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AOpen launching Open Services full-spectrum DOOH solution

The new full-spectrum solution includes hardware, software and managed services for DOOH networks.

August 1, 2011 by Christopher Hall — w, t

In the digital signage space there are plenty of turnkey, bundled solutions, hardware and software cobbled together to work out of the box.

But AOpen is taking the idea of a turnkey solution one step further, with what it is calling its "genuine turnkey" solution, AOpen Open Services, a bundle of hardware and software with content creation, maintenance and management services thrown in as well.

The genuine turnkey solution comprises a white-labeled media player and content management software solution, a customer-chosen display and monthly-billed content creation, maintenance, branding consulting and social media integration all in one

According to Vernon Slack, director of business development for AOpen America Inc., AOpen's research showed that only one in 12 digital signage deployments for small-and medium-sized businesses ever make it out of the pilot stage, in large part because of the unanticipated difficulty in keeping content fresh and maintaining the system.

On tours of digital signage deployments, he said, the AOpen team often found digital displays being used to show the weather channel or a news channel, without any brand messaging or digital signage-specific content. Deployers would tell them, Slack said, that after a while they just threw up their hands and gave up on trying to keep fresh, relevant content playing on the displays.

"Basically what we're trying to do is take that pain away from the customer," he said. "The reality is that most people don't really understand what they have to deal with to get a digital signage solution in place and running and keep it maintained and up and running. What we're saying is we'll outsource that for you, we'll do it for you, and we think that's truly what genuine turnkey is."

AOpen is targeting the small-and-medium-sized-business market with this solution, rather than larger companies that do have the resources to run their own digital signage networks, Slack said. But for SMBs, he said, this solution allows them to concentrate on running their business, while someone else worries about the digital signage.

AOpen soft launched the new solution back July at InfoComm in Orlando, Fla., and will this month start a 10-store trial of the service in a retail environment.

The genesis for the solution came, according to Slack, from the realization that most SMBs deploying digital signage don't really know what they're getting into beyond the obvious capital expenditure of buying a display, a media player and a software package.

"The bigger issues for people installing digital signage have nothing to do with the capex," he said. "Eighty percent of the total cost of ownership on those devices really is the operational costs, which is maintaining the system and making sure that it's up and running, and then on top of that the content creation."

The services on top of the initial capex to buy the hardware will be provided on a monthly billing system, sold through AOpen's sales ecosystem, through its distributors and resellers, with the resellers getting a cut of the monthly fees, Slack said.

The AOpen Open Services solution offers several options for deployers, aimed at the SMB market:

Remote maintenance: AOpen will maintain the hardware and the software and the network remotely for deployers, using a white-labeled software/hardware combo based on Intel's Core i5 and i7 processors

Content creation: Working with partners 5th Screen Inc., AOpen representatives will sit down with the end-users and help them craft an appropriate branding/sales/promotional strategy, and provide them with fresh content every month.

Video analytics: Using Intel's AIM (Audience Impression Metrics) Suite for anonymous video analytics, along with additional analytics done by AOpen, the service will help make sure the deployer's message is being effectively distributed.

Mobile and social integration: AOpen and its partners also will work with end-users to push their digital signage brand message out to mobile and social networks, from mobile coupons to NFC (Near Field Communications)-enabled systems to Groupon and Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Strategy consulting: End-users also can buy a consulting contract to help them come up with a long-term strategy built around their digital signage deployment.

"In the end what we want is for the customer to have one throat to choke," Slack said. "If there's something that goes wrong, they just call our help desk."

According to 5th Screen CEO and digital signage consultant Keith Kelsen, the AOpen Open Services platform can reduce TCO for digital signage deployments by up to 25 percent, through savings in labor, operations, maintenance and content services.

Now end-users can think of digital signage like they would a new smartphone, he said. They can just pay a monthly fee and use it, without worrying about how it works. And a simplified solution like this should accelerate future deployments, he said.

Instead of shopping around for all the components necessary for a comprehensive, full-spectrum digital signage solution, Kelsen said, new digital signage end-users can go to one provider and get everything in one place.

"This just takes it to a whole new level of simplifying it for the customer, and making it very easy to buy," Kelsen said. "Here's the whole car: not just the steering wheel, not the tires, not the engine, but the whole car. And you can drive down the road in it. Jump in and turn it on."

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AOPEN (An Acer Group Company)

AOPEN is an Acer Group company that specializes in small form factor commercial, medical, and industrial computing, as well as touch display technology for digital signage, kiosks and POS solutions as a leading global hardware manufacturer.

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