The What: At InfoComm 2018, Carousel Digital Signage, a division of Tightrope Media Systems, will emphasize the systems integration and IT management benefits of its new 7.3 software release for enterprise-class digital signage.
The What Else: Since first partnering with BrightSign several years ago, the Carousel Digital Signage team has focused on reducing the amount of time and labor required to configure, deploy, and manage players across large corporate, higher education, and other enterprise networks. The new 7.3 software release further strengthens the “zero-touch approach” of BrightSign player management introduced in Q1’s Carousel 7.1 release. Key auto-provisioning benefits include:
- Automatic, high-speed configuration of all BrightSign players, which removes the need to write SD cards for each player on the network;
- Secure storage of player settings on the Carousel server, accelerating recall of players by serial number for management and troubleshooting;
- Remote adjustment of settings and firmware updates by player, group, or enterprise-wide—all accomplished through Carousel’s user interface.
Carousel last year announced a new initiative to commission Apple TV consumer devices as media players for less expansive networks, where smaller IT departments are more typically tasked with managing their signage networks. First introduced for K-12 schools in a partnership with Jamf, a device management provider that specializes in helping IT departments work with Apple computers and devices, initial rollouts have since proven that the cost and simplicity of such deployments also translate to multi-site networks. This gives Carousel customers another cost and labor-efficient option for enterprise-scale content layout.
Carousel Digital Signage more recently developed a tvOS app to help AV integrators and IT departments streamline the configuration and deployment of Apple TV devices as digital signage players. The app even offers advanced management features, including manual disabling of AirPlay to prioritize delivery of important messages, such as weather or security bulletins.
“The new Carousel 7.3 release was developed to problem-solve for our customers responsible for systems design, integration and management, specifically those working with BrightSign media players and Apple TV devices,” said Eric Henry, president, Carousel Digital Signage. “We’re rolling out new automated features to centralize player configurations, firmware updates and network management tasks, while also driving closer collaboration between IT departments and AV integrators to streamline network and player maintenance. The overarching goal is to centralize as many of these jobs as possible to the desktop or mobile device, and remove the expense of rolling trucks site to site to install and maintain each player on the network.
“Our message at InfoComm is to prove that operators can deploy and run large-scale networks, delivering dynamic HD and 4K content, on widely available, low-cost devices. Our free Carousel App, available in the Apple tvOS App Store, delivers that slick and simple user experience to quickly bring that vision to fruition, and without the reliability and security implications that PC-based media players often bring.”
The Bottom Line: The new software aims to enhance the cost and labor-reducing value proposition of Carousel Digital Signage for systems integrators, consultants, and dealers/distributors tasked with deploying, scaling, and maintaining expansive digital signage networks.
