Re-formatable digital signage software
February 25, 2007
A recent progress in dedicated (non-PC) digital signage technology is the removal of operating system and media player software from the hard disk drive (HDD) and store in on-board flash memory only. The change drastically lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) for digital signage networks.
Traditional digital signage solutions require storing most of the software on either the HDD or DOM (disk-on-module, or flash disk drives) shared with storage of media files. Since the media files are accessed 24×7 non-stop at duty cycles often exceeding their MTBF specs, the HDDs and DOMs are especially prone to physically failed sectors. Once this happens, the traditional technology requires a field visit by the support personnel to manually re-format the storage and re-install the software. This has been true for all Windows- and Linux-based digital signage systems.
The new technology, announced by IAdea Corporation as a feature of the Adfotain Foundations digital signage operating system, detects such conditions and moves necessary software components on the HDD into on-board flash ROM before it re-formats the HDD, all without human intervention. Once the HDD is repaired, software is automatically restored to make the system functional again. The entire process is done by server-side software without requiring any field visits, thereby saving a great deal of service costs.
On average, a network of 200 nodes incurs an average of one physical HDD failure per month. The new technology saves on-average $36,000 in field service costs for a network of such size. The technology effectively saves $1,800 per screen per year in maintenance costs.
Companies including digiSignage, IAdea Corporation, Digital View and Advantech are making the new technology available in their upcoming digital signage product lines powered by the Adfotain Foundations operating system.
Apparent Fragililty in PC-based Software Solutions
July 4, 2006
Digital signage company NUVA publishes an article noting their experience with instability found in PC-based software systems:
NUVA ’s article named Software Stability
Content partially extracted from the article (emphasis in typeface taken from original article):
There is a false sense of security given to the end user when their display system seems to be working without a glitch when their display must retrieve content by pulling media from a central FTP / HTTP server [...] These multiple processes, under certain circumstances can destabilize a PC based display causing the entire screen to crash, show error messages, or just stop working.
[...] We can defiantly say, in our opinion, none of the software we have used is Crash-Proof, and no other company in the market today can Guarantee their software will NEVER CRASH.
Endpoint devices are the media players at the end of the network connection driving display devices (TFT-LCDs, plasmas, LED walls, etc.). They are implemented in various technologies.
Wintel PC
Digital signage systems today are often implemented using ordinary desktop IBM-compatible PCs running Microsoft Windows. On top of this, a media player control software is run to play back media files according to a schedule. The main strength of the Wintel PC is flexibility. The main weakness is lack of reliability, as Wintel platforms are known to crash in front of the captive audience.
Linux PC
The Linux PC is a variation of the Wintel PC, running the open source Linux operating system instead of Microsoft Windows. A media player control software running on top of X-windows is often the solution. The upside of Linux PC is a reduction of cost (free operating system) and, some believe, improved reliability of the operating system. The downside is that it still runs on ordinary PC hardware and can be prone to reliability problems.
Mac PC
Another variation of the PC solutions is the Mac PC. With the Mac mini’s introduced at $499 with full media playback capabilities, the Mac PC is an attractive alternative to the Wintel PC, especially for the art savvy content designer. The plus of the Mac PC is a compact form factor and higher level of visual display capabilities. The minus of it is again lack of robustness being a consumer-grade solution.
Software
Often a endpoint technology comes as a software package only. The software runs on one of the hardware systems. The benefit of having a pure software solution is the choice of hardware is open to the integrator and cost can be easier controlled. However the risk here is that a software/hardware combination that is not certified by a vendor can often cause unforeseen problems unless it is well tested before installation.
Non-PC
A number of non-PC solutions exist today, running on various non-Wintel, RISC-based platforms. IC vendors including ESS, Sigma Designs, TI, AMD, Intel all offer solutions that are capable of handling digital signage in a dedicated hardware. The pros of a non-PC solution is by far reliability and often size. However the cons are that display features are often limited to video playback only and can be hard to integrate with real-time reporting systems (arrival/departure information, currency/interest rates, etc.).
Variations of non-PC solutions are described in detail in Part II of this article.
Scala
May 7, 2006
Scala
PC-based content authoring software, player, and network management software.
