News

Digital menu boards updating with Excel

March 1, 2013

U.K.-based Eclipse Digital Media has launched a new digital menu board solution that can be updated using an Excel spreadsheet called EMBED, according to a company announcement.

The EMBED menu board solution is powered by ONELAN digital signage media players and DCE software, allowing the media players to be updated via external sources and in this case, Excel spreadsheets, the company said. They are able display various types of content including HTML5, CSS3, video, RSS feeds, images, text and audio.

As Accredited ONELAN Advanced Content Design Partners, Eclipse has developed a range of digital menu board layouts that include sushi bars, coffee shops and quick-service restaurants, plus interactive touchscreen menu board content with table-reservation functionality, all of which come with the ability to update content via Excel.

Eclipse Digital Media Director Colin Thody said of the partnership with ONELAN and the digital menu board opportunity, "When we saw how DCE could control content on the [media players] via external sources we couldn't wait to get our hands on it to start developing content and see just how far we could push it. We immediately started to see that by using our experience in the foodservice industry there was a great opportunity for the development of digital menu boards, not only for the obvious QSR market but also for smaller cafés, school cafeterias, restaurants, pubs/bars and care homes."

EMBED digital menu boards can be implemented as an out-of-the-box stand-alone solution (all hardware, software and content situated in-house) or licensed solution (reduced hardware, subscribes to information from an EMBED server), the company said. Eclipse offer a variety of menu board layout packages that can be edited, along with digital media content services to design bespoke content for clients as required.

Learn more about digital menu boards.