AMD First Embedded Systems APU: AMD Fusion G-Series

Yesterday, AMD announced the first APU (Accelerated Processor Unit) specifically aimed at embedded systems: AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced immediate availability of the new AMD Embedded G-Series processor, the world’s first and only Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) for embedded systems. The AMD Embedded G-Series, based on AMD Fusion technology, delivers a complete, full-featured embedded platform and incorporates the new low-power, x86 CPU based on the “Bobcat” core with a world-class DirectX® 11-capable GPU and parallel processing engine on a single piece of silicon. This new class of accelerated processor combines more compute capabilities on a single die than any processor in the history of computing and represents opportunity for major advancements in embedded systems. No solution with this level of advanced computing is available for the embedded market today. Numerous embedded systems based on the AMD Embedded G-Series are available today or expected to launch in the coming weeks from […]

Digital Signage at CES 2011: HumanKiosk, ng Connect Program and Displays

Digital Signage solutions were also presented at CES 2011. Mediatile HumanKiosk Mediatile showcased its HumanKiosk solution, a digital signage system allowing face to face conversion (customer <-> representative) via 4G/LTE cellular networks at the Verizon Wireless and Alcatel Lucent booths. This system allows potential customers to ask questions about a particular product or service to a (hopefully) knowledgeable person. In case of very specific knowledge (e.g. some banking products), the company providing the products can save money (no need to have such persons in all branches) and provide a better customer service. Here’s a demo below of the HumanKiosk. ng Connect Program Alcatel-Lucent made several announcements about its ng Connect Program and three features are aimed directly at digital signage / dooh applications: Media Hotspot: Alcatel-Lucent, Atlantic Records and MediaTile developed a new jukebox concept that allows consumers to purchase their favorite music, movies and more via their mobile phone […]

Top Ten Digital Signage Trends for 2011

As 2010 comes to a close, Digital Signage Today released their top 10 trends for 2011. Here’s a summary of those trends: Cross-media platform and technology integration: Digital signage systems and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets will communicate more and more be it through QR Code, Near Field Communication (NFC), smartphone gestures, etc… Content will continue to be at or near the top of the list: More and more companies are involved in content creation for digital signage / digital out of hone (DOOH) and more diverse and complex content formats will be available. M & A and investment – The big shakeout of 2011: Expect more acquisitions that in 2010. Even larger amounts of ad dollars will migrate to DOOH: Digital Signage Ad growth spending will carry on, after a 14.8% growth in 2010. Experience, engagement and interaction: Instead of simply being an ad to promote a […]

Digital Signage TCO Calculator

AMX has recently released a Total Cost of Ownership Calculator for digital signage comparing two different setups by taking into account the following parameters: Digital Signage Requirements: Number of Players Hours per Day Days per Week Weeks per Year Expected life in years US State Deployed (For electricity rates) Cost of Development for 2 products: Media Player Cost Per Unit Initial Software Cost Initial Subscription Fee Monthly Subscription Fee Energy Efficiency: Player Power Consumption in Watts Hardware Design: Type of storage: Solid State / Hard Disk Fan: With or Without The result of the calculation will show you the total cost in a graph, with the lifetime electricity cost, total subscription cost, total software cost and total player cost. If you purchased the players and plan to manage the devices by yourself, you won’t have to pay any subscription fees. However,  you’ll still have to consider the maintenance costs. In […]

See-through OLED & LCD Displays

Samsung Electronics and LG exhibited see-through LCD displays and Samsung Mobile Display see-through  OLED displays at FPD (Flat Panel Display) International 2010/Green Device 2010, Chiba City, Japan. Samsung Electronics brought 2 different displays 23 inch and 46 inch LCD displays while LG Display showcased a 47-inch LCD display. See-through displays use natural light as backlight during the day and use a transparent backlight system attached to the back of the panel during the night. Samsung Mobile Display exhibited 2 OLED displays (14 inch  and 19 inch). The main applications of such displays can be: Digital signage. This is the number 1 application for such displays. You could have a real product at the back and the see-though display at the front displaying some product info and/or promotional videos. In the picture below, Samsung created a setup with real wine bottles and grapes in the background and a see-through display in […]

Xibo Open Source Digital Signage Tutorial / Demo

This is the second blog entry about Xibo, in case you have missed the first you can read XIBO: An Open Source Digital Signage Server/Client to make yourself familiar with Xibo and learn how to install it in a Windows XP computer. This mini-tutorial follows the instruction in Xibo’s training documentation and Xibo’s Introduction and Basic Operation The video below shows how to create a layout with a background, different zones with videos, images, html pages and an RSS feed and schedule it for a specific Xibo player. Here’s the resulting output in Xibo’s player. (The audio does not match. Since I had some problems during recording, I simply used a background music instead). You can get obtain free backgrounds at the Layout exchange section of Xibo’s website. We used Blue Boxes – 1920×1080 – for the background image of our tutorial. The RSS Feed is http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/114751985.rss from CNXSoft twitter […]

Digital Signage Standard: Open Pluggable Specification (OPS)

A while ago, we discussed about Popai Digital Signage Standards, mainly focused on software and client/server interoperability. Intel has just released a new standard for Digital Signage: Open Pluggable Specification (OPS). Here’s the description of the specification on Intel website. The Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) helps standardize the design and development of digital signage devices and pluggable media players. Intel created the OPS to address digital signage market fragmentation and simplify device installation, usage, maintenance and upgrades. The OPS enables digital signage manufacturers to deploy interchangeable systems faster and in higher volumes, while lowering costs for development and implementation. Installing digital signage equipment based on Intel® architecture helps you implement scalable digital signage applications that can network easily with other equipment. This simplifies interoperability and application upgrades designed to meet the digital signage requirements of individual customers, while helping to future-proof technology investments. You’ll need to fill a form to […]

XIBO: An Open Source Digital Signage Server/Client

Today’s post will deal with Xibo (pronounced eX-E-bO), an open source, multi-display, multi-zone, fully scheduled digital signage solution. I’ll firstly give an overview and explain how to install the client and server in Windows XP. In another post, I’ll demo the system. The server can run on Windows or Linux and requires a web server (Apache / IIS), php5 and a MySQL database. The client can only runs on Windows 2000/Xp/Vista/7 and requires .NET Framework v3.5, Internet Explorer 7 or 8, Flash Player Version 9 or later, Windows Media Player 11 or later, Microsoft Powerpoint 2003 or later. As you can see from the client description, it won’t be able to run on Linux embedded systems, but it is still interesting to study this solution to see the content management flow, what this solution has to offer and how we get development idea from this solution.  An embedded client based […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC