This week, our team thought of doing something different from our usual postings – we decided to open up the NDSP-500 digital signage player and give you a brief look at what’s inside one of these players. The video is not of the greatest quality but it does give you an idea of the components inside a typical digital signage player and what connections are available. So here’s the video:

As you can clearly see, the unit is small… it’s smaller than half of an A4 paper. With this particular unit, there are several connectors at the front:

1. RS232 – this is usually to provide serial communications with another device. It can be used to control and manage an display screen – that’s if the screen supports RS232.
2. Secure compartment to store the SD card – it’s also a quick way to easily swap out the SD card without having to open up the box

At the back of the unit you will notice the following connectors:

1.Video output:  the unit has these typical connections – S-Video Output/Composite Video and Audio, DVI, and VGA.

2. Video Input: Composite Video and Audio. With this particular unit you will be able to connect a video input source such as a DVD player, Foxtel, CCTV camera etc.

3. S/PDIF – for great audio quality

4. LAN port which support 10/100 Mbps

5. Two USB ports for connecting USB Storage

6. Power plug to connect the power supply. This power plug was different from other digital signage players we’ve seen in the past. It basically has a connector which allows you to twist and screw the power cable to the power plug.

Inside the player, all you will find is a circuit board, a frame for a small hard disk and several cables. As you can see from the video, you will not find a fan inside the player – this makes the unit very quiet when it’s turned on.

Would you like to see more videos? Let us know what you’ll like to see and we’ll try to get it done.

Feel free to submit your answer as a comment.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog News, Digital Signage Blog Products, Digital Signage Blog Video

Did you know that many digital signage players and display screens support RS-232?

You’ve probably come across this terminology before but you most likely ignored it because you didn’t know what it meant.

RS-232 (Recommended Standard 232) is a standard for transmitting serial binary signals between devices. It is most commonly used in computer serial ports and has 9 pins on one end. For those of you who have used the good old Serial Mouses – that uses RS-232.

The main purpose of using the RS-232 port on a digital signage player is to control another device like an LCD/Plasma Screen, touch screen or projector (the unit must support RS-232). For example, with RS-232 the digital signage player is able to send a signal to switch the LCD screen on or off – this means you have full remote control of the screen.

Below is an image of a digital signage player (SMP-WEB3) which has a COM port (2) for RS-232 connectivity. For more information about this player visit our online shop.

Do I need it?

Well, it all depends on your requirements. If you need to remotely control your screens or send serial data from one device to another then YES, you definitely need it. If not, it is always good to have this option just in case down the track you do decide to use it.

To discuss more about this technology go to our digital signage forum.

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Category: Digital Signage Blog Info