Recent Work

ATLANTA, GA – July 14, 2020 – Visix Touch10 meeting room signs now support a voice user interface which gives instant access to schedules, floor maps, directions and other useful content by simply speaking to the room sign. This is the latest solution from Visix to offer hands-free interactivity.

Touch10 room signs are powered by the company’s AxisTV Signage Suite content management system, which lets users show schedules, media playlists and interactive content on room signs mounted outside any shared space. The software’s recently released Voice Recognizer Widget (VRW) takes advantage of the built-in speech recognition engine for Windows 10 and can be easily configured to let Touch10 room signs respond to voice requests.

“As meeting rooms and conference rooms are being reconfigured to meet social distancing guidelines, we’re working fast to address concerns about germ transmission,” says Trey Hicks, chief sales officer for Visix. “Clients who use our interactive room signs to offer up more varied content don’t want to lose that engagement, but they also want to keep people safe. VUI is the answer.”

Content available on Touch10 room signs is controlled by signage managers and is not limited by the software. In addition to asking to see room schedules and other content, users can also notify facility managers when a room needs to be cleaned or restocked with items like hand sanitizer. Some example voice commands are:

• “Show me the room guidelines”
• “What is the room capacity?”
• “Show me the seating map”
• “Room needs cleaning”
• “Room needs restock”

Touch10 room signs support bidirectional bookings at the sign for Exchange and Office 365 calendars. Walk-up reservations still require touching the interactive display, or using the appropriate scheduling app on a mobile device, to ensure that reservations meet clients’ booking criteria.

The addition of a microphone is required for Touch10 room signs to support voice requests. Visix can recommend local integration partners who can suggest microphones suitable for the client’s application and environment. Visix can also design Touch10 layouts using the VRW for clients who need creative support.

For more details about the Voice Recognizer Widget, go to https://www.visix.com/news/visix-launches-voice-activated-digital-signage-for-any-display/. For more information about Touch10 room signs, visit https://www.visix.com/products/meeting-room-signs/touch-digital-room-signs/.

About Visix

Visix, Inc. offers a robust suite of digital signage software, content designs and meeting room signs for any organization wanting to engage, excite, and inform their audiences. Our products work separately or together, are competitively priced and scalable, and have powerful interactivity and data integration features for a unified, enterprise signage solution. Our award-winning service and support teams consistently rank the highest in customer satisfaction for fast, professional responses and solutions. Learn more about Visix digital signage products and services at www.visix.com.

Recent enhancements to integrated playout and scheduling system help station continue delivering timely information and hyper-local news across cable, online and OTT platforms

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, July 14, 2020 – Greater Northshire Access Television (GNAT-TV) provides gavel-to-gavel government meeting coverage, informative programming, and extensive hyper-local news to residents of eleven towns in Southwest Vermont. Already leveraging the Cablecast Community Media platform to efficiently publish their content across cable, online and OTT outlets, the station has taken advantage of recent Cablecast enhancements to enable new remote operational models during the COVID-19 pandemic.

GNAT-TV offers its government, education and public access channels on the Comcast Cable system and online at www.gnat.tv. Using Cablecast’s full-featured development API, the station seamlessly integrated Cablecast’s automated VOD publishing capabilities with itsWordPress-powered website. “All of our government VOD content is created through Cablecast,” said Tammie M. Reilly, executive director at GNAT-TV. “The ease of publishing through the Cablecast system and having it appear dynamically on our website is key to the efficiency of our workflow.”

GNAT-TV recently began using Cablecast’s VOD chapter marker feature to not only create more convenient online viewing experiences for its community, but also to advance their own goals for “The News Project”, the station’s hyper-local news programming. “For years, residents had been requesting a way that they didn’t need to watch hours of full government meetings to find what they’re interested in,” explained Reilly. “This feature allows us to add chapter markers that viewers can use to jump right to a specific agenda item, but for us, what makes it even more valuable is how it ties into and informs our news productions.

“The same person who does the chapter marking also produces news stories, and in the process of chaptering learns a lot about what’s going on in the eleven towns we serve,” Reilly continued. “He can share that information with our news director and pull out excerpts from the meetings as News Project segments, while enabling people to watch them in the context of the full meeting on VOD. The chapter marker feature may sound administrative and simple, but it really contributes to the big picture goals of what we are trying to do as an organization.”

Last year, GNAT-TV further expanded the availability of its programming to OTT viewers. Using Cablecast’s Screenweave OTT Pro option, the station can effortlessly offer its live and VOD content to OTT viewers through its own, custom-branded Apple TV app and Roku Channel. “While cable television is still very much in demand in our region, we want to be forward-looking and bring these new technologies to our community,” said Reilly. “We also want to build a new audience in the younger demographic who never had cable, and by letting them access content the way they prefer to watch, hopefully we can interest them in participating as producers.”

While the state’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order during the COVID-19 crisis forced GNAT-TV staff out of their studio, they have continued producing content while adapting to remote operation. “Amazingly, we’ve had no decrease in the amount we’re producing, we’re just doing more of it remotely,” said Reilly. “We have actually been getting more community participation, as our virtual studio via remote meeting platforms makes it so convenient for guests. Operationally, it’s forced us to take a fresh look at our established workflows to find more efficient ways of doing things, so we’re now taking advantage of recent Cablecast features that we hadn’t started using yet.”

One of those key capabilities is Cablecast’s remote file upload feature, which allows users to copy file-based content onto their Cablecast server and associate metadata with it from anywhere with an internet connection. “It’s been huge for us,” praised Reilly. “Staff in rural areas with very slow internet – as low as 3Mbps upload – still need to drive near our studio to use our 100Mbps symmetrical connection, but we couldn’t keep adding new programming without this feature.” GNAT-TV also uses Cablecast’s live IP input feature to bring real-time YouTube streams from the Governor’s thrice-weekly press conferences into their channel while also recording them for future playback. “This is essential for bringing the Governor’s updates to our viewers,” said Reilly.

Last but not least, Reilly lauds the Cablecast team’s commitment to their market. “Their corporate culture is appealing, as their roots are in community media and they share our values,” she said. “We enjoy the ability to interface directly with their team and provide feedback to their developers. It gives us a platform for us to be listened to, and they take our suggestions to heart.”

About Cablecast

For over 20 years, the Cablecast Community Media platform from Tightrope Media Systems has enabled community media organizations and content producers to easily and efficiently engage viewers across expanding consumer platforms including cable channels, websites, mobile devices and OTT delivery. The comprehensive Cablecast product line provides flexible, tightly-integrated solutions ranging from broadcast automation, playout servers, bulletin boards and on-air graphics to Internet VOD, live streaming and OTT distribution. For more information, visit www.cablecast.tv or call (866) 866-4118.

J&E Pro Audio seamlessly integrates modular, Dante-enabled Xilica Solaro FR1 DSP within San Diego boutique hotel’s IT infrastructure

Toronto, July 9, 2020 — Xilica®, a global leader in digital signal processing technology for AV and installed sound, announces a new hospitality industry win with Carte Hotel, a boutique hotel nestled in the Little Italy section of San Diego. The project represents Xilica’s strong value proposition and aggressive strategy toward integrating DSP systems within a business’ IT infrastructure.

J&E Pro Audio specified Xilica with the systems design, which called for a complete AV over IP infrastructure as part of the ground-up construction. While connected to the central IT infrastructure, J&E Pro Audio configured a dedicated LAN with managed network switches to separate all audio and video signals from standard IT traffic. The company selected the Xilica Solaro FR1 DSP to optimize quality and multi-channel performance over the network, while citing its modularity and seamless integration with Dante audio networking as other deciding factors.

“We ran our network on the hotel fiber infrastructure, with dedicated switches that run parallel to the hotel network,” said Jaire Lopez, President, J&E Pro Audio. “We programmed the Xilica Solaro FR1 to process, manage and transport audio across multiple public spaces, including a 16th floor rooftop bar, fourth-floor meeting rooms, a second-floor fitness center, and a ground-floor restaurant and lobby to support background music.”

As Lopez explains, the Xilica Solaro FR1 expertly manages a mix of analog and digital signals that are ingested and routed across many spaces. This includes live music from the rooftop DJ booth, which injects analog signals into the Solaro FR1 over Dante. In all, the redundant Xilica Solaro FR1 configuration manages 64 audio inputs and outputs, and optimizes audio quality before feeding Powersoft amplifiers via Dante. Xilica’s built-in control software also allows hotel staff to manage audio and video signal flows using an iPad, which eliminates the need for a dedicated, expensive AV control system.

Lopez adds that the sleek 1RU design of the Xilica Solaro FR1 takes up minimal rack space while not limiting the end user to a dedicated configuration. Should the Carte Hotel need to scale in the future, the Solaro FR1’s modular design will allow J&E Pro Audio to add new cards and expansion slots to accommodate new services and higher capacity. In fact, Lopez has already made adjustments from the original DSP design.

“Near the end of the project the customer requested a wireless microphone system for the hotel’s meeting space,” said Lopez. “We simply added a few microphone input cards, and the application was immediately ready to go. The new design of Solaro FR1 frame makes it even easier to make changes, because there is no need to take the unit apart. We can simply remove the rear cover and insert the cards without removing the unit from the rack. It’s very simple and modular.”

About Xilica

Xilica® is an award-winning manufacturer of innovative, next-generation digital signal processing solutions for AV control and command applications including conference, corporate, hospitality and leisure, retail and transportation. From its headquarters in Toronto, Canada, Xilica sells and supports products worldwide in over 75 countries, gaining rapid acknowledgement for its all-modular, ultra-small-format and high-performance product ranges that solve critical business challenges.

www.xilica.com

Mediaport Marketing selects on-premise QL digital signage solution based on technical and security strengths

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND, July 6, 2020 – Open for 20 months, the Istanbul Airport in Turkey will become the world’s largest airport for passenger traffic following completion of all construction phases. Today, the airport greets travelers in its main terminal – the world’s largest airport terminal building under one roof – with vertically-oriented video walls and displays throughout the large, open spaces. Navori QL digital signage software powers all dynamic media content, including digital out-of-home advertising to monetize the network.

Mediaport Marketing, Istanbul’s digital advertising operator, selected an on-premise QL software solution based on its technical benefits, including multi-player synchronization and third-party software integration. For content delivery, multi-player synchronization provides a seamless experience for travelers with several video walls and displays in their fields of vision as they move through the terminal’s open spaces. Ads are delivered within a mix of dynamic content (videos, images, multi-layered templates, data feeds) that bring news, weather, entertainment and promotional content to travelers.

Professional rendering ensures that common media is synchronized across all 726 Samsung SoC displays – with built-in Tizen 4 or Windows-based QL Player software – down to 1/20th of a second. Navori enables the professional rendering through its “time stamp streamer” innovation, which synchronizes each QL Player’s clock with Navori’s QL Server, regardless of the player’s OS. The QL Player software ensures a pleasant viewing experience through seamless transitions between video, multi-layered templates and other dynamic HTML5 content.

Beyond connecting with external data feeds for screen content, Navori’s broad third-party software integration capabilities extends to audience measurement systems. These integrations, along with detailed content playback reports, help Mediaport evaluate campaign success – and build future media plans – based on ad impressions and other audience criteria.

The on-premise server architecture optimizes performance and security through a high-availability configuration with load balancing, failover capabilities, and end-to-end content encryption. While Mediaport preferred the on-premise architecture to meet these stringentrequirements, operators can remotely monitor performance, update content, and maintain systems – including device OS and media player software updates – through a user-friendly web-based user interface.

“Navori provides us with the best solutions and tools for our business needs,” said Mr. Mehmet Emre, Director of Digital Operations, Mediaport. “We needed a flexible, scalable, agile and multiplatform solution that empowers us in our business processes. Security is very important for us since we are operating in airports, and Na­vori delivers. Navori’s partner­ship is very strategic in growing and developing our businesses mutually.”

“Mediaport required a digital signage network that can reliably serve as many as 200 million passengers annually once the entire airport is open, and sought a Samsung-certified digital software solution,” said Jerome Moeri, CEO, Navori Labs. “As the main terminal building occupies a 1.4-million square meter area alone, the early phases of the rollout have offered a reliable proving ground for their exacting network requirements. Through close collaboration with our partners at Mediaport and Samsung, we carefully customized an ad-driven network solution that will scale to their needs, and deliver the reliability and technical capacities they desire from a wide-scale digital signage software solution.”

About Mediaport (Square Group)

Mediaport holds a position favoured by world-renowned brands with the exclusive network of LED screens, LCD screens, static panels, billboards, lightboxes, giant board and stand space ad units in Istanbul Airport. For more information, please visit http://www.square-group.com/en, http://www.square-group.com/en/grup-sirkeleri/media-port-reklamcilik.

About Navori Labs

Navori Labs is an enterprise committed to providing the most reliable, interoperable and user-friendly software application available in the industry. An exclusive leader in the global digital signage industry with nearly 25 years of experience, Navori has built a reputation as an industry innovator strengthened by a skilled engineering team, and continued investment in research and development initiatives. Navori has also continued to invest in global growth, with local and regional resources available worldwide. Navori’s flagship QL digital signage engine is built with everyone in mind, and has been standardized for use in many of the largest digital signage networks around the world. The company’s engineering approach balances efficient design and operation with exceptional performance for answering integrators and end-users expectations. Visit www.navori.com for more information.

Streaming pioneer’s robust delivery network helped station meet surging demand for radio show featuring historical New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival performances

BAYSIDE, CALIFORNIA, July 7, 2020 – When stay-at-home COVID-19 precautions precluded the annual, live New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival – better known as “Jazz Fest” – from taking place this year, non-profit, volunteer-driven public radio station WWOZ (90.7FM) filled the void. The station aired and streamed Jazz Festing in Place, featuring some of the best performances in Jazz Festhistory, while leveraging streaming solutions provider StreamGuys’ scalable content delivery service to meet unexpectedly high demand.

Over the years, WWOZ – and its parent organization, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, which sponsors the annual festival – had amassed a huge media archive of live Jazz Fest appearances by such jazz greats as Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, Professor Longhair, Dr. John, and Irma Thomas. Showcasing these performances, Jazz Festing in Place aired during the dates and times that Jazz Fest would have taken place this year – April 23 through 26 and April 30 to May 3, from 11am to 7pm Central time. In addition to the live broadcast on WWOZ-FM, which blankets the New Orleans metro, the station streamed the event live over StreamGuys’ global content delivery network (CDN) to reach jazz aficionados worldwide.

As a long-time StreamGuys customer, WWOZ knows very well the quality and reliability of their CDN and their attentive, white-gloveservice. What WWOZ didn’t know was that Jazz Festing in Place would be such an incredible success, drawing a listenership that was more than 20 times the station’s typical daily audience size. When WWOZ found themselves facing an unexpected surge in demand, StreamGuys – who proactively provide and manage any required capacity for broadcasters encountering sudden traffic increases – stepped in to ensure the unprecedented interest was successfully met throughout the duration of the event.

“Overall, they increased our capacity 10-fold, enough to handle 50,000 concurrent streams,” said WWOZ new media director David Stafford. “Without that, many disappointed listeners would not have been able to access our stream, and the event would not have been nearly as successful as it was. As an independent public radio station with no big station group behind us, it would be hard to envision having such a reliable, dependable online presence without StreamGuys’ exceptional CDN service and support. That’s why they are so awesome.”

“We were delighted to play a vital role in the delivery of this first-ever, historic radio event, which featured so many priceless moments from the famed Jazz Fest’s history,” said Tim Labelle, global account manager, StreamGuys. “Community and public media are key markets that we proudly serve, and we’re pleased that WWOZ continues to put their trust and confidence in our service.”

About StreamGuys, Inc.

In business since 2000, StreamGuys is an industry-leading service provider of live and on-demand streaming, podcasting delivery, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) toolsets for enterprise-level broadcast media organizations. The company brings together the industry’s best price-to-performance ratio, a robust and reliable network, and an infinitely scalable cloud-based platform for clients of any size to process, deliver, monetize and playout professional streaming content. StreamGuys supports many of the world’s largest Podcasts, global TV and radio broadcasters, video and audio production companies, houses of worship, retail and hospitality businesses, government organizations, medical and healthcare services, and live venues for sports and entertainment. The company excels in developing and deploying technologies for business growth and revenue generation, including dynamic ad insertion, Alexa skills, mobile streaming and detailed business and data analytics.