We hope you enjoy whatever time off you’re able to have in the coming weeks and we look forward to serving you in 2010 with two great new releases. So, season’s greetings from the Ryarc team to all our valued customers and partners.Or as you might hear it said here:
क्रिसमस की शुभकामनाएँ!
Nollaig shona dhuit!
Linksmų Kalėdų!
메리 크리스마스
শুভ বড়দিন
聖誕快樂！
Среќен божиќ!
عیدتون مبارک
Nous sommes très heureux d’offrir nos produits à nos clients en français. S’il vous plaît suivez le lien!
One of the really useful features in CampaignManager is the publishable Commands. In earlier versions, this allowed administrators to change basic settings such as call interval, logging options and RS232 interfaces. However, there were still a lot of options one could not change without being front and center on the machine itself, thereby incuring time and money in making changes. Since version 2009, CampaignManager has included the option of attaching an executable to run utility tasks on remote players. This is an awesome feature provided that you were in a position to write your own code to do whatever it was you needed to do on the player. Despite the fact that you can now run any executable code (Windows PowerShell, Batch files, EXEs etc.) remotely according to schedule, we realise that a lot of users don’t have the time or access to the skills to create such scripts. So, we’ve created a little app that you can use in conjuntion with CampaignManager Commands to help make changes on remote Digital Signage players that much easier. The tool, (imaginatively) named the “Player Settings Console Utility” is a windows executable that takes a number of switches, allowing you to make complex changes to the player remotely.
So, for example If you were swapping over to a new server and needed to change the remote IPs, you could run the command
RyarcSettingsUtil /SA:192.168.100.100
The application will change the setting in the registry and restart the player which will from that moment, point to your New Server. Needless to say, it makes sense
to test your syntax out locally first! You can also run several changes simultaneously like this:
The app will also helpfuly hightlight what it was able to do and not do. (In this case the NodeServer URL was provided without the http:// at the front and the
.asmx file at the end). Once you’ve tested the settings you want to change, you can publish the command en masse from CampaignManager using the appropriate switches as shown here: This utility is still not ‘officially’ released but a version with possible bugs is attached here RyarcSettingsUtil.zip (15.84 KB) if you want to check it out. Feedback most welcome!
Just a note on an upcoming minor release. In October we will release a new version
which includes a new way of sizing Zones. In the previous versions, Zone Sizing
was based on percentages which had the advantage of being able to reliably create
layouts that would work regardless of resolution of the player. Feedback has
indicated that some users need the accuracy of pixel based sizing. As long as
you are certain of the final output resolution, pixel sizing has some advantages including
precise sizing. This is also a boon for users who play out on LED boards which
are often non standard in size. More information will be available in the help
and in the release notes.
October also sees the release of CampaignManager in French (CA) and Spanish (LatAm)
with Portugeuese on the way a little later.
Plans for German, Dutch, Korean and Japanese are in the pipeline but won’t release
just yet.
We get sent a lot of hardware here at Ryarc and we maintain internal reviews of what we test. We figured it would be useful to share this with you, as we often get asked the question “What hardware do you recommend?”. We don’t have a formally recommended hardware unit but we often pass on information we think will be useful. So, introducing the first in a series of reviews we do of hardware.
Wow! Has it really been six months? An update is called for. Since the DS Expo in Vegas in Feb, we’ve been quiet (More like Silent -Ed.) on the blog front, but busy as hell.
The expo was a great opportunity to meet with customers, gather feedback and understand
better what their real needs are. Since then, we’ve been working hard on the next
version of our software. This time round we’ve taken the time to get together and
do some serious planning and design reviews, away from the usual rush-to-release pressure
of normal life in a software company. What’s emerging is a hugely improved new platform
which is now slowly taking shape over the partition from where I write this. The team
is thoroughly enthused with the task that’s been set, and our offices are happily
ringing to lively debates between engineering and the rest of the company about just
how stuff will work.
Our new site went live today. It’s taken longer (doesn’t it always?) than we’d hoped,
but the new structure, information and branding is all live now. You’ll notice a distinct
lack of ‘flash’ on the website and that’s intentional. Do you really need to see animated
lightning bolts coming out of a screen in order to get that we sell Digital Signage
Software? We didn’t think so either. We asked the design team (http://www.reactive.com)
to come up with something friendly and different. We liked the results and we hope
you do too.
You’ll notice perhaps that we’ve changed the way we represent our product line up,
with our Audio and Corp comms applications now being given a fully seperate identity.
Be sure to check out Dappler and Zusa!
That’s it for the short update now. I’ve promised the marketing department I’ll do
this at least every two weeks from now on. It’s not that we’ve had nothign to say,
but we’ve been guilty of regarding ourselves as too busy to keep blogging. Mistake!
Watch this space. – Fergal.
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Appearing at the DIGITAL SIGNAGE EXPO 24-26 February, Las Vegas Convention Center Booth 1627 
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The Software you choose is the most crucial decision you’ll make in preparing for
Ryarc’s feature product CampaignManager, provides a complete solution for managing
CampaignManager can power the largest networks and is designed so that just about
We invite you to our booth at the Digital Signage Expo to see it in action, and register We look forward to seeing you there. |
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A fresh year ahead and what a year it will
be. 2009 is set to be a big one for us all. Coming off the back of an eventful 2008
we are sure to see continued growth in many sectors of the market and further development
and consolidation industry wide.
The
early tradeshows for the year will kick it off with a bang. Ryarc is looking forward
to exhibiting for the first time at DSE in Vegas over the 25th and 26th February.
This will surely be one of the best shows 2009 offers and allow everyone to show-off
the hard work put in late 08 and over the next few months. We have a number of exciting
announcements and releases to deliver in February as well so keep an eye and ear out
for those.
Happy New Year!!
Something often overlooked in Digital Signage offerings is audio. DS offers a great way to engage and inform customers but sound is something that can follow the customer as they move around the area, be it a shopping mall, on-hold music or a reception area. CampaignManager 2009 includes a new audio-only player (Dappler*) along side the regular Digital Signage client. This means that you can now create your own “Radio Station” with music, information
or ads playing. Using Pooling (see below) you can go as far as creating your own Radio Channel. Pooling allows you to create patterns so that you could (for example) play your company jingle at the top and bottom of each hour and have the intervening slots filled with music and info drawn at random from large “Pools”. This gives the real impression that the customer is listening to an actual live radio station and not just Windows Media Player on “Shuffle”.
Dappler means you can very easily create your own in-store or in-company radio by drag and drop. The songs will never repeat until the Pool is exhausted and will never play in the same order (unless you want them to!). Think of it as “You-FM” in a box!
CampaignManager 2010, Intel AMT edition
Just going to repost the recent AMT press release and make a few comments. We demonstrated the new funcationality at DSE 2010 a few weeks ago. We had two kinds of reactions. One of them was
and the other was
AMT Demo at the Intel Booth
It’s not surprising to learn that quote A tended to come from folks not familiar with the joy (pain) of dealing with day to day issues on large networks and that quote B tended to come from folks who were only too aware of how mundane things like power-offs can spell pain, time, money and reputation for your network. I’ll paste the PR below and more to come on reflections on DSE in the coming days.
Adios!
Ryarc™ Announces Availability of Digital Signage Software with Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT)
Today Ryarc announces the availability of CampaignManager, which adds Intel® AMT technology which can dramatically reduce downtime and ongoing TCO for operators of Digital Signage networks. By automatically discovering Intel® AMT enabled devices in the user’s Digital Signage network, Ryarc CampaignManager provides single click access to such powerful features as power cycling, inventory management and more.
Sydney (PRWEB) March 10, 2010 — With the focus often on surface features and advanced integration with devices such as touch and interactivity it is easy to lose sight of some of the most fundamental concerns in operating a digital signage network; increasing day-to-day manageability of remote devices and reducing operational costs. Today Ryarc announces the availability of CampaignManager, which adds Intel® AMT technology which can dramatically reduce downtime and ongoing TCO for operators of Digital Signage networks.
No matter how simple or complex Digital Signage networks become, operators are still sometimes faced with the need to visit a sign to correct mundane problems such as the machines being powered off by facility staff or a system crash. Systems like Ryarc’s CampaignManager can often intervene to correct system problems but even the very best software cannot recover from a system crash or inadvertent power-off.
This is why Ryarc has been working to bring the benefits of remote management with Intel® Active Management Technology to Digital Signage Operators.
By automatically discovering Intel® AMT enabled devices in the user’s Digital Signage network, CampaignManager provides single click access to such powerful features as power cycling, inventory management and more.
Ryarc’s co-founder and CEO Fergal O’Ceallaigh said “Too often, the less glamorous aspects of DS network management are overlooked when potential digital signage software solutions are being evaluated. Touch, interactivity, Bluetooth; these are all great additions, but there is probably nothing more fundamental to the operation of a successful Digital Signage network than maintaining reliability and uptime. Being able to automatically profile and inventory manage your signage infrastructure is hugely important; being able to respond remotely to adverse events, which previously required an expensive site visit, is indispensible and a huge step forward.”
Using Intel® AMT technology, Ryarc’s flagship CampaignManager product can automatically generate enhanced asset management and inventory details for all connected Intel® AMT enabled devices. CampaignManager can also automatically power up devices that have been turned off, as well as recover from operating system crashes; events which heretofore involved delay, expense and loss of revenue through site visits by technical personnel.
Intel’s Jose Avalos, director of digital signage said “Users can now utilize Intel® AMT features inside the Ryarc’s CampaignManager. This development makes Ryarc one of the first digital signage software companies to offer this level of integration, effectively bringing a new level of manageability and functionality to digital signage networks.”
“CampaignManager with Intel AMT edition offers real and immediate value to operators of DS systems by reducing site visits and increasing reliability and hence, revenue and reputation. CampaignManager with Intel® AMT edition is the first release to include this technology, increasing the depth of integration and continuing to offer improvements in usability and ease of use” Mr O’Ceallaigh added.
Intel, Intel AMT and Core 2 Duo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All other legal marks are the property of their respective owners.
About Ryarc (http://www.ryarc.com)
Ryarc is a software company focusing on Digital Signage Software, distributed audio and playback technology. Ryarc’s core product is CampaignManager, an end-to-end Digital Signage management platform which is used worldwide to operate and manage digital signage networks, large and small. Ryarc also allows you to expand your digital signage network to include an audio (in-store radio) platform as well as an internal communications channel, all managed from a central location. Please feel free to contact Ryarc to ask any questions….Ryarc related or industry related we are here to help make it happen.