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InfoComm11: NEC announces OPS-compliant digital signage option card

NEC has introduced a new Single Board Computer option card based on Intel's OPS.

June 14, 2011 by Christopher Hall — w, t

When Intel Corp. announced its Open Pluggable Specification for digital signage media players last October, the idea was to make digital signage media players as interchangeable as car stereos, according to Intel Director of Retail and Digital Signage Jose Avalos.

Adoption of the OPS has continued in the last eight months, and today digital signage display firm NEC Display Solutions took it another step further. NEC announced today at InfoComm 2011 in Orlando, Fla., that it is bringing out the new N8000-8330 Single Board Computer option card based on Intel's OPS.

"You can think of the open pluggable specification as a specification that defines the size of the pluggable and the connector and the electrical interfaces for the connector for the specification," Avalos said in a phone interview late last year.

"The analogy that I use is that it's very similar to the way the stereo form-factor works in an automobile. If you want to change your stereo in your automobile, you pull the stereo and you plug in another one. Now, because both of them have been designed to the same form-factor, it's very easy to swap stereos from different manufacturers."

In today's announcement, NEC said it developed the option card to "help standardize the design and development of digital signage in public venues."

"As the first industry-wide standard for digital signage, the OPS will simplify the use and maintenance of digital signage, and create a smaller product footprint, allowing for thinner displays," NEC president and COO Pierre Richer said in the announcement. "The operation of OPS-based products will allow easier installations, resulting in more deployments by current and new customers."

NEC's N8000-8330 comes with a 320GB hard drive and Windows Embedded Standard 7. NEC called the card "a true integrated solution," designed for select NEC X-, P- and V-series displays, including the new V462, P402 and P462: "One of the most requested features by customers, the built-in expansion slot in these displays gives users greater flexibility for application types and offers a clean, professional look to set-up."

The smaller form-factor even enables integrated slot options in super-slim displays, such as NEC's X461S and X551S, the company said.

NEC was among the first digital signage industry leaders, along with Microsoft and the Taiwan Digital Signage Special Interest Group, to support the Intel OPS from its inception in October 2010. Leveraging Intel's architecture, it features Intel vPro Technology with keyboard-video-mouse redirection capabilities that allow IT administrators to run diagnostic tests, install upgrades, and view and control the digital display content remotely.

Today's announcement is another step in the right direction, as the digital signage sector moves more toward standardization, NEC general manager of Digital Media Graeme Spicer said today in a telephone interview from the InfoComm show floor.

"I'm a big believer that what's going to drive the growth of the digital out-of-home industry is increased standardization, and that is just as applicable on the hardware side as it is on the software side," he said. "This work that we're doing with Intel is only going to help the business through hardware standardization."

In comments from the press release of today's announcement, Avalos echoed those sentiments:

"Installing digital signage equipment based on Intel architecture results in scalable digital signage networks that are easy to maintain and upgrade to fit customer requirements for lower total cost of ownership," Avalos said in the announcement. "The release of the first OPS-based accessory from NEC Display Solutions is the next step in bringing standardization to the digital signage market segment."

NEC said its N8000-8330, an OPS device with Intel Core i5, 320GB hard drive and Windows Embedded Standard 7, will be available for shipment in July at an estimated price of $1,580.

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