FROM THE DEVELOPERS:

The BroadSign™ Suite is a hosted software solution for managing digital signage networks. It covers all aspects of network management: from enabling efficient selling of network advertising space to ensuring reliable media distribution and playback.

Having absorbed over ten years of R&D in digital signage, the latest version of BroadSign™ Suite is designed for the “media buyer's” stage of the market. This new stage is characterized by massive deployments and a growing involvement on the part of regional and national advertisers.

The advanced network architecture of BroadSign™ Suite allows users to save operational costs and grow their networks, while its ad sales functionality makes it easy to plan, negotiate and execute campaigns, as well as measure the advertising ROI.

The BroadSign™ Suite consists of the following main components:

• BroadSign Administrator
• BroadSign Player
• BroadSign Server

The BroadSign™ Suite is offered based on the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, which means that the client networks do not have to host and maintain the server, security, reliability and other critical functions. A monthly fee per BroadSign Player license includes the use of software and a range of essential support services.

PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS

• Supports multiple Operating Systems (Windows: XP SP2/XP Embedded SP2/Server 2003/Vista, Ubuntu Linux)
• Extensive logging, reporting, and notification system
• Extremely flexible screen partioning/zoning
• Advanced campaign scheduling system with criteria/tag processing
• Visual campaign preview
• Full RS-232 device control, operation scheduling, and monitoring
• Smart disc monitoring system

INSTALLATION/SETUP

Upon account creation, you will receive several emails with important information, such as download link and login information. With these emails you are empowered to setup their platform.

BroadSign Edge Server

Our test comprises of a PC with the Administrator package and a single BroadSign Player and display so we won't go in-depth with the Edge Server. For larger networks, it's basically the component that functions as a local content distribution server in order to cut down on internet bandwidth. If you had a lot of Players on the same network, it wouldn't be efficient to have each one of them retrieve the same content from the BroadSign Server. The BroadSign Edge Server handles this problem by snagging the content from the Server and then distributing it locally to the appropriate BroadSign Players.

The Player

Setting up the Player software is simple. Double-click the Player's .exe file to install. There are a few simple configurations to perform and they are listed in the BSP Configuration Guide. This includes things like setting your BIOS to "allow power on after power failure". To register the player with BroadSign and have it configured on your account, you go through an easy 3-step process:

1. System Information Submission: Go to the register player form on the client webpage and fill out the required information. This includes the MAC address of the player. For those that don't know, you can find this on your player by going to Start->Run->type cmd (hit enter) and then type ipconfig /all, (hit enter) and locate the MAC address of your network interface. You can also register a player as a Test Unit or a Production Unit (live player). Once this information is filled out and submitted, you will receive an email confirmation.
2. BroadSign Player Connection: For this step, you need the software running on your Player. Once it connects to the Server, the team will take care of step 3.
3. Licensing / Acceptance: Your registration request will have to be manually accepted. This step occurs during normal business hours and can take up to 2 hours to complete. In my case, it took only 30 minutes. Once this step is completed, you will receive an email notification.

The Administrator

The Administrator application is a self-extracting executable which is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP SP2. Other compatible plugins include Internet Explorer 7 and Flash 7. Install like any other application and input the account information that was provided to you via email. Piece of cake.

EASE OF USE

BroadSign™ Suite GUI

The Administrator application has a GUI just like that of other built-in Windows administration tools. If you have ever used the Computer Management application built into Windows, then you will feel comfortable with the Administrator package right from the get-go. Personally, I prefer this familiarity over other flashier interfaces. The sidebar which contains the console tree can be positioned at the top, right, left, or bottom of the Administrator. You can also undock it and put it wherever you want much like the panels in Adobe Photoshop. I'm old-school, so I keep it default (on the left side).

Everything is laid out well. You can expand the items in the sidebar and right clicking will give you various options. Items in the main window can be double-clicked. It doesn't take long to get used to how everything works and how to do simple tasks. I created a Display Unit in the Administrator named Proxima M1, as it was the DLP projector model I was using. I also created three virtual display units (M2, M3, M4) to use in my testing. In the Display Unit properties, you can specify Day Parting, Contacts (people associated with screen for your own records and for support/notifications), Criteria, Time Zone, Hosts, Controls (Network and Device), and you can also Preview the associated content. The Criteria is a powerful tag of sorts which you can utilize to make the process of creating targeted campaigns easy. There are Display Unit Criteria and there are Frame Criteria (for screen zoning). I created a "North" and "South" Display Unit Criteria to represent the physical location of the players. Display Unit M1 and M2 were given a North Criteria and M3 and M4 had South Criteria. Then I created a Reservation, which is basically a booking that sets aside time until negotiations to purchase are completed. Once approved, it is promoted to an active campaign and content is deployed.

Hypothetically, let's say that my network operates nationally and its 1863 so we are in the middle of the Civil War. Honest Abe wants to communicate with the Union, but he is running low on resources and funds because they are needed for supplies and equipment. I hook him up with a low CPM, but he can still only afford a campaign on part of my screen so he opts for the ticker only (he couldn't find a good designer anyway). All my players in the North have been assigned the North Criteria and the Ticker has the Ticker Criteria. In the Add Reservation Wizard, all I have to do is select North for Display Unit Targeting and then Ticker for Frame Targeting, pick the date range, set the duration, and pick the ad copy/copies (content). A system this powerful could have saved the Union a lot of trouble! I could have also created a Criteria called Military Post so he could send different messages to his camps than the general public!

FUNCTIONALITY

As outlined above, setting up a targeted campaign is a piece of cake. The Administrator also allows you to setup categories so that when the playlist is created dynamically, it will separate content pieces in the same category so that they don't play back-to-back. If you have two advertisers in the same space (say Coke and Pepsi), you can tag them as the same category to give them automatic competitive separation. Category segmentation serves as the complement to this, allowing you to group similar content pieces to be played back in groups (ex: Restaurants).

The playlists are created dynamically, but you can control the ordering and # of plays per loop with Weighting and Saturation/Over-Saturation.

Screen zoning / partitioning is both simple and flexible. You open up your Display Unit and go to the Day Part section to build whatever layout you wish (screenshot). Setting up your zones is done with X and Y offsets and specifying the width and height. Each zone is given a Frame Criteria that you name. This will allow you to schedule campaigns to specific zones on the screen in a highly efficient manner!

Having the ability to assign various criteria makes this incredibly powerful for setting up targeted campaigns. With many other solutions, you only have the ability to group players in a basic fashion and scheduling based on multiple parameters/criteria is either a nightmare or isn't even possible. It is also mind-boggling how many solutions can't even claim day-parting in their feature set. With this software, you just specify an active time range and check a box for what days you want the campaign to be active. Simple!

Fancy Scheduling Report!

The reporting is superb. The system creates attractive reports which can be viewed, saved as .pdfs, or printed with ease. Creating custom reports is possible as well. The various reports include:

• Network Status
• Bandwidth
• Domain Quota
• Scheduling
• Inventory

The monitoring system works flawlessly and provides necessary functionality that most solutions lack. It really removes a lot of stress and puts your mind at ease. I added my email as a contact and when I took the test Player off Full-Screen, I received an email notification letting me know. It also sent an email notifying me when the incident was resolved. You can add email contacts for each display and setup notification. This allows you to direct incident notifications to the appropriate person so it gets resolved in a timely fashion.

Uploading content couldn't get any easier. All you have to do is drag and drop. A transfer manager provides real time status of all your uploads.

SUPPORT

Training is provided at the offices in Montreal or on the phone and online in the form of a GoToMeeting. Their standard training is comprised of 8 3-hour sessions. For this review, I completed one webinar and was extremely confident in being able to run the software. So don't worry; there isn't a huge learning curve, it just has a LOT to offer.

State of the Art Training Facility

Webinar Training Support!

For my webinar, we covered all the vitals: how to add a customer, setup display units, partition a screen, register a player, create criteria for displays, upload content, schedule a campaign, and daypart.

Training is mandatory in order to provide you with the knowledge necessary to manage your network. Ongoing support is available via email or toll-free. Incidents can be escalated to Level 2 support as well if you get in a jam.

DOCUMENTATION

The documentation goes above and beyond. You know the documentation is good when the docs have versions like 3.1.0! Prior to your Gotomeeting webcast, you are advised to setup the Administrator with a six-step process outlined in the Quick Start Manual. All the steps are easy to follow and when complete, you will know how to connect to the server, add display units, create customers, upload content, and schedule campaigns. Completing this guide will teach you the basics, but to really get into everything else that the solution has to offer, you should refer to all the other various documents. The documents are very well written, detailed, and provide helpful screenshots. The list of available documents include:

• Administrator Product Manual (127 pages): The motherload.
• Service Catalogue (21 pages): outlines all services and licenses provided.
• BSS Quickstart Guide (5 pages): Outlines the six basic steps to setting up a campaign in the Administrator
• Minimum Player Requirements (12 pags): provides hardware and software requirements and recommendations. Includes white list of recommended and tested hardware vendors and also a black list of unreliable equipment.
• Product Activation (4 pages): outlines the 3-step process required to register and activate a Player that I described in the Installation section above.
• Remote Host Setup (4 pages): provides overview of remote host configuration.
• Training Course Description (10 pages): information on the training offered and an overview of each class.
• Device Monitoring Guide (29 pages): information on how to setup and configure device monitoring (xml files) and schedule Operations in the Administrator. Shows how to set a display unit to turn on at 8am as an example.
• Network Status and Incident Notifications (20 pages): information on the monitoring system and automatic incident (location/host/playback) reporting via email.
• Domain Quota Guide (4 pages): describes smart archiving system and how to manage domain storage. If you reach your quota on the Server, your inactive content will automatically be archived. Any content archived within the last 6 months can be restored if needed and the network operator can control which content gets archived first.
• Player Configuration Guide (11 pages): Windows guide for setting up and installing your players.

Closing Comments

This solution provides an incredibly robust digital signage platform with all the functionality and capabilities needed to manage a network of any size. Even though it has a huge list of bells and whistles, it remains extremely user-friendly and learning the software comes easily with use.

If your company would like a product review of your digital signage offering, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it