ALCATEL-LUCENT DIGITAL SIGNAGE SOLUTION VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS: SETTING A NEW STANDARD FOR ENTERPRISE VISUAL CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND DELIVERY RELEASE 1.0
Enterprises are looking for innovative, cost-effective ways to communicate, educate and entertain their employees, partners, suppliers and customers using digital media. The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Solution uses and adapts digital visual content to provide an unprecedented HD broadcast TV-like experience to an enterprise s customers and employees, improved communications with employees, and control and security of the information employees share. In addition, the Digital Signage Solution reduces OPEX through centralized management, easy and adaptable deployment options, optimized hardware, scalable SaaS and minimized training costs. 2
ALCATEL-LUCENT DIGITAL SIGNAGE SOLUTION OVERVIEW Today s enterprises face numerous challenges in engaging employees and customers, differentiating from competitors, and controlling their media assets. Traditional information delivery mechanisms are often costly and uncontrolled, with static content and slow time-to-information. In contrast, digital signage is cost-effective and controlled, with dynamic and interactive content and fast time-to-information. The Digital Signage Solution, a member of the Alcatel-Lucent Visual Communications portfolio, is meeting these challenges and changing the way enterprises communicate. The solution manages, controls and delivers digital content in different formats, including live TV and Video on Demand (VoD), with high-definition (HD) quality for an HD broadcast TV-like experience. Multiple users can quickly access an unlimited number of players and can offer an affordable, HD broadcast TV-like experience to their audiences. The Digital Signage Solution is flexible and simple to install and use, offering affordable playout quality and integration with collaboration technologies. The is: Easy to use High-quality Cost-effective and affordable High-quality, low-cost features The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player technology offers a range of features, with broadcast TV-like playout quality on even low-end PC platforms. Combined with the power, flexibility and ease of use of the Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Manager, Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage leverages both the investment and operational costs of any digital signage project, with a range of applications (Figure 1 shows an example of employee communications). Table 1. features and benefits FEATURE High-quality broadcast TV-like playout definition Controlled, real-time display of dynamic content Central and multi-tenant management Optimized hardware, with minimized bandwidth consumption Customer premises equipment (CPE) or software as a service (SaaS) multi-layout, multi-screen, multi-channel options Real-time and on-demand reporting, monitoring and control of message delivery Open application programming interface (API) and client integration for video broadcast, conferencing and collaboration BENEFIT Increase customer/employee Quality of Experience (QoE) and awareness Maximize opportunities for new revenue streams Simplify management and reduce training costs Optimize total cost of ownership (TCO) and reduce operating expenditures (OPEX) Reduce deployment costs and gain complete network control Enhance security and policy compliance by providing management, control and security of shared information Easily integrate with communications, collaboration and social media solutions
Figure 1. : sample application for employee communications Branch office Main/branch office Live internal broadcast Dynamic employee information Communications office TCP/ICP network Regional office Employee information billboard Live or corporate TV Flexible deployment options and media formats The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage platform can power deployments from one to several thousand screens, on any Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/IP compatible network topology. The platform seamlessly integrates in any multi-user workflow environment and supports many media formats: Microsoft PowerPoint 2003, 2007, 2010 (primarily converted in video format; natively supported by PowerPoint 2010) Video: MPEG 4 H264, Microsoft Windows WMV 7+, Avi Compressed MP4 or Div-x, QuickTime H264 Endoded, QuickTime Standard Encoding (Cinepack & Sorenson) Media: Standard-Definition and High-Definition Flash: version 11 Audio: WAV, WMA, MP3 Streaming and IP-TV: Any Stream Windows Media Player compatible Images: PNG, BMP, GIF, JPEG HTML, HTML5 TV tuner: Hauppauge TV Tuner cards RSS feeds, XML feeds Figure 2. Media formats richness Dynamic digital screen with multiple feeds 4
Content libraries The supports several types of programmable content: Media files (see previous section for supported media formats) Templates and multi-zone screen layout Banners and titling with broadcast TV quality Triggered content: interactive and on-demand content launched by pre-defined rules or incidents, including real-time data and information for example, storage temperature drift, available stock level, sales volumes achieved, book my desk 1 Dynamic content published on social networks Figure 3. Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Application Triggered content: Book My Desk and Alarm management Optimized client-server architecture All Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage applications communicate using standard Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The use of full-duplex HTTP communication means the server and Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Players can be permanently connected, consuming minimal bandwidth. 1 Book my desk is a touch-screen application for booking a workstation in an open-plan office, enabling efficient real estate management. 5
Figure 4 shows the architecture. Digital signage player Head-end Receivers Server TCP/ICP network Digital signage player Digital signage manager client Digital signage player SOLUTION COMPONENTS The consists of two main components: Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Manager Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Manager The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Manager is the front-end application that users launch to perform all administrative duties. This application is web-based and is compatible with most popular web browsers and operating systems (see Table 3). With the Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Manager, users can manage all aspects of their digital signage network, including real-time monitoring and conditional/rule-based playback. With the Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage designer tool, users can upload, create and schedule content. Users can also create and manage other accounts according to their assigned rights. Users connect to the Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Manager via a web browser from any PC with a Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh or Linux OS. The intuitive interface, shown in Figure 5, is both easy to learn and simple to use. 6
Figure 5. Web interface with consolidated Player, Content, Playlist and Planning components Online content, template and data feed designer The designer tool is accessible from any web browser and allows multiple users to collaborate on the same project. Users can create content and aggregate data feeds without having to learn a programming language. Unlimited data feed with no required coding The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Manager provides a content authoring tool with its own Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) parser. Users can create and manage their own internal databases and can create graphics content and titling to display real-time data without the need for external scripts such as Adobe Flash. Player management Players are managed in groups and sub-groups. Depending on their administrative rights, users can access one or more content libraries, technical profiles and player categories. The fits any hierarchic workflow environment. Programming grid and playlists Users can create, then drag and drop their own playlists into the programming grid. Programs can be sent to Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Players based on their physical location, demographics, language, profile, or other criteria. Users can create dynamic playout rules and blend multiple playlists on the fly according to the current campaign. Playlists can be overruled centrally or at the local player level using external applications for example, remote control, touch screen, fire alarm, radio frequency identification (RFID) or motion detector. Player monitoring in real time The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Manager maintains full, real-time control of the status of all Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Players using 30 different parameters, keeping the administrator informed about events via Short Message Service (SMS) or e-mail. 7
Playback reporting The includes a powerful, easy-to-use reporting system. Statistics data can easily be migrated to third-party applications (for example, for airtime invoicing). Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Players upload proof of actual playback reports to the server database. Advanced multi-user capabilities A single network manager or hundreds of simultaneous users can manage their campaigns. The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Manager allows users to create and define profiles based on more than 80 administrative rules. Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player is the playback application that displays scheduled or on-demand content with a broadcast TV look-and-feel. Installed on a thin client PC platform, the software communicates to a central server over an HTTP connection (Internet or private LAN). The application incorporates advanced player technology, including multi-screen and multi-channel options, for superior playback and unprecedented graphics performance (see examples in Figure 6). The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player is in constant communication with the server, updating its status, downloading new programming and associated content, managing all on-screen activity, and sending proof of playback reports. Figure 6. Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player sample screens 8
Exclusive graphics engine and multi-layer support The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player offers broadcast TV-quality playback, with 0.3-s precise frame-by-frame accuracy and seamless TV-like transitions. Other features include multi-zone playback capabilities, content synchronization, titling and TV-like banners, as well as multi-layer support for capabilities such as media cropping, data feeds and layer transparency. Multi-screen and multi-channel support The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player allows the simultaneous playback of multiple HD video content streams. Full HD content including video banners, video columns and video walls can be displayed on as many as 12 screens in any configuration, all driven from a single PC. Conditional and rule-based playback By default, the Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player displays scheduled content, and it can also display content and playlists based on pre-defined rules. Users can merge and sequence playlists and can manage content by criteria such as category, validity period, date and time. Hardware optimization The Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player provides broadcast HD TV-quality playback on even entry-level PCs. Hardware optimization enables a scalable player hardware deployment for the best price/benefit ratio according to the enterprise s playout requirements (see Table 2). Table 2. Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage Player hardware configurations HARDWARE CONFIGURATION Maximum simultaneous graphics file(s) (JPEG, SWF, PPT, and so on) INTEL ATOM CHIPSET INTEL ATOM PROCESSOR NVIDIA ION 2 GRAPHICS INTEL CORE I3 CHIPSET INTEL CORE I5 CHIPSET 4 7 10 15 25 Maximum simultaneous video files(s) SD content 1 2 4 6 16 Full HD content 1 2 4 12 Frame accurate synchronized video Banner overlay with transparency 1 2 4 7 15 Triggered content Real-time monitoring Playback reporting TV tuner INTEL CORE I7 CHIPSET 9
Table 3 lists the system requirements for the Manager, Player and server. Table 3. system requirements ALCATEL-LUCENT DIGITAL SIGNAGE MANAGER PC running any version of Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh or Linux OS Supported web browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Opera Microsoft Silverlight plug-in must be installed and functional on the management ALCATEL-LUCENT DIGITAL SIGNAGE PLAYER Microsoft Windows 7 and 8 (all editions) Microsoft.NET framework 4 web installer Direct-x Compatible graphic card 2GB RAM HDD or SDD internal storage TCP/IP Connection with the Server HDMI, DVI or VGA port SERVER Microsoft Windows Server 2008-2012 or Workstation running Windows 7 or 8 Pro edition for less than 10 players. Microsoft IIS Microsoft SQL Server Express or Standard edition 8GB RAM minimum 10
THE ALCATEL-LUCENT ADVANTAGE The is a key component of the Alcatel-Lucent Visual Communications Strategy. The Alcatel-Lucent vision is to provide enterprises with affordable, rich, effortless visual content, with anyone, anywhere, anytime accessibility and core-to-desktop flexibility. By embedding video communications capabilities into our converged platform architecture and enabling quality real-time application delivery through the Alcatel-Lucent Application Fluent Networks, Alcatel-Lucent is evolving communications into effective visual conversations. With the Alcatel-Lucent Visual Communications Strategy, enterprises can meet all their video, unified communications (UC), multimedia and infrastructure needs with a single vendor, reducing their operational, management and support complexity and costs. Alcatel-Lucent is a global leader in communications and a trusted transformation partner to service providers, enterprises, strategic industries and governments worldwide. By leveraging the combined expertise of Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs and the company s global research and development facilities, Alcatel-Lucent provides unrivaled technical and scientific expertise as one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and one of the most experienced global-services organizations in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach, providing solutions for delivering voice, data and video communications services to end users and carriers. For more information about Alcatel-Lucent Digital Signage, contact your local representative or visit: www.alcatel-lucent.com/enterprise 11
www.alcatel-lucent.com Alcatel, Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent and the Alcatel-Lucent logo are trademarks of Alcatel-Lucent. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The information presented is subject to change without notice. Alcatel-Lucent assumes no responsibility for inaccuracies contained herein. Copyright 2014 Alcatel-Lucent. All rights reserved. E2013123762EN (January)