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.
The DT Research WebDT170
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.
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".
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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! |
*Dappler will be released with CampaignManager 2009. If you would like a pre-release copy, please contact us.
It's been an embarrasingly long time since we posted here on the blog. 2008 has been a great year which saw the release of our current version "CampaignManager 2008". CM 2008 introduced full screen-zoning capability as well as great improvements in the service back-end. Digital Signage Software is more than getting media from A to B and our long history in working with customer networks large and small has been instrumental in the changes made for our 2008 version.
For a full list of changes, check out the release notes.
Just around the corner is CampaignManager 2009. We will release CM 2009 before the end of the year. There are some really exciting new features and I'd like to take the opportunity to talk about one of them in particular. Pooling as we've named it introduces an entirely new concept of managing media. Typically, when creating a new Campaign, one adds media items to a play list and that playlist then loops around. For many networks, this is all that is required. However, sometimes there is a need to get a little more complex. What if you want to have the Campaign play a file at random from a group of files... And what if you wanted that group of files to be different depending on what day it is? Well, Pooling enables all sorts of scenarios and more. With Pooling, you create a "Pool" which is basically a group of (usually) related files. For example, they could be adverts. You can create an unlimited amount of pools and each pool can have thousands of files within it. Once the Pool has been created you need to create a "Pool Pattern". Have a look at the image below:
The horizontal bar represents a block of time. By default; one hour. This is our Pool Pattern. Within the pattern you can see different "Pool Blocks". These Blocks are references to the Pools you have created. So, in the example above, we start of the hour with 2 minutes and 25 seconds of content from the "Advertisement" pool. I could have dozens of advertisements in this pool. The software will pick them at random and play five items from the pool. Next, the "Pop Music" pool which is selected in the screen shot. Note the vertical bars within the blocks above. Some have one colour, and the second item has two. This indicates that the block has been split so that the pool it draws from at run time changes depending on the time of day. Note the "Block Summary" in the lower right of the image. This particular block has been altered so that between 6:15am and 9:10am it will draw content from the "My Soft Music" pool instead of the "Rock Music".
As you can see, (if you're still with me!) Pooling is a very powerful tool that allows for highly directed content based on time of day. The great thing is that once you have created a pool pattern and added it to a Campaign, you never have to touch it again; you simply update the contents of the pool and that automatically propegates out to your network.
Not everyone will need Pooling, but for some users with complex schedules, Pooling provides an especially powerful and easy to use tool.
We plan to release a new set of online video tutorials that will demonstrate pooling and all our new features for CampaignManager 2009. We'll blog very soon on the other features coming down the track for version 2009 such as Multi Player per PC support and Satellite support!
Some images from our stand at ISE (Integrated Systems Europe). As you can see, Team Euro played up on Ryarc's heritage :). At the stand we demonstrated CampaignManager's system integration by showing CM running inside EuroSign, and integrated display and PC and by linking up with Quividi Audience Measuring and analysis system. Based on the gender of the people in front of the screen, the system can determine males from females and CampaignManager then displays the appropriate ad automatically.
Kangaroos need not apply.
Pictured (left to right) are Jan Seutens (Business Development Manager, Ryarc EMEA), Oliver Duizabo (CEO Quividi) , Gert Jan van Engelen (Technical Sales Ryarc EMEA), Stefaan Leroux (Technical Sales Ryarc EMEA) and Hans Vogel (GP Systems).
In the lower right of the picture you can see Radiant Europe's Eurosign product. An integrated display and PC device that comes with CampaignManager installed.
Wow; has it really been four months since we last posted? Smack our collective hands! We really must do better. We do have an excuse though, if you will allow us; we've been very busy! Ryarc has had an awesome 2007, a year that saw our deployed screens quadruple. You may have seen some press releases in the run up to the end of the year, covering digital signage software deployments to the FitnessFirst gym network (The World's largest), Permanent TSB Bank in Ireland. Look out for some press releases in the coming weeks and months for more news on CampaignManager.
CampaignManager and Product Roadmap
Since August of last year, our team of software designers and developers have been working hard on our next major revision, which we hope to release by the end of Q1 this year. This has been a long time coming, but we're taking the time we need to get it right. I'll blog more (promise) on that release closer to the date. We've got some truly awesome new features in there which we are genuinely excited about. In Q2 we'll be releasing our Audio system which will allow users to easily and quickly create a "live" radio feel. This is an addition to CampaignManager, so you'll be able to manage all your visuals and audio from a single robust platform.
Corporate Environmental Responsibility
I blogged some time ago about "Carbon Neutral Software" an idea of an industry association which would help encourage and accredit IT companies who make the (more expensive) switch to energy consumption that favours renewable or carbon neutral sources. We switched to 100% renewable enegry for our HQ offices back in August of 07. Fully Carbon Neutral power is not yet an option here Down Under, so our energy is derived from Wind, Solar, Biomass and other (non-fossil) sources. We're really too small and insignificant to get this rolling but isn't it a little disapointing to see multi-billion dollar software companies sitting on their hands?
Though I better get one in August or I'll start to look lazy! We have some news to share. Some of you may noticed an article out last month about FutureMedia's launch of an out of home TV network. We're delighted to announce that CampaignManager has been selected and is now deployed. Phase one is 1,000 screens and phase two sees 10,000 screens deployed. At 10,000 it counts as one of the largest networks deployed anywhere. FutureMedia's network will extend to the Big Bazaar and Pantaloons shopping malls throughout India reaching a mind boggling 200 million shoppers anually.
PRESS RELEASE: Ryarc CampaignManager powers one of the largest digital signage deployments to date
21st August 2007
Ryarc Media Systems has announced their digital signage software will power Future TV, the first move by Future Media towards an in-store advertising channel across their Indian retail network and one of the world’s largest digital signage deployments. A subsidiary of Future Group, Future Media will initially roll out 1,000 screens in over 35 Future Group stores in the top six metros of India as the start of a planned network of 10,000 screens.
CampaignManager, Ryarc’s digital signage software, will be the backbone to Future TV becoming the first branded out-of-home (OOH) TV network across retail outlets in India. The footfall expected across this network is 2 Million people each week. According to Partho Dasgupta, CEO of Future Media, “When you get people to notice your brand or product in store, the intent to buy will always be much higher.”
Ryarc’s CEO, Fergal Ó Ceallaigh, said “Competing with global blue chip brands with large advertising budgets can be difficult, but in the end, it’s the quality of the software and the service you provide to customers that shines through and not the hype. Future Media needed a solution that was powerful and scalable enough to run a truly huge network and yet, not require a team of IT professionals to run it. We were delighted when Future Media chose our technology after almost a year of careful research. The size of this deployment is truly impressive; our technology will deliver content, news and advertising to 100 million viewers annually. That’s comfortably greater than most national broadcasters and is a testament to the growing reach of out-of-home digital.”
Anup Kotekar, Business Director, Future Media said that “We are pleased with the support rendered to us by Ryarc in terms of flexibility & software customization.”
N. S. Padmanabhan, Product Director, Future Media said that “We are extremely satisfied with CampaignManager’s features, functionality and robustness. Its outstanding user-friendly interface isolates the user from all complexities. Our test runs have all been successful with no software glitches.”
CampaignManager is a complete digital signage software solution with remote management, publishing, monitoring, logging, proof of play and versatile playback capabilities. This user-friendly software allows flexible arrangement of display zones. CampaignManager delivers Flash animation, video, live web content, RSS tickers, images, live video capture and digital (DVB) and analogue TV in a seamless channel.
CampaignManager has been designed from the ground up to be instantly familiar to users of common PC applications. No specialist training or knowledge is required. Combining a user friendly interface with unparalleled scheduling power and flexibility, CampaignManager is the clear choice whether you wish to run a single display, or a global digital signage network.
The technology architecture for Future TV has been managed by Konzern Infotech. The Director of Konzern, Dhruv M. Trivedi, said “The service and support we received from Ryarc was exceptional. I couldn’t have asked for a better software platform or a better team to work with. CampaignManager has exceeded our expectations and delivered a very powerful digital signage network that is very easy to manage.”
Ben Mooney, Sales and Marketing Manager of Ryarc, said “We’re delighted to see CampaignManager headlining one of the largest digital signage deployments to date. This is an exciting project not only for those involved, but for the entire digital signage industry.”
About Ryarc Media Systems (http://www.ryarc.com/)
Ryarc Media Systems is a digital signage software company whose technology powers distributed media applications around the globe. Ryarc’s core product is CampaignManager, an end-to-end Digital Signage management platform.
The Ryarc team has been working on creating the CampaignManager product since 2001. Ryarc has representatives in Australia, New Zealand, India, and The European Union. Each year, Ryarc delivers over a billion impressions worldwide to an impressive blue chip customer base.
About Future Media (www.futuremedia.in)
Future Media India Ltd. is a part of the Future Group, which owns Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Central and manages multiple retail formats catering to a wide cross-section of the Indian society, capturing almost the entire consumption basket of the Indian consumers. Future Media was incorporated on 8th March, 2006 and the operations were started from 1st January, 2007.
Future Media will give brands a chance to communicate with the active consumers, who consume through media properties in print, television, radio, and visual signage spaces. The company is expected to rollout different channels across different formats.
http://www.ryarc.com/blog/content/binary/Ryarc%20Future%20Media%20Press%20Release.pdf
For More Information Contact:
Ben Mooney
Sales & Marketing Manager
Ryarc Media Systems
Phone: +61.2.99565926
Email: benm@ryarc.com
Web: www.ryarc.com
I had a response to my previous post from staff at Adobe. They seem to be aware of the performance issues I was complaining about but there doesn't seem to be any urgency in adressing it. Taking advantage of ardware acceleration is coming but it will be for "Full Screen" only, meaning it is not going to really help Digital Signage applications. It will not work where the Flash component is hosted within another application as it would be for Digital Signage Software. Digitial Signage must represent a tiny fraction of what Flash is used for but it is disapointing nonetheless to hear the long understood problems of flash performance will remain. This can only increase anticipation of what SilverLight will do (and let's hope they don't repeat the same mistakes)
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.
A quick post to introduce our new blog. This blog will remain the general source of musings and news on Ryarc. Ben Mooney's marketing blog will focus on the marketing side of things. Watch out for our dev blog launching soon!
Anyone who's spent any time working on Digital Signage will know two things about the Flash format. 1: it's perfect for digital signage and 2: It sucks. Don't get me wrong; Flash is a great medium for what it was desgined for (small animated graphics) but it has some serious drawbacks.
Abysmal Performance...
First and foremost of these is the actual technical architecture of the Flash display engine. Flash works great in a small window but scale it up to full screen and the performance can be utterly abysmal. A flash file with large bitmaps and some groovy fading effects etc will bring the most powerful machines to it's knees. CPU usage for flash increases exponentially when you increase the size of the canvas. It just wasn't designed to go fulll screen. The most surprising thing is, is that Macromedia/Adobe have had a good many years to think about this problem but have declined in their wisdom to do something about it. Just how bad is the problem? Well, a 500mb HD Video playing full screen uses less CPU than a 50kb Flash file playing full screen. It's not entirely flash's fault, as the processing load for vector graphics falls on the CPU and not the GPU but still... It has been many years...
Instability
Flash also freezes occasionally and carelessly authored content leaks memory. The problem for Digital Signage is that leaks are really really really bad news. Because 99.9999% (or there abouts) of flash files live for 30 seconds in a browser page and do nothing else, its understandable why these bugs haven't been front and center for the developers in the Flash team; but they're heartbreakers for Digital Signage.
Programmability
Flash is programmed using ActionScript. People have written incredible applications with ActionScript but compared to most modern languages, the development tools are poor, the debugging tools poorer, the language is a little underdeveloped and capabilities for interacting with other system components are severely limited.
Enter the light...
Enter SilverLight, Microsoft's new vector graphics based format. Or as Microsoft succinctly put it, "Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web." We aren't 100% certain that the guys in Redmond have nailed these flash problems with SilverLight but we're going to find out soon because...
Ryarc CampaignManager will support SliverLight for Advertising Animation and Kiosk Interactivity
What's really cool about SilverLight is that interactivity and programmability can be done in .net meaning a nice smooth interoperability with existing applications and a much larger talent pool available for the development of interactive content. Anyway, we'll blog more on this exciting new technology and we expect to offer a version of CampaignManager Digital Signage Software which supports SilverLight in the coming months....
Example of SilverLight in action...
Just a quick note to introduce our new website:
We hope the redesign and new navigation work well... Next job is integrating the forums and this blog into the look and feel. The support forums were offline briefly due to the Web Site Switch over but will be back online later today.
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. Feedback or ideas most welcome.
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 Ryarc team would like to send a warm welcome to Ben Mooney who has recently joined the team as our new Sales & Marketing Manager. Ben comes from a recent stint in the advertising world after returning from two years working in marketing and sales in London. Ben has experience across the tourism, film, mobile and advertising industries, as well as a B. Commerce (Marketing & Finance Majors) degree. You can contact Ben directly by mailing benm ([at]) ryarc.com
Ben Mooney
Neptune reports are an add-on to CampaignManager that allow you to create reports based on Campaign, Media or Channel (RDD). It's extremely simple to use and setup and replaces the old 'raw xml' reporting that was present up till now. We'll be posting a download link in the coming days, but here are two screen shots in the mean time!
 
We'll get 1.3 out the door in the next few days. Here are some of the issues fixed and features added:
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Creating Campaigns with Extremely long names causes the application to fail |
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Entering illegal characters in the proxy field casuses the application to fail |
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Project history showing the same times for all actions |
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Category name allows empty entries |
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Category name allows duplicate entries |
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Autofind drop folder when more than one drop folder specified causes CM Service UI to fail |
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RDD Config file can overwrite the config files of another project if using the same RDD Name |
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BUG: Arithmetic overflow caused by larger numbers in proxy field |
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Thumbnail preview in Remote Desktop Mode freezes CM |
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Features Added |
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Service UI now contains visual indicators as to which edition of a given Campaign each player has |
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Improved UI and search for Project History / Audit Trail |
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Allow post back of CM Player logs to independent Web Service |
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Turn on or off the IE Script disabler in CM Player |
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Set Default durations for all types of Media |
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New Log Black-out period per day (Stops recording logs for a given period each day) |
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Automatic Project Backup |
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RDD files now put in their own Project Folder |
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Version 1.3 will also have French available! German will be available in a few weeks!
We're delighted to report that Ryarc and Advantech have joined forces to offer a combined Player+Software offering for Digital Signage. The Advantech unit is a compact, robust high performance PC unit about the size of a book and will come factory fitted with the CampaignManager software. Here's the press release: http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/14050/
Advantech will now offer CampaignManager as a part of their expanding Digital Signage offerings. See the units here.
It's been a while since we blogged, so I want to share some of what's coming down the track in our next release; 3.0. For a while now, typical DS systems have been either Web applications or GUI applications. The advantages and disadvantages of both types of applications are well know. For web, the benefits are the ability to use the system from anywhere with an internet connection. Whilst this is great, there are some clear downsides to this also. As David Hill has remarked:
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... To summarize, whilst web interfaces have many advantages, they also 'suck' in some ways:
- 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
On the Application side, there are also some clear disadvantages, namely:
- Requiring a complex install to access your project
- The inability to access your project from anywhere
CampaignManager 2007 (or 3.0; we haven't quite decided) will eliminate these problems associated with a traditional non-web application by using what's called "Smart Client" technology. This means that whilst you will still have all the power and richness of a windows application you will also be able to access your Digital Signage network from anywhere on any Windows machine! In addition, the system will allow you to work off line and always be within the rich and powerful windows environment. We're in the thick of development now but as features come available, I'll blog them here. This new method of access, which brings the CampaignManager product away from project file based management to a relational database opens up a huge range of new features which will make this release a real leap in terms of power. Hence, 1.2 -> 3.0 :)
More to come...
We were "back stage" at Tech.Ed yesterday helping install our demo Embedded System at the Exhibition Centre. Don Kerr (Pictured) is Strategy Manager for Embedded Computing at Microsoft AU and was very nearly as excited (as you can see) as us to see High Definition digital signage running Windows XP embedded.
And it looks like they got their net connectivity issues sorted because as you can see from the image below, the device we installed there is up and running. (The device at Tech.Ed is configured to connect to our lab here on the other side of the City.)
If hits on the website and google referrals are anything to go by, the system is generating some interest. Which is nice. More later. A big thank you to Don and the folks at Microsoft for asking us along :)
We got a phone call a few weeks back from the folks at Microsoft, asking if we'd like to be a part of their embedded device showcase at Tech.Ed 2006. We've been working with Advantech to create some cool "In a box" signage solutions. You'll be able to find us at the Microsoft Embedded Platform stand where you you'll be able to see what our Digital Signage software can do with XP embedded! We'll blog a little more on this closer to the time.
 and  @ 
Here's our press release covering our two year deal with EYE Corp. Ryarc, a leading Digital Signage Software company whose product is CampaignManager, will deliver one half billion full screen ads this year for EYE alone!
Ryarc enters into Digital Signage Software agreement with EYE Corp.
An EYE Prestige Digital Sign powered by Ryarc's CampaignManager software suite.
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Ryarc Media Systems today announced the commencement of two year deal with leading Out-of-Home media operator, Eye, to provide the software component for Eye's expanding portfolio of digital media assets in airports and shopping centres across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Europe.
Ryarc's digital signage software, called CampaignManager, will power Eye's expanding international network of Eye's digital media screens in a deal announced this week.
Fergal Ó Ceallaigh, founder and CEO of media software specialists, Ryarc said, "Eye needed a solution that was not only reliable and manageable, but also one of sizeable scale. It needed to keep pace with EYE's rapid expansion plans. Campaign Manager allows EYE to easily manage hundreds of sites across multiple time zones and continents from a single desktop."
Eye Group Manager - Design and Innovation, Stephen Rubie commented: "We were impressed with the system's efficiency and reliability. Ryarc's software consumed less than one fifth of the processing power of our previous solution. This is crucial, because stressed PCs are prone to heat and hardware failures. In Digital Signage, these can be very expensive."
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Ryarc's CampaignManager ensures that software does not become the limiting factor in EYE's international plans, which now uses CampaignManager to deliver digital signage content to over 180 million passengers, CBD workers and shoppers annually in offices, airports, and shopping centres around the world.
Ryarc's CampaignManager is capable of handling all modern formats including HD video, Live RSS feeds and even digital HDTV. One of the key benefits of CampaignManager is its ability to seamlessly support EYE’s products as they evolve over time.
"In the coming year, CampaignManager will help EYE to deliver over 500 million full screen high definition advertisements. Ryarc's advanced digital signage technology proves that you don't need expensive satellite or "broadband everywhere" installations to deliver high quality content world wide with reliability and ease." added Mr. Ó Ceallaigh.
Digital Signage continues its rapid uptake becoming the most effective method of transmitting a dynamic and engaging message to viewers that are becoming increasingly difficult to reach with traditional methods. With advertising spend on digital products predicted to enjoy considerable growth in the coming years, Ryarc is helping companies make the transition to digital in a highly cost effective manner. |
Proof, if proof were needed that public awareness of, and commercial demand for digital signage is growing strongly. See here for more. digital signage
The biggest UI change in 1.2 has been the Service module. The overwhelming Customer feedback for the service was in relation these areas:
Why can't we run the CampaignManager Service as a Windows Service instead of a windows program?Now you can. CampaignManager Service now runs as a Windows Service and user interaction occurs via a Service Console (pitcured below) we've imaginitavely name the "CampaignManager Service Console"  This means that you no longer have to keep a session alive on Windows and CM Service now runs like other services such as SQL Server and IIS.
The Service Help could be a lot better. Can you fix it?Yes. The help we provided for Service in previous versions was, we admit, not as good as it could have been . We've done some pretty cool stuff with help in 1.2. In addition to a full featured and seperate windows help for the Service we have also integrated our online forums into the application. Now you can ask questions and search for answers within the application itself.
Searching the logs is too hard. And what the FLE* does "-412909" mean?.In 1.x you were pretty much on your own when it came to managing and searching through the logs. In addition to this, there were those cryptic event and error numbers that seemed to exist without explanation. Well, there were explanations available but they were too hard to find. So, we now have a pretty cool little feature where you can specify the age of the logs you want to review by using the slider below. Even better, by clicking on an event, you can then look up more information about it, by clicking the Globe Icon. This link will provide an explanation of the event and you can even go on from there to ask a question in the forum or directly search the forum for topics on that particular issue
*FLE = Four Letter Expletive (examples: damn, darn, dang, etc.)
With 1.2 just around the corner I wanted to take some time to talk about Localisation and Internationalisation (No, nothing to do with Globalisation).
Internationalisation (i18n)
We've gone to special lengths in this release to ensure that, regardless of the language you wish to use, our product will be 'locale sensitive'. Stories of software not working on non-US platform Windows are all too familiar to the majority of us who do not speak English as their first language. We've installed and tested 1.2 on Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Norwegian, and Eastern European Windows.
 CampaignManager doing it's thing on Windows XP Japanese Something that is particularly sensitive to locales is the dates. The new ticker now contains code which will defer to the system on how to display the date. You don't need a Japanese system to show the above. By setting your Location in Control Panel, CampaignManager will automatically reflect the new locale and display the time and date in the appropriate manner.Localisation (l10n)
1.2 will be available in English but we plan to release French, Japanese, Spanish, German, Chinese and Korean versions over 2006 dependent upon demand. We'll keep you posted!
Well it took a little longer than we thought but we're approaching the final few hurdles. With this post, just a proud picture of the end result. Full screen high definition live television (Digital) and a custom ticker. All 'smoooth as...' as they say in New Zealand :)
Technorati Profile
1.2 will be our final major release in the 1.x cycle. Once 1.2 is released we'll be 100% focused on our 2.0 release which will see a lot of changes to how the system works. We are already working closely with our customers to ensure that their needs and requests will be met. But, back to the present. 1.2 is the culmination of what Ryarc wanted in its first release of CampaignManager. Here's what's in store:
Universal Remote Hardware Control
Currently we have support RS232 control for NEC devices only. This will be overhauled to allow users to create and share libraries of commands to control their hardware displays devices, regardless of make.
Hardware Independent Monitor Control
Turn on or off your display, without Rs232 control!
Live Television, Analogue and High Def Digital
Something that our customers have been asking for quite a while. In build at the moment are the components that will allow the CampaignManager system to carry live television. You will be able to add Live TV just like any other piece of media, remotely change channel and switch seamlessly between flash, images, video and Live TV.
XP Embedded
The Ryarc Client Player is being ported to Windows XP embedded allowing users to take advantage of the increased platform options and to reduce Windows Licensing costs.
We'll continue to update this in the coming weeks. Comments welcome.
EYE have become the latest company to avail of CampaignManager's ability to drive internal corporate signage. EYE are currently rolling out the CampaignManager driven signs throughout their key offices. The signage will carry a mix of content from internal and external sources. EYE Corp are CampaignManager to create their own RSS feeds for the ticker (seen in red in this image).
EYE intend to use their new information network to share success stories and keep staff informed about company developments. Using CampaignManager, the entire network is controlled from a single PC and will carry a mix of localised and national content.
Integrated RSS feed tools will be a part of Ryarc's 1.2.0 release scheduled for Q3 2006. In the mean time noooked.com offer some great free tools to get up and running.
<TECH>
OK! Where to start? We've had a very very busy and exciting end to 2005 and a simiar start to 2006. We've doubled our staff numbers and shipped 1.1. Time now to stop for a breather, and past time to add to this blog and let you all know what's been happing.
Whilst you and yours may have had a relaxing break around Christmas time the Ryarc team was working 7 days a week throughout the holidays and new year to complete 1.1. This release includes many enhancements and has provided a lot of features our users have been asking for. It's already been rolled in some major deployments and every thing is going smoothly. Here are some spotlight improvements in 1.1
- Dual Monitor Support!
- Automatic and manual proxy server support
- Multiple RSS feed tickers
- Multi-language support for XML feeds (Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hebew, Thai etc.)
- Much improved logging (or not logging) options
- Redesigned log post back architecture
- Portrait Display Ticker Support
There features were, pretty much, stuff we had on the drawing board for 1.0 but didn't quite make it in for the reasons that will be apparant to anyone who's worked on a software project.
The great part of being done with 1.1 is that we can no refocus our attention to our final release in the 1.x phase. Namely XP Embedded and TV! Lots more to come on those in the coming days.
</TECH>
<BUSINESS>
Outside of the tech side of things, the other big news is that we have a new distributor – SignTV. They run a whole bunch of
digital signage media in New Zealand and have selected CampainManager to help
them display it.
To check out Ryarc and SignTV, just drop in for a burger at McDonalds Auckland airport and you'll see what I mean. The success in NZ shows that the word on CM continues to spread. We always figured that creating a quality product at keen prices will do just about all the marketing we need. So far so good.
</BUSINESS>
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!
Ryarc's "Zusa" Screen Saver in Action:
(Widescreen LCD monitor showing RSS News ticker & WMV HD video clip)
An article in last week's New York Times points to further drops in the prices for Large format screens such as those used in Digital Signage Applications. This is good news indeed, but whether it will be greeted as such by those companies charging excessive prices for their software remains to be seen. Falling prices for display units makes it harder to justify the big sticker prices on some software packages.
This drop in prices for software had to come as Digital Signage moves out of the AV professional spehere and into the mainstream. Long may it continue!
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.
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