Fuelling the Retail Technology Revolution
Dutch narrowcasting pioneer Channel4all gains market advantage through hardware and software choices.
Digital media is transforming consumption patterns well beyond the realms of TV and video, through its ability to reach audiences in almost any environment – such as while shopping. Thanks to powerful digital production techniques, pervasive broadband Internet, and ubiquitous playback devices, available at unprecedented low prices, businesses now have more opportunities than ever to advertise effectively to customers and prospects at the Point Of Decision. Narrowcasting to the Point of Decision But while narrowcasting provides advertisers with the means to deliver highly targeted communications, it also calls for a wider variety of messages and techniques. With the discipline in its infancy companies are intensively innovating creative techniques, including interactive features, in search of the most effective ways to narrowcast. For companies developing narrowcasting equipment, the immense opportunities are accompanied by an unparalleled demand for rapid flexibility, to respond to clients’ continuously changing ideas. In the Netherlands, Channel4all, one of the first narrowcasting solutions developers in the country, offers a complete solution to its clients, including equipment development, content production and management. Aware of the fast-changing nature of narrowcasting in these early days, the company operates its own in-house engineering expertise to retain design control and operate responsively at the leading edge. Methods and Means in Flux Westra explains that the advances in approach have brought about significant changes at both hardware and software levels. The desire for more attractive, visually impressive client terminals situated in outlets or venues, for example, has driven the transition from standard PCs to slimmer screens with embedded computing and networking capabilities. Embedded terminals also bring security and reliability advantages. “We conceived the ChannelBox Player as an embedded platform to provide the basic building block for virtually any narrowcasting implementation. As we sought potential suppliers to support the project, we were encouraged by the ideas and support offered by Abacus Embedded,” says Westra. “They understood our requirement for a robust and reliable, low-profile computing platform, for example, and suggested the self-contained VESA PC with a 1-inch thin chassis, ready for direct connection to the display panel.” The VESA PC is developed by Trident Displays, a member of the Abacus Group, and features a 1.5GHz Via Eden processor as well as built-in Gigabit Ethernet and optional wireless LAN. Importantly, for Channel4all, the VESA PC supports fanless operation and Disk On Module (DOM) storage enabling use of solid state disk technology in preference to a conventional hard disk drive. This is achieved within a ventless, and therefore dust-resistant, enclosure. “The impact on system reliability of eliminating moving parts is extremely powerful in remotely-located computing applications such as narrowcasting, it dramatically reduces key cost of ownership factor, by virtually eliminating emergency servicing.” In addition, the VESA PC supports powerful multimedia features, including MPEG2 hardware acceleration, DVI and S-video interfaces, and industry-standard digital and analogue audio interfaces. With a low overall weight of 2kg, compact dimensions of 180mm x 298mm, and industry-standard VESA mechanical mounting, the unit attached easily to the rear of Channel4all’s chosen monitor with no unsightly cables or enclosures on view. There is also the flexibility to connect to a wide variety of screen sizes and resolutions: The ChannelBox Player has been demonstrated with screens up to 42-inch, which encompasses the vast majority of retail narrowcasting applications currently envisaged. Speed and Flexibility Required As a componentised version of the Windows XP desktop environment, XP Embedded allows developers to specify equivalent multimedia, security and networking capabilities and create a custom system within an efficient memory footprint. XP Embedded also allows developers to easily retain the usability and navigation features of any desktop PC, to create a solution that almost any customer can use efficiently and quickly. Despite the many diverse approaches to narrowcasting, some fundamental technical capabilities are common to the majority of solutions. In particular, most depend on the Adobe Flash platform to deliver rich content via the web. This provides the assurance that the content will play back reliably and seamlessly on the client device. A key requirement for Channel4all, therefore, was to be able to quickly implement support for Adobe Flash Player. “This can be tough to achieve with some embedded operating systems,” explains Arnoud de Bruijne, who heads the technical development team at Channel4all. “XP Embedded provided the easiest way for us to support Flash player. This is not necessarily straightforward when working with other embedded OS solutions, and may, for example, require changes to the BIOS as well as other modifications.” The Channel4all development team were also able to take advantage of native support for DirectShow®, which provides a streaming architecture that allows Windows applications to control a wide variety of digital audio/video devices. “DirectShow supports a wide variety of formats and allows us to quickly and easily create Windows media applications,” explains de Bruijne. “As well as simplifying development, it also provides the flexibility to control lower-level functions where necessary.” Arnoud also cites the extensive driver support as a further key benefit of embedded development within the Windows XP environment. “Any driver for the XP desktop environment is also available to developers using XP Embedded, which gives us the flexibility to integrate different hardware devices in the future. This could be to add functionality or to incorporate devices from different vendors. In any case, with drivers readily available, creating a new OS image using the XP Embedded development tool-suite is fast and easy.” Multi-Faceted Support “The combined effect of the turnkey embedded computing platform and rapid OS development supporting rich and flexible features allowed us to complete the development of the ChannelBox Player within a matter of months, including only around six weeks to obtain a functioning OS image,” adds Sjouk Westra. “The combination of smart product choices offered by Abacus Embedded, as well as instant access to the support we required at the times we needed it, have been instrumental in the success of the project,” he concludes.
Narrowcasting is the new buzz in retail advertising. Utilising the benefits of digital media, narrowcasting delivers sales messages directly to consumers in shops, bars, entertainment venues, travel terminals or almost any outlet for goods and services. This is the Point of Decision, where vendors have immediate influence over buyer behaviour. The ability to deliver sales messages directly to customers at this point promises significantly higher conversion rates than traditional broadcast advertising.
“Our customers almost all have different ideas about how to use narrowcasting,” confirms Sjouk Westra, CEO of Channel4all. “We deliver a complete end-to-end solution, from server-side to client-side, using our in-house competencies to deliver technical advances to support continually changing expectations and objectives.”
The VESA PC platform supports a number of operating system choices. To meet market pressures demanding feature-rich solutions, delivered within tight timescales, and maintaining flexibility to respond quickly to future demands, Channel4all chose to develop a Microsoft® Windows® XP Embedded OS image. “Our development teams already had valuable experience of developing within the Windows .NET framework. For this reason, as well as for technical reasons, it made sense for us to develop a Windows-based OS to meet our objectives,” explains Westra.
With plenty of software development expertise available within the company, only a little training was necessary for the team to begin configuring a custom XP Embedded OS image. Abacus Embedded conducts frequent workshops for its customers developing Microsoft embedded solutions, and is also positioned to identify certified developer partners that can add value to customers’ software development projects. “We were quickly able to gain access to the training resources we needed, including direct access to Microsoft engineers who could answer our questions,” confirms de Bruijne.
Posted: 21 Aug 2008
Author: Abacus Embedded
