Moka, its pro display business unit.
I will want to see TCL and Hisense in particular because of the Micro RGB TV tech shown at CES a few weeks back.
The LED guys are mostly in Hall 3, but the smaller-budgeted, often lesser known ones are in Hall 5 with the digital signage people.
Undoubtedly, I am missing some – but here’s who I see from the software side: OnSign, Navori/SignageLive, Xibo, LiveSignage, ScreenCloud, Videri, Korbyt, Pads4, Novisign, NowSignage, Waapiti, Dise, Deneva, Yodeck, Joan, SpinetiX, Telelogos, and Poppulo. Uniguest and OptiSigns are in Hall 5 while Appspace is in Hall 2.
There are also specialized companies like DS Templates, SignageOS, Quividi, Nexmosphere and NetSpeek. And there are several unfamiliar (to me) ones like Cactus Signage, Nexus Cloud, Connect Signage and PixiLab.
Interestingly, Scala usually has a stand but not in 2026. I suspect that’s much more indicative of the company’s focus on retail than it is of any budget constraints keeping them out of shows. BroadSign isn’t there either, and that makes sense to me given the Montreal company’s focus is almost entirely on ad networks. I could see an AV integrator from Denmark going cross-eyed hearing a run-through of the glories of programmatic ad buying.
The hardware guys are sprinkled around, including Amino, Brightsign, Bluefin, IAdea and the terrific crew from Displax in Portugal. IAdea has a tie-in with Microsoft I want to hear about. Google also has a stand.
E Ink does not have a stand of its own, and doesn’t need one – given there are roughly 30 exhibitors with products that use E Ink’s color or monochrome e-paper tech.
I typed in the dreaded phrase “Hologram” and got just a single exhibitor returned to me, but expect there will be a few companies peddling those LED rotor thingies. Hypervsn, which has very likely sold more of these than anyone else (though China is a wild card on that), is showing once again – in Hall 5.
I expect to once again see holograms that are not, invisible screens that are not, and lots of fudged LED terminology.
A little surprisingly, there is just a handful of companies overtly declaring themselves as AI. But I suspect many, many, many stands will be referencing AI-powered in their marketing messages and pitches. If you are a software company and not putting some serious effort into applying it, you may well be a dead company walking.
It will be an exhausting week, with early mornings and late nights. Though I am technically retired, I’m still doing some things here and there, I want to keep my hand in the business, and I enjoy seeing a pile of business friends. Plus a few days escape from a Canadian winter has a certain appeal.
I won’t be doing daily posts – leaving that to the Sixteen:Nine team who will be running around. I’ll do a post-show wrap-up, plus post little bits here and there on Linkedin. The notion that I don’t have to wake up early, quite possibly a bit hung over, to knock out a Day 2 impressions post is glorious. I’ll get up when I get up, have a coffee, and ease into whatever day is ahead.
If you are heading over, safe travels and see you there.
About the main image: My cheeky nod to ALL the social media graphics announcing trade show attendance. I posted on Linkedin and the snark seems to have gone right over the head of most who saw it!