The Christie LWU420 is a 4,200-lumen projector that supports WUXGA (1920×1200) resolution, making it suitable for small to medium-sized venues, including video conference rooms, meeting rooms, and training rooms, company officials said. The LWU420 delivers full HD capability, auto horizontal/vertical digital keystone correction, vertical and horizontal lens shift, 10-bit image processing for better gray scaling, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, and a 2x zoom lens.

“With the Christie LWU420 we have an extremely high resolution product that is both compact and has the highest brightness in its category of LCD business projectors,”

“The market demanded a high brightness, high resolution product for corporate fixed installs and education that provides full HD capacity,” said Christie product manager Frank Anzures, in a statement. “The ability to display resolutions greater than 1080p provides more detail for intricate maps, CAD drawings in a classroom, or larger, clearer spreadsheets for a business meeting…This is our premium professional projector in the 4000 lumens category.”

The 5,500-lumen Christie LW555 projector features native WXGA resolution (1280×800), a center lens design with a fully motorized lens shift, inorganic LCD panels, a top-loading lamp for easy access, 10-bit image processing, and 3D Keystone technology.

“With our new 3D Keystone technology, users can place the projector almost anywhere in the room and still create a perfect picture,” said Anzures. “The user can independently adjust any of the four corners to adjust for any keystone distortion caused by the projector’s placement.”

The Christie LWU420 and the Christie LW555 ship in July.

Source: PRO AV News Service
Publication date: June 23, 2010

By PRO AV Editors

Customers, stockholders and the general industry were informed by current President Nigel Sprattling in an e-mail, which stated that a liquidation company would be trying to sell the company’s assets, product IP and inventory in order to pay creditors over the next few weeks.

Sprattling and the entire staff of about 23 employees are now looking for new jobs.

“Hopefully they will be successful in their efforts,” he said in an interview, adding that, ironically, the company had been experiencing some growth in the past year. “The IP is certainly worth something, but only to someone who would truly understand it. There are thousands of man hours in the product designs.”

At NAB 2010 in April, Echolab announced an agreement that allowed Harris to market and distribute Echolab’s product line, including the new Atem compact HD switcher. However, the move would have cost a substantial amount of money to fund the transaction from Echolab to Harris, and Summerville, who had negotiated the Harris agreement, apparently wasn’t willing to continue pouring his own money in.

In an e-mail written a day after he himself was informed of the news, Sprattling said, “I am truly sorry that this action leaves many unemployed, suppliers with unpaid bills and customers with unsupported products. The recent introduction of an expanded Atem switcher family looked set to take us into growth and profit as the market reception was excellent, and our sales funnel had grown by $2 million as a result. We had been sustaining a run rate of about $5 million, and the addition of Atem was set to double that.”

In referring to the new Atem switcher, introduced in 2009 and the culmination of one of the final R&D projects within the company, Sprattling said, “I truly believe that our small team had created the very best of breed in small- and medium-sized production switchers and at a price point that provided exceptional value and margin; facing the loss of these efforts is difficult for everyone involved,” the e-mail continued.

When asked whether existing Echolab switcher customers will be supported going forward, Sprattling said, “Unfortunately, there’s no one left to support them.”

By Michael Grotticelli

Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will commence a cash tender offer to purchase all the outstanding shares of TANDBERG for 153.5 Norwegian Kroner per share for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $3.0 billion.  This represents an 11.0% premium to the previous day closing price of TANDBERG’s stock, and a 25.2% premium to the 3-month volume weighted average closing price for TANDBERG’s stock.  The proposal was recommended unanimously by TANDBERG’s board of directors.

The acquisition is expected to close during the first half of calendar year 2010; however, the close date is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory review in the United States and elsewhere.  Cisco expects the acquisition to be accretive to Cisco’s non-GAAP earnings in fiscal year 2011.

Highlights / Key Facts:

• Cisco’s collaboration vision is to enable a sustainable, new level of enterprise productivity, agility and innovation by transforming the way people interact, share knowledge and deliver productive outcomes within and across organizations.
• TelePresence and high-quality video have redefined how users communicate through easy-to-use, immersive, high-quality video experiences and are becoming a larger segment of the broader collaboration market.
• TANDBERG’s leading video endpoints and network infrastructure solution will be integrated into Cisco’s world-class collaboration architecture.
• This will enable intercompany and multi-vendor interoperability and ease of use across the full product portfolio – from desktop to immersive, multi-screen TelePresence.  This interoperability will benefit Cisco’s customers, but also competitors and partners by accelerating customer interest in video collaboration globally.
• Cisco continues to invest in the European market as a center of innovation across all market segments, and will continue to drive global growth by positioning TANDBERG’s Norway operations as a European center of video excellence alongside our Service Provider video team in Kortrijk, Belgium.
• TANDBERG’s 1,500 employees globally, with innovation centers in Norway and the United Kingdom, will be extremely important as Cisco’s team continues to drive video innovation and growth.
• Upon completion of the transaction, TANDBERG’s CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will lead the new TelePresence Technology Group, reporting to Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group.

Quotes:

• John Chambers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco

“Cisco and TANDBERG have remarkably similar cultures and a shared vision to change the way the world works through collaboration and video communications technologies,” said Cisco Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Chambers. “Collaboration is a $34 billion market and is growing rapidly—enabled by networked Web 2.0 technologies.  This acquisition showcases Cisco’s financial strength and ability to quickly capture key market transitions for growth.”

• Fredrik Halvorsen, Chief Executive Officer, TANDBERG

“Cisco and TANDBERG share a vision of changing the way people communicate and collaborate,” said TANDBERG Chief Executive Officer Fredrik Halvorsen. “This transaction is a vote of confidence, not just in TANDBERG but in our technology and our people.  The combination of world-class technologies, Cisco’s global scale, and exceptional people from both organizations will enable us to accelerate innovation and market adoption.”

Media Opportunities:

• Cisco CEO John Chambers and TANDBERG CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will host a joint investor call on Oct. 1 at 12 p.m. CET (3 a.m. PT) to discuss the proposed transaction. The dial-in number is +1 212.287.1646 (international) and (888) 788 8648 (United States).  Replay of the event is available until October 16 at +1 203.369.0122 (international) and (866) 357 4205 (United States).
• Cisco CEO John Chambers and TANDBERG CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will host a joint press conference on Oct. 1 at 12:45 p.m. CET (3:45 a.m. PT) at the Hotel Continental; Stortingsgaten 24/26, Oslo, Norway. Members of the media are invited to attend in person, dial in to the event or listen to an audiocast. The dial-in number are +44 (0)20 7806 1950 (international) and (888) 935 4575 (United States). Replay of the event is available until October 7 at +47 2100 0498 (international) and (866) 932 5017 (United States). The audiocast will be available at http://nongrata.seria.net/embed.php?id=23717.
• Cisco CEO John Chambers and TANDBERG CEO Fredrik Halvorsen will host a joint multi-point TelePresence roundtable session for investors, analysts and the media on Oct. 1 at 4 p.m. CET (7 a.m. PT) in Oslo, San Jose, Boston and Bedfont Lakes. To watch a live webcast of this session, please click here. Please note that online registration is required.  A broadcast replay will be available within 24 hours.  For more information on this announcement, please visit newsroom.cisco.com.

Useful Links:

• Video featuring John Chambers, Cisco Chairman and CEO, and Fredrik Halvorsen, TANDBERG CEO, discussing the proposed transaction. http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/videos/ciscotandberg_093009.html

RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html

Tags / Keywords:

Cisco, TANDBERG, collaboration, TelePresence, video

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

About TANDBERG

TANDBERG is the leading provider of telepresence, high-definition videoconferencing and mobile video products and services. The Company has dual headquarters in New York and Oslo. TANDBERG designs, develops and markets systems and software for video, voice and data communication. The Company provides sales, support and value-added services in more than 90 countries worldwide. TANDBERG is publicly traded on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker TAA.OL. Please visit www.tandberg.com for more information.

# # #

Cisco, the Cisco logo and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.

TANDBERG is a registered trademark or trademark in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including the expected completion of the acquisition and the time frame in which this will occur, the expected benefits to Cisco from completing the acquisition, the impact of the combined company on relevant markets and plans regarding TANDBERG personnel.  Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due to a variety of factors, including, among other things, obtaining a sufficient number of tendered shares of common stock and regulatory approval of the acquisition, the potential impact on the business of TANDBERG due to the uncertainty about the acquisition, the retention of employees of TANDBERG and the ability of Cisco to successfully integrate TANDBERG and to achieve expected benefits, business and economic conditions and growth trends in the networking industry, customer markets and various geographic regions, global economic conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment and other risk factors set forth in Cisco’s most recent report on Form 10-K.  Any forward-looking statements in this release are based on limited information currently available to Cisco, which is subject to change, and Cisco will not necessarily update the information.

The stunning footage helped catch the eye of the Emmy judges, resulting in four News & Documentary Emmy Award nominations for “Gorilla Murders.” Nominations were in the categories of Outstanding Investigative Journalism—Long Form, Best Documentary, Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Cinematography, and Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Editing. The show received an award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism—Long Form at the News & Documentary Emmy Award ceremony on Sept. 21.

While principal shooter Erin Harvey concentrated on the events surrounding the execution-style murder of six mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park, Poole shot extreme details of the gorillas (eyes, fingers, etc.) so that the editors could cut back and forth between the story of corruption and greed and the gorillas.

“Rain was a big issue,” Poole explains. “But I never worried about my trusty Sony HDW-F900 camera or Fujinon 16.5x25mm lens and image stabilizer. I simply put them under my favorite piece of gear, a Petrol rain cover.

“Petrol has saved me so many times,” he explains. “Since I discovered their products, I don’t put my camera in a case. I put it on a saddlebag and cover it with a rain cover. The camera always stays clean and running, even during the continuous rain that I had to contend with while I got in close to show the gorillas and how they really are so much like us.”

During the 2009 Super Bowl, viewers who wore anaglyph glasses could watch a 3D trailer for the animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens and a 3D commercial for Pepsi’s SoBe energy water. The 3D effect was erratic and primitive, but it worked at times. (NBC followed up the next night with an episode of Chuck in 3D, also using anaglyph coding.)It gets better. YouTube is currently testing anaglyph 3D videos on its website and apparently hopes to make them a regular feature. And there are already consumer HDTVs and projectors that can work with more sophisticated active-shutter stereoscopic glasses, using Texas Instrument’s digital light processing chips.

Demos have also been done using plasma displays, which by nature are fast enough to sequence left eye/right eye information for active-shutter viewing. And in the LCD camp, we’ve seen glassless 3D demos using specialized front-surface polarizing glass (more of a novelty than a practical 3D solution, from my perspective), as well as conventional 3D sequencing using a 240-Hz picture refresh rate.

In short, 3D has captured a disproportionate share of the spotlight lately. And it was no surprise to see 3D featured prominently in several booths at InfoComm 09, most notably in DLP projector demonstrations using TI’s DLP Link synchronization technology.The abundance of 3D imaging products and demos at InfoComm 09 caught many analysts and reporters by surprise. So did prices for the technology. One industry veteran actually told me that the prices for 3D-equipped DLP classroom projectors were too low, and he suspected TI and its partner manufacturers were trying to jump-start 3D business instead of supporting the higher profit margins that 3D products should expect and realize.

So is 3D for real, or is it a fad? Does it really have any place in our industry? A growing number of industry groups seem to think 3D will become pervasive in a short time. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) formed a working group to research delivery of 3D and issued a report of its findings in April. 3D was also a big topic at the National Association of Broadcasters’ Digital Cinema Summit. And the TI DLP Link demos at InfoComm showed that affordable classroom projectors could be adapted for 3D projection with minimal added cost.

In fact, though there are obstacles to 3D viewing at home, such as inconsistency in viewing distances, viewing angles, and screen sizes, those obstacles aren’t as problematic in a classroom or lecture hall that’s already been designed for optimal 2D viewing. And the possibilities in the pro space are endless, from 3D views of the human body for anatomy classes to exploded views of machinery and engines, the solar system, geophysical features, chemical compounds, you name it. If it can be rendered in 3D, rotated, turned, and enlarged, it’s a candidate for 3D imaging.

Selling 3D

Can dealers and integrators sell 3D to their customers? Aside from the usual “I saw it in a theater, so I want it at home” requests, there’s a good case to be made for 3D-ready enterprise installations, particularly in any kind of education environment. That means your current customers should look into their crystal balls and see if 3D would make sense for them down the road before you start specifying equipment. Why? Because not all display technologies handle 3D imaging with equal aplomb.

It’s a certain bet that most 3D projector installations will rely on active-shutter technology. A single projector switches at high enough speeds to sequence the left-eye and right-eye information, making stacking unnecessary and providing the best spatial separation with minimal crosstalk. At present, the only regular demos I’ve seen of 3D projection have used DLP projectors, using both single-chip and three-chip light engines. DMDs can switch at extremely high speeds with no image retention problems; so active shutter 3D is a walk in the park for them.

How about LCoS and 3LCD? I have seen 3D demos on D-ILA projection systems, but nothing featuring 3LCD technology just yet. In theory, both systems should be able to handle 120-Hz refresh rates, making them compatible with active shutter glasses. In practice, the question is how much blur and image persistence would actually occur.In the flat-panel arena, the best 3D demos have relied on plasma technology. Panasonic showed live 3D imaging on a 103-inch PDP in its NAB Show booth. Samsung has also demonstrated a variety of 3D clips from video games, animation, and live HD footage. LCD monitors, however, have it tougher.

Faster refresh rates aren’t a real problem for LCD, particularly with LED backlights now coming to market. LEDs can switch hundreds of times per second without breathing hard, but that extra speed is currently put to use eliminating the motion blur artifacts seen on conventional LCD displays. Whatever refresh rate is optimal for minimal blurring must then be doubled to sequence the left-eye/right-eye information. 120-Hz isn’t quite fast enough to sharpen motion blur. The best hope currently for 3D on LCD displays would be a 240-Hz system doubled to 480 Hz-a system that would have to rely on LEDs at such speeds.

Despite all the qualifiers, 3D has arrived. The question is, how fast will our industry adopt it, and for which vertical markets? I’m betting education will be first out of the gate, using primarily front- and rear-projection installations. But ultimately AV pros are on the front lines of adoption. So what are you seeing?

Source: Pro AV MAGAZINE
Publication date: September 16, 2009

By Pete Putman, CTS

Pete Putman is a PRO AV contributing editor and president of ROAM Consulting in Doylestown, Pa.

The PEGvault-SD will now transfer newly recorded media files to multiple server destinations. Compatible
destinations consist of the NEXUS®/UltraNEXUS™ video servers, third party servers with FTP capabilities,
PEG Central™ and Worshipnet.TV™ Web media hosting and streaming video-on-demand service, and the
LEIGHTRONIX LGX-SVOD intranet streaming video-on-demand server.
Transfer Holdoff Schedule
A new Transfer Holdoff feature gives users the option to allow or restrict automatic media file transfers to destination
servers on an hourly basis. The transfer holdoff feature is especially useful for preventing PEGvault-
SD file transfers during the highest levels of network traffic, resulting in faster transfer rates and reduced
network congestion.
Delayed Broadcast
The new pre-send and auto-play features allow programs remotely recorded with a PEGvault-SD to be automatically
sent and displayed at a NEXUS or UltraNEXUS site within minutes after recording starts. After the
NEXUS or UltraNEXUS begins to receive a pre-sent file, the PEGvault-SD auto-play setting triggers playback
of the file as quickly as two minutes after the transfer begins to up to one hour later. This simultaneous
record/read/transfer of digital media files as they are created in real time is enabled by the PEGvault-SD’s
advanced file system. The pre-send and auto-play features provide a convenient delayed broadcasting solution
for locations where traditional video or cable transmission of a live signal is not available.

One-Click Drive Checking Feature
The “Disk Diagnostics” Web feature makes it easy to diagnose and prevent errors on the PEGvault-SD’s internal
hard drive. With one mouse click, the disk diagnostics utility will attempt to correct any current or potential
problems and generate a log file detailing the status of the PEGvault-SD’s internal drive.

About the PEGvault-SD
The PEGvault-SD is a specialized digital video/audio encoder that offers remote-controlled, push button
operation and automatic transfers of recorded media files to a user-selected broadcast video server or Web
media hosting destination. Economical and powerful, the PEGvault-SD is the ideal media encoder for quickly
producing top-quality digital media files. The PEGvault-SD is quickly configured for push button recording

through its included Web interface and features simplified RECORD-STOP operation via the supplied wireless

remote control. The hardware-based, integrated video/audio encoder produces broadcast quality digital

media files for use in a wide range of broadcast and cable applications. For those seeking a Web presence,

the PEGvault-SD can be easily set up to produce media files optimized for streaming video-on-demand applications.

About LEIGHTRONIX, INC.
With over 25 years experience in specialty video equipment design and manufacturing, LEIGHTRONIX is
recognized as an industry leader with expertise in digital video, television automation, streaming video-ondemand,
and remote equipment control. A model of stability and longevity in the quickly evolving professional
video market, LEIGHTRONIX continues to set standards in product value and versatility and exceed
customer expectations in both product performance and support. Exceptional product reliability, a standard
5 year warranty, and cost-free technical support have made LEIGHTRONIX one of the most trusted names in
the industry. For more information, please visit www.leightronix.com.

Football dates from 1879 at the Naval Academy, the undergraduate college that educates and commissions officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The annual Army–Navy Game represents one of the most traditional and enduring rivalries in college football, and is televised every year by CBS. Navy men’s lacrosse, a dominant team throughout the 20th-century and beyond, has competed since 2004 as a member of the NCAA’s Patriot League, and the Midshipmen have won the League tournament five times in the past six years.

Both sports use the HPX500s with DVSport GameDay editing and data analysis software package, and exchange game videos with competitors over the internet using the DragonFly STORM video exchange system.

According to John McGuire, Director of Video Operations for the Naval Academy, the football team’s Betacam SP cameras were aging out and he was interested in P2 based on the excellent word of mouth he was hearing from opponents such as Duke University and the University of Virginia. The six camcorder/DVSport package is shared with men’s lacrosse, with four HPX500s assigned to football and two to lacrosse (lacrosse had previously shot with Canon XL1s).

Both McGuire and colleague Mark Goers, the Director of Lacrosse Operations, praise the Panasonic P2 camcorders for  their ease of  workflow, quick footage ingest into the school’s intranet system, solid-state reliability and all-weather performance. The camcorders have been used extensively throughout the lacrosse championship season, spring football and, currently, football practice.

During practice, McGuire explained that the team uses two adjacent fields. Two HPX500s on lifts are assigned to defense, with both cameras in the end zone, one shooting wide angle, the second a tighter angle. On offense, two HPX500s, one on a lift, one shoulder-mounted, shoot from the sideline. McGuire records to P2 cards, and during game play, an assistant will start to break down the video (offense, defense, kicks) immediately after the first quarter.

“Now with P2, we can mark single plays automatically as we shoot, versus marking ins and outs in post,” McGuire said. “During training camp, what that translates to is finishing up at 7 p.m. versus 9:30 p.m. The speed of production is terrific.”

McGuire said that practices and games are put on a main server in the football building (a system lacrosse shares). There are 30 coaching stations for football and nine for lacrosse. During the course of seasons, DVDs can be printed out for players to watch in their dorms or for coaches’ off-site use. For football game exchanges, the offensive, defensive and kicking games are copied to an external drive and traded over the internet using the STORM system.

“We’re seeing all kinds of benefits with the speed of the P2 system,” he added. “When we were on the road during the spring season, we were able to break down the game in a laptop from the P2 cards, copy the footage onto a removable hard drive, and the coaches were able to watch the game on the airplane.”

Goers made the switch out from XL1s to HPX500s during season play last spring. “We went from a prosumer model to a high-end professional camcorder from one game to the next,” he said. “Our reaction was, ‘Holy cow!’ It was a quantum change: the image quality of the HPX500 is head and shoulders above, especially in terms of color saturation and depth. And the P2 camcorders integrate completely with DVSport.”

Goers and his assistant shoot with the two HPX500s handheld from the lacrosse sidelines. Differing from football, Goers records directly to a hard drive, with P2 recordings used as back-up. (He will sometimes also make a third recording directly from the camcorder’s RCA jack to a DVD player.) An assistant takes the feed as it’s being recorded and breaks it down live. When a game is over, Goers is able to hand over DVDs to the five lacrosse coaches.

“We played in some pretty awful weather earlier this year,” Goers said. “The Canons would freeze up, which just doesn’t happen with the HPX500s. We also had day, night and twilight games, playing in all lighting conditions. We had one 5 p.m. game against Georgetown where we switched the filters three times, and it all looked seamless.”

“Football is obviously another all-weather sport, and we played in some driving rainstorms last spring,” McGuire said. “We just put rain covers on the HPX500s, and could switch out the P2 cards under the cover. Games and practices are nonstop, and there’s no time to be popping a tape in and out in the middle of a storm.”

For more information about athletics at the United States Naval Academy, visit www.usna.edu/athletics.

About the HPX500

The AG-HPX500 teams the full production-quality of 2/3” 3-CCDs, DVCPRO HD, 4:2:2 sampling and independent frame encoding with the versatility of interchangeable lenses and the creativity of variable frame rates. Offering the highly popular features of the incredibly successful AG-HVX200 P2 HD hand-held camcorder but with many new enhancements, the 8.2-pound HPX500 features progressive 2/3” 3-CCDs that provide a larger light receiving area resulting in increased resolution and sensitivity, superb low-light performance and wide dynamic range. The HPX500 records in 32 high definition and standard definition formats, including 1080i and 720p in production-proven, 100 Mbps DVCPRO HD. The HPX500 records on removable P2 solid-state memory cards in 1080/60i, 50i, 30p, 25p and 24p; in 720/60p, 50p, 30p, 25p, and 24p; and in DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV. For more information on the HPX500, visit www.panasonic.com/P2HD.

About Panasonic Broadcast

Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. is a leading supplier of broadcast and professional video products and systems.  Panasonic Broadcast is a Unit of Panasonic Corporation of North America. The company is the principal North American subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation (NYSE: PC) and the hub of Panasonic’s U.S. branding, marketing, sales, service and R&D operations.  For more information on Panasonic Broadcast products, visit www.panasonic.com/broadcast.

While screen placement mainly affects message delivery, player placement is a total cost of ownership consideration. Photos courtesy Minicom.

Maximizing return on investment (ROI) from digital signage networks necessitates optimizing screen placement to ensure that the largest number of people are exposed to the greatest amount of content. Less understood is the importance of media player positioning.

By Kenneth Dukofsky

A major factor in the design of any digital signage network is display device placement. “All the well-intentioned design work, beautiful display devices and high-powered content that money can buy are rendered ineffective if placed in a poor location,” says Dale Smith, director, business development, Digital Signage & Corporate, of Melrose Park, ILL.-based Peerless Industries.

A screen that cannot be accurately viewed by the public renders the entire investment useless. To properly place screens in a digital signage network, a long list of requirements must first be met.

Likewise, media players have their own set of placement requirements that are at least as rigorous as those governing screens. While screen placement mainly affects the effectiveness of message delivery, player placement, in contrast, is mainly a total cost of ownership (TCO) consideration.

Modern digital signage networks primarily follow two types of installations regarding the placement of the media player: at the screen or in a back room used for storing the company’s IT-related devices.

Player-at-Screen Technology
In “Player-at-Screen” systems, the media player is mounted directly onto the screen. The media players receive content from a central content server via a standard IP-based network. They then transmit the content directly to the display device. This method places IT equipment in the unprotected public areas, exposing them to heat, cold, people and dust. All these hazards have repercussions on the TCO of media players and digital signage networks.

Player at-Screen	At-Screen Maintenance

Players-at-Screen Benefits
Player-at-screen topology is suitable for applications in which screens are easily accessible, with or without an existing network infrastructure. This infrastructure can be used to transmit content from the central player to the players at screen. Player-at-screen applications also use less hardware than the other options. Both these benefits help reduce hardware and installation costs and simplify setup. The initial outlay in a player-at-screen application is therefore lower than the competing options. However, as will be seen, as time progresses, the TCO of a player-at-screen application becomes more costly than player-in-back-room applications.

Players-at-Screen Service
Screen maintenance, servicing and/or upgrading players can be a challenge, for several reasons:

• Since the players are attached to screens, they are usually quite elevated or sandwiched between the screen and a wall. Substantial ladders are typically needed to reach a ceiling-mounted player.
• Mounts and brackets must be removed before the players can be serviced. The players must then be taken to a level surface and attached to a keyboard, mouse and another screen.
• After the players are reprogrammed, they must be reattached to their screens. Replacement of players may require new mounts and brackets, as well.
• Because of its intrusive nature, at-screen player servicing can be problematic during store hours. This may have to be done outside of store hours, when service costs are more expensive, approaching double or triple the regular rates.

Player-in-Back-Room Technology
Multimedia hardware extension systems use broadcaster/transmitter and receiver units to transmit video, audio and control (serial) signals from a remote media player to single or multiple screens over dedicated CAT5 cable. Using this technology, media players can be removed from the screens, up to 600 meters (2,000 feet) if necessary, and placed in a protected back-room environment.

Player in Back Room	Back-Room Player Maintenance

Benefits of Back-Room Placement
Media players using content extension technology can be separated from the screens and placed in a secure and environmentally-controlled back room with 24-hour accessibility. These elements help maintain the players and keep them from breaking down. Player racks are specially designed for easy access, making maintenance, service and upgrading simple. If upgrades or servicing of multiple players is needed, the task takes minutes instead of hours, because all the players are situated in the same location. A single 1-by-1 meter server rack can hold ten media players.

As we have shown, media players are susceptible to hazards that affect their total cost of ownership. Situating media players near the screen, in public, makes them difficult to service and exposes them to multiple environmental hazards, thus lowering their “mean time between failures” (MTBF).

Media players, therefore, should be safely stored and protected by way of extension technology in an environmentally-controlled back room. The extension technology also makes the players easily serviced and maintained, thereby increasing their MTBF.

Kenneth Dukofsky is the former marketing manager of Minicom Advanced Systems Ltd. , with international headquarters in Jerusalem and North American headquarters in Linden, N.J. Minicom manufactures KVM server and computer management solutions that facilitate the control of corporate IT environments. For further information, contact Gil Raz: gil.raz@minicom.com.

This article originally appeared in the fourth-quarter 2008 edition of Platt Retail Institute’s Quarterly Retail Analytics and is reprinted with permission from Platt Retail Institute LLC. ]]> http://chuckrayman.com/2009/09/24/understanding-player-placement-in-digital-signage-networks/feed/ 0 http://chuckrayman.com/2009/09/23/miami-dolphins-add-cisco-stadiumvision-digital-signage-to-land-shark-stadium/ http://chuckrayman.com/2009/09/23/miami-dolphins-add-cisco-stadiumvision-digital-signage-to-land-shark-stadium/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:14:22 +0000 admin http://chuckrayman.com/?p=211 Cisco announced yesterday, in lieu of a Monday Night Football game at Land Shark Stadium in Miami, that the Miami Dolphins NFL franchise has launched Cisco StadiumVision and Telepresence at the facility.