Digital Signage Blog - Noventri

Keeping Guests and Travelers Informed is Simple with the New Noventri Eco-Flight Board

Judy Hoffman — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:01:16 +0000

Flight information is essential in the hospitality and airport industries and Noventri has made digital flight information a simple solution with the Noventri Eco-Flight Board. The Eco-Flight Board is a digital signage flight information board that provides guests and travelers with updates of departure times, delays and cancellations with no required interaction for users or viewers.

Noventri Eco-Flight Board is a highly stable information board and is not a PC-based system. It is made up of an HD flat-screen with the new Noventri Eco-Series SF-200 digital signage player mounted to the back and requires only an Internet connection to provide dynamic updates of airport flight information. Eco-Flight Boards are used in airports in an array of boards to show current flight information for various

Flight cancellations and delays may seem like an inconvenience, but guests and hotels both benefit by knowing about them in advance with Eco-Flight Boards. Guests can book additional nights at the hotel once they realize their flight has been cancelled or take in a meal at the hotel restaurant if flights are delayed, thus avoiding wait time at the airport. While hotels benefit from knowing cancellation and delays in advance because they can schedule extra rotations of shuttle service for stranded travelers and they can ramp up staff for sudden weather changes and cancellations.

Optional features for the Eco-Flight Board include:

Available Branding – so that the Eco-Flight Board reflects the look and feel of the hotel.
Installation Services – although installation is simply hanging a screen and connecting it to the Internet, Noventri will do all the work for you, if needed.
Local Weather – providing added information for viewers.
In-Room Channel – a convenience for guests to check flight statuses without leaving the room.
Three-Year Extended Warranty

“Having flight information at their fingertips for hotel guests provides a great opportunity for hotels,” says David Linetsky, President of Noventri. “This allows guests to reschedule flights and wait out delays without leaving the hotel.”

For more information contact Judy L. Hoffman at judyh@noventri.com or 301-790-0103.

Noventri Classroom – Digital Signage in a Manufacturing Environment

Martin Lindsley — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:14:01 +0000

Click here to view on mobile devices.

In this edition of Noventri Classroom, we will take a look at using digital signage in a manufacturing environment.

When it comes to manufacturing, it is very important to have good communication with the work force. This can present a challenge at times making sure that they get the information that they need. It might be safety initiatives, HR announcements, or more importantly, production metrics and quotas. So how can you make sure this information gets to them?

In talking to different manufacturers, here are some things that they have tried. One is email. That would seem like a great way to get in touch with everybody. But the problem is you have no way to ensure that everyone has read the email, and secondly, not all those in the work force have access to email. One manufacturer told me up to forty percent of his work force did not have email access. So certainly, that is not very effective in trying to get your message out.

Another thing that is being used is information boards or bulletin boards. The problem with this is that it requires actually printing out information and you have manually tack it up to the board. And again, there is no way to ensure that everybody reads it. You also leave yourself open to the graffiti artist of the factory or some other type of tampering. At times, those boards can get cluttered and look unattractive.

This is where digital signage comes to the rescue. Well designed content placed on strategically located screens is a great way to get the attention of your work force. Also, you are able to manage your content from a remote location. That way you do not have to physically go out to each area and post new information. You can control that all from a central hub.

One of the many benefits of Noventri Digital Signage is the ability to tie in to existing database or spreadsheet. This allows you to have information updated automatically on your digital signage. Perhaps you would like to display updated metrics and production goals. You can do that without having to open up the content creation software. It can be handled automatically through your database.

Modern manufacturing is designed to be as automated as possible, and we feel that the same should be true of your digital signage. That way, you do not have to spend time managing your communications, but rather, they do the work for you.

To keep up to date with our current tutorials and classroom videos, please subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Noventri announces “30-day, Customer Appreciation Buy-Back Program” Coinciding with the Release of the New Eco Series SF-200 Digital Signage Player

Judy Hoffman — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:20:16 +0000

For valued Noventri customers that have purchased SF-100 players, Noventri will buy the players back for 60% of the original purchase price, applied toward the purchase of the new SF-200 (accessories not included)

You must contact Noventri before May 18th to take advantage of this program.

Customers who own older Noventri products, such as SignFlash or SF-3000 should contact Noventri for trade-in options.

“We realize that even though the SF-100 and SF-200 share the same software and can live on the same network, some customers may want to keep their Digital Signage network homogeneous, as well as, receive the benefits of the SF-200 speed and upcoming features,” says David Linetsky, President of Noventri.

The Eco-Series SF-200 was launched just this week with a rave review. The SF-200 is a solid state device that can be used as a standalone player or as part of a LAN, WAN or via the Internet. It sports a small footprint at 5.1” W x 3.9”D x 1.5”H, weighs next to nothing and consumes only 4 watts of power.

When combined with Noventri Suite Version 2.8 software, the player becomes a speedy, robust digital signage player that will meet the demands of heavy, enterprise level users.

For information, contact Noventri at: www.noventri.com or 301-790-0103.

Watch: Unboxing of the Noventri ECO-Series SF-200 Digital Signage Player

Martin Lindsley — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:53:52 +0000

The Noventri ECO-Series SF-200 brings speed and an expanded feature set to a wide range of industries. It replaces the wildly popular Eco-Series SF-100e and is still a ‘green’ technology using only 4W (four watts) of power.

This is a sneak peak at what comes in the box, as well as optional accessories and upcoming features.

Click here to view on mobile devices

Eco-Series SF-200 Digital Signage Player Product Review by Mark Anderson

Judy Hoffman — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:13:40 +0000

Last year, I reviewed the Noventri Digital Signage Suite and Player, which included the SF-100e player. I was pretty impressed and have since deployed this in several scenarios. I recently got my hands on a pre-release version of their latest player: the SF-200 and took it for a spin.

I reveiwed the Noventri digital signage products last year, and wrote about how impressed I was after deploying in a manufacturing environment. I’ve since deployed them in several applications (from database driven visitor boards to information displays in manufacturing plants). I recently got my hands a pre-release version of their latest player: the SF-200 and took it for a spin.

First Impressions

While the SF-100e was all metal with a very angular design, the new SF-200 has transitioned to polycarbonate and inherited some attractive looking curves in the process. I like to think of it as having transitioned from Humvee to Italian sports car styling. The material is pretty thick and feels like it wouldn’t break if dropped.

Compared to the SF-100e:

The DVI connector is replaced by HDMI, Composite Video (CVBS) and Component Video (YPbPr). The latter two are for future use.
An Optical Audio Port (S/PDIF) has been added. Also for future use.
A second USB port has been added (replacing RS232 by using a RS232 to USB cable)
An SD slot has been added. Also for future use.
A high speed 4GB thumb drive is included
An IR Remote has been added. Current functionality is limited to reboot and reset to defaults, but will be expanded in the future. For example, on screen network setup via remote is planned to be added shortly.

A mounting plate is available for mounting to the back of a monitor with VESA hole patterns.

SF-200 Player

Like its predecessor, the SF-200 is a fluorescent green, solid state device and can be used as a standalone player (Sneaker Net), as part of a LAN, WAN or via the internet. The player is still diminutive in size at 5.1”W x 3.9”D x 1.5”H, can still be buried in a wall without overheating and still consumes 4W.

Noventri dosen’t publish the hardware specs of their players, but I was informed that a hardware video decoder is included in the SF-200, and will be enabled in a future software release. This will allow features such as true alpha dissolves, etc. to be added in incremental, no charge, software updates. I’m glad to hear this, as I do feel that the current dissolve function is very PowerPoint 1.0-esque, so I’ve never used it.

Other future features include

Kiosk mode with touchscreen control
Video of up to 1080P. This will be rolled out in stages: full screen, scaled in a zone, files uploaded from Noventri server, player streaming directly from URL’s, etc.
There is also a plan for animations and text over video. Although this is some way off, the SF-200 hardware has been designed with features in mind.

Version 2.8 of Noventri Suite should be used with this player. Other than having to swap DVI for HDMI, and RSR232 for USB-RS232 (if used) the SF-200 is a straight swap for the SF-100e. Version 2.8 of the software brings many performance optimizations that significantly improve performance. One of the major improvements for database driven systems is ODBC connection pooling. Previously, all SQL Select statements would open their own ODBC connection, even if connecting to the same database. For example the following would result in three separate ODBC connections.

SELECT Operators FROM ShiftsAssignments WHERE ResourceID = 1

SELECT Operators FROM ShiftsAssignments WHERE ResourceID = 2

SELECT Operators FROM ShiftsAssignments WHERE ResourceID = 3

With the new ODBC Connection Pooling, the software looks for queries against the same database and groups them all into one connection. (In the above example, only one connection would be used.) This technique reduces connections and authentications to the database, reducing network traffic, and significantly reducing the time to retrieve the content and display it on screen.

Another welcome feature is automatic updates of Noventri Suite (client design application) from the server. When connecting to the server, it will detect if it is running a later version than the client. If so, the user will be offered the opportunity to download the upgrade. If they choose to update, the installer is automatically downloaded from the Server and installed on the PC. This feature is especially helpful for large digital signage networks with many different users/departments connecting to a server. Not only does this make it easier for the users, but it also gives the network administrator control over which version users are running when they are connecting to the server.

The player still retails for the same price as the SF-100e ($599) and a trade-in program is planned for users wishing to upgrade.

Testing

As mentioned early, with the exception of changing a few physical connections, the SF-200 is a straight physical swap for the SF-100e. To test, I took one of my 1080P True Color projects with a number of large images, opened it in 2.8 and deployed it to the SF-200. The first thing that leaps out you is the update time. This project took an average of 2m20s to update on my SF-100e, on the SF-200, it took seconds: the progress indicator flashed on 12% briefly and then went straight to 100%.

I spoke to Noventri’s President, David Linetsky, about the performance and he said “Our first goal for this player was to release it as a replacement for the SF-100, so the functionality on release is very similar, except its much faster and more stable. Everything is in True Color. You will see a great difference using database driven projects, incredibly fast content downloads and page rotations. Manufacturing operations are a large number of our clients, so we wanted the player to be enhanced for them out of the box. In real world testing, where the network is not a bottleneck, a very large project that would take the SF-100e almost 60 minutes to download, downloads to the SF-200 in just over two minutes.” David also shared a picture of their test network, where they are able to a test a network of over 200 players. I like to call the “Noventri tree”.

Conclusion

On the outside, the SF-200 appears to be a cosmetic make-over with some future interfaces added, but under the hood, the engine has been upgraded to a V12 and few turbochargers have been added. My test player performed perfectly with v2.8 and I was amazed by the improvements in performance. Having used the Noventri products for several projects, I reiterate the conclusion from my previous articles: bang for the buck with Noventri is amazing. I’ve used several much pricier products that don’t come close to Noventri, especially when integration to SQL data sources is required. While the world of digital signage has charged headlong into the cloud, with barely a thought for users who need secure access to local data sources, Noventri has kept its feet firmly planted on the ground (but still embracing the cloud), by producing a solid, easy to use, and easy to integrate product for wide range of markets.

http://www.hometoys.com/emagazine/2013/04/noventri-sf-200-digital-signage-player/2123