Inside a Digital Signage Software Company

Wanted to lay out a few of the major changes currently under development.  Some will be out in the next release (within the coming fortnight) and some will be later, forming the release of 2.0. 

1: Persistant, animated, translucent watermarking (Version 1.5)

This feature will allow an animated, semi-transparent watermark to be placed anywhere on screen.  Uniquely, it will work across all media types; Live Video/TV, Video, Images, Flash, Sliverlight, and web content.

2: NodeServer (1.5)

This is an add-on feature to CampaignManager that will allow one player in a group to act as a kind of proxy server.  All meta comms from the players in the node will be direct to the main server.  All 'payload' downloads will be via the nominated node service.  NodeServer will be the first major component to use the .net Framework 2.0 and the new SQL Server engine SQL Server CE or SQL Server Mobile or SQL Server Anywhere (or whatever it gets called next!).  This engine will form the backbone of the 3.0 release.

3. Super Ticker (2.0)

Super Ticker will move from the current GDI technology to DirectX taking full advantage of the graphics acceleration available.  In addition, the new Ticker will support true right to left and animation styles as well as two tickers on screen at the same time and location of the ticker anywhere (not just along the bottom!)

4. Mosaic (2.0)

A much called for feature (though rarely used in practice) is to be able to go beyond the three zones currently acheivable and to be able to split the screen into however many zones you like. 

As always, comments are welcome.

Thanks for tuning in. Bit of news on the Digital Signage Software CampaignManager product road-map I'd like to share with you. We have been talking this year about our new version "3.0". This came as a surprise to some given that we are currently on rev 1.x. Well, the features talked about in 3.0 are all still intact and being worked on. However, we are going to do an intermediary release (2.0 no less) which will add some long requested features to the product. These will be:

• Multiple Splits of the Window
• Multiple Items per side pane
• Double Tickers
• Local Node Server (so one machine can act as a slave server for a bunch of locally connected players)
• Security integration with Microsoft Windows Active Directory
• Better Support for Audio
• Support for DirectX 10 and new DirectX 10 Tickers

2.0 will ship within in the third quarter and 3.0 will ship in Q4. 

Santos Corporation recently completed a move to their new HQ which involved a multi million dollar audio visual install.  Santos required a cinema like experience in the lobby showcasing the company's values and history and a mix of smaller screens with touch screen capability achieved this using Panasonic's gigantic new 103" LCD TV.  The lobbies of the new building have been fitted out with smaller screens which are capable of displaying the same content which can be dismissed with a touch to access an interactive directory.  Ryarc's CampaignManager digital signage software was used to power all the displays.  Some pictures:

Santos Reception showing a 103" LCD screen being run by CampaignManager Digital Signage Software.

The lift lobbies of the building showing the smaller touch screen device.

A Close up of the smaller screen inviting the user to touch the screen to access the interactive directory.

The usability of the applications was often much reduced and common features that the user had grown accustomed to, such as drag-and-drop, undo-redo, context sensitive help, and so on, were no longer available. Furthermore, the responsiveness of the application was diminished, especially for business applications, such as those in customer call centers, which demanded heavy data entry and navigation across multiple screens...

• Security and the inability to host the system yourself
• Inability to take advantage of all the power of your desktop PC
  
• Managing complex tasks with a web page, even with advanced browser UI can be a frustrating experience
• Managing large files round-tripping to a remote server can be soul destroyingly frustrating
  
• Being off the air if your ASP's web server is down

• Requiring a complex install to access your project
• The inability to access your project from anywhere

This week, we're launching the free trial version of our ScreenSaver product which we've christened "Zusa!".  The new application allows the delivery of timed, targeted mixed content direct to the screensaver.  So other than delivering pretty pictures etc to a screensaver, what could it be used for?

Well, firstly, this is very (fundamentally) different to any screen saver that's been available before.  With Ryarc you can now turn every subscribed desktop into an information / education / entertainment channel.  You can divide subscribers into different groups and then tailor content for each division.  Instead of relying on cork and pin bulletin boards, under visited intranet sites and email, Ryarc users can leverage every corporate desktop to deliver company announcements, social club info, safety info, CEO addresses etc.  You can even include local news and weather tickers, or create your own corporate RSS feed with nooked.com to create up to the minute news and views from across the company.

Our improved RSS engine can now combine multiple feeds into a single ticker.  These RSS feeds will automatically refresh at an interval of your choice.  This is a great way to disseminate not just your own corporate news, but news from industry sources and your competition.

CampaignManager enables control of every aspect of these feeds.  Changing content is as easy as sending an email.  You can pull content, have stuff only appear at the top of the hour, temporarily replace content by publishing new information with a higher priority etc. etc.   You can create unlimited 'channels' so, if you wish, you can offer your users a choice of feeds each with different focus and content.

Because it works across the internet, you can also make these feeds available to remote staff or staff on the road.

A feature that is generating particular interest is Ryarc's ability to remotely deliver live WebPages to the screen.  This means that current 'portal pages' which are currently being used to collate and deliver team critical information on projects, metrics, sales etc. can be included with the content sent to the screensaver.

Delivering and updating content is so easy, that it can also be used for more trivial short term announcements.  Oh, and did we mention the setup is only 1.5mb?

More later!

(Widescreen LCD monitor showing RSS News ticker & WMV HD video clip)

RSS is already wildly popular, as can be seen from recent aquisition activity (See Yahoo and Konfabulator).  For companies that have content to push, like Yahoo, its easy to see why.  Fergus Burns of Nooked has more.  The guys at nooked are looking beyond straight feeds and are looking at RSS as a new way to disemenate corporate information like press releases and other content and even as a replacement for email in certain circumstances.  Interesting stuff.

Wait, did someone say Corporate Communications?  Isn't that what Ryarc Media Systems do?  Isn't RSS a bit like Subscribe, Push and Play?  And isn't that what digital signage applications do? 

Well its true that CampaignManager is RSS enabled.  As part of our 'ticker' functionality we allow you to consume RSS feeds to drive up to the second info to your digital sign.  (See image)

Reasonably nifty, if not exactly ground breaking.  But Nooked's thinking on RSS which goes beyond the immediate got me thinking about how RSS can work with Digital Signage...  Watch this space.