We had a great Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas, and are looking forward to KioskCom next week. Some of the highlights were:
- Rugged media players that can withstand shock, vibration and high and low temperatures.
- Sunlight readable LCDs with room for the media player and temperature-resistant broadband cellular routers.
- Video over Wi-Fi systems enabling content streaming in real time to multiple screens from one media player.
A satellite provider asked us at the show to build a small bandwidth usage product for sending player statistics and pings back to the content management server from a media player for proof of playback and network monitoring, and we think we’ve found a solution the industry will like.
You'll no longer have to pay your cellular carrier $59.99 per month for their unlimited data plan. Pay a fraction of that for up to 2 Megabytes of data. This provider offers unlimited multicast to as many nodes as you want for a flat $5425/month. Kind of hard to beat.
Cellular for Digital Signage Connectivity
For integrators who want an unlimited cellular data plan for content delivery, we have perfected the art of cellular up time via our “secret weapon.” If you have tried to deploy cellular for wide area network connectivity and failed, do not despair, we can make it work.
We can also save your team valuable time by
- Activating your cellular card in our staging warehouse (saving you 15 minutes per card).
- Configuring the firmware on the cellular routers for the firewall and keepalive.
- Configuring the routers for port forwarding over WIFI, so you can get content to 4-5 screens for the price of one data card/router combo.
- Handling all shipping and logistics - even internationally.
Kiosk/Digital Signage USB Temperature Gauge in Development
In development is a USB gauge application that would allow signage and kiosk integrators to monitor the temperature and humidity inside an enclosure at timed intervals - invaluable information to have, as most media players don’t work above or below certain temperatures. We’ll let you know when we’ve finalized that product and the cost for the equipment.
IP Multicast via DSL
On the DSL side of the house, we are working with several large DSL aggregators and two major telecommunications carriers to enable content delivery to their IP Multicast enabled nodes to cut down on bandwidth at the data center, so you can send one file, have the carrier network break it up into multiple files, and have the carrier multicast router “know” which group of locations it is destined for.
On the equipment side, the DSL router needs to be multicast enabled, and we found one we like that will allow cellular backup with a static IP address assigned to the cellular data card. Cellular networks are not multicast enabled, but at least you can reach your media player.
If you have any experience with IP multicast to DSL and your likes/dislikes of carriers and/or DSL aggregators to share, please send me your feedback to aaronw(at)redmobility.com
Colocation Bandwidth Pricing Hits Rock Bottom
For colocation bandwidth, we have seen prices hit rock bottom, and we even hit a client’s price target of $7.00/Megabit recently on 10 Gigabit ethernet ports. Incredible!
Upcoming Article on Digital Signage Connectivity
We were asked to write an article comparing and contrasting the costs, as well as the pros and cons of satellite, DSL and cellular connectivity as they relate to digital media deployments, so be looking out for that soon in a major trade magazine.
Cell Phone Charging Station Kiosks
We are doing some business development for a kiosk manufacturer that has a cell phone charging station solution that charges any cell phone or iPod in 7-10 minutes, and has an LCD screen for capturing viewership and ad revenue in public venues.
The cost is probably a lot less than you’d expect, and creates a revenue stream not only from the advertising, but per cell phone charged as well. You can also put a paper poster at the bottom of the kiosk, and make money on that.
The cell phone charging kiosk will drive customers in the convenience store or public venue to charge their phone, and while they’re at it, maybe they buy something they weren’t planning on. We can enable credit card swiping, and the Payment Card Industry compliant data transfer over DSL, satellite, or cellular, to the payment processor of their choice.
Keep your ideas coming for things that you’d like to see in the marketplace. We love to hear best practices and use them in our day to day operations. Keep the Red Mobility web site book marked for ideas and new content updates, which we post quite frequently.
Sincerely,
Aaron Wykoff, CEO
Red Mobility
aaronw(at)redmobility.com
310-542-1978
