R&K set their sights on ONELAN

Founded in 1914, R&K are one of Chile´s biggest Optician chains with more than 40 stores across the country as well as over 150 concessions in Chile´s biggest department stores (Falabella, Paris and Ripley). R&K sell sunglasses from wellknown brand names, optical glasses, contact lenses and hearing aid devices.

R & K wanted a way to advertise the products they sell whilst also providing a relaxed and interesting atmosphere in their stores. They had several key technical issues to overcome including the ability to
remotely manage the signage even with the FTP server being on the VPN.

R & K’s internal technical department were uncomfortable allowing external companies access to the FTP server on their VPN. ONELAN were able to offer their Digital Signage Manager (DSM) VPN for this purpose, removing the need for a server or PC on R&K’s site.

Reliability is a key requirement for R&K due to the instability in the power supply and intermittent internet connection in Chile. ONELAN was chosen as the Net-Top-Box (NTB) is run on Linux platform which is both reliable and has an intelligent file transfer mechanism. The intelligent file transfer mechanism means that if the power supply is stopped, the NTBs will only download from the FTP source any differences to the Schedule/Playlist rather then spending time downloading media again. NTBs recover quickly after an unplanned loss of power and self-start once power is resumed.

What is installed?
R&K´s layout includes one Video Zone (fullscreen advert) and one Soundtrack Zone. The whole system is based on an NTB 615 (Publisher), 50 NTB 500 (subscribers) and an FTP Server.

“R&K’s network was recently attacked by a heavy virus and an old Windows platform was one of the suspects. So a more secure solution had to be found. ONELAN’s solution came in and satisfied R&K’s requirements, by being reliable, powerful and supported by a great team” says Alvaro Amar, Network Manager for the R&K Digital Signage Network.

Netkom exhibits with ONELAN in Denmark

Netkom will be exhibiting ONELAN Digital Signage products at several shows in Denmark over the next two months.

They are attending Skolebogmessen, Denmark’s largest trade fair for teaching aids - in Roskilde Congress and Sport Center on 10-11 March 2010. Visitors are primarily teachers and educators.

On 24-25th March 2010 Netkom will be showing ONELAN Digital Signage with their ‘Odin’ (online digital information from ONELAN) concept at Skoleledernes aarskongres in Odense, the annual congress for all decision makers in education.

Finally they will be attending Sign 2010 a leading Scandinavian visual communications and digital signage exhibition, from 7-9th April 2010.

Estonia shopping and entertainment enhanced with Digital Signage

Solaris is a state of the art shopping and entertainment centre, with a multi-screen cinema and concert hall, all under one roof, situated in the centre of Tallinn in Estonia.

Solaris chose digital signage as they wanted flexibilty, extensive content possibilities and an easy to use automated system. Digital Signage represents an all-in-one solution that can display all types of information that need to be communicated to visitors. It is very cost-effective to maintain, and very easy to update; numerous screens can be maintained by one person from a single station.

ONELAN was chosen firstly for reliability as the system runs on a Linux platform. Secondly it has the flexible Ad-Hoc feature: so end-users need no training at all to change information or media.

In Solaris, digital signage is used for building guides, for advertising, for dynamic ticket and event information, for exhibiting artistic videos and other visual arts. The content is run from ONELAN Net-Top-Boxes (NTBs), including three NTB-615s, five NTB-610s and one NTB-500S. These drive 120 LCD screens (42"-50") and one large LED outdoor screen.

Content is centrally controlled and managed, using an additional NTB-615. All screens and VGA distribution is at 1080, and all dynamic content (schedules and building guides) is displayed at full HD resolution. Adverts and other video content are run at 1360 x 768 pixels. For dynamic content Solaris use specially designed animated Flash files with Action Script; all information is acquired and updated automatically from dedicated external databases.

Priit Rebane member of the board of Solaris explains: "We chose ONELAN for the following reasons:
a) ONELAN NTB-s are "out of the box and ready to use" so there is possibly no chance to deal with conflicts between hardware and software.
b) Low power consumption and relatively small size of the units.
c) Availability of local support".

ONELAN AT INFRAPEDIA, 20-21 MARCH, GREECE

ONELAN will be supporting PanelTV at INFRAPEDIA on 20-21 March 2010 with their Digital Signage and IPTV Streaming products at this leading event in Athens, Greece. With 35 exhibitors in 2009, and set to grow in 2010, Infrapedia targets primarily the education sector.

Free Digital Signage Widgets from ONELAN

A free digital signage widget site has been launched by ONELAN Digital Signage expanding their portfolio of free content.

The new widgets include:

Flash analogue clocks
· multiple designs
· any size up to 500 pixels
· any time zone
· ability to mix analogue clocks with digital.
Weather
· combined clock and weather
· Free weather feed for top 5000 cities worldwide
Hijri calendar
· Automatic conversion to Hijri
· English & Arabic format

New digital signage widgets are being developed continuously, driven by customer demand.

Visit www.signagewidgets.com to learn more.

ONELAN's New NTB510

Digital Signage specialist ONELAN has further expanded their range of Net-Top-Boxes (NTBs) to include the NTB510.

The key advantages of this new NTB are firstly its fanless design, making it quieter and more reliable. There is also a Solid State option for greater operational stability, and an easy VESA mount bracket so that the media player can be mounted behind any screen.

In addition the unit is environmentally friendly using less than 12W, making it both cost effective to run, and in conjunction with an RS232 connection, when professional screens can be programmed e.g. to switch off at night, a truly green solution.

With unlimited number of Layout Zones the NTB510 is ideally suited to environments which need multiple channels and screens, such as in retail or schools and universities. It can be combined with any other ONELAN NTB from the range to provide a cost effective solution for small to large networks.

ONELAN Enjoys Continued Sales Growth

ONELAN Digital Signage is delighted to announce sales growth of over 19% in 2009, representing a 27% increase in unit sales, and continued profitable growth for the fifth consecutive year.

Exports have been largely responsible, with sales turnover up from 18 to 30% as ONELAN continues to extend its global reach.

Helen Dee, ONELAN’s Finance Director commented “We are very pleased with this growth – considering the economic climate this is an excellent result.”

Swanmore College: Communicating to a network of schools with ONELAN

As a College of Technology Swanmore required a suitable medium for communicating valuable information centrally as well as to their network of local feeder schools. They wanted a solution that was modern, efficient, cost effective and manageable both locally within the individual schools and centrally.

What was needed
The main considerations were:
· Network connectivity between Swanmore College and the 9 feeder schools, including ftp access and proxy servers.
· The ability to control and create layouts for the feeder schools from a central location.
· Location of screens within each of the 9 schools, which included surveying each school with regards to network and power points.
· Location of Net-Top-Box (NTB), and location and size of screen in the Reception area.

The solution
ONELAN was chosen for the ability to setup different zones with different content types, and for stability: ONELAN NTBs are Linux based and therefore more stable than Windows based systems.

A NTB5005P publishes content to 10 different channels. Nine NTB615s each subscribe to the appropriate channel. These are located in 9 schools within a 10 mile radius. There is also an additional NTB615 in the college library. Each screen displays a basic layout designed by the college which has two zones that the feeder schools can update. The schools have ad-hoc access to these zones. The layouts consist of a media zone, a text zone for school notices, a BBC Newsround RSS feed, the weather, the time and date
and the school name and logo.

The ONELAN solution has not only met expectations but exceeded them, the flexible display and simple to use software means content can be updated regularly without excessive investment of time.

”We have found ONELAN a flexible and comprehensive system which allows ad-hoc users to quickly and easily update the screen whilst allowing us to make more complex changes where necessary.” Helen Woodland – Community IT Technician.

And from the subscriber schools:
“ONELAN is a quick and easy system to keep updated; this allows us to display new content on a regular basis.”
“ONELAN is so simple to use we have a year 6 pupil updating it”
“Pupils love looking at the new photos added each day”
“I like to refer parents to the screen for details on after school clubs”

ONELAN Partners with CTI Labs to address Call Centre Digital Signage applications

Digital signage specialist ONELAN has joined forces with CTI Labs, a division of IP Integration to assist with complex Contact Centre based Digital Signage opportunities.

CTI Labs consists of a team of software developers and consultants, utilising the latest speech recognition and development tools. The company are a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and specialise in Computer Telephony Integration, Interactive Voice Response, SMS solutions and offer a range of applications and be-spoke solutions, focused on the automation requirements within Contact Centres, for example customising wallboard displays.

Full Stream Ahead for ONELAN at ISE 2010

IPTV and Digital signage specialist ONELAN enjoyed a record show at ISE 2010, generating strong interest from visitors from all over the world.

In the Digital Signage Hall, the company stood out as the only DS player with live Streaming and TV on their stand. The new features of ONELAN’s IPTV Streaming included the ‘multi-unicast’ solution and a more exciting and easier enduser interface: the landing page for an unprivileged user has been improved to include Thumbnail images (updated at 4 second intervals) of each channel.

Other products being demonstrated included the Digital Signage network Manager (DSM) for monitoring, audit and remote configuration of NTBs in a network, and Data Capture Engine (DCE) for integration to live data in external systems and data stores.

Last but not least were the New Century models: NTB510 with its small form factor and fanless solid state option, and the New Millenium models: NTB5500/5/8: with 500G hard drive and more memory to position them as combined Network Publisher & FTP server for networks of up to 50 NTB Subscriber players.