Article

Trade show specialists intro iPad app for BrightSign media players

BrightSign's open-API media player is being used in an iPad-powered digital signage bundle from AVR.

March 9, 2011 by Christopher Hall — w, t

Some digital signage companies are increasingly looking to make solving problems for their customers their business model.

Another has been making it easier for customers to solve their own problems.

The solid-state BrightSign media player runs with an open API platform, which allows anyone who wants to, to write software that will work with or on the device.

A design and technical support firm in the trade show and business meetings industry has introduced a new signage solution that incorporates BrightSign media players and an iPad application, making the iPad a de facto remote control for the media players.

AVR Inc.'s new TheSolution features the BrightSign HD1010 Interactive digital media player wirelessly controlled by an iPad. The complete bundle also includes a router and an iPad loaded with AVR's proprietary remote control software.

With TheSolution, the iPad's multitouch screen can be used to select, play, pause, resume and reset videos and graphics on the BrightSign player from virtually anywhere, BrightSign said in a recent announcement. TheSolution would also work with an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

According to BrightSign CEO Jeff Hastings one of the things his company has done since day one has been to make the platform an open application programming interface, or API, allowing others to write scripts for the player.

"You can write scripts and basically pretty much do almost anything that you could imagine with a digital media player and then probably a few things you couldn't even imagine," Hastings said in a recent phone interview.

The people who put this solution together, he said, took advantage of two open platforms: one, the BrightSign player, and, two, the iOS platform at the core of all the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch devices, or basically Apple's operating system.

AVR, which stands for Audio Visual Rentals, focuses on meeting equipment and technology needs for trade shows or projects, and the company came up with the iPad/BrightSign bundle as a solution to a recurring problem, Hastings said.

When setting up booth spaces for trade shows, the monitors, media players and content for any digital signage are usually the last things to go up, to ensure the displays aren't moved or damaged in the process of setting up the rest of the booth. So, the IT and A/V staff are usually setting up at the end of the day, at the last minute. The new product should make that last-minute setup significantly easier, he said.

"What this does is it allows you to have all of the media players with all of the content that you're going to show in the booth; you then mount the monitors and mount the players, then fire up the iPad or iPod or iPhone app, and it automatically detects the devices on the network," Hastings said.

From there it's a few easy steps to select the desired devices and the desired playlist for each device and set them to play from the handheld device, he said.

"So now instead of having to worry about how this player with this content has to go to this monitor, and so on, you now just mount the screens, put the player behind it, and turn them on," he said. "They automatically connect to the Wi-Fi access point, and they're up and running. You fire up your iPad application ... and pretty much you have your whole booth configured."

While it may have been designed for the trade show/business meeting space, the new solution also would have ready applications in the retail world, or in other digital signage uses, Hastings said.

Retail store manager could use TheSolution to run spur-of-the-moment specials on in-store displays, or use the control to show off particular items or item features on one display to a particular shopper, he said.

AVR also is looking at porting TheSolution to an Android-based tablet as well, Hastings said.

The new bundle is available in quantities of "one to five, or 25 to 50," according to the announcement. TheSolution rental pricing can be as low as $200 per system for typical weekly rental cycles. The complete package includes a BrightSign HD1010 media player, a router and an iPad loaded with AVR's proprietary remote control software. The iPad display can be customized with a company logo and graphics.

According to BrightSign, Fisher Price used TheSolution in a kiosk at a recent trade show. With the HD1010's support for basic looping and interactive presentations, attendees were attracted to the kiosk with a looping video and could then choose a video from the iPad screen to learn more about a specific toy.

TheSolution was also used with an iPod to control the HD1010 as part of a video wall package installed for Buick Motors, the announcement said. With the iPod and player mounted on the dash of a Buick Regal, potential buyers can call up videos on the car's various features while seated in the car.

About Christopher Hall

---

None

Connect with Christopher: