is your content compelling?

26th Apr 2010 (12:05:15) by Hayley

Europe’s first digital signage end-user summit is being held next week at the Screen Media Expo 2010. The Digital Signage Strategies Forum is a two-day summit starting on the 4th May, where real-world practitioners and suppliers will share their insights and knowledge on digital signage.

Adam Lloyd, Head of Internal Communications at Ericsson and Peter Critchley, Managing Director at Beaver Solutions will be discussing how to grab attention and improve engagement with compelling programming and content. This summit is a ‘must see’ for anyone about to invest in a large scale system or anyone who wishes to learn more about how to create and manage a successful corporate digital signage network.

• Understanding the viewers and objectives
• Design ‘best practices’ and branding
• Content strategies and corporate communications

Places can be booked from the website: www.digitalsignagestrategies.com and we look forward to seeing you there!

advanced av and digital signage for ericsson

3rd Aug 2009 (12:29:02) by Jon

Beaver Solutions, part of the Beaver Group, is the long-term provider of digital signage and audio visual solutions for Ericsson UK. In 2007, Ericsson began plans for a new research and development headquarters at the technology centre at Ansty Park, Coventry.

Beaver Solutions was involved right from the beginning, working with Ericsson, the architects and contractors to design a large scale, connected internal communication system for the two new R&D buildings. A combined AV network was designed and installed for all the conference rooms, meeting rooms, break-out areas and training rooms, along with multi-function rooms and fully integrated digital signage.

Large scale audio visual

The goal was to use the latest AV technology so that each of the 25 rooms could show multiple inputs. The connected AV system runs throughout the two large Ericsson buildings, linked together via a fibre network. In any of the AV connected rooms, the Mitsubishi DLP professional projector is able to switch between a laptop feed, Ericsson’s internal ‘Spotlight TV’ and variety of TV feeds.

The system will allow screens and projectors across the site to show announcements and employee briefings, streamed live by the Managing Director, from any of the UK sites.

Multi-function area

The restaurant for the two new buildings is has been designed to be used as a multi-function area. In its default state, the restaurant serves the 600 Ericsson employees and digital signage screens nearby run Ericsson’s internal communications channel. The space has been designed to be split as required, so that half of the room can be used as an auditorium for large conferences, meetings or MD announcements, through a number of controllable feeds.

The room features a 9-foot recessed electric screen, projector, lectern and AMX control system to manage the system. There are also dedicated separate audio zones (as well as induction loops), meaning that audio can be distributed to specific areas of the room.

Presentations within the restaurant can also be shown throughout the whole site, through the use of Ericsson’s connected AV network.

Internal digital signage

Digital signage is also installed throughout the two buildings, delivering real-time communications for Ericsson with their internal ‘Spotlight TV’. Like the AV, the LCD and Plasma screens are completely dynamic, able to show a variety of inputs through the Scala driven digital signage system. (Take a look at this 3-minute video >)

Beaver Solutions designed and project managed the delivery of this AV and digital signage solution, from its conception two years ago, through to installation and on-going support. The on-site installation took three weeks and adds the finishing touches to this impressive site.

This project has helped create a professional, high-tech building which delivers improved communications throughout Ericsson and establishes Ansty Park as an international R&D location in the West Midlands.

if i had a hammer…

24th Apr 2009 (11:25:18) by Robin

The digital signage software marketplace is getting much busier than even a few years ago with quite a few applications around. These days there’s a variety of digital signage software available: some which schedule content for playback, others which schedule as well as incorporating custom design tools.

For basic requirements, there are entry-level applications which schedule the playback of content and rely on standard design packages (such as Flash, Photoshop and After Effects) for their design and on-going development.

For anything more comprehensive there are applications which incorporate design tools and operate as more of a software platform. The information on the screen can be live, editable and scripted in a variety of ways, in addition to playing normal static or animated content.

Digital signage is a medium in it’s own right - unlike TV, web or print and various applications will mean a variety of options and results with your digital signage. With the right platform, you can accommodate your future requirements and changes, as well as your current ones and if you use it for more than simple content delivery, digital signage becomes a powerful and dynamic medium for your messages.

DIGITAL SIGNAGE IS A DIFFERENT MEDIUM

Beaver Group has been a design agency for over 30 years. We design for print, web sites and digital signage. Whatever medium we’re designing for, we use the right tools for the job and treat each medium with consideration for its own specific requirements.

Think of the web: most websites aren’t created in just Flash. It’s certainly possible, but the website will suffer from poor search engine rankings and indexing (Google can’t interpret Flash). So other specific web tools such as Dreamweaver are used.

Equally, if we’re creating video content, we wont use a digital signage content tool – we’ll use applications like Adobe After Effects, or Premiere.

A SOFTWARE PLATFORM

Digital signage applications provide simple and intuitive access to the more powerful aspects of any well developed and established software platform, with open web APIs and content management. The software accommodates small changes because it can treat each aspect of the content uniquely. If we had to re-render a video or image to accommodate one small change in the content, we’d end up re-doing work and this is a waste of time, as well as money!

We use digital signage software platforms for designing, integrating and building on. We can design templates for content and use the platform to create customised interfaces for customers. The content can be driven from a variety of sources, such as databases and web-feeds. This isn’t just a “nice-to-have”, as it actually reduces the cost of ownership and is a major consideration for many of customers we work with.

Clients like Ericsson, GlaxoSmithKline and Showcase Cinemas all required custom integration which went way beyond any “out-of-the-box” or “instant” solution. They needed a software platform which we could develop specific solutions for their business needs - and the flexibility of our chosen application enabled us to do exactly that.

So there’s no mystery or magic about it. We just design good content for digital signage and we use whatever the right tools are for the job. Our clients also understand that digital signage is more than just content playback.

Our advice to the variety of software vendors out there is - don’t fall into the trap of dismissing features of one product, simply because it’s not a feature of your own. Abraham Maslow eloquently summed it up when he said,

“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”

fully functional av for ericsson from beaver

14th Apr 2009 (09:12:48) by Simon

At the Ericsson office in Basingstoke, Beaver Solutions recently installed and configured a new auditorium AV solution. The goal was to upgrade to what was currently already in place and create a high-tech conference room with a quality feel.

Beaver installed a new lectern which has a built in AMX Modero touchscreen panel. This panel allows the speaker to control the Panasonic PT-D5100 DLP projector, the audio (including wireless mics), the room lighting, the auditorium screen and the Polycom HDX8002 video conferencing unit.

Built into the Ericsson auditorium is a controllable video conferencing unit which can record and stream the speaker. The cameras can be moved and controlled through the AMX panel in the lectern.

The result is a simple, but high-tech and functional conferencing room for Ericsson, helping to continue to keep the company communicating at the highest level.

live streaming for ericsson

31st Mar 2009 (09:20:17) by Simon

Ericsson UK are stepping up their game in communicating with employees through live video web-cast where the MD talks about the companies strategies and results, helping to keep everyone at Ericsson informed and updated. These web-casts are streamed live through Ericsson’s intranet, available to any Ericsson employee.

Beaver Solutions, a long-standing solutions provider for Ericsson, was chosen to configure and install the StreamSync system which would is used to encode and distribute these live web-casts. This system allows the webcast and accompanying content such as presentations, images and video to be delivered in time with the presentation, adding to the value of the webcast for the viewer.

Take a look at the StreamSync website for more information.