News

Speaking in tongues: signagelive adds multilingual digital signage software tools

April 19, 2011

Digital signage firm signagelive recently announced that its newest software tools let digital signage network operators work in the language of their choice and across any browser or mainstream operating system.

The newest software also introduces powerful new content development and playback tools, the company said.

The U.K.-based company will showcase these and other enhancements from its Spring 2011 software release at the upcoming Customer Engagement Technology World tradeshow in San Francisco, April 27-28.

The multi-lingual user interface means digital signage network operators are no longer restricted to running software developed only in the English language. Using language packs, signagelive users can choose their native language – Spanish, for example – in the Web browser settings and then have the full content management system delivered in the selected native tongue.

"We think multilingual support is tremendously important when you get down to the local site administration of networks, where the level of English skills may not be as high as at a main office," parent company Remote Media CEO Jason Cremins said in the announcement. "Our language support will auto-detect the locale of the computer and present the native language in the signagelive interface."

Signagelive now has full cross-browser and operating system support, meaning network managers are not restricted by devices and operating systems in managing or running their networks.

The spring 2011 release upgrades signagelive's Layout Creator to a fully functional Layout Designer, bringing the power of professional-class photo editing suites to digital signage. The new toolset includes the type of layering, sizing, alignment and other design tools usually reserved for stand-alone software applications, the company said. Layout Designer also includes template layouts, a library of background images, and enhancements for handling and presenting fonts and RSS feeds.

Interactive features have also been added or enhanced. Designing locally-triggered interrupts to media playback (for example, from touchscreens or mechanical buttons) has been simplified. A new QR code widget has been added, allowing network operators to build the 2D bar codes into screen layouts and encourage mobile phone users to scan the codes for offers or further information. Signagelive has also developed its own tools for visualizing social media feeds from platforms such as Twitter and Foursquare.