February 2015
48
D
igital
S
ignage
Of course the primary function of a video
conferencing solution like the SM@RT Vidi is
to secure video conferencing between a com-
pany’s headquarters and its branch offices. So
this allows the video wall to be used to display
the various video streams from each office as
well as associated files in the virtual meeting.
Now anyone attending the meeting is able to
access the computer in the virtual and share
content on the video walls across all loca-
tions. In order to simplify the management
of the virtual meetings, it would be prefera-
ble to create an app, which can be used on a
tablet or smartphone to provide a touch inter-
face to quickly manage meeting setup, switch
between various computers being shared, as
well as scale the various windows on the video
wall for maximum visibility.
One of the main goals of remodeling a meet-
ing room to make it fit for tomorrow is to
create a more immersive and engaging envi-
ronment, which at the same time can be easily
operated and will ensure that the content on
the displays can be kept fresh and up-to-date.
Therefore, best practice would be a server-cli-
ent relationship between the video wall con-
troller and the corresponding media-players
attached to the displays in the room. Ideally,
the video wall controller, acting as the server,
is equipped with a Content Management Soft-
ware (CMS) like the VIA MagicView, which
is shipped together with the VIA MW Series
system. Using this kind of solution, it is quite
comfortable to create a digital signage server
with a user-friendly drag and drop interface
to store content, quickly design layouts and
schedule playback. The media-players should
be ideally loaded with a software portion,
able to make use of all functions the server
provides. Experience has shown that this is
most probably only the case, if the server soft-
ware portion and the client software portion
are from the same vendor. For example, in
this case the media player of choice was the
VIA Video Wall Mini media player, which is
loaded with the VIA MagicView software for
playback. One of the key benefits of this setup
is that it allows to remotely managing the
CMS from other computers on the network,
keeping the room free for meetings.
How effective a digital signage system really is,
comes down to the content it displays. Digital
signage sites across the web preach the impor-
tance of dynamic content to drive audience
engagement, but do not really get down on
how to achieve this. With the incorporation
of a new signage system in the meeting room
of tomorrow, one is presented with a fantas-
tic opportunity to take this challenge head-on.
For example, when starting to remodel the
room, one of the main goals is to update
any museum-like feel by replacing the num-
ber of static demos in the room with a digi-
tal signage system to create a more engaging
environment. When tackling the challenge of
actually creating the content to achieve this,
the first question to be answered is: Where
do I start from? So to begin with, it is a good
advice to come up with a list of key questions
to address, in order to help to focus the efforts:
Who is the target audience? What are the key
messages that need to be communicated?
What is the most effective way to present these
messages within the meeting room? How can
one leverage existing materials to quickly cre-
ate content?
As the meeting room is also the main site for
customer meetings, media interviews and
internal meetings or for the communication
of core values and product offerings, it is a
good place to start the content design around
here, as it is relevant for all groups. In this
context, it is very important to have a clear
understanding of who to reach and what to
convey to them. Once this is set, it is much
easier to focus on maximizing the content for
the screens in the meeting room. From the
first attempt onwards, there are a lot of valu-
able lessons to be learned, on how to scale and
balance content on the displays. The process
also helps in generating many new ideas for
future experimentation. Rather than trying to
re-invent the wheel in the first attempt, there
is always the possibility to successfully re-pur-
pose existing content. There is nothing quite
so valuable as learning by doing!
n
Hall-Stand 1-511
DFI: 4-inch Embedded SBC supports
ECC memory and 9~36V wide voltage
DFI unveils BT253, the most advanced 4” SBC
in its Intel Atom E3800 SoC product line. The
platform with BGA 1170 packaging tech-
nology features low-power consumption at
only 5-10W TDP. By means of a significant
improvement in onboard graphics, BT253
provides LVDS, HDMI, VGA (default) or
DVI-I (optional) interfaces with dual-in-
dependent display capability. Apart from
excellent graphics performance, BT253 takes
advantage of Intel Atom SoC processor tech-
nologies that support ECC memory.
Hall-Stand 4-210
Lauterbach: µTrace supports
new NXP LPC54100 series
Lauterbach has announced its support for the
new NXP LPC54100 Series of microcontrol-
lers. NXP recently introduced its LPC54100
Series of microcontroller, which achieves
industry leading power efficiency and is
ideally suited for “always-on” sensor-based
products. Lauterbach have supported the
LPC54100 Series of microcontrollers since the
beginning with µTrace, a proven and popular
debug and trace tool for Cortex-M based pro-
cessors. The tool uses USB 3.0 for connection
to the host and connects to the LPC54100 via
Serial Wire Debug interface. The developer
can control the operation of the program and
analyze the data in C and C++ by the use of
simple and complex breakpoints.
Hall-Stand 4-206
Altium expands benefits to
subscription customers
Altium announces extended benefits to
Altium Subscription. With the release of
Altium Designer 15, Altium commits to deliv-
ering Product Updates and Maintenance
Updates to the current release and Mainte-
nance Updates to previous releases. Starting
with Altium Designer 14, Altium will deliver
fixes and small enhancements as Maintenance
Updates to two preceding releases in addition
to updates and upgrades to the latest release.
Altium Subscription customers will continue
to receive Maintenance Updates for Altium
Designer 14 and 15 through the release of
Altium Designer 16 at which time a 3-year
moving window of maintenance support will
be in place.
Hall-Stand 5-445
Telit and Tele2 announce
M2M/IoT cooperation
TEL2 and Telit Communications PLC are
entering into a Machine-to-Machine/Inter-
net of Things cooperation to provide numer-
ous new premium value added services and
connectivity solutions. Since the launch of
its worldwide M2M/IoT operations a year
ago, Tele2 M2M Global Solutions has signed
a number of agreements with customers and
partners. Today, Tele2 announced a coopera-
tion with Telit Wireless Solutions, the global
leader in Internet of Things enablement. Telit,
with its deep domain expertise and global
footprint, and Tele2, with its proven creden-
tials as the foremost provider of convergent
communication services, together make it
possible to provide comprehensive solutions
and become a competitive player in the M2M/
IoT market
Embedded World
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