Your site looks very interesting too. I am currently pitching to install and run a couple of Digital Signage systems - one will be done by way of licensing content, i.e. multiple customers, same content, but different logo's, stings etc.
Please help me:
Do I need a PC at each monitor location?
What kind of bandwidth would I need to push content out to the screens?
How many layers of graphics/video is the system able to handle today?
(Without installing a Raid at leach location :-)
What kind of monitor feedback can I get? As in screen on/off, pc not playing etc?
Much more questions to come - but I like the idea of a software only version.
All the Best
Mads
London, UK
Mac Million Ltd. - HD Production & Editing
Please watch our latest video on Data Protection at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVyv_lTywwc
Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/bigflopproductions
Re: Tell me more by Dirk Provily on Oct 12, 2008 at 7:58:34 pm
Hello Mads Nybo Jorgensen,
First of all thank you for your interest in the 1080dots DS Player.
Did you already downloaded the free trial? You can use the trial version for 15 days,
just give it a try.
The DS Player software which we released this weekend is the standalone version.
It can connect (for instance over the internet) to external RSS and XML data sources.
The playlist, video and image content is inserted locally in the 1080dots DS player.
The DS Player+ version, (Latest estimate on release before the end of Q1 2009)
adds remote playlist control, content updates over the internet and content scheduling,
as well as enabling an open XML connection with any open Content Management System.
>Do I need a PC at each monitor location?
Every location needs at least one player pc. You could use a video splitter to connect multiple
monitors. (take a look at www.gefen.com)
For our own clients we are using Blackmagic Decklink Intensity HDMI cards and Gefen HDMI splitters.
>What kind of bandwidth would I need to push content out to the screens?
In DS Player+ (released before the end of Q1 2009) the content is downloaded when you
add content to the playlist, The player pc will show the content when it is downloaded entirely.
It depends on the length and size of the .wmv windows media video files, and the internet bandwidth.
every modern dsl or cable internet connection will do the job.
>How many layers of graphics/video is the system able to handle today?
(Without installing a Raid at each location :-)
Most of the time we are using Dell 390 or the new T3400 pc's, every Intel dual core 2.66 or
faster cpu can display multiple layers in HD, the faster your pc the more layers you can use.
Every 1080dots DS Player template supports one video, two images and eight text layers,
and you can use multiple graphic layers for your static design, for instance backgrounds and logos.
You can also add unlimited external data sources (text and image fields) to your templates.
Take a look at the 1080dots template example files: (Photoshop files)
http://www.1080dots.com/download/extra/1080dots_template_psd_examples.zip
> What kind of monitor feedback can I get? As in screen on/off, pc not playing etc?
The standalone 1080dots DS Player software will give you video monitoring on your local player pc and your output device ;).
RS232 display control is not supported in this version.
DS Player+ will have rs232 support for controlling your display and DS player+ will give you extended play-out information, like proof of play reports and error messages.
>Much more questions to come - but I like the idea of a software only version.
Please post your questions, we are more than happy to answer them. Just download the software and give it a try.
greetings,
I am not sure that a public forum is the best place to discuss product developments - at some stage we might want to NDA each other :-)
I will download the trial version.
However, a new Dell computer with a Decklink card across a 250 screen, or even a 25 screen installation would be quite expensive to install and maintain. Are you looking at more cost effective hardware solutions? And have you looked at the competition? i.e. where do you place your self in the current market?
The templates does look very nice, but they are up to 8MB psd files - do you compress them before sending them down the network, or is this the file size used for the display?
I'm sure that I forgot some, but that will follow :-)
All the Best
Mads
London, UK
Mac Million Ltd. - HD Production & Editing
Please watch our latest video on Data Protection at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVyv_lTywwc
Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/bigflopproductions
Re: Tell me more by Dirk Provily on Oct 13, 2008 at 8:15:57 pm
Hi Mads,
Oh well Mads, i don’t think we need a NDA at this stage ;), every question and/or suggestions are very welcome, We will try to answer as many question we can.
About the template .psd file size:
All templates are created using Adobe Photoshop, when you drop your design onto 1080dots DS Player the actual template file size will be a lot smaller then the original .psd file. The graphic layers are slized into compressed .png files.
Costs:
The player pc specs/price depends of the chosen play-out resolution. We use Dell computers for HD output, but any other brand, can do the job. 250 or even 25 screens is quite expensive, and indeed if you have 250 different locations that need one player at every location, that won’t be cheap.., but the price will also depend on screen sizes (inches) and video resolutions.
You will need more then only a player, what you need is a content manager, and a program that is able to distribute the content. At this moment we are offering the standalone player, 1080dots DS Online and DS Player+ are developed for handling bigger networks.
We sell separated ‘open’ products, you can use the standalone 1080dots DS Player for Digital Signage solutions, but you can also use it for particular broadcast graphics solution, like inserting a logo or CNN like newsbar tickers. For both solutions the 1080dots DS Player supports Blackmagic Design video cards. But we suggest using the cheaper Intensity cards for Digital Signage purposes.
In 99% of the current digital signage solutions you need to use the “company’s” own template editor or design tools, we believe that creative designers want to use their current design tools for creating templates. We looked at the basics, what do we really need to offer broadcast quality digital signage for a reasonable price.
1080dots DS Player and the upcoming DS Player+ will give you smooth tickers, we see a lot of systems that are just not capable to output smooth tickers. Ok, but digital signage is more then only showing tickers,.. digital signage or narrowcasting is about content, digital signage is used for many different purposes, take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signage but that information maybe nothing new to you ;).
Hmm, I think I have to stop writing now, this is going to be a bit off topic, but I hope I have told you a little more about what you need to know, and what 1080dots has to offer.
Problem that I currently have is that Digital Signage is a little bit like the Wild West, you just don't know what you get till its too late :-)
In general there currently seems to be two type of systems available 1) Where you have to be a programmer to use it for wider area networks & 2) Where the interface is more intuitive and easier to use for non-programmers, but for small networks only.
However, neither seems to cater for your "ease of use" Power Point market, which is where most local area networks end up going - simply because it is a product that most people in the office can use.
Then you have the large scale projects - the kind where you are working across multiple sites, with the same main content, but separate local info whether it being currency, weather or pricing etc. It would be nice if someone, somewhere would develop a system that the office staff could feed information locally, but content would be supplied by a national source and that the two could co-habit on the same screen or screens (locally). Obviously this is possible, but the products that I've looked at doesn't seem to cater for the ease of use.
Am I asking too much? :-)
There is one company out there offering a small monitor "break-out" box with no moving parts and easy to install with I/P connection. However, it lacks in storage and I am not sure how good the software is - but this is the kind of thing that takes you from being a local network to be a wide area network + the cost is much lower to purchase, operate and maintain than your pc...
All the Best
Mads
London, UK
Mac Million Ltd. - HD Production & Editing
Please watch our latest video on Data Protection at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVyv_lTywwc
Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/bigflopproductions
Re: Tell me more by Dirk Provily on Oct 14, 2008 at 8:30:10 pm
Hi,
Welcome in the Wild Wild West ;), lucky for you that we offer a full trial..
If you need Digital Signage on multiple locations, then there always will be a bit of IT management, like getting around firewalls and stuff.
There are a lot of choices in the market, but most of them don’t offer 1080 HD resolutions.
And yes there are some nice small boxes on the market, if you know one that plays HD and can give you smooth tickers, like you’re used to, when you watch television at home, then please let me know.
(It is also nice to notice that there are two main markets, the ones who have experience and focus on broadcast quality and the ones who are born from the IT world, with vga resolutions, bad tickers and powerpoint like presentations)
We don’t invest in creating designer tools, we know that creative people are used to Adobe Photoshop, that is all you need for creating good looking templates in 1080dots DS Player.
I know a lot of designers, and none of them are used to powerpoint ;)
Your question about large scale projects, where different data (like: video, text and images, concerning for example currency, weather and news feeds) that co-exists together in one screen with locally inserted content, that’s just what we offer to our client’s right now.
Just try 1080 DS Player and see how easy it is to insert the COW RSS news feed into your design, and look how nice it works, without the need for IT knowledge. Only Adobe Photoshop knowledge is required and take notice of the 1080dots DS Player manual.
And don’t worry, you don’t ask to much -:),
Have fun in the Wild West ;).
Thank you for all of the feedback. A lot of things to consider.
All the Best
Mads
London, UK
Mac Million Ltd. - HD Production & Editing
Please watch our latest video on Data Protection at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVyv_lTywwc
Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/bigflopproductions
