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.