Mobile technology company Gavitec AG – mobile digit,  a subsidiary of NeoMedia Technologies,  has been contracted by German outdoor advertising company awk Aussenwerbung GmbH to develop a mobile order-management and control system based on its Lavasphere technology.
The monitoring and control system developed for awk is the latest application of Gavitecs Lavasphere technology. Using specialised software, cameraphones are transformed into code readers which can read postage stamp-sized two-dimensional data-matrix codes, simply by aiming the phones camera at them. Real-time data transfer via GPRS automatically compares information with a central database.
The system, which uses standard cameraphones functioning as mobile data recorders, will quickly provide awks bill-posting staff with the information needed on its rounds. The phones also function as optical code readers and provide real-time information about billboard placement and condition to the awk resource planners.
The awk field staff will be able to collate the codes on the advertising subjects with the location codes on the billboards, simply by using a cameraphone. Photos documenting the condition of the advertising, along with other relevant information, will be automatically forwarded to the back-end server and to awks resource management for further processing.
This new system is designed to help Germanys second-largest outdoor advertising company set new standards in order and quality management, and greatly improve flexibility in placing and monitoring outdoor advertising for their clients, says Gavitec AG mobile digit managing director, Dr. Christian Steinborn. We are delighted to provide awk with a process-optimised system that powerfully demonstrates our synthesis of mobile phone and code-reader technologies. By using cost-effective mobile phones, we have an ideal solution for equipping large numbers of field staff with an efficient tool for planning and documenting. In the near future, we expect a strong increase in demand for mobile phone-based control solutions, especially in out-of-home media.”
For awk Aussenwerbung, managing director Joachim Kleinhans adds:
Controlling our inventory via mobile phone puts us in a position to monitor our approximately 45,000 large billboards throughout Germany in a quick and cost-effective manner, and to inform our customers of the status of their campaigns at any time. Changes to bill-posting contracts can be implemented by mobile phone, even at short notice.”