Brief: Cisco's Digital Signage Line Bolsters In-Store AdvertisingBrief: Cisco's Digital Signage Line Bolsters In-Store Advertising

Cisco Systems wants to sell you something. Well, actually, it wants someone else to sell you something, but only if it's advertised over a Cisco network of digital signs.

Cisco has new products to build a series of networked digital displays that can be managed from a Web interface. It's a move to get ad messages to people "when they're most likely to make a decision," says Thomas Wyatt, general manager of Cisco's digital media business unit. CEO John Chambers has demonstrated possible uses for the technology, like screens at baseball games to tell fans about seat upgrade options.

Cisco's ideas include making displays that can read radio frequency identification chips in clothing, so someone carrying pants they might buy could be shown a shirt and shoes to match. It's partnering with NEC on the display, and some of the system components come from Scientific Atlanta, which Cisco bought last year.

A big question for in-store use is whether retailers and manufacturers move ahead on RFID, thus providing more content for the screens Cisco envisions. Shoemaker New Balance did an item-level pilot test last year and got 100% read rates, Frank Cornelius, a New Balance engineer, said at last week's National Retail Federation show. This year, the company will test it for inventory in at least one store. Automated shopping, it seems, isn't here yet.