Planar Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLNR) enterprise-class Planar CoolSign software at the Digital Signage Expo (DSE) in Las Vegas. In addition to the new CoolSign 4.0, Planar announced new content offerings in alignment with the company’s ongoing strategy to provide value-added specialty solutions that enable organizations to easily integrate digital signage into their marketing and communication programs.
Planar CoolSign has been successfully deployed worldwide to allow customers to display, distribute and control networked digital media from one central location. The new CoolSign 4.0 offers even more impressive enterprise scalability, thanks to a distributed architecture utilizing CoolSign Transfer Servers. This enables organizations to make a smooth transition from running only a few players to running thousands – without any impact to content delivery.
CoolSign is also the first digital signage software platform to integrate with Google Calendar™ and Google Docs™ applications. This integration allows even the most casual, non-technical user to update key signage content including calendars, agendas and schedules. For further real-time relevancy, CoolSign 4.0 can be programmed to play back specific content based on changes in a database, file or program, and to play other dynamic content such as RSS feeds.
“Digital signage gives organizations an immediate and powerful way to influence, educate and entertain their audiences,” said Brad Gleeson, vice president of business development and CoolSign general manager at Planar. “The new CoolSign 4.0 makes this platform of communication even more impactful, by combining unprecedented scalability and powerful dynamic content capabilities, in a rich and intuitive interface.”
Additional CoolSign 4.0 features:
premium image quality on any display, including plasma, LCD and LED;
CoolSign frame synchronization to precisely show video content across multiple displays; support for additional advanced output capabilities (Flash9 interactivity;
multi-region configurations;
dynamic content; and live data feeds;
role-based security that integrates with Microsoft Active Directory;
simple web interface for access to data tables and triggers.
In addition to CoolSign 4.0, Planar announced availability of new content templates to assist customers who do not have dedicated in-house resources or are new to digital signage projects. Planar’s templates provide customers with easily-updated multiple digital signage ads featuring different images and text, in order to fill constantly-rotating schedules. With broad experience developing gaming and retail content for current CoolSign customers, Planar is uniquely positioned to help organizations repurpose their existing digital assets or create new, dynamic and interactive media that comes to life on-screen.
Demonstrating its capabilities as a leading provider of both hardware and software for digital signage, Planar is also showcasing its m-Series family of commercial-grade LCDs. Available in a wide range of sizes, including the recently-announced 70-inch m70L, the m-Series displays incorporate key features such as built-in power management and automation, broad video source compatibility, resistance to image quality degradation and automatic ambient backlight control that are particularly suited to 24-hour operation of digital signs.
The Planar iS40 integrated digital sign will also be on display at the DSE new product pavilion. First unveiled as a prototype at last year’s DSE, the iS40 is a true “plug and play” system that combines a 40-inch LCD, CoolSign software, Windows XP Embedded processing, optional WiFi features, and all the necessary networking components for setting up signs throughout multiple locations.
