Tightrope Media Systems has announced the release of Carousel 6.0, a major software update to the Carousel Digital Signage System. Carousel 6.0 includes a number of new features that improve the Template Editor used in the bulletin creation process, the utility of Alert Bulletins and the functionality of the Remote Data Adapter.
The Template Editor in Carousel 6.0 has been completely rewritten to increase its utility and to adhere to Tightrope's mantra, "ease of use." Editing of the template is now a drag-and-drop process; text blocks are simply dragged into position, into shape and into size. Blocks can be easily duplicated, rotated, ordered and also positioned within the template using the new "snap-to" guides which allow the user to align the blocks relative to one another. Tightrope has also added basic HTML formatting for text blocks, block shadow, block gradient and block reflection, enabling users to quickly create highly stylized bulletins.
Additional content creation enhancements in Carousel 6.0 include the ability to preview the content on "full screen" mode during the creation process. A user can see exactly how the bulletin will look before it is published. Tightrope also added the ability to automatically create seamless backgrounds with Carousel 6.0. A user can import a background from a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop, onto a multi-zone channel layout, and Carousel will automatically break up the image in accordance with the pre-established zones.
Carousel's Remote Data Adapter (RDA) enables bulletins to be called and/or generated by XML data strings, thereby opening virtually unlimited application possibilities. In Carousel 6.0, player status can be polled with the RDA, bulletins can now be selected via pre-defined tags, and bulletins can also be assigned to multiple zones by name or tag. In Carousel 6.0, the triggering of alert bulletins has been reduced to milliseconds, and any bulletin can be moved or copied into the full screen alert zone.
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