News

CETW: DSA names top 3 award winners

April 26, 2011

The success of United Airlines' self-service programs helped earn Jared Miller, the company's managing director of Self-Service & Emerging Technology, top honors from the Digital Screenmedia Association this week at Customer Engagement Technology World in San Francisco. The DSA's immediate past president, Stuart Armstrong, and its newly-named president, Brian Ardinger, presented Miller with the Industry Deployer of the Year award for his work in the self-service industry.

Miller has driven significant adoption of numerous customer-enhancing technologies and products for United Airlines, DSA Executive Director David Drain said. Miller has led the introduction of many industry-first products, including automated check-in and the introduction of the mobile boarding pass. Continental was the first airline to offer this product in the United States.

Drain said Miller's leadership was not only within Continental, but also with TSA and airport authorities to ensure proper approval and support of the program. In the past year, Miller and his team launched the Continental mobile application for the iPhone and Android platforms.

Miller accepted his award during the show's keynote speech Wednesday, where two other winners received honors from the DSA. The Network Operator of the Year went to Phil Cohen, president and CEO of Care Media Holdings Corp., and Royal Caribbean International took home the Screenmedia Integration Award.

Drain said Cohen won for his relentless focus on ensuring that his network, Care Media Holdings Corp., launched in 2007, provides exceptional content backed with reporting transparency, accountability and measurable ROI.

With a national footprint of 5,500 place-based TV screens, Care Media Holdings Corp., and its brands KidCARE TV, Women's HealthCARE TV and PetCARE TV, is the largest distributor of full motion audio/visual, broadband-delivered patient education programming to medical-specialty practices in the United States.

Care Media Holdings' medical advisory board reviews all the programming, which educates patients on specific illnesses and promotes awareness of preventative health-care measures, to corroborate its validity and accuracy. Current programming reaches close to 5 million female shoppers monthly and 60 million annually.

Royal Caribbean received honors for its passenger-facing communication network deployed onboard its two newest cruise ships, Oasis and Allure of the Seas.

Four Winds Interactive designed the system that includes more than 200 digital displays to help passengers navigate the world's largest cruise ship at 1,187 feet long and 208 feet wide. The signage network includes passive screens displaying non-interactive information as well as interactive touchscreens providing real-time data and wayfinding functionality.