Product News | October 11, 2021

How 8Infini is Innovating Outdoor Advertising in Indonesia with DOOH

While out-of-home media is a popular advertising format across Indonesia, dynamic digital out-of-home is still only rising in popularity. That’s expected to change as more of the country’s OOH companies begin to harness the power of DOOH.

One of the factors driving this shift is likely the creative freedom the format affords, its potential to reach broad audiences and the numerous data and analytics capabilities that are becoming more widely available thanks to technological advancements. 8Infini is a media owner on the mission to shape the future of outdoor advertising in Indonesia with a network of prominently-located digital screens in some of the country’s biggest and most bustling cities.

Bringing bright, digital screens to Indonesia’s cities

Named for the seemingly infinite possibilities that digital screens can offer advertisers, 8Infini was founded in 2019 by a team of out-of-home experts. Though the company is a newcomer to Indonesia’s OOH space, they’ve already made quite an impression among advertisers in its three years of existence.

The company’s network comprises static and dynamic large-format LED “videotron” screens. These are found in prime spots throughout Jakarta, one of Southeast Asia’s most populous cities. With six digital and two static screens in Jakarta and five digital screens in Bandung, these screens are predominantly located along roadways and at the heart of busy intersections, catering to pedestrians and motorists alike. Besides these screens, a portion of their business model is also focused on traditional transit media, where their business started. The OOH media operator will soon be deploying an additional four digital screens in Bogor, another two in Bandung, as well as one digital and three static screens in Jakarta.

8Infini’s preferred technology partner, Broadsign, are enabling the OOH media provider to further enhance flexibility, advancement in their operations, improved performance and increased screen capabilities. Expansion plans are imminent and underway: the business hopes to significantly increase its network in the coming months, adding another ten screens to its roster by the end of 2022. These additions to the network are expected to be installed in Jakarta, and, eventually, the team hopes to bring their screens to other large cities such as Bogor.

With its inventory’s strong presence in prime locations, it’s only fitting that 8Infini’s network attracts a wide range of advertisers from various industries. Their screens have previously run ad campaigns spanning virtually every category, such as entertainment and cinema, fashion, brands, start-ups, logistics, insurance and banks.

Besides its network in highly-visible locations, offering interactive and dynamic capabilities makes 8Infini’s inventory popular among all types of media buyers and brands. Slowly but surely, they’re noticing that increasingly brands are moving towards the more interactive features available with their offering, partly due to the in-depth analytics and insights thanks to their Admobilize integration.

One of the more popular trends in OOH advertising is 3D creatives. As more advertisers are looking to experiment with interactive and dynamic content on screens to build compelling and exciting campaigns, 8Infini is able to make that happen and hope to continue making interactive content more widely available in the country.

8Infini’s team takes great pride in and is passionate about the medium and its network. They emphasize the importance of maintenance and upkeep, with a team ready to resolve any issues in case of network outages.

The first robotic LED in Southeast Asia

Their latest project is one of the first of its kind in Jakarta—an impressive LED screen located on the outside facade of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, luxury hotel located in the city’s financial district. The luxurious hotel is a popular destination for tourists visiting the region, welcoming guests from all over, with the large-format screen positioned on the hotel’s exterior.

Because of its location in the city’s financial district, the hotel tends to cater to an upscale clientele, making this a prime location for the massive screen, which spans 614 square meters and is made up of 512 robotic panels, each one capable of moving independently.

This is the first robotic Videotron screen of its kind in Indonesia, the largest screen in Southeast Asia, and one of just three in the world.

Since its unveiling, the screen has already played some fairly attention-grabbing and internationally acclaimed campaigns, running ads from Samsung, Spotify, Permata Bank, Disney Studio, and Disney+. Ultimately, its strategic location in Jakarta’s bustling commercial district makes it an ideal choice for businesses looking to increase brand visibility.

Broadsign and 8Infini, a platform built for scalability

Given that there are a number of out-of-home players in Indonesia, the team behind 8Infini knew that to stay competitive, it needed to onboard the support of an industry-leading digital signage software.

Initial plans to develop its own CMS were abandoned, and instead, the team implemented the only platform suited for its specific needs: Broadsign Control. Partnering with Broadsign means that 8Infini can compete with some of the major OOH media operators in the region and keep up with the latest trends in out-of-home. Moreover, Broadsign is built for scalability — which aligns perfectly with 8Infini’s strategies.

While the team doesn’t necessarily envision 8Infini becoming the largest outdoor billboard player in Indonesia, by operating the Broadsign suite, they can offer their customers a complete offering for OOH advertising investments.

Big plans, infinite possibilities

Infini OOH wants to add ten new screens to its inventory in the coming months. Building up the network was always in its goal, but like so many businesses worldwide, the pandemic slowed its growth strategy. These days, 8Infini’s team feels more confident than ever about where they’re headed next. Behind the scenes, they’re busy masterminding other exciting projects as exciting and innovative as the Mandarin Oriental Hotel LED Videotron screen.

Until then, 8Infini is showcasing all that’s possible with DOOH over traditional OOH, by tapping into the power of digital screens to bring brighter and bolder experiences to the Indonesian market.

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Product News | October 11, 2021

Digital transformation in out-of-home with Broadsign’s Burr Smith

The out-of-home industry is in the middle of a major transformation. As automation, programmatic buying, audience data, and more reshape how campaigns are planned and transacted, the industry is moving toward a more connected and scalable future.

Few people have had a front-row seat to that evolution quite like Burr Smith, Chairman, President, and CEO of Broadsign. Under his leadership, Broadsign has evolved from a digital signage CMS provider into one of the industry’s leading global OOH advertising platforms, helping unify the buy and sell sides of the market through automation, programmatic technology, and strategic acquisitions.

That impact was recently recognized by the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA), which honoured Burr with its inaugural Digital Transformation Award at the 2026 OAAA Honors Circle Awards. The award celebrates leaders driving the modernization of OOH through innovation, automation, and technological advancement.

We sat down with Burr to discuss how OOH has evolved, why unification matters, and what needs to happen next to keep the industry growing.

You’ve been focused on modernizing out-of-home for years. What did digital transformation in OOH look like when you first started, and how has that vision evolved over time?

When I became CEO, Broadsign was primarily a content management system (CMS) company. At the time, there was an internal discussion about whether we should remain focused solely on CMS technology, but it became clear to me that it wasn’t a sustainable long-term strategy. So we decided to evolve beyond content management and move closer to where the advertising dollars were actually originating: the demand side.

That meant building products across the ecosystem to better connect buyers, sellers, and media owners and, ultimately, reduce friction across the industry. That shift marked the beginning of Broadsign’s broader transformation and shaped the vision we continue to build toward today.

You’ve led Broadsign through multiple waves of transformation. How do you prioritize where to invest as the industry continues to evolve?

We invest in two ways: through products and through acquisitions. When we see an opportunity to acquire and integrate a company that can accelerate progress faster than building organically, we’ll often take that approach. It allows us to move more quickly and bring capabilities to market sooner.

Traditionally, we’ve focused our investments on technologies and capabilities that help connect different parts of the ecosystem more effectively over time. Sometimes, the fastest way to move the industry forward isn’t always the most obvious or direct one. It can mean building complementary products or investing in areas that help create a more connected and scalable market overall. Ultimately, the goal has always been the same: reducing friction across the industry and making it easier for advertising dollars to flow into out-of-home.

Where do you see the biggest disconnect between how OOH is perceived and what the medium is actually capable of?

I’d say the biggest challenge is that OOH still hasn’t reached the point where it’s as easy to buy as some other advertising channels. The industry has evolved quickly, and many companies are bringing new ideas and technologies to market, creating a wide range of workflows and solutions across the ecosystem.

Over the years, Broadsign has focused on building technology that helps create more seamless connections between the demand side and supply side. Publishers, agencies, and technology partners will always have their own approaches, and innovation is important, but the industry also needs more standardized and connected transaction paths that can scale efficiently.

The industry talks a lot about collaboration and growth. What does real collaboration actually look like across OOH?

OOH represents roughly 5% of the overall advertising market, and the focus is on how to continue growing that share. But the way to grow the industry isn’t by competing for incremental share within the existing programmatic market. Rather than competing for share within OOH or pDOOH, the bigger opportunity is growing the broader OOH market across both digital and static.

As the industry becomes more connected and standardized, OOH increasingly operates like other major media channels, making it easier for larger advertising investments to flow into the space. That’s one of the reasons we acquired Place Exchange. We’re committed to long-term industry growth, and over time, industries naturally consolidate as it becomes less practical for multiple companies to keep building the same technologies in parallel.

The acquisition strengthened our ability to help unify the ecosystem and create a more connected path between the demand side and supply side of the industry. We’re already seeing stronger momentum toward that kind of unification through greater consolidation and integration across the ecosystem, which is naturally attracting more investment and attention from the broader advertising industry.

What does the next phase of digital transformation in OOH look like over the next few years, and how do you hope it ultimately shapes the future of the industry?

The next phase of digital transformation really comes back to unification. A lot of people focus on growing the industry incrementally, but the most important thing is building a more connected market. That’s been a major focus for Broadsign for a long time, and it’s why we continue investing across different parts of the ecosystem, including static.

AI will also play an important role, particularly in improving operational efficiency. It can help streamline workflows, campaign planning, and many day-to-day processes. But at this stage, there’s a significant role for technology providers to support the end-to-end transaction infrastructure and the broader flow of ad dollars. Beyond that, any technology, trend, or opportunity that broadens the market ultimately accelerates industry growth. That’s part of the reason we’re also interested in areas like retail media and audience analytics.

Audience measurement will be especially important moving forward. OOH already has unique strengths as a medium because it exists so close to the point of purchase, but the industry still needs stronger audience analytics and measurement capabilities to fully demonstrate that value to advertisers.

You’ve emphasized culture as a core part of transformation. What role has it played in enabling meaningful change across the business?

Culture has been a huge part of Broadsign’s success. A lot of that comes back to our values and the fact that people genuinely believe in them. We try to make decisions based on doing the right thing for the business, our customers, and the industry overall. There’s very little internal politics because the focus has always been on building something better together.

That mindset becomes especially important during acquisitions and periods of transformation. When new teams come in, we don’t approach it from a place of protecting turf. If another company is doing something better, we want to learn from it and embrace it. That’s one of the reasons the Place Exchange acquisition worked so well. The two companies had very complementary strengths with very little overlap, so it wasn’t about duplicating efforts; it was about bringing together capabilities that made the combined business stronger.

What does the Digital Transformation recognition mean to you personally, and what impact are you most proud of?

I’m proud of what Broadsign has become and the role it’s played in moving the industry forward. Over the years, we’ve continued investing in products and acquisitions we believed would improve the industry, even when it sometimes took time for the market to fully adopt them.

We may not always move as quickly as some other industries, but we’ve always had a relentless focus on getting better and helping push the industry forward along the way. I think Broadsign has earned its position in the industry because our motivations have always been rooted in building something meaningful and creating long-term value for the ecosystem. I’m grateful to the OAAA for the honour because it reflects the collective effort behind everything we’ve built. We’re committed to this industry for the long term, and we’ll keep working to help it evolve, grow, and improve.

Product News | October 11, 2021

The next chapter of OOH: Insights from Broadsign’s Burr Smith and Ari Buchalter

At this year’s Independent Billboard Operators (IBO) panel discussion, one theme emerged consistently throughout the conversation: the next phase of OOH growth will depend on making the medium easier to buy, sell, and measure for operators of all sizes.

Broadsign CEO Burr Smith and Chief Strategy Officer Ari Buchalter shared their perspectives on the forces reshaping OOH advertising, from automation and programmatic transactions to audience-driven buying and measurement, while also discussing what those shifts mean for independent operators navigating an increasingly digital and data-driven landscape.

Out-of-home is entering its next evolution

The global advertising market is now roughly $1 trillion, with OOH accounting for approximately $50 billion worldwide and programmatic transactions representing a fast-growing portion of that spend. Throughout the panel, Ari emphasized that the industry may be approaching a tipping point, as improvements in automation, measurement, and accessibility continue attracting greater interest from major omnichannel buying platforms and advertisers.

That opportunity is driven by many of the qualities that have long made OOH valuable: strong real-world audience connection, proximity to the point of purchase, high visibility, and immunity from the bot fraud that plagues many digital channels. At the same time, advances in data, automation, and audience-based measurement are making the medium more flexible, measurable, and accessible to advertisers.

As campaigns become more dynamic, data-driven, and omnichannel, many OOH transactions still rely on fragmented planning, buying, and operational workflows that create friction across the campaign lifecycle. Simplifying those processes is becoming increasingly important as advertisers expect the same speed, flexibility, and interoperability they experience across other digital channels. For independent operators, that evolution could help reduce operational complexity and make it easier to participate in audience-based and programmatic buying environments.

Programmatic DOOH is accelerating that shift. While still early in its maturity compared to broader digital advertising, adoption continues to grow as more transactions move through DSPs and programmatic platforms. As a result, OOH has an opportunity to capture a larger share of media budgets while giving independent billboard operators greater visibility within national and regional media buys alongside larger networks.

“Our objective at Broadsign is to try and unify, automate, and simplify that entire $50 billion slice of the market, because if we make OOH as simple to buy as other media channels, with the same efficiency, transparency, and visibility into audiences, we should be able to grow that $50 billion market to capture more share,” says Burr. “There are certain aspects of OOH that are much better: it’s closer to purchase, there’s less fraud, and there are inherent strengths in the medium if we do what we need to do.”

Building a more connected ecosystem with Broadsign and Place Exchange

A recurring theme throughout the IBO panel was that OOH’s continued growth will depend on stronger collaboration across the ecosystem. As advertisers increasingly expect unified workflows, audience-based buying, and easier access to inventory, operators, platforms, and buyers all play a role in modernizing OOH transactions.

That broader industry shift is reflected in the combination of Broadsign and Place Exchange. While Broadsign has long focused on the infrastructure and operational side of OOH, including content management, ad serving, and campaign management tools, Place Exchange brings expertise in programmatic transactions, SSP capabilities, and established buy-side relationships, particularly in the US market. Together, the companies support a more connected workflow spanning inventory management, campaign delivery, programmatic monetization, and audience-based activation.

For independent operators, that broader ecosystem creates new opportunities to participate in programmatic DOOH and access regional and national demand flowing through programmatic platforms. While larger operators may integrate directly with SSPs and buying platforms, smaller media owners can work through aggregators such as Screenverse, Vengo, Adkom, and Billboard Planet, to collectively expand their reach and make inventory more accessible to buyers.

The discussion also reinforced that independent operators remain a critical part of OOH’s broader ecosystem. Their local market expertise, unique inventory, and community presence continue to offer meaningful value to advertisers seeking more contextual and geographically diverse ways to reach audiences.

“I got into out-of-home because I was excited not just by the power of the channel as an advertising medium, but by its growth potential and its ability to leverage data and technologies like programmatic to grow beyond the relatively small share of advertising spend it represents today, roughly 5% globally and only 2% in the US,” says Ari. “That remains our North Star. We’re focused on OOH at a time when many competitors are shifting toward areas like CTV and search. That focus on OOH defines who we are.”