MasterSync Wireless Clock System

Posted on Oct 19, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

While not strictly “signage,” the MasterSync Wireless Clock System by Acroprint is certainly a system that allows everybody on the premises to see the same thing whenever they look!  I’m also a bit of a sucker for anything that’s wireless – when it comes to our electronics, wireless is the WAY TO GO!

Synchronize the wall clocks throughout your facility with atomic accuracy. A single transmitter with a standard antenna can cover up to 250,000 square feet!

MasterSync at a glance

• Economical — A single transmitter with a standard antenna can cover as much as 250,000 square feet. Compare to other systems that require repeaters or additional transmitters — at extra cost — to cover your entire facility. Because the transmitter is wireless, it can support an unlimited number of wall clocks.
• Easy — Installation is as easy as hanging a picture! Simply place the wireless clocks where you want, connect the transmitter to the GPS unit and you’re up and running. No special tools, equipment or expertise required.
• Accurate — The transmitter receives time signals from the world-wide GPS satellite network, keeping your wall clocks incredibly accurate and perfectly synchronized. (NTP time synchronization available for those who prefer.)
• Attractive — Wall clocks are available in a wide range of styles and mounting options. Clock styles can be mixed and matched to meet your needs and to coordinate with the décor throughout your facilities.

Easy to install

Imagine perfectly synchronized clocks, helping keep everyone on time no matter where in your facility they might be. Now imagine being able to install this system without cutting holes in your walls, running wires or petitioning your Information Technology department for help. With a MasterSync wireless clock system, it’s possible.

Installing the wall clocks is a snap. Some models are even available with battery power, so you don’t need an electrical outlet nearby. Models are available in wall and ceiling mount in a variety of styles. Simply hang them where you need them.

The compact, lightweight wireless transmitter can be placed anywhere there’s an available electrical outlet. Position the GPS receiver where it gets a clear signal, connect it to the transmitter and turn the transmitter on. Visible indicators show the system is powered up and receiving signal, while a bright, clear digital display confirms the time that’s being broadcast. That’s all there is to it. Plug-and-play — it’s as simple as that!

The system’s operating frequency of 467 MHz is optimal for indoor transmission, providing reliable signal penetration of all types of building materials. This system is highly economical — a single transmitter with a standard antenna can cover up to 250,000 square feet, eliminating the need for repeaters or multiple transmitter units. Unlike old-fashioned wired systems, there’s no limit to how many wall clocks can synchronize with a single transmitter.

Easy to choose

MasterSync is available in a convenient and economical Introductory Package that includes everything you need to get started:

• Wireless transmitter unit with standard antenna
• GPS receiver, mounting hardware and 50-foot cable
• Four black plastic-case wall clocks (additional matching clocks available)

We also offer other décor options to suit your style and accessories to enhance your system’s functionality. See below for details, then contact Acroprint to order your Introductory Package or let our knowledgeable and friendly representatives help you customize a system to meet your specific needs.

Easy to upgrade

Clock Décor Options

From durable and economical plastic-case analog wireless clocks suitable for use anywhere, to elegant solid wood framed timepieces at home in any executive suite or boardroom, to high-tech digital displays perfect for call centers and server rooms, MasterSync offers a wide variety of décor options and display styles to meet your requirements.

Click here to view available clock design options, then contact Acroprint and let us help you design a custom system to suit your style.

Accessories and Upgrades

Upgrade your system, add functionality and protect your investment with MasterSync accessories and upgrades. We offer a handy tone generator — that will even play your own pre-recorded MP3 files! — to issue audible alerts on schedule or for special events, wire guard enclosures to protect your clocks, upgraded transmitter antenna options and more.

Click here to view available MasterSync wireless clock system accessories and upgrades, then contact us so we can help you design a custom system to fit your budget and specifications.

Learn more

Email Acroprint or call us at 1-8… or 1-919-872-5800 to learn more or request a quote.

Resources and Information

To save these items to your hard drive, right click and select “Save target as…” (or the equivalent command in your browser software). PDF format files require Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don’t already have Acrobat Reader installed, you can download free from Adobe.

• MasterSync Style Guide
  (PDF format; 741 KB)
• MasterSync Easy Set Up Guide
  (PDF format; 646 KB)
• MasterSync Product Manual
  (PDF format; 793 KB)
• MasterSync Warranty Statement
  (PDF format; 84 KB)

The Digital Signage Show promises new content for NYC edition

Posted on Sep 28, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Digital Signage Today has posted about November’s The Digital Signage Show and KioskCom Self-Service Expo:

November’s editions of the The Digital Signage Show, along with KioskCom Self-Service Expo, co-located at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City, are set to offer a slate of content that includes new educational opportunities and two significant keynote speeches.

“This is the year of new everything,” said Lawrence Dvorchik, general manager of the two shows, which are organized by Connecticut-based JD Events. “It’s been busy. It’s going to be a really exciting event.”

Contest, live demo among fresh programming

The “new everything” Dvorchik describes includes a competition for entrepreneurs in the kiosk and self-service space that is the first of its kind for the event. In its “Next Big Idea” Contest Coinstar Inc. will give $10,000 to the entrant with the best new concept in retail-based kiosks. Coinstar also may consider investing in the winning concept.

“There are a lot of people out there with a lot of good ideas who either don’t have access to funding, especially now, or don’t have access to the people that can make that happen,” he said. “And this gives them an opportunity to be in front of executives at a company like Coinstar, who can do all of the above, if they believe the idea is worth rolling out, and really take it to the next level.”

Entries must be submitted by Oct. 8 on the contest’s Web site.

On the digital signage side of the show, attendees can view a content-creation demonstration, “Cooking up Content: From Concept to Screen.” Digital signage industry expert Lyle Bunn will host the demonstration, and Dvorchik says three companies will participate in creating individual digital messaging campaigns in a “fishbowl” environment, with attendees literally watching the process in action.

“It will be a really, really good demonstration of the content-creation process, the content-management process, from the creative briefing all the way to the play loop being created and broadcast,” he said.

Dvorchik said the participating companies aren’t yet confirmed. The demonstration, which will span the two-day event, is another part of show organizers’ goal of constant education.

“Relevant content is so important for any of these networks that we need to make sure we’re helping people understand not just what they want to show, but how that process is going to unfold strategically and creatively in order to be successful the first time out of the box,” Dvorchik said.

Digital Signage Display Revenue to Grow at 20 Percent CAGR to 2016

Posted on Jul 20, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

FrameMedia’s SignChannel was mentioned in this article from Digital Signage Expo about both digital signage and digital picture frames:

Digital Signage Display Revenue to Grow at 20 Percent CAGR to 2016 07/11/2009

Despite a slowdown in the worldwide growth of flat panel displays (FPD), digital signage (i.e., public displays) is forecast to grow at a compound average growth rate of 20 percent to 2016 (Table 1), according to the latest results in the “Quarterly Worldwide FPD Forecast Report” from Austin, Texas-based DisplaySearch.

Table 1 & 2 Source: DisplaySearch “Quarterly Worldwide FPD Forecast Report”

In contrast, after rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20 percent from 2000 to 2008, total flat panel display (FPD) sales revenues may rise only 1 percent each year from 2008 to 2016, according to the report (Table 2).

Additionally, the Q2 ‘09 forecast indicates FPD revenues will decline 20 percent from 2008 to 2009, as slack demand affects end-product markets in developed countries. Despite this, the outlook for 2010 is more positive, with an annual revenue growth of 13 percent in 2010, Display Search said.

“Despite the overall flat outlook for FPDs, there are some bright spots in the long-term for flat panel displays,” noted David Barnes, vice president of strategic analysis. “Hot applications such as OLED TV, eBook, mini-note PC (netbooks), digital picture frames and public displays (digital signage) are all driving demand.”

“We expect electrophoretic and OLED technologies will experience more growth than other display technologies will over the long term,” he added.

Flat panel revenue for the five FPD applications will provide strong growth opportunities for display manufacturers (Table 1). The “Quarterly Worldwide FPD Forecast Report” forecasts:

• OLED revenues from TV applications will increase at a CAGR of 140 percent from 2008 to 2016.
• Demand for electronic books will lift revenue of electrophoretic and similar display technologies at a 49 percent CAGR.
• Several technologies, TFT LCD in particular, support public display applications such as out-of-home advertising, which is forecast to grow 20 percent a year — reaching almost $3 billion in 2016.
• Mini-notes have become a hot new application, and DisplaySearch expects panel revenue for such products will rise 15 percent a year to more than $2 billion in 2016.
• Digital picture frames became a hot market in 2007, and this application may still support revenue growth of 11 percent per year. (Though the digital picture frame market is dominated by consumer demand, Scala entered into a partnership in March 2009 with Frame Media to provide software support for the company’s SignChannel, a platform designed to supply businesses with content for digital frames used for digital signage applications. — Ed.)

The DisplaySearch “Quarterly Worldwide FPD Forecast Report” details shipments of 23 display technologies for 36 applications by quarter from 2007 through 2016. Pivot tables provide clients with measures of display area, units, prices and revenue for each combination. The summary report evaluates trends from 1998 onwards.

(Crossposted at Wireless Picture Frames)

NAB 2009: RMI Home Media Player Application Development Kit Enables Open Development for Advanced Digital Photo Frames and Mobile Internet Devices

Posted on Apr 27, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

Over on TechShowWire.com, they’re talking about RMI’s Home Media Player® Application Development Kit, one of the hits at last week’s The NAB Show™ in Vegas.

There are few aspects of the electronics world that I can honestly praise, that do not include FrameMedia in some way. RMI and FrameMedia have been working together for over a year, . . . to enable advanced FrameChannel use cases in wireless digital photo frames and digital signage applications.

Here is the press release:

At The NAB Show™, RMI Corporation, a leading provider of high-performance processors for communication and media-rich applications, today announced the availability of its Home Media Player® Application Development Kit (ADK) challenging the television and the PC for multimedia consumption in the home. The ADK is an open development system and includes a complete software Board Support Package (BSP) for customers and original design manufacturers (ODMs) targeting media-based applications such as wireless Digital Photo Frames (DPFs), Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), Digital Signage, Information Dashboards and other home networking and consumer devices.

The comprehensive RMI® Alchemy-based™ ADK development environment is complemented by ODM partners and applications partners such as FrameMedia, the leader in content and tools for wireless digital picture frames, and CoreCodec, a leading provider of digital media technology. With these technologies included, the HMP ADK provides developers a powerful environment for creating advanced applications quickly.

“RMI is truly changing the way silicon providers work with the development community,” stated Mike Wodopian, vice president and general manager, RMI. “This ADK is the first step in changing the paradigm in the wireless DPF and MID markets. As the open development environment is cultivated, more and more applications and features will be enabled, allowing OEMs to quickly and thoroughly differentiate their solutions.”

Comprehensive Application Development Kit

RMI’s Home Media Player Application Development Kit is the ideal development platform for connected, media-centric devices. The hardware includes a 10.4” high resolution (1024×768) LCD, 2GB of NAND flash, 256MB of DDR2 RAM, Wi-Fi connectivity (through partnership with Atheros®), two USB ports, Ethernet and serial ports, stereo speakers, IR receiver, and a 5-in-1 card reader.

The ADK utilizes the Linux OpenEmbedded environment to create a Board Support Package based on Linux 2.6. It includes a media stack and player from CoreCodec for D1 resolution video playback (MPEG-1/2/4, VC1/WMV, H.264, DivX, XviD), hardware-accelerated DirectFB, GTK+ middleware, a complete toolchain, filesystem, and an example application.

Broad Ecosystem of Partners

RMI’s Partner Alliance has assembled a broad ecosystem of partnerships including ODMs as well as Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) with a range of capabilities and solutions well suited for the HMP and related consumer media markets.

CoreCodec and RMI have partnered to bring the world’s most powerful embedded media player technologies, CorePlayer and CoreUI to the HMP ADK platform. These technologies are included with the platform, allowing third-party developers to add audio, video, and picture support into their applications quickly and efficiently.

“CoreCodec is excited to have our technology included in this offering,” said Dan Marlin, CEO of CoreCodec, Inc. “This ADK raises the bar for digital photo frame and portable media player device capabilities, while significantly reducing OEM time to market.”

FrameMedia has also begun development on the HMP ADK, creating an advanced multi-stream RSS reader with video and audio capabilities for ODMs and OEMs to quickly leverage to enable advanced FrameChannel use cases in wireless digital photo frames and digital signage applications.

“The market RMI is addressing is exciting and we think that our development is a great fit for what users are trying to do,” said Jon Finegold, Co-founder of Frame Media. “We set out working with RMI over a year ago and the advancements that we have seen are unmatched. We look forward to extending this relationship and driving this market together.”

The ADK is immediately available directly from RMI or through its distribution channels for $499.

About Frame Media Inc.

Frame Media is the leading platform provider for content delivery to wireless digital picture frames and connected gadgets. Its flagship product, FrameChannel, can be branded and tightly integrated to work with any Wi-Fi enabled photo frame or connected gadget, transforming these devices into dynamic information appliances. With FrameChannel, a frame owner can program a unique stream of content that is updated dynamically, marrying their own photos with fresh content from a library of hundreds of channels including news, sports, weather, traffic, stock quotes, horoscopes and imagery from leading photographic collections. For more information please visit www.framemedia.com. Frame Media can be reached at info@framemedia.com or 718-235-3006.

About CoreCodec

CoreCodec, Inc. (www.corecodec.com) is the leading provider of mobile and embedded media player technologies for general-purpose computing devices. With over 70 million users worldwide, and 1100 supported devices on 8 operating systems, CoreCodec players and technologies power every class of device. From cellular phones to televisions, PDAs to in-car GPS, CoreCodec is at the center of the digital ecosystem.

About RMI

RMI Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company providing High-Performance Super System-on-a-Chip (SuperSoC™) Processor solutions for the Infrastructure, Enterprise, and Consumer Media markets. Applications include Wireless, Networking Security, Thin Clients, and Connected Multi-Media. RMI offers a broad platform of advanced MIPS-compatible processor solutions with both 32/64-bit architectures supporting frequencies from 300MHz to 1.3GHz. RMI is headquartered in Cupertino, CA with branch and subsidiary operations in Texas, United Kingdom, France, India, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China. More information about RMI can be found on the company’s website at http://www.RMICorp.com.

© Copyright 2009 RMI Corporation. All rights reserved. RMI, the RMI logo, HMP, Alchemy-based, Alchemy, RMI Alchemy, Au1250, Home Media Player, HMP Processor, Home Media Processor, SuperSoC, and the other trademarks named on the RMI website are trademarks of RMI Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Written by TechShowWIRE.com · Filed Under Las Vegas

SignChannel and All Digital Media, Inc. Join Forces!

Posted on Mar 14, 2009 by Jane Goodwin at 12:05 am

All Digital Media, Inc. has chosen FrameMedia’s SignChannel “to provide a cost-effective alternative to conventional large scale digital signage advertising for small and mid-sized businesses in the Minneapolis region, while generating monthly revenue with minimal upfront investment.”

Alan Phillips, founder and CEO of FrameMedia, tells us that “Digital wireless picture frames offer a great alternative to high cost, large scale digital signage because a wireless Wi-Fi frame provides targeted content based on the flexibility of its placement, such as restaurant booths and waiting areas, without the need for professional installation. By utilizing SignChannel, All Digital Media has created a win-win situation for both itself and small and mid-sized companies looking to stretch their advertising dollars.”

All Digital Media, Inc. has, in fact, purchased over a hundred wireless digital picture frames and placed them in local businesses with smaller budgets, such as restaurants, gyms, spas, and fitness centers – businesses with a high concentration of clientele/customers – and, by using SignChannel, are able to generate quite a sum, per frame, per month!

“SignChannel has offered us the opportunity to take a practical, grass-roots approach to reaching advertisers in teh local community, right here in the Brainerd Lakes area. Through the innovative use of a Wi-Fi digital frame, we’re generating revenue with a highly customized advertising vehicle and getting in front of an audience at strategic locations where they’ll be most captive, such as waiting rooms in doctors’ offices or on the treadmill at the gym. We are excited to be the first in Central Minnesota to provide this unique service,” says Wes Hughes, owner and principal of All Digital Media, Inc.

The full article about All Digital Media, Inc. and Frame Media’s SignChannel, and their VERY cost-effective digital signage advertising venture, can be found and read at The Nearshore Journal.