Net Display Systems BV (NDS), manufacturer of digital signage software have closed a loan of approximately 1 million euro (1.33 million dollar) for financing its growth plans of 2012 and beyond. The loan will be provided by ABN Amro Bank. Jasper Verriet of ABN Amro Bank comments: “NDS showed a very strong and clean balance sheet and proved it was and still is beating the market.”

“We are very pleased with this agreement as it will enable us to accelerate our current market expansion plan.” – says Louis van Geldrop, founder and CEO of NDS. Use of proceeds will be to penetrate the Western-European market even further, while also opening branch offices in the United States and Middle East.

NDS also plans to hire additional executives, tighten strategic partnerships with some of its current channel partners. Peter de Jong, business partner manager for North America: “We explored the US market in 2011. Our next priority is to find sales executives for the United States branch office”. NDS considers local representation to be a requirement for accomplishing growth in new geographical markets.

NDS will broadcast a webinar on December 21st in which it will provide further details on the growth plan. If you’re interested to join this webinar please sign up here.

advertise me is one of NDS channel partners in Australia and have rolled out and installed PADS for several companies. They look forward to further tighten their strategic partnerships.

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Post tags: Abn Amro Bank, Balance Sheet, Business Partner, Bv, Channel Partners, Current Market, Digital Signage Software, Euro 1, Exciting News, Expansion Plan, Geldrop, Geographical Markets, Jasper, Market Expansion, Partner Manager, Peter De Jong, Sales Executives, Software Company, Strategic Partnerships, Use Of Proceeds, webinar

Microsoft Remote Desktop

The first tool is the built in Microsoft Remote Desktop. This needs to be enabled in your Operating System by going to Control Panel – System – Remote Tab and click “Allow Connections from Computers running any version of Remote Desktop” for less secure connections or “Allow Connections only from computer running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication” for more secure connections.

We generally use this tool on the server. The advantages of using this is that it’s slightly faster than the second tool. There is also an option to connect your local drives to your remote pc which is great for transferring files.

VNC

There are several flavours of VNC (http://www.realvnc.com/) This software tool provides remote control of your digital signage player and basically allows you to see and interact with your digital signage software across any network. The one we use is called tightvnc (http://www.tightvnc.com/) and it is free for personal and commercial use. For managing the players, we recommend using this tool rather than remote desktop since it does not lock the remote PC.

For both tools, you’ll need to make sure you have the relevant ports enabled on your firewall.

With VNC there seems to be a limit to 8 characters for the password but either way both tools are highly recommended.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Authentication, Basic Tools, Control Digital, Control Panel, Control System, digital signage player, Digital Signage Software, Firewall, Flavours, Free Tools, microsoft, Microsoft Player, Microsoft Remote Desktop, Microsoft Windows Operating System, Nbsp, Pc Tools, Playes, ports, Pros And Cons, Remote Control, Remote Desktop, Signage Solution, Software Tool, Tool, Transferring Files, Two Tools, Vnc, Windows Operating System, Windows Player

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Post tags: Capital Cities, Contact, Digital Displays, Digital Signage Software, Digital Signage Solutions, Enterprise, hardware, Melbourne, Menu Board, Perth, plasma, Servers, Signage Solution, Solutions Provider, States In Australia, Sydney, That Meets Your Needs, Tool, Touch Screens, Video Walls

Advertise Me was one of the many exhibitors at the event which included large companies such as Sharp, Fujitsu and Netcomm. During this exhibition, Advertise Me stood out from their competitors by demonstrating the use of Social Networking tools such as Twitter and Foursquare to communicate real time information on the screen. The setup of their stand was also unique which incorporated the use of a video wall(2×2 47″ FULL High Definition LCD Panasonic screens) to demonstate different applications for digital signage. Here’s the setup:

The digital signage software that was used for delivering and distributing the content to the screens was PADS Professional developed  by a Netherlands based company called Net Display Systems. Net Display Systems has thousands of installations in multiple market sectors from transportation, corporate and government to hospitality and retail.

The PADS Professional software was installed on the Shuttle XS35 – one of the smallest and powerful PC we’ve seen on the market. The unit has an atom processor with an NVIDIA ION graphics chip set and is able to play Full HD videos without any issues. In actual fact,  we played a number of Full HD Videos at the same time and didn’t notice any lag. For convenience, the unit can be mounted on the back of a screen with a Shuttle VESA mounting kit.

The top left hand screen demonstrated the use of Twitter, Foursquare, News and Weather feeds, and the ability to show real time video (USB Camera) as an input source.

The top right hand screen demonstrated the use of Advertise Me’s custom built SMS solution. This digital signage solution enabled visitors to select a music video clip from a list by texting a code to a mobile number. According to the company, this application can be used with any digital signage software that can be connected to the Internet and it’s use can be applied in any industry. Advertise Me also used this solution to distribute the PADS demo key via SMS.

The bottom left hand screen played marketing videos and was also used to demonstrate the PADS software. This allowed Advertise Me to answer and show the user how easy the system is to use.

The bottom right hand screen played an image slideshow demonstrating the use of digital signage in different industries such as hospitality, education, retail and the corporate sector.

Facial recognition, hand and SMS interactivity were some of the innovative technologies being showcase at the exhibition and it is anticipated that businesses will soon adapt to these new technologies in Australia.

Advertise Me would like to thank their sponsors for their help and assistance:

• Net Display Systems
• Shuttle/Altech
• Panasonic
• Visual Sounds
• Squeak.com.au

Here’s a few more photos of the expo:

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Post tags: Chip Set, Darling Harbour Exhibition Center, Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre, Definition Lcd, Digital Signage Software, Digital Signage Solutions, Exhibition Centre Sydney, Exhibitors, Facial Recognition, Fujitsu, Input Source, Interactive Solution, Interactivity, Ion Graphics, Key Technologies, Market Sectors, Mobile Number, Music Video Clip, Netcomm, Networking Tools, Nvidia, Pc Hardware, Possibilities, Professional Software, Signage Industry, Signage Solution, social networking, Social Networks, Sydney Australia, Tradeshow, twitter, Video Usb, video wall, weather

Sherwood Ridge Public School opened its doors to students for the first time on 28 January 2004. At this time the school had 8 mainstream classes between Kindergarten and Year 6 and 2 support classes.

The founding Principal of Sherwood Ridge is Mrs Jan Marshall.

In the weeks following the school’s inception, students, parents and teachers came together to give birth to: four sporting houses – Air, Fire, Earth and Water; three core values – community, respect and learning; and the school motto “From Each Their Best”.

Requirements

The requirements for this project was quite straight forward and these were:

• Installation of 50” commercial grade screen in the Administration foyer
• A digital signage player to display a range of content types including images, videos and text
• The installation and configuration of  the screen, bracket, cabling and digital signage player
• Audio Speakers in the Administration foyer
• Initial template creation
• Onsite Training
• Technical Support

The Solution

The solution we provided the school consisted of the following:

• Dell PC with dual VGA output
• PADS Digital Signage Software
• Panasonic 50″ Plasma screen
• Venturi wall bracket
• 2-Port USB KVM to control two PC’s by using the same keyboard, mouse  and monitor
• Logitec Speakers
• VGA extension cable

We provided the school with a standalone solution that enabled them to use the same PC to control, schedule and display the content and at the same time share the keyboard,mouse and monitor. Since the PC had two VGA outputs, one was connected to the local screen (used for managing and scheduling content) and the extended second output to the Panasonic screen (display the content). This setup is quite complex because the video configuration of the second output was setup as an  extended screen. This meant that the PADS Viewer (a component of the PADS software) which displays content had to automatically launch on this extended screen. How did we do this? It was simple, the PADS application allows you to enter the X and Y co-ordinates of where the viewer will be launched. Here’s an example, the horizontal position of the viewer screen is 1440 (since the horizontal size of the primary screen is 1440) :

As a result, the digital signage solution was used as a tool to communicate messages with kids, teachers and parents through images and information. Below is a few pictures of the install:

Digital Signage in the Education sector in Australia is now becoming more popular and more affordable so why not talk to us so we can show you how you can achieve your digital signage goals.

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Post tags: 28 January, Air Fire, Audio Speakers, Community Respect, Content Types, Core Values, Dell Pc, digital signage, digital signage player, Digital Signage Software, Digital Speakers, Doors, High Schools, Inception, Initial Template, Jan Marshall, Keyboard Mouse, Kindergarten, Logitec Speakers, Mainstream Classes, Pads Software, Panasonic 50 Plasma, Parents And Teachers, plasma screen, School Motto, Sherwood, Sherwood Ridge, Signage Project, Signage Solution, Software Panasonic, Sporting Houses, Standalone Solution, Technical Support, Template Creation, Video Configuration, Year 6

The South Western Sydney Clinical School (SWSCS) was established in 1990 and it is unique to the UNSW city clinical schools in that it embraces multiple campuses, allowing access to a broad and diverse range of health care services delivered to a large (approximately 800,000 people) and diverse population.

The SWSCS is centered at Liverpool Hospital (600 beds), a principal tertiary referral hospital for the South Western Sydney Area Health Service (SWSAHS). An active teaching and research programme is also run at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital (400 beds; the second principal referral hospital in SWSAHS) and at Campbelltown and Fairfield Hospitals, as well as a number of other facilities.

Requirements

The requirements for this digital signage project were:

• The large screens needed to be in portrait rather than landscape
• Screen needed to be mounted against the wall
• Display different content including websites, timetable, presentations, images, RSS uni news etc.
• Needs to be scalable and flexible
• A dedicated CMS server hosted at the main Hospital Campus
• Players needed to be embedded in the screen since there was no space to store these

The Solution

The solution we provided the University consisted of the following:

• CMS Dell Server
• PADS Digital Signage Software
• Panasonic Screens with embedded players
• Adtec wall bracket

As usual we worked with local staff and the IT network engineers to connect the players to the UNSW network. We’ve got more screens and players to install but for now have a look at the some of the below photos

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Post tags: Area Health Service, Campbelltown, Cms Server, Dell Server, digital signage, Digital Signage Software, Health Care Services, Hospitals, Lidcombe Hospital, Liverpool Hospital, Network Engineers, New South Wales, Referral Hospital, Signage Project, Signage Solution, Slideshow, Software Panasonic, South Western Sydney, South Western Sydney Area Health, South Western Sydney Area Health Service, Sydney Area Health Service, Tertiary Referral, University Of New South Wales, Unsw, Western Sydney Area Health, Western Sydney Area Health Service

“The latest updates and new components included with this version support the growing demand in digital signage for faster, better quality content with a focus on touch-screen interactive experiences. The newest multi-touch features, including the ability to slide, swipe and flick at all components on a screen, allow companies to do cooler things with digital signage, and do them more affordably and in significantly less time.”

“The demand for digital signage is growing so exponentially, that companies are struggling to keep up and continually improve on the content itself. Flypaper is working tirelessly to stay ahead of the curve and give digital signage network owners and operators more options for creating killer content,” said Don Pierson, founder and president of Flypaper. “Multi-touch is the latest functionality that everyone is looking to incorporate, and this latest version of Flypaper helps showcase it beautifully.”

Flypaper’s Version 3.3 has several new features and updates aimed at making the customer experience with digital signage more interactive. New components that are especially powerful for kiosk displays include a virtual keyboard, a timer that kicks in during periods of inactivity, and a print button. Gesture support has been added to all components so users can slide, swipe and flick the display, making it a more engaging experience. Developers can also now add in Media RSS feeds and scrollers, run video within text, and input real-time weather data. In total, Flypaper added nearly 40 new features, updates and enhancements to version 3.3.

“Just when we think we’ve reached the limit for a touch screen display, Flypaper brings in new elements that raise the bar even higher,” said Scott Mathews, CEO of MG Digital Media Network.

“They have done a great job of staying one step ahead of what the industry needs.”

Flypaper is revolutionizing the digital signage world by enabling the development of high-quality, affordable Flash content that is very fast to create and easy to edit. The Flypaper Flash Content Creation Platform is a licensed environment where companies can create and share vast amounts of digital signage content and motion graphics. Users benefit from hundreds of already available templates and components, or can create their own quickly and easily, with no prior development experience.

We managed to get a comprehensive list of the new features and enhancements in v3.3 and these are:

New and Enhanced Features
1.    Components
a.    Multi-Touch
i.  The ability to Pan, Zoom and Rotate Components using a multi-touch enabled monitor has been added to all visible Components (requires Flash 10.1).
ii. In addition, the ability to Swipe has been added to the Cube Gallery, Image Scroller and Revolver Components (requires Flash 10.1).
b.    New
i.  Clock: Displays the time in an analog, digital or text format clock. Choose time zone and day light savings time.
ii. Close Presentation Button: Closes the running Flypaper presentation.
iii. MRSS Feed: Provides a list of MRSS messages and images associated with each message. You can choose a predefined MRSS feed, or define a custom one of your own. Messages are displayed in the RSS Viewer Component and images are displayed in the Image Viewer Component.
iv. MRSS Scroller: Displays the contents of an MRSS feed in a scrolling text box, including message and image. You can choose a predefined MRSS feed, or define a custom one of your own. Optionally, the MRSS image can be displayed in the Image Viewer Component.
v.  Print Button: Prints the visible contents of the screen (or just the visible Components you specify) at the time it is pressed.
vi. Video Feed: Streams video feeds from various news sources. In addition, you can specify your own FLV, MOV or MP4 feed.
vii. Video Text Mask: Displays the contents of a video file within the text characters of the Component.
viii. Virtual Keyboard: An on-screen keyboard which can be used to populate the contents of Components which accept key entry. The Virtual Keyboard can be accessed via touch, and can also be hidden when not in use.
c.     Updated
i.  CSV Component:
1. More Components can now display CSV data, including Big Text Mask, Zoom, Pan, and Pan & Zoom Components.
2. The Button Component can now select a specific row in the CSV Component’s data file, displaying the contents in associated Components.
ii. RSS Feed and RSS Scroller Components: New data formats available, including international date options.
iii. Timer Component: New “Kiosk Mode” activates timer after period of mouse inactivity.
iv. Image Viewer, Audio and Flash Components:
1. Ability to define remote resources via a URL.
2. Remote resources can be cached or refreshed on each access.
v. Image Scatter Component: Display speeds increased.
vi. Weather Component:
1. Can now display weather information fed from the CSV Component.
2. Ability to add custom SWF icons.
2.    Editing
a. Page Time and Timeline Duration are now synchronized. In addition, the option to update the page time when adding media files such as videos or audio files.
b. Maximum Project size of 4080×4080 (requires Flash 10).
c. AVI Video output option.
d. International Arial Font option including Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese.

General Improvements

1. Improved playback performance for Single SWF file output
2. File Recovery Improvements
3. Web Video Search enhancements
4. FlyPlayer performance upgrades

We are currently using an older version but we’re keen to test 3.3.

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Post tags: Customer Experience, digital signage network, Digital Signage Software, Don Pierson, Enhancements, Flick, Gesture, Inactivity, Interactive Experiences, Killer Content, Kiosk Displays, Mg Digital, New Features, Print Button, Quality Content, Scott Mathews, Swipe, Time Weather Data, touch screen, Virtual Keyboard

Don Pierson is the founder and president at Flypaper where he is responsible for delivering rich, interactive e-learning, digital signage, and marketing content to corporate clients.  Pierson has two decades of experience in the interactive communications industry. In 2003, he founded Interactive Alchemy and as CEO drove a successful services business that fulfilled the communication and training needs of marquee clients including MetLife and United Airlines. Using the proceeds from the success of Interactive Alchemy, Pierson created a collaborative development tool called Catalyst. By 2006, Pierson identified a broader applicability for the Catalyst solution, and set out to develop what is now Flypaper. He holds a BA in management from Arizona State University, with honors.

As a bonus we’ve managed receive a promotion for our readers… so read the interview for the promotion – you will not be dissapointed!!

Here’s also a quick video to show everyone how easy it is to use and create content with Flypaper:

About Flypaper

Flypaper Studio, Inc. is the leading Flash Content Creation Platform that empowers programmers and non-programmers alike to create, edit, share, track and reuse high-impact Flash and video content. The Flypaper platform allows anyone to edit and manipulate components without touching programming code. Through an SDK that converts Flash elements into Flypaper Components, Flash Programmers can create components, which can be edited and reused. Output from the application rivals the interactivity and quality of custom Flash development, but in a fraction of time and cost typically associated with such projects. For more information, visit www.flypaper.com.

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Post tags: Alchemy, Arizona State University, Clie, Clien, Collaborative Development, Common Denominator, Communications Industry, content creation, Content Projects, Corporate Clients, Custom Flash, Customer Needs, Development Cycles, Development Tool, digital signage, Digital Signage Software, Don Pierson, Entire Organization, Faster Development, Flash Content, Flypaper, Fortune 1000, Free Admission, High Impact, Impact Flash, Interactive Communications, Interactivity, Metlife, Motion Graphics, Problem Solver, Programming Code, Promo Code, Quality Flash, Repurpose, Services Organization, United Airlines, Video Content, webinar

Anyways, I clicked on Show Option at the top left hand corner above the first search result and it displayed several other options available. I clicked on Wonder Wheel and Google displayed this:

The google wonder wheel was released in May 2009 and basically displays relevant and related search results. In my particular example, the search results relating to digital signage where:
digital signage jobs
digital signage blogs
digital signage freeware
digital signage software
digital signage player
digital signage solutions
outdoor digital signage
digital signage download

So out of curiosity, I clicked on the term digital signage blog and we were’t surprised that this very blog was listed at the top of the results. What also happened was the wheel expanded to show another wheel. This is an interesting concept and it’s something that everyone should be aware of.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: advertise, australia, Blogs, Curiosity, digital signage, digital signage player, Digital Signage Software, Digital Signage Solutions, Freeware Software, Fun, Google, Google Search Bar, Jobs, Left Hand Corner, Outdoor Signage, Poll Id, portal, Relevant Websites, Search Features, Search Google, Search Result, Wheel, Wonder Wheel

One of the many reasons why most digital signage companies are using Firefox compared to Internet Explorer is due to the fact Firefox is open source and comes with many add-ons. One of these add-ons is the ability to run the application in Kiosk or Digital Signage mode. The other obvious point is that it’s free and comes packaged with many Unix based OSes.

Now, Mozilla has just recently released Firefox version 3.6 which is meant to be quite an improvement in performance and features. According to Firefox loading web pages is much faster and uses less CPU. To be honest I haven’t really made any measurements but I haven’t noticed any differences in performance when using Windows XP. Looking at my task manager it still uses like 198,252K of memory – is this a memory leak. Is this normal?

There’s also this new type of theme called personas, which allow users to change the appearance of Firefox. This feature doesn’t really help with digital signage applications.

Now, one of the features which will definitely help the digital signage community is that open native video can now be displayed in full screen and also supports poster frames. Visit the firefox website for more information.

So now I’m wondering how many digital signage software companies are planning to upgrade or test Firefox 3.6 Are you one of them?

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Appearance, Caption, Developers, Digital Signage Software, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Kiosk Mode, Linux, Linux Platform, Loading Web, Measurements, Memory Leak, Menu Bars, Menus, Mozilla, Open Source, Oses, Poll Id, Poster Frames, Signage Companies, Software Companies, Software Update, Task Manager, Tool Bars, unix, Web Pages, Which Allow Users, Windows Xp

One of our clients requested a feature to a digital signage software component which wasn’t that much of an issue except we required the services of the digital signage software company and there was a cost associated with this feature (the client was happy to pay for this). But all this came with  a little  unanticipated catch – the client was required to upgrade to the latest version of the software before the modification patch would work. Many of us might be thinking,  “That’s easy, there’s no harm in doings so as the latest patch will resolve and fix previous bugs”…. Ummmmmm…. WRONG!!!

By upgrading the software we found quite a number of bugs and spend quite a number of hours investigating and then reporting the issue to the manufacturer whilst the client had to workaround the problem. Fortunately, we provided the client with a test environment and didn’t upgrade the development system with the latest software.

I’m not sure whether many of you have experienced this but upgrading to the latest version can actually introduce new bugs. What’s worse is that a considerable amount of time can be spent investigating the issue and the  time for this may not be chargeable – who do you charge for this type of work…. the client who has already paid for a working solution ? or the digital signage company who supplied the dodgy software?

This is a tough one and I’ll like to hear from anyone who has been through this experience.

So there are a few lessons that I have learnt from this:

1. ALWAYS make sure you test the upgrade or software patch on a test unit or environment

2. ALWAYS back up your content or system before applying any patches as you’ll  never know the state of the unit after the reboot

3. PLAN for any changes you make to the system and carefully provide detailed rollback plans in the event the change failed

4. TRUST and have some faith that the developers have done their testing but acknowledge that they cannot test all the different scenarios

5. Make sure you charge someone for your work or include this as part of your Maintenance and Support costs… or even better get the manufacturer to conduct intensive testing with your configuration before applying any patches or upgrades

6. IF IT’S NOT BROKEN LEAVE IT AS IT IS… sometimes making a simple change can break the entire system… but if you’ve done the above point 2 & 3 correctly then this shouldn’t be an issue.

Have you been in this situation? Tell us what you think.

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

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Post tags: Amount Of Time, Best Interest, Bugs, Client Request, Developers, digital signage, Digital Signage Software, Dilemma, Doings, environment, Faith, Job, Latest Software, Patches, Rollback, Scenarios, Signage Company, Signage Solution, Software Company, Software Component, Software Patch, Solution Provider, System Software, Test Environment, Test Software, Test Unit, Uni, Working Solution

Chrome OS and will compete against the almighty Microsoft Enterprise. We believe this is great news for the digital signage community because of the following reasons:

1. It’s Open Source and will be free. Moving towards an open source OS, will provide a significant savings to you and your clients.

2. According to Google, the Chrome O.S is fast and efficient. This is perfect for digital signage.

3. It’s lightweight – you will be able to install this on a netbook and run your digital signage application.

4. Its secure – like the Google Chrome browser, Google has designed the security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. This means spending less time patching!!!

5. Designed for the web – since most companies are now moving towards SaaS then this is a perfect match.

We look forward to testing various digital signage software on the Google Chrome and we can’t wait to get our hands dirty.

And a final note: Thanks google for making our life easier and cheaper for everyone!

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: Chrome, digital signage, digital signage player, Digital Signage Software, Google, Great News, Malware, microsoft, Microsoft Enterprise, Netbook, Open Source Os, Own Os, Perfect Match, Poll Id, SaaS, Secure Browser, Security Architecture, Security Updates, Testing Software, Viruses, Www Google

Bill Gerba: Hi Marco, thanks for the chat. Well, for those who don’t know me, I’m the CEO and co-founder of WireSpring Technologies, a digital signage software and services company in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On top of our software development operations, we also do a lot of industry research, which we publish on the WireSpring blog (which was recently renamed the “Digital Signage Insiders” blog). It’s the oldest digital signage blog out there, started in 2004, and has about 18,000 readers

Advertise Me: When and how did the company Wirespring start? How did the company derive it’s name?

Bill Gerba: We started out in May of 2000. At the time, wireless (cellular, WiFi and Bluetooth) were the “next big thing,” so the name tried to incorporate some of that. Our original product was a system that used the Bluetooth signal from your phone to triangulate your position in a retail space and then make promotional offers or provide wayfinding services based on that. Needless to say, with the very dumb cellular devices, low penetration of Bluetooth, and high equipment costs of the time, we met some resistance with that early product. We refocused our efforts on more traditional self-service kiosk and digital signage products soon after that.

Advertise Me: We recently read in your blog that you have been busy releasing a new product. Tell us more about this.

Bill Gerba: Up until very recently, our products were designed for large enterprises people who wanted to manage networks of hundreds or thousands of digital signs or kiosk terminals. While that business has served us well over the years, and we certainly continue to see good growth there, we also wanted to be able to pursue the many, many smaller opportunities that we had to pass on because our enterprise software was too complex. Hence, we decided to take all that we had learned from our enterprise FireCast and ClientCenter products and distill them down to a new, simplified product, and so Digital Signage EasyStart was born.

Advertise Me: What are some of the features that makes this new product stand out from other digital signage products?

Bill Gerba: Well for one, we’re selling the hardware and software as an integrated solution. If you buy EasyStart from us, it comes pre-loaded on a box that we’ve certified to work in every arrangement we can think of. If you’re buying from one of our distributors or resellers with their own hardware platform, we’ve certified that to work as well. For another, we’ve simplified the user interface by making a lot of decisions behind-the-scenes for the user. They want a 4-zone layout with certain aspect ratio? Ok, we’ll figure out the dimensions for each area and tell them. Want to switch between multi-zone and full-screen content? No problem, just check one checkbox. We’ve gone through and made hundreds of tweaks to our system to make it so easy that anyone can be up and running in minutes. We also made sure that it was easy to get in touch with support right from our user interface (over the web), and we bundle in video tutorials for all of the most commonly-used features.

Advertise Me: What are your thoughts on digital signage SaaS? Is Wirespring heading towards this path?

Bill Gerba: By my reckoning, WireSpring was the very first digital signage SaaS company — our ClientCenter web portal went online in August of 2001. Today, about 2/3 of our revenues are from our SaaS products. EasyStart is actually a break from that — there are no recurring fees — because while SaaS tends to work well for mid- to large enterprises, the small guys don’t want to be burdened with another monthly charge.

Advertise Me: Now, you’ve been in the digital signage business for a while, so what challenges and setbacks have you faced thus far?

Bill Gerba: Well, we certainly overestimated the demand in the early years. It was very, *VERY* hard to sell networks back when plasma screens cost $8-9000 each. Likewise, because the SaaS model was so new at the time (it was still called “application service provider” or ASP back then), we had to jump over some hurdles to get customers to understand the benefits of the approach. Thankfully, that has gotten a lot easier.

Advertise Me: Do you have any advice for people who are planning to start a business in the digital signage industry?

Bill Gerba: Two rules cover 90% of what I have seen gone wrong:

Rule #1: If you’re going to start an ad-funded network, you had better have a team of people who are *already* experienced with selling ads.

Rule #2: Everything takes 3x as long as you think it should. Plan out your time and budget accordingly.

Advertise Me: This is our final question. What do you see as the next “BIG THING” in digital signage?

Bill Gerba: That’s a tough one. Certainly interactivity seems to be gaining a lot of ground, though I’ve still seen more cool tech demos than actual deployments using it. Gestural interaction, mobile interaction, anything that can get a viewer to engage with the content is becoming really important. People are also starting to think outside of the box — literally. While LCD screens still make up the majority of DS deployments today, more people are using 3D, unique bezels, or projection onto holographic film to create images that aren’t square in an attempt to be more eye catching. I think that as people get more used to the idea of big screens hanging around everywhere (including their living rooms) network owners are trying to step up their presences with interactivity and unique display formats to remain visible.

Advertise Me: Once again Bill, thanks for your time and we wish you all the best with the release of the new Wirespring product.

To read more interviews click here: http://www.digitalsignageblog.com/category/digital-signage-interview/

About Advertise Me:

Advertise Me is a privately owned Australian company specialising in all aspects of digital signage solutions.

Our team of highly skilled professionals is able to introduce innovative ways for businesses to communicate with their intended audiences for a variety of purposes including informing, educating, entertaining and selling.

You can expect us to:

• offer the most affordable and cost effective solutions tailored to your specific business needs.
• provide you with concise and accurate information and will ensure that you understand and are comfortable with our proposals.
• strive to make our clients happy and successful.

We have partnered with a number of key reputable organisations and will continue to build further partnerships to deliver the most effective solutions for our customers.

Visit our website at www.advertiseme.com.au for more information.

© AdvertiseMe.com.au for Digital Signage Blog, 2009. | Permalink | One comment |
Post tags: Bill Gerba, Bluetooth Phone, Busy Man, Cellular Devices, Co Founder, Development Operations, Digital Signage Software, Digital Signs, Fort Lauderdale, Gerba, Insiders, Kiosk Terminals, Lauderdale Florida, Penetration, Retail Space, Self Service, Signage Products, Software Development, Taking The Time, Wifi, Wirespring