The What: NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc. has launched NEC ALP, a business intelligence analytics platform for retailers that delivers real-time content and data measurement. The NEC Analytics Learning Platform (ALP) combines the company’s advanced video analytics with its digital signage expertise to make retailers smarter through big data, content matching, and delivering relevant, impactful content to customers. NEC ALP was unveiled at the 25th annual NEC Display New York Partner Showcase.
The What Else: NEC Display developed a completely new back-end architecture for the NEC ALP business intelligence platform that uses both edge and cloud computing to deliver real-time insights. Using facial detection, non-identifying demographic data such as age and gender are fed into a locally-based computing appliance, which then triggers the appropriate content to be shown. Data is then delivered into the cloud where big data analytics will provide retailers with insights such as impact on sales from content, demographics and audience traffic, overall engagement with customers, and which content triggered the most positive customer experiences.
The platform’s data analytics capability gives retailers the power to deliver the right message or content to the audience because it answers the questions of who the customer is and which piece of content was most successful in creating a meaningful engagement. Using this data, NEC ALP is able to draw a direct correlation between when content was played, the number of impressions and what the conversion rates are to actual sales.
The NEC ALP system consists of hardware, software, cloud services, managed services, and big data analytics. Locally in-store, the platform consists of an edge computing appliance, cameras, and sensors. The system is designed with full API integration into key digital signage content management systems (CMS), allowing it to deliver and trigger content onto different media player platforms. The triggered content is then displayed on NEC Display large- or small-format displays.
As a complete platform, NEC ALP includes everything from consulting, software, hardware, cloud computing, customized software development, physical installation, software and hardware integration, integration into key content management platforms, and content creation capabilities. The platform also includes on-site, 24/7 service and maintenance, with hardware, software, and managed services support.
The Bottom Line: NEC ALP integrates several partners to deliver a complete solution. Integration into the BrightSign platform, NAVORI and StratosMedia content management systems (CMS), and Microsoft Azure and Intel for infrastructure are key. In addition, the platform uses NEC EVATM for video analytics and Data Call Technologies for weather and location-based content aggregation.
NEC ALP is available beginning in January 2019.
